The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida · Page 82

FLORIDA ' A-12 The Orlando Sentinel, Tuesday. March 19, 1985 PiCkil19 UP til piCCOS ': ' ' , ' J b. - - ; ' : , .. .:, - ,-. . ... , .; ..... 1 i : -t -n -7 1 , I i TOM BURTONSENTINEL' Homeowners continue cleanup on Peppertree Road in one of the hardest hit areas of Venice; a tattered flag still flies over the wreckage of a car mangled by the storm.c VICTIMS From A-1 back yard. "What can you do? You just have to start all over again." Gov. Bob Graham toured the wreckage for an hour Monday afternoon and called it a "terrible tragedy." He said residents and shop owners soon may be entitled to state and federal help. "This is the most severe, intensive devastation I've seen in my six years in office," Graham said. The governor stopped briefly at the home of one of two people killed by the storm. He pulled from a pile of debris a mailbox bearing the name of Jaqub Sien-iawski, then set it down and moved on without comment. Sieniawski, 66, died when the roof of his home collapsed on him, sheriffs officers said. His wife was treated for cuts. Dorothy Taravella, 65, of Steu-benville, Ohio, was killed and her husband, Salvador, was injured when their mobile home was smashed as they slept while parked in a department store parking lot. Eight people were in fair condition Monday at Venice Hospital. The Rev. John Parrett of the Trinity United Presbyterian Church said he was counseling eight homeless families. "You listen to them. That's the main thing," Parrett said. "Let them unload, laugh, cry, pour it all out." Bill Hamilton, 54, a builder who constructed many of the homes in the devastated Venice Gardens subdivision, said homes with the worst damage would have to be razed and rebuilt. Most of the roof on his house was torn off. "All of this stuff, it's just front-end loader work," he said. "It's just a matter of getting rid of it and building something new." Hamilton, who had just remodeled his home, also lost two new cars and a van that was tossed against the house. But the worst part was losing items with senti- I 03, ill. l IT ' ' ?' 1 'I rr ii'jjiiil.iLiiii iiii . u..ii.iir , . 'If I W f :!i 1 "JWa-. ' ' M&tif . p; lv mm- .- . m Is f f fc 1 7i--r 1 J vi s'ti -rn ; , -i Robin Angeley salvages debris from parents' home . . . five children hid beneath counters when storm roared through. mental value, he said. Major insurance companies are sending teams of extra adjusters to the area to handle claims, said William J. Davis of the Insurance Information Institute in Atlanta. A minimum of $2 million to $3 million worth of damage was done to homes in the two-block-wide and mile-long area torn up by the tornado, officials said. Damage to commercial buildings was estimated at $2.5 million, not including the contents. With the help of 30 county jail inmates, county crews chopped down damaged trees, leveled mounds of debris with bulldozers and carted the rubble away in dump trucks. About 30 employees of the state Department of Transportation moved in with trucks and other heavy equipment after sunrise. Florida Power & Light Co. crews restored electricity to homes where residents intended to stay. O.E. Phillips, FPL's district general manager, said it would take two or three days to make all necessary repairs. The tornadoes swooped down from a line of thunderstorms, narrowly missing the Venice Airport. They skipped over U.S. Highway 41 and smashed into the Jacar-anda Shopping Plaza and the subdivision behind it. Fifty-five homes were destroyed, another 122 were 50 percent damaged or worse, and more than 120 had minor damage, the property appraiser's office said. Forty-three residents were housed at nursing homes, but Sheriffs Lt. Bill Stookey said the number of homeless probably was much higher. At Ilardi's house, a 12-foot-long, 4-by-6-inch beam was driven into a palm tree like a spear. Another beam the same size was hurled through his garage door. A 4,000-pound car was lifted from his driveway and crashed through a wall along a front walkway. At Angeley's house, a short distance from where Sieniawski was killed, the windows were knocked out and the frame from a front picture window was blown across the living room. Angeley said his pet dog was sitting on a couch that was sucked out of the house. "I found all my Christmas tree stuff down in the lake. I think that's where my dog was too," he said. "He came back three hours later shaking and wet." Wire services were used in compiling this story. "4 . . . ' , , f """" '-si- l . J ,t auuiiuWi.1"1" "0 7 y ) ;iH',if v. i 1) i J .A'--'.. '.A. i ' V" i S TOM BURTON SENTINEL