South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 5

Sun-Sentinel, Tuesday, August 25, 1992 5 A OP TERROR liiiiilk 3M 1 cV- r4; mwn SDtfDflD Tracie Woods 'It's more important to me to know I've got my family' They were both In places where they shouldn't have been. One a cow; the other, a 6-week-old mixed-breed puppy. The puppy, owned by Tracie Woods, 19, of Coconut Creek, ended up on Sunday at a shelter where pets were not allowed. Woods, whose sister owns the puppy's twin, didn't know she couldn't take a pet. There was no time to take it home, so she left it in her van, where she visited it periodically, taking food and water.

But the puppy, part Rottweiler, part Labrador, i made do. It nestled into the baby seat and napped. Woods wasn't worried about her trailer home. "It's more important to me to know I've got my family," she said. "And my puppy.

He survived." Chris Ammann was also grateful when she woke up on Monday morning. She was thinking about how lucky her family had been. She wasn't, however, thinking about large mooing animals. As Ammann left a relative's house where she and her children had stayed, she almost bumped Into a big brown cow in the driveway. "I said, 'Holy and grabbed the kids and jumped behind the car," Ammann said.

But the cow, Bossy, meant no harm. She was running from her keepers, who were trying to wrangle her back into the pasture. Gene Blackson 'That's all? You media sure like to play things up' Most folks at a Little Havana shelter were asleep when the hurricane careened past. They woke up and it was over. A single tree lay split in half In front of Auburndale Elementary School, where they spent the night.

"That's all?" said Gene Blackson, 30, as he looked out the north door about 7 a.m. "You media sure like to play things up." Also unfazed by the storm: The gas flame atop a Little Havana monument to the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. It burned brightly through the strongest winds. Linda Moneymaker 'Anything better than staying at mobile home park' David Paul, the maligned former chairman of Centrust Bank, waited out the storm at the Doral Country Club in Miami. All 650 rooms at the Doral were sold out for the night.

Other refugees ended up on the outskirts of Disney World. Orlando hotels were packed with people fleeing Andrew. At Twin Towers Hotel across from Universal Studios, managers allowed about 100 South Floridians to sleep on pool chaises in the exhibit hall. The night was not much more comfortable for Linda Moneymaker and friends In Davie. They slept at the family-owned laundromat, Neighborhood Cleaners.

A friend's baby, wrapped in a blanket, nestled between a washer and dryer. Anything was better than staying at the Twin Lakes mobile home park, Moneymaker said. Others refused to leave their trailers. "I think I called God over 100,000 times," said Mercedes Figuera, 53, who rode out Andrew at Honey Hill Mobile Home Park in Carol City. She could not abandon her chihuahuas, Chamo and Bambi, she said.

And less than seven hours before the hurricane hit, 10 Cubans were plucked off a raft 40 miles southeast of Marathon. Half an hour later, four others were rescued south of Key West. Mark Herndon 'We got about 100 pounds. Red snapper and grouper' On Hollywood Beach, Mark Herndon and Brett Knesz expressed relief and thanks. Knesz's father, whom they had gone out in the still-gusting winds to check on, had made it through the night just And at the beach, the men got a bonus, scooping up fish that had been trapped In a gully by the surge.

"We got about 100 pounds," Herndon said. "Red snapper and grouper. Good eating." 9:. 9 Staff photoJIM VIRGA It's no longer a fantasy for Fort Lauderdale boat owner: Damage was well over $1 million at Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove. Bill Moore 'It got so bad I watched from a parking garage' Hurricane Andrew cost Bill Moore his home and his livelihood.

For 16 years, Moore had owned the $175,000, 41-foot Hatteras sport fisherman. He had lived on it. He had chartered It out to divers and fishermen. But on Monday it was no more. The boat had been lifted out of the water at Dinner Key Marina and smashed into a large tree and two pay telephones.

The tuna tower was bent and portholes were torn out by the storm. "It's totaled," Moore said. "I was here until 3:30 this morning. It got so bad I went across the street and watched what happened from a fourth-floor parking garage." The boat was one of about two dozen moored at the marina. About half of them ended up on land.

One power boat was flung 100 yards down the street. A floating dock was floating freely on its side in the water, three boats still attached. Carol City i story to tell lie homes In shelters scattered with the firtrucks possessions of nomads: diaper bags, streets. In radios, scrapbooks. Here are some of ce our stories.

ki i Norcross talks; people listen 1 i I i ft ft. By DEBORAH WILKER Entertainment Writer When Bryan Norcross took hold of Channel 4's anchor desk on Saturday night to begin a marathon three-day post, astute X' "Mi i 1 H'' JJin 3J---afe'-' v-. all. TV watchers knew to pay attention. There was something about his manner that made people listen.

When he implored viewers to PhotOANDY KAUFMAN Norcross "Get out, get out now," most did. Christian Weiss of Ecuador and Loretta Rainey of New York pose with traffic light off U.S. 1 in South Miami. Tri-cia Governale takes vacation keepsake. Lloyd's of London 'Storm's impact won't hurt unless costs top $3 billion' LONDON Lloyd's of London, reeling from two years of heavy losses, will not feel any Impact from Hurricane Andrew unless total costs top $3 billion, a senior Lloyd's underwriter said on Monday.

