South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 7

Sun-Sentinel, Tuesday, August 25, 1992 7 A EUL2L2BCALJti AHPEW: PAVE OF TEMOB ViilmeraMe Miami spared worst of Aedrew RANKING ANDREW Unpredictable hurricane hits storm center Although reports are still coming in, Andrew was one of the most powerful and damaging storms in U.S. history. How the storms rank: BAROMETRIC RANK STORM WHERE HIT YEAR PRESSURE 1. No name i Florida Keys 1935 26.35 inches 2. Camille LouisianaMississippi 1969 26.84 inches 3.

No name Fla. KeysTexas 1919 27.37 inches 4. No name Fla. Lake Okeechobee 1928 27.43 inches 5. Donna Eastern U.S.

1960 27.46 inches 10. Andrew South Florida 1992 27.52 inches EE- V. Staff photoJACKIE BELL A lifeguard house was lifted off its feet down the beach in Hallandale. foundation and carried nearly 100 Andrew's wind gusts hit 164 mph. Hurricane Andrew By SETH BORENSTEIN and LYDA LONGA Staff Writers Hurricane Andrew could have been even worse.

"We were really lucky that it didn't hit the glass city that is downtown Miami," National Hurricane Center Director Bob Sheets said. "That would have been disastrous, and that's what we thought would have happened." Because Andrew was so compact and speedy, the storm scared all of South Florida by threatening to land anywhere on Sunday. A few hours before it hit, Andrew's winds were 150 mph. When Andrew finally bulldozed through the south Dade County area the center of the eye came ashore near Homestead the rest of the region missed the brunt of the storm because hurricane force winds only went 30 miles away from the eye. The eye itself was about 20 miles across.

The National Hurricane Center itself recorded some of the highest winds. Gusts of 164 mph and sustained 140 mph winds pounded shutters, shook the floors and walls and caused the collapse of an upper-story ceiling. Three cars in the parking lot were piled on top of each other like a tower. Farther away, at Miami International Airport, winds reached 120 mph. In Miami Beach and southern Broward County, sustained winds hit about 85 mph, said National Weather Service meteorologist Llyle Barker.

The storm surge reached about 8 feet in south Dade, but was barely noticeable in Broward. Rainfall topped off at 5 'A inches in Biscayne Bay. Broward got anywhere from one-quarter of an inch to 3 inches. 5 I I TENN. TPWM I -V.

Hurricane to make landfall after 8 p.m. today. Atlantic 30 ALa GA- I Ocean Andrew will officially be retired from the six-year rotation of storm names. After devastating south Dade, Hurricane Andrew blasted through the Everglades and toward Florida's booming southwest coast. Again, the storm barely missed hitting the most populous places.

The eye hit 30 miles south of Naples around 10:30 a.m. and went through Marco Island with few injuries reported. About 450 people took refuge in a Marco Island hotel during the storm. Officials contemplated a curfew because 65,000 people were without electricity. After weakening slightly over the Florida peninsula, the storm regained its 140 mph winds and headed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Officials expect Andrew to hit somewhere between Mobile, and Port Arthur, Texas. Louisiana's barrier island was ordered evacuated. "New Orleans is our hypothetical nightmare case," University of Miami meteorology professor Dean Churchill said. "If a major hurricane goes into New Orleans, the amount of flooding could be so extensive, there could be a major loss of life." Staff Writers Kurt Greenbaum, Neil Santaniello, Linda Kleindienst and Kathy Hensley Trumbull contributed to this report. "Andrew's rightful place in history is one of the biggest and strongest hurricanes to hit South Florida, without a doubt." Lixion Avila, National Hurricane Center specialist Palm Beach County received about an inch in most places.

Even though Andrew was a powerful Category 4 hurricane, north Dade had only Category 1 hurricane damage, Barker said. Broward was hit with only tropical storm-type damage, except for a few isolated hurricane-strength bands of storms, Barker said. And Palm Beach County was not even close to hurricane damage, he said. Andrew ranks as the 10th most intense hurricane to ever hit the United States, pushing 1989's Hugo out of that position. "Andrew's rightful place in history is one of the biggest and strongest hurricanes to hit South Florida, without a doubt," said Lixion Avila, a specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

It was so strong that there will never be another Hurricane Andrew. The name ''wl Miami 00000'' I by. 1 1 ili i 'J 11 i. Path of I I Hurricane I BAHAMAS Andrew I CUBA As of 8 p.m. Monday Position: 26.1' 84.9" Moving: West at 18 mph Winds: 140 mph Staff graphicLYNN OCCHIUZZO Death toll estimate reaches 15 :0 it rryCy A 5 JL -i 1 i.