Bill Hamilton shows insurance adjuster Cocoa Lane home, which was a total loss. Eh BILL From A-1 Democratic Gov. Richard Celeste ordered the privately insured S&Ls closed for three days last Friday after a run by depositors on several banks most of them in the Cincinnati area, where Home State Savings Bank closed March 9 after the collapse of a Florida securities firm. About 125 federally insured Ohio S&Ls have not been affected by the closing order. A plan to reopen the thrifts could not be worked out over the weekend, so Celeste on Monday extended the so-called bank holiday for an additional 48 hours pending legislative action on the federal insurance proposal. The bill in the Legislature would require the S&Ls to apply for insurance either by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. or the Federal Savings & Loan Insur ance Corp. The institutions then could reopen if they signed up for temporary coverage under a newly created state insurance fund and the superintendent of savings and loans certified that they met the qualifications for federal insurance. Finan said the purpose of the bill was to restore "the maximum level of confidence in the institution." In Washington, seven Ohio congressmen sent letters to Edwin J. Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, urging the board's speedy consideration of Ohio savings and loan institutions that apply for federal deposit insurance. Earlier Monday, the Buckeye Savings & Loan Co. of Bellaire filed suit against the state, seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow it to reopen. George Hazlett, president of the thrift, said his company would suffer irreparable damage if the closing continued. Belmont County Common Pleas Judge Harold Thomas said he would study Hazlett's request and issue a ruling by Wednesday morning. The run on Home State Savings Bank followed news that the federal Securities and Exchange Commission closed a Florida securities firm, ESM Inc., in which Home State had invested about 60 percent of its $1 billion in assets. After it closed, lines began forming at some of the state's 69 other privately insured savings and loans, and Celeste ordered them closed Friday. A telephone hotline set up by the state to respond to questions from worried savings and loan depositors had a surge of calls Monday morning more than 900 in one hour. Celeste estimated that the closed S&Ls have about 500,000 customers. Depositors calm in face of thrift 'holiday1 ASSOCIATED PRESS CINCINNATI A caller to a hotline suggested the governor be impeached and another wondered how she would buy groceries. But others among the 500,000 depositors in Ohio's closed savings and loan institutions remained calm Monday as their money remained inaccessible in the fourth day of a state-imposed savings and loan holiday. Mary Lou Dehler of suburban Cincinnati spent 19 hours in front of Molitor Loan and Building on Thursday and Friday in a futile effort to withdraw her and her husband's savings. Monday, she said she has a cold and only $50 remaining in cash. But, she said, Gov. Richard Celeste did "the best thing" by keeping the isntitutions closed. "Everything is going to be OK. It's definitely going to stop the panic," Dehler said. "I think he is going to lift it by Wednesday. I'm not going to worry about money." The 54-year-old homemaker said she spent Thursday night wrapped in blankets and leaning against a rail in front of Molitor with about eight other people. Of her group, only one man isstill determined to withdraw his savings, she said. "I think they should make some kind of availability for our checking accounts. You're sort of limited in where you can cash your checks," said her hus-, band, Richard, who is a retired postal worker. Dehler said it was "eerie" to know they had mon-' ey but couldn't buy anything. Bob Jones, a senior associate of Dan Pinger Public Relations, which is handling the accounts of both the Ohio Deposit Guarantee Fund and the new Ohio Savings and Loan Assurance Fund, said his money is in the closed American Savings Association. "I don't have a problem yet. I can write checks. I'm going to continue to pay my bills with them," he said. 1- - In Lima, some customers at City Loan and Savings Co., expressed confidence their money was safe. , Asked if he has doubts about City Loan's stability, depositor James Lundy said: "No way at all. I know they are solvent." '. Sylvia Groves' confidence, however, was peppered ! with doubt. "We've traded funds at City Loan for 36 years," she said. But, she explained, "Maybe . t should have taken my mother's advice and not put all my eggs in one basket."