George Lloyd-Roberts, chairman of Lloyd's Underwriters' Non-Marine Association, said U.S. Insurance companies likely were to be more seriously affected by claims from the hurricane than Lloyd's syndicates and other insurers. Hurricane Andrew, one of the worst storms to hit the United States In decades, left a trail of destruction across Florida on Monday. Forecasters said it was heading for the Louisiana coast. "The Lloyd's market is more able this year to cope with a hurricane of this size than it was three or four years ago," Lloyd-Robsrts Sciid Lloyd's, the world's biggest Insurance market, said in its latest results, announced In June, that it lost more than $4 billion in 1989.

The loss, the biggest in the market's 300-year history, included its share of the $5.8 billion Hurricane Hugo, which hit the United States and the Caribbean In September 1989. "American companies are having to retain more of their liability and are buying less reinsurance because the cost of catastrophe reinsurance has risen markedly," Lloyd-Roberts said. "The effect on individual syndicates will be far less, therefore, than was the experience following Hurricane Hugo," he said. "Underwriters have a much better balanced overall book of business." Staff photoJOHN CURRY rnranswered and Barraco and his son, Maximilian, found a tree on their car at their Sunrise home. Angel Barraco 'I joked with my sister-in-law that I was going to kill her 'cause she had pushed Andrew too i V'' Norcross has emerged as more than just a weatherman.

More than an anchorman, too. If you have been lucky enough to have electricity, then you know that the usually amiable forecaster, who Is best known for his Neighborhood Weather reports, has used his vast knowledge of weather, nature and geography to transform himself into the leading community adviser. He also is a bright off-the-cuff speaker, who had no trouble steering his co-anchors into useful, succinct dialogue. Norcross also appeared to be single-handedly producing WTVJ's marathon coverage, instructing directors on which pictures to punch up; which segments to abort or pursue. Channel 4 hasn't looked this good or sounded this Intelligent in years.

All the local stations have worked Intense hours, many keeping anchors on for days without sleep. It was Inspiring to see weary reporters with sleeves rolled up, minus the hairspray. WPLG-Ch. 10 also was a frontrunner, with unflappable Ann Bishop leading a solid crew. Thank goodness silly Todd Tongen was benched In favor of senior weather forecaster Don Noe.

But by the time Andrew blew in on Monday morning, Channel 10 was knocked off the air, as was the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables. That left Norcross to hunker down with co-anchors In what appeared to be a closet somewhere In the bowels of the station. It made for riveting TV rarely produced locally. Palm Beach stations displayed efficient coverage, but because of the location of the storm, they resumed network programming at midday on Monday. WSVN-Ch.

7's tabloid style might have seemed well suited to a disaster, but the station never found Its stride. Andrew took the dare. When Barraco awoke on Monday morning, he saw the tree on his car. "I joked with my sister-in-law that I was going to kill her 'cause she had pushed Andrew too far," he said. Martinez said it wasn't her doing.

"I didn't write anything at all at my house and a tree still fell on it." Just as a tree did on Weis' house in Plantation. The culprit was a 100-foot Australian pine, John Weis has a tree story to tell. It's about an Australian pine he calls filthy and dumb. A tree he hates. A tree that put a hole in his roof.

Angel Barraco has a tree story, too. What kind of tree, he doesn't really know, but It crashed down on his 1982 gray Camaro on a dare of sorts. Barraco covered the front windows of his Sunrise home with plywood on Sunday, then wrote in brown paint, "We're waiting for you, Andrew." His sister-in-law, Marisa Martinez, 18, took it a step further. "Go ahead, try me," she wrote. V1 t' ft xt -V, JSl Beth DeSimone 'We picked out the name two years ago' A small group gathered outside Parkway Regional Medical Center in North Miami.

They were the first to catch a glimpse of the first baby born during the storm a boy. And yes, he was named Andrew. "We picked out the name two years ago," said Beth DeSimone, his mother. Robby Marques 'It sounded like a train trying to get in' said. Other children spent the night with parents on the job.

At the Palm Beach County Jail, employees took their sons and daughters with them on Sunday night. While the adults worked, the children played dodgeball in an unopened section of the jail. At Delray Community Hospital, children of employees built forts out of tables, ate cookies and stayed up late to watch a tape of The Wizard of Oz. Marques LaPrade, 7, packed his Gl Joes, his baseball cards and his Spiderman comic book. No way was he going to get bored at the Pembroke Pines Elementary School shelter.

But hanging out In a school was more interesting than he had thought. He and his brother wouldn't mind living in one, actually. "You can't get bored," said Marques' brother Robby, 13. "The classrooms have everything games, books, puzzles." Robby listened at the outside door as the hurricane reached its blustering crescendo. "It sounded like a train trying to get In," he Staff photoJOHN CURRY Beth and Frank DeSimone with new son, dHtt CUHHY.