Staff photoURSULA E. SEEMANN 1 84th Street in south Dade, i following the hurricane to haul goods from T.J. Maxx store on U.S. 1 at South Looters take advantage of nasty conditions Brazen looters add to officials' worries By LUISA YANEZ and RAY LYNCH Staff Writers Hurricane Andrew's death toll climbed to at least 15 on Monday, officials said. Eleven of the deaths were in Dade County and officials said they expect that number to rise as authorities continue rescue efforts.

Four people were reported killed in the Bahamas before the storm swept across Florida's coastline. There were no hurricane-related deaths recorded in Broward or Palm Beach counties, officials said. At least seven of the deaths were in the swath of devastation that Andrew left across south Dade. More victims are likely to be found today. "Bodies are still buried inside the rubble of some homes," said Metro-Dade Police Director Fred Taylor.

"We expect there are additional bodies in the rubble. We just haven't been able to reach them." Injuries still were not tallied Monday evening. But Metro-Dade Fire Rescue said it received three to four times the 300 injury calls normally logged in a 24-hour period. Some were minor, some serious. Most were hurricane related: cuts by flying glass and wood, heart attacks, people needing medication.

By late Monday, authorities were releasing the identity of only one victim: Jessie James, 46, of Miami's Overtown neighborhood. James had crawled into an abandoned truck in front of his brother's home in the 1800 block of Northwest Second Court. He was killed about 4 a.m., when a tree collapsed on the truck. James was discovered by his in-laws later in the morning, said Miami police spokesman Raymond Lang. A second victim died in her Little Havana home of a heart attack, Miami police said.

Authorities were classifying it as a hurricane-related death because paramedics were unable to reach her. Among the other deaths: a blind man, who apparently fell off a balcony at his home, possibly when he wandered out to check the storm, Taylor said. In the Bahamas, at least one life and possibly as many as four were claimed by Hurricane Andrew on Sunday night as its 150 mph winds lashed the resort island of Eleuthera. Communications with outer islands remained down Monday, so no official confirmations could be obtained. This report was supplemented by the Associated Press.

'r- 1 til -7 Office. The thieves got only a few cartons of cigarettes, Werder said. Gov. Lawton Chiles on Sunday called up 1,500 National Guard troops, many of them from North Florida. He sent 500 Guard members into Miami on Sunday night and instructed them to go out immediately after the storm surge.

Their purpose: Deter looters and keep the peace. Guard members ran off looters at a south Dade County shopping mall on Monday morning. Also on Monday, Chiles sent 500 Guard members from Sarasota into Collier County. The governor also asked President Bush to declare a federal emergency so martial law might be ordered if things got rough. The 743rd Maintenance Company in Fort Lauderdale, the National Guard unit that repaired Army equipment in the Persian Gulf war, is doing the same thing after Hurricane Andrew.

"Our mission is to provide support maintenance for equipment they bring down," said Sgt. 1st Class Joe Dwyer of the 743rd. The 743rd will repair the Guard's trucks, generators, pumps and other power equipment that breaks down. "Also, we'll attend to problems they have with weapons," Dwyer said. Staff Writer Rick Pierce contributed to this report.

spokesman, said there were nine or 10 cases of looting reported in the city and 17 arrests. The city and Metro-Dade imposed a curfew from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. But police said they had more important worries. "Frankly, the priority is not property but life," said Pat Brickman, a Metro-Dade police spokesman.

"We're handling life-threatening situations." Fort Lauderdale police officers responded to several calls from people who reported their homes were burglarized while they were staying elsewhere for shelter. "We've been flagged down all over the place by people," said Officer Marion Sims, who was patrolling with Officer Nate Jackson. Sims said the burglaries were disturbing because people had enough problems with the hurricane. "That's the sad part of it all," Sims said. "They weather the storm and survive the hurricane and find they've been broken into." Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Ott Cefkin said there were no reports of looting in business or commercial areas.

The only looting reported in Broward was at a 7-Eleven store in the 2500 block of Northwest Ninth Avenue in Oakland Park, said Col. Ed Werder of the Broward Sheriff's By BOB KNOTTS, LANE KELLEY and KEVIN DAVIS Staff Writers Scattered looters sacked South Florida stores abandoned to Hurricane Andrew or smashed open by the storm, walking off with hundreds of dollars' worth of goods on Monday. "The police know we're here," said one woman in her late teens who declined to identify herself. The woman pushed a shopping cart overflowing with clothes through the shattered plate glass windows of a flooded south Dade County T.J. Maxx store.

Patrol cars frequently passed along flooded roads within sight of the store in the early afternoon but did not stop. A looter who called himself Julian said his stealing was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. "I didn't hear about it. I was just driving around looking for it," he said. Most of the theft took place in storm-battered portions of Dade County.

"The looting has occurred in areas made vulnerable in the storm," said Fred Taylor, Metro-Dade police director. "That's mostly convenience stores and strip shopping malls in the south Dade-Cutler Ridge area." Raymond Lang, a Miami police AP photo Florida National Guard members hold down an unidentified man accused of looting..