South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 15

PB Sun-Sentinel, Tuesday, February 24, 1998 ISA PATH OF DEVASTATION 'WHY DID I SHE ASKS 85 Man's last act saves his fiancee as tornado strikes in the dead of night. By DEREK CATRON and JEFF KUNERTH The Orlando Sentinel DAYTONA BEACH Mark Christian Price's final act was to save the life he valued above all others. As the roar of a tornado bore down, Price forced his fiancee, Jennifer Johnson, into the hall closet of their one- 0T I 'I 1 Matt a1" bedroom mobile home the only safe, sealed space inside. There was room for only one. Johnson tried to pull Price in with her, but the force of the twister ripped his hand from hers as their trailer disintegrated around them on Sunday night.

She was thrown about 50 feet as the tornado turned the trailer inside out. After the storm passed, 4 Mark Christian Price was killed I when a tornado hit his mobile home in Daytona Beach. The Orlando Sentinel photoRED HUBER pickup truck and a car wound up inside two homes that were destroyed by a tornado that touched down in the Kissimmee area early Monday. At daybreak, rescuers and residents fpund flattened cars, wrecked homes, aluminum siding embedded in a tree and a home where only the concrete steps and a wooden door frame were left after the twister. bet few ear amines issue' C7 Experts say one solution is for people to purchase weather radios for their homes.

The radios turn on with piercing tones when the weather service issues tornado or severe weather warnings. next-door neighbor Dennis Griffin heard a catlike yowling in the darkness. He found a delirious Johnson running back and forth along Old DeLand Road in Daytona Beach. "Dennis, come help me. Help me," she cried.

Griffin got Johnson, battered but not seriously injured, inside his house. Then, with a neigh-bor Griffin went searching for Price. They found his body in the grass between the twisted I-beam frame of the mobile home and a tree snapped into a 20-foot stump. When Griffin returned to the house, he told Johnson they couldn't find Price. "I didn't want to be the one who told her," he said.

Price, 41, and Johnson, 34, moved into the small trailer' about a year and a half ago. The couple had been together for several years and planned to marry in the spring. Price was a long-distance truck driver. Johnson worked as a clerk at a convenience store. She was working on Sunday night but was sent home early, ahead of the storm, because she rode a bicycle to work.

Both were rabid Denver Broncos fans who also loved music and movies. Price had been a drummer in a band before moving to Florida. Beatles posters adorned their walls. Johnson couldn't bear to see what was left of her life on Monday morning. Friends said she was devastated, asking repeatedly, "Why did I live?" In seclusion, she sent her friends to search through what remained of her home for anything that belonged to Price.

They were like miners panning for gold in the puddles left by Sunday's storms. Costly appliances were shoved aside in search of a photograph or a hand-written card. A stuffed toy bulldog sat half-submerged in a watery ditch across the road. A pan with the remains of a cheese and pasta dinner rested atop a dinner plate. A stiff wind clawed over it all, flipping through the pages of a Cosmopoliton magazine.

Videotapes were everywhere. Price and Johnson so loved the movies, their friends called them the Blockbuster Video of the neighborhood. They had something for everyone, and every occasion. Star Wars. Waiting to Exhale.

Fargo. Toy Story. And tucked behind the wheels of the trailer hitch, the summer hit of 1996 Twister. 2 By SETH BORENSTEIN The Orlando Sentinel Meteorologists knew Central Flori-tda was ripe for killer storms. The Weather Service issued warnings 20 to 30 minutes before tornadoes "hit Sunday night and called sheriffs "offices to tell them what to expect.

It wasn't enough. Florida's multimillion-dollar weather radar and warning systems hit the one snag that government money can't seem to fix: timing. People have to be awake to be warned and react. The storms hit at about 10:45 p.m. Sunday and got worse after midnight.

"When people are sleeping, there's no way of getting the message out," said Terry Faber, University of Miami meteorology researcher. "That's not a problem with the technology of the radar. It's a problem with the technology of spreading out the word." The weather service provided plenty of warning, said Craig Fugate, Florida's chief of disaster preparedness and response. Friday, the weather service issued a special hazardous weather outlook. Sunday morning, the weather service's storm prediction office said Central Florida was at "moderate risk" for these type of killer storms.

"The National Weather Service can put out the watches, can put out the warnings and if the people don't see them, we can see the result," Fugate said. It was frustrating for meteorologists at the National Weather Service's Melbourne office, the first in the nation to get a Doppler radar system. The $2 million radar spots rotating winds above a storm cell to pinpoint tornadoes. Meteorologists said danger i ii rmm im. -ifM--.

