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Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: ASEC DATE: 01-09-2005 EDITION: FLA ZONE: FLA PAGE: A1.0 DEADLINE: 20.5 OP: carmstrong COMPOSETIME: 23.32 CMYK IN FLORIDA MAGAZINE THE OLDER SINGLES SCENE, 4 IN SPORTS MAGIC TAKE DOWN NETS, C1 E3 Orlando Sentinel OrlandoSentinel.com Central Florida Edition Sunday January 9, 2005 $1.50 Founded 1876 TSUNAMI PATROL Puerto Rico warning system may expand beyond Caribbean UCF stadium could doom Citrus Bowl If school builds on campus, Magic's arena hopes may rise What if a tsunami hit Puerto Rico? This image from the Puerto Rico Tsunami Warning and Mitigation Program shows how far inland Mayaguez, in western Puerto Rico, could be flooded in the event of a tsunami. By JASON GARCIA and ALAN SCHMADTKE SENTINEL STAFF WRITERS The University of Central Florida's plan to build a football stadium on campus is the latest blow to Orlando's hopes to renovate the aging Florida Citrus Bowl, vital to the city's push for a revitalized downtown, according to government, sports and tourism insiders. But the Citrus Bowl's loss could boost the Orlando Magic's hopes for a new basketball arena. Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty, whose support is crucial to squeezing money from the county's tourist tax to build or refurbish sports venues, raised new doubts that he could muster the political support for Citrus Bowl renovations if the stadium loses its home team. "There's a whole kind of circumstantial case that's building up against the Citrus Bowl," Crotty said.

It is the furthest Crotty has gone in questioning the rationale of spending as much as $150 million to fix the 69-year-old Citrus Bowl. If Crotty is going to fight the political battle to spend more of the county's tourist tax on sports, he would rather do so on an arena to keep the National Basketball Association's Magic in Orlando. Insiders contacted by the Orlando Sentinel say taking on the powerful tourist lobby for a run-down stadium that already has been bypassed by college football's Bowl Championship Series and has failed to secure the Atlantic Coast Conference championship is a much harder sell without UCF on board. PLEASE SEE CITRUS, A15 By MATTHEW HAY BROWN SENTINEL STAFF WRITER SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico A program that monitors the waters around Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for signs of tsunamis is emerging as a leading candidate to host a regional warning system that would cover the Caribbean and beyond. "It's the most logical place," said George Maul, a professor at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne who chairs a group of tsunami experts for the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the U.N.

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. "The expertise is really right there." While governments are planning for a global tsunami-warning network in the wake of the South Asia disaster last month, scientists in this seismi-cally volatile region of small and mostly developing nations are discussing a regional component that would cover the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the Straits of Florida and the Bahamas. "We know from past history, the historical reality, that we have had tsunamis," said University of Puerto Rico professor Aurelio Mercado, the principal investigator with the Puerto Rico Tsunami Warning and Mitigation Program. "Since those events, the vulnerability has increased with the population and tourism The amount of people living close to the shorelines has risen exponentially." Massive waves slammed into the Dominican Republic in 1946 and the Virgin Islands in 1867, swamping ships, washing away buildings and killing hundreds of islanders. The great Atlantic tsunami of 1755, which is thought to have closely resembled the Indian Ocean wave last month that now is blamed for the deaths of more than 150,000, sent swells as high as 20 feet crashing into the Eastern Caribbean.

The region is susceptible to tsunamis because it lies at the convergence of three of the grinding tectonic plates that make up the Earth's shifting crust: the Caribbean, the North American and the South American plates. That unique geography means the region is fraught with potential for undersea landslides and major earthquakes, and is home to an please see TSUNAMIS, A22 Asia-disaster death toll passes 1 50,000. I PageA22 UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO Tectonic plates Volcanoes Puerto Rico Trench U.S. says it regrets bombing Iraqi home DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PUERTO RICO 1 Mayagiiez NORTH AMERICAN PLATE Montserrat Guadeloupe WHY TSUNAMIS ARE A THREAT TO THE CARIBBEAN The Caribbean is prone to seismic activity, making it vulnerable to tsunamis. A group of scientists is working on a warning system to help residents cope with the threat.

Where the plates meet The Earth's surface is made up of plates. Three of these plates the North American, South American and Caribbean plates meet in the Caribbean. The movement of these plates against or away from one another can produce underwater earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides all causes of tsunamis. Witnesses say that as many as 14, all in the same family, were killed. CARIBBEAN PLATE I Martinique LESSER ANTILLES ii I St.

Vincent nt I Kick em "1 Jenny Grenada wrMr7iin a SOUTH AMERICAN PLATE VENEZUELA Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc all from the same family. An Associated Press photographer said from the scene that 14 members of the same family seven children, four women and three men were killed, and six people were wounded, including another child in the house and five people from neighboring houses. By evening, all 14 victims had been buried in a nearby cemetery, the homeowner said. The errant attack came at a time when U.S. and Iraqi military planners have stepped up operations in Mosul, responding to pressure to quell violence in Iraq's third-largest city before the national election just three weeks away.

Nineveh province, which includes Mosul, is among four restive regions that U.S. PLEASE SEE IRAQ, A18 Earthquakes: Most common cause of tsunamis. Occur along the faults where the North American plate slips under the Caribbean plate. Underwater volcanoes: The eruption of an Volcano- By ROBIN FIELDS and ASHRAF KHALIL LOS ANGELES TIMES BAGHDAD, Iraq U.S. forces mistakenly dropped a 500-pound bomb on a house outside the northern city of Mosul early Saturday morning, the military acknowledged, killing at least five Iraqis.

In an unusual step, the military released a statement saying the wrong house had been bombed and expressing regret at the loss of "possibly innocent lives." The homeowner and witnesses in Aitha, 30 miles south of Mosul, put the death toll at 14, underwater volcano called Kick 'em Jenny close to the islands of the southeastern Caribbean caused tsunamis in 1 939 and 1 965 that were too deep in the water to affect land. Underwater landslides: The Puerto Rico Trench lies north of the island. Debris tumbling down the trench's slope could be sufficient to trigger a tsunami. DANA FASANO AND INGRID PECCAORLANDO SENTINEL Plates move gradually SOURCES: National Science Foundation Caribbean Tsunami Workshop; The Tsunami Page, Dr. George Pararas-Carayannis; University of Puerto Rico Turf war ruffles wealthy Marco Islanders When a homeowner was told to pull his fake grass, his reaction wasn't pretty.

In a colorful protest, Ed Ehlen painted a side of his new $4 million home after Marco Island officials told him to remove $19,000 in synthetic grass. City officials say their primary concern is not the appearance of the fake grass, but its environmental impact. now," he said. Ehlen's turf war and his pink protest wall quickly drew attention far beyond Marco Island. In the past week, his yard yarn has appeared on network television, in newspapers nationwide and on National Public Radio.

"It's unbelievable," said Ehlen's PLEASE SEE TURF, A10 I thought; 'I'll show you what isn't aesthetically said Ehlen, 39. Not only did he refuse to tear up the ersatz grass, but Ehlen retaliated to a neighbor's complaints by painting that side of his stylish mansion a Pepto-Bismol pink. With green and blue polka dots. "Nobody was listening to me before, but they are listening to me By WES SMITH SENTINEL STAFF WRITER MARCO ISLAND When city officials in this resort community told Ed Ehlen that he would have to remove $19,000 in synthetic grass around his new $4 million home, the boldness of his response surprised even those closest to him. "They said it wasn't 'aesthetically WES SMITHORLANDO SENTINEL 1 INDEX WEATHER 81 Warm again today, with a slight breeze.

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