Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 13

1 4A ST. PETERSBURG TIMES MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1985 I'. ii I While the atmospheric conditions in the spring make tornadoes more likely to occur in Florida, mora occur in the summer because of the numerous thundershowers. In Florida, conditions frequently are right for tornadoes to form numerous thundershowers. By DAVID NEWTON St.

Petersburg Times Staff Writer For a tornado to suddenly drop its dark plume out of the sky and start ripping up real estate, the conditions must be perfect. That was the situation the past three days in West Central and South Central Florida. Friday afternoon in Clearwater, a "freak occurrence" of weather conditions brought a twister swirling down on U.S. 19, turning a car upside down. Shortly before 5 a.m.

Sunday, Venice was hit by a tornado that killed at least two and injured 41 before moving southeast to Fort Og-den and Lake Okeechobee. What happened? "It would only be unusual if we had 10 tornadoes in the next three months," David Rittenberry, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Ruskin, said Sunday. "Every spring we have a day or two of reports of a tornado in West Central Florida." WHAT HAPPENS when a tornado occurs is this: Cool, dry air and warm, humid air meet along a front to produce a cloud buildup known as a squall line. Usually the result is a thunderstorm. But if the warm, humid air rises extremely rapidly and is replaced in turn by more warm, humid air which also rises quickly and then begins to rotate, the result can be a tornado.

"They can occur any time of the year in Florida," Rittenberry said. While the atmospheric conditions in the spring make tornadoes more likely to occur, Rittenberry said, more occur in the summer because of the "Usually you have a thunderstorm (with a tornado), but you f)t isolated instances like Friday in Clearwater," he said. "It was a freak occurrence. Absolutely." Rittenberry likened the unpredictability of a tornado to someone's walking by a bedpost thousands 6f times and then one day accidentally stubbing a toe. "It's just one of those things that happened that day," he said.

The tornado that ripped through Venice early Sunday morning was preceded by a band of thundershowers. The thundershowers were met by cool inland air, and a rapid upward movement of air followed. The same body of swirling air that hit Venice moved on to Fort Ogden and Lake Okeechobee, Rittenberry said. NO TORNADO warnings were in effect at the time they hit. "It's difficult to forecast Florida tornadoes," he said.

"They dip down so quickly." Rittenberry said that despite the weather Sunday, there will likely not be much rain for the parched Sun-coast before Thursday night or Friday. Tampa International Airport recorded .21 inch of rain for the 24-hour period that ended at 5 p.m. Sunday. Times weather watchers recorded .37 inch in central St. Petersburg and .55 inch in Brooksville.

The National Weather Service predicts that today will be sunny and breezy with highs near 70 and. lows in the low to mid-40s tonight. The weather should warm slightly later in the week. St. Petersburg Times LOUIE FAVORITE Neighbors help the Stivers family salvage what they can after tornado hit their Venice home.

Tornado from 1-A Oscar FuJton, 73, and his wife survey the damage outside their home on Peppertree Road. Fulton said he awakened and moved his wife to an interior wall of their -home while the tornado passed. The Fultons escaped with only a few scrapes, but their next-door neighbor was killed when the roof of his home collapsed. 'f Art LinkletterAsks 3 St. Petersburg Timet LOUIE FAVORITE 1111 -eimr! Em RESS was thrown into the street.

Her husband was injured, but not critically. Lillian and Dick Kaincaid said they