-i' AP photoMICHAEL S. GREEN Josie Wolfe, 73, left, is comforted by neighbor Ann Legnard in front of Wolfe's destroyed home at the Pondersoa Campgrounds in Kissimmee on Monday. was imminent. But few people were listening or watching TV. Midwestern states have tornado warning sirens.

But these types of storms are so infrequent in Florida about once every 20 years that people wouldn't know what the sirens mean, meteorologists said. One solution, experts say, is for people to buy weather radios for their homes. The radios turn on with piercing tones when the weather service issues warnings. The radios have had a reputation for sounding even with the mildest marine warning. But a new version, which costs about $70, can be programmed to react to alerts in a specific county or to tornadoes and severe storms only.

'It's like a smoke detector in your home," said National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Spratt. "It's a cheap device, but it can really save your life." The state is buying more than 3,000 of the new radios for every public school in Florida, Fugate said. They will be delivered later this year. RADIO, TV: When a tornado watch is issued, monitor developments with a NOAA Weather Radio equipped with a tone alert. If you don't have a weather ra-dio, watch local television for bulletins.

AT HOME: When a tornado warning is issued or a tornado is sighted, move to the safest area of your home, usually the smallest interior room on the lowest floor. Closets and bathrooms work well. If you can't get to the safe room, take ref-uge under heavy furniture in the center of the house. Stay away from windows, ON THE ROAD: If you're in a car when a tornado is sighted, abandon your vehicle and seek shelter in a sturdy building. As a last resort, take refuge in a ditch or swale.

Do not try to outrun the storm. Cars can easily be overturned. ON THE WATER: If you're in a boat when a waterspout is sighted, head imme-diately at a 90-degree angle away from the direction of the waterspout, SOURCE: National Weather Service, Miami Relief organizations ready to help victims of storm I lIMTMft 1 cy shelters in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties. Orlando's Salvation Army set up six food canteens, stocked to serve 1,500 meals a day to victims and disaster workers. Salvation Army and Red Cross workers said they did not plan to collect food or clothing until they could better assess the need.

Red Cross chapters from South Florida sent five volunteers to Central Florida. Two Palm Beach County workers will help coordinate delivery of food, shelter and clothing to victims. Two Broward workers will help carry food to victims with the chapter's Emergency Response Vehicle. A worker from the Greater Miami and the Keys chapter will help. Two emergency managers from South Florida Billy Wagner from Monroe County and Bill O'Brien from Palm Beach County traveled to storm-stricken areas to help out at the request of state and federal officials.

Others awaited marching orders from the state. "We're sitting on standby, waiting to give support or send resources," said Tony Carper, director of Broward County's Emergency Management Division. Staff and wire reports 1 Relief organizations across the state sprang into action on Monday to help victims of Central Florida's devastating tornadoes, and state and federal disaster teams were standing by to help dig out. With memories of the Groundhog Day Storm still fresh, South Florida stood poised to offer whatever assistance it could. Unlike a hurricane, which can devastate an entire region, the tornadoes left pockets of severe damage.

Teams from local governments were inspecting the sites on Monday and had yet to call for help, said Gailee Cardwell, spokeswoman for the state Office of Emergency Management. Cardwell said the office had been on alert since Saturday and has been in close contact with officials in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties. Building inspectors, engineers, utilities workers and transportation experts are prepared to help. Joe Myers, the state's emergency management director, toured the ravaged areas on Monday with Gov. Lawton Chiles and representatives of the Federal Emergency Manage- To make donations to the relief effort, contact the American Red Cross at the fc 'lowing locations: PALM BEACH COUNTY: 825 Fern West Palm Beach, 33402 561-833-7711 BROWARD COUNTY: 521 NE 4th Fort Lauderdale, 33301 954-763-9900 DADE COUNTY: 33 SW 27th Miami, 33135 305-644-1200 ment Agency.

FEMA Director James Lee Witt said after the tour that 14 counties would be given federal disaster assistance. Financial help came from a variety of sources. Heart of Florida United Way, NationsBank and Universal Studios Florida each donated SunTrust gave BellSouth and BellSouth Mobility handed Red Cross a check for and a steady stream of residents donated money and supplies. The Red Cross opened emergen lV "J- iiin rn i nn 1 mmmr-fuMmt iiiiinnirnimiiiiiiiiilli arttiiBiilnnii ar naWif. i The Orlando Sentinel photoGARY BOGDON Julia Dees Is devastated on Monday al the sight of the home of her mother and brother in Kissimmee.

The home was swept off Its foundation and into a swamp. Dees' mother and brother arc missing and presumed dead..