Pensacola News Journal from Pensacola, Florida • 5

Pensacola News Journal 5A AFTER ERIN: ASSESSING THE DAMAGE Saturday, August 5, 1995 lamage cancels school, relocates students insurance but the district will go after Federal Emergency Management Agency money for moat, risk management director Charles Griffin said. CLASS HAS been canceled Monday for 227 year-round Beulah students after the hurricane damaged the generator for the lift station that operates the plumbing system for the school on the far western edge of Escambia County. Students could be off for as much as a week until the district fixes the generator, which was leaking diesel fuel. The district will know better next week when students can return to the building. Workman, which is near the air port, may relocate some of its 1,200 students since repairs to the school will take at least two months, said Epperson.

The district will bring in temporary buildings for classes. The school lost the roof on the main two-story building. Epperson said the school has severe water damage throughout the first and second floors, and there is standing water in the cafeteria. Repairs will cost at least $1 million, he said. TATE HIGH in the Gonzalez community in north central Escambia, lost a third of the roof on the main building and part of the roof on the new $3 million gymnasium.

The old gymnasium has a sow a' hole in the front wall and a flooded floor. THE STORM knocked out one of three refrigeration units that keep the food inventory freezer cold at the J.E. Educational Service Center on Texar Drive. If a second goes out before electricity is restored, the district could lose $1 million in food purchased for the new school year, said food services director Jim Bentley. "That's the one that really scares me to death because if that goes, as (human resources assistant Superintendent) Doug Garber says, we'll have a lot of soup on Monday morning," said Maloy.

Scott T. ZaleskiNews Journal photographer Custodian Willie Carson Jr. mops water from a tarp at Tate High School. The old gymnasium suffered a flooded floor and hole in the front wall. Beach residents insist that they could have minimized damage if allowed into homes earlier X- 2 i We have enough work here to keep us busy at least a few months.

99 Don Blocker, Ponderosa Builders Inc. By Lori Gaillot News Journal staff writer Three Escambia public schools got walloped by Hurricane Erin, including one that sustained at least $1 million in damage officials suspect was due to tornado. Total damage to facilities in the Escambia County School District is at least $2 million, facilities assistant superintendent Dave Epperson said. Workman Middle, Tate High and Beulah Elementary sustained the most damage. Officials are trying to ready all schools when most of the district's 45,000 students return Aug.

14. Some damage will be covered by put a big orange patch over holes in his thatched roof. But the roof, built by Seminole Indians using a traditional Indian design, weathered Erin better than most shingled roofs. "My roof has become a landmark. I will definitely replace it," Rudzki said.

High-rise condominiums at Navarre Beach faced Erin and shook a little, but damage to the structures was minimal. A 12-ton air conditioner was ripped off the roof of Navarre Towers at 8271 Gulf Boulevard, falling 100 feet to the ground. "I heard the crash and thought the east side of the building had fallen down. We were very fortunate it missed the office and everyone else," said Carol Hudson, Navarre Towers resident manager. Two Tom Thumb convenience stores at Navarre Beach were hit hard by Erin.

One of the stores, at 8228 Gulf had a gasoline pump torn from the ground. Tom Thumb manager Rex Mclnnis opened his store Friday without electricity or water. He sold 200 bags of ice in less than an hour. "It's good to stay busy," he said. Don Blocker of Ponderosa Builders Inc.

said he will work straight through the weekend at Navarre Beach. "We have enough work here to keep us busy at least a few months," Blocker said. Dune damage Some of the barrier island's dunes were flattened by wind and surging surf. Roof shingles with sharp nails littered the dunes. The Gulf Islands National Seashore day-use buildings in the area known as the "S-curve" were undamaged.

The area of the federal seashore that includes Fort Pickens was i Gary McCrackenNews Journal photographer Loni Haywood, 15, of Navarre Beach, surveys the damage to her bedroom the day after Hurricane Erin ripped through. Part of the roof was torn off during the storm. ll.lIUMWlU.lTOUIlllUlUWWI)lW"W'llUlUl'J'l'''JUiMUWUllromll -m Hill VI UIUIIIMM 1 I i .11 1 ByAmieKlanke and Rick Barrett News Journal staff writers SANTA ROSA ISLAND Beach residents in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties began cleaning up Hurricane Erin's -heaviest destruction with different points of view. Some Pensacola Beach residents were angry that law en-forcement officials wouldn't let them return to their homes until 11 a.m. Friday, some 21 hours after the hurricane passed over the beach.

They said they could have minimized property damage if they had been allowed to return home Thursday afternoon or evening like residents in much-harder-hit Navarre Beach, about 12 miles to the east. "They (Escambia County officials) have shamed themselves. They caused a lot of people a lot of extra grief this morning," said Winston Howerton, 33, who lives on Via de Luna Drive in Pensacola Beach. Howerton and his wife Christine charge that most of the dam- age to their home caused by water blowing in through broken windows could have been prevented if they had been allowed to attend to it sooner. "We're not going to leave next time unless it's a category five.

That's what the Santa Rosa Island Authority is teaching people to do. Next time a hurricane comes, nobody is going to evacuate," he said. Dangerous conditions Escambia Sheriff Lt. Ron McNesby said his department was enforcing an order from Gulf Power Co. and county administrator Barry Evans.

"We cannot make that call (to let people on Pensacola Beach) until Gulf Power says it's safe for them to return," McNesby said of the company's concerns about downed power lines. Still, some questioned the necessity of the long wait. Kegan Berry weathered the storm from his Deluna Point home off Fort Pickens Road. He said he was driving around after Santa Rosa the storm and didn't see any dangers that would have prevented other residents from returning to the island. Still other Pensacola Beach residents said they were grateful for the protection.

"I was a little mad at first, but I figured they would let us back on when it was safe," said Ricky Spraggins. Erin destroyed the porch he had finished building last week and tore down his wooden fence at his home in the 1200 block of Panferio Drive. A few houses down, Kjtthryn Whittington's weekend house was stripped of its roof. She also said she understood why she was not allowed to return sooner. "Gulf Power was doing their job.

It wasn't safe to be back. There's no reason to be angry," she said. Another story In Navarre Beach, where Santa Rosa commissioners gave construction workers access to patch roofs and board up broken windows, residents were still talking about the storm that damaged an estimated 30 percent of the buildings there. Tom McCardle, who lives on Arkansas Street, said he watched huge sections of three condominiums float down the canal behind his house. "It was one of the strangest things I have ever seen," McCardle said.

Next to the Navarre Beach Volunteer Fire Department, four condominiums under construction were flattened by Erin. The condominiums could have been finished in a couple of weeks, said developer Peter McCallister of The Source Group. "It will take us a couple of months, at least, to catch up." At Sailor's Grill on Navarre Beach Road, owner Ken Rudzki DElitgCo. closed to traffic Friday, but park rangers said the historic area stood up well against the high winds and waves. Close call Another family whose home suffered minimal damage said they might have been safer if they had not evacuated.

Jack and Vicky Khorram fled their home in Deluna Point off Fort Pickens Road at 5:30 a.m. Thursday for the protection of a friend's house on Scenic Highway. There they had a brush with death, they said. A large oak tree fell on the Khorrams' van, crushing it into the pavement, just five feet from where they stood with their two toddler sons. Vicky Khorram said, "We might have been safer (on Pensacola Beach).

There was only water here, and farther north we were almost killed." 1 LfriMiiifjTi "A Hurricane Erin's high winds and Pensacola Beach. Many homes By Rick Barrett and Scott Schonauer New Journal staff writers MILTON Santa Rosa County, from Jay to Navarre Beach, took the leading edge of Hurricane Erin and received widespread damage as a result of it. Hurricane-force winds blasted the county, mostly ripping roofs off buildings and uprooting thousands of trees. "The south end of the county was hit the hardest. And then it was Pace and Pea Ridge that were hit hard because the hurricane worked its way up Escambia Bay," said Will Meloy, county Emergency Management duty officer.

COUNTY RESIDENTS outside of Milton are being urged to boil or chlorinate their drinking water. That is because the water might have picked up harmful bacteria from broken water system lines. An emergency shelter is still available in Santa Rosa County at Milton High School, 103 N. Stewart Milton. Storm damage was heavy in Milton and Bagdad since both communities have many streets lined with old trees that fell on buildings and power lines.

Businesses 111 fT'. Jerry KovachNews Journal photographer Winds off Via de Luna Drive "oh lot worse' commissioner: It really could have been a m.S I If gusty rains ravaged a home in Bay suffered similar damage. in downtown Milton were closed Friday and about 40 percent of the city was still without electricity. Navarre and Navarre Beach were the hardest hit areas in Santa Rosa County. Water and electricity might not be restored for several more days.

About 40 percent of the trees were knocked down at The Zoo, east of Gulf Breeze on Highway 98. None of the zoo's animals were injured, however, said Pat Quinn, The Zoo president and director. "County emergency officials said they expect to have damage estimates, in dollars, early today. Milton High School is still open as a shelter for those who have been forced from their homes. ELECTRICITY IS being restored to main power lines first, followed by secondary lines.

County and city workers will be picking up storm debris today. Storm damage was heavy but in some cases it was exaggerated, according to county officials. "We had people call in and say their roofs were gone when in fact the wind had just blown off shingles. Overall, the roof damage was not as bad as we first thought," Meloy said. Beach BBQ in Gulf Breeze was I open Friday without electricity.

Meat for sandwiches was cooked in an outside barbecue pit and other items were prepared inside by candlelight. "Instead of eating by candlelight we are cooking by it. I think it is a simple twist of fate from Hurricane Erin," said Delia Matson of Beach BBQ. SANTA ROSA County Commissioner Dave Kessler said the com--munity can learn from the devastation caused by Erin. "I think this has been a real eye-opener for many people," he said.

"It really could have been a lot worse and I think people realize that. They don't want to be around for something bigger than a category one." Kessler said it's not the govern-' ment's fault for not getting out information on Erin. "We have to remember that this is nature and nature is not predictable. "I can't understand why people would want to complain. I think there is a certain degree of personal responsibility for one's actions.

Sometimes we're too quick to criticize other people and our own government in instances like" this." -r-. 'il iininintft n.i iii n-lu i Steve MawyerNews Journal photographer Gary Thompson, an employee at Allentown Community Farm Center, checks three silos that contained corn, none of which was salvageable. Damage was estimated near $300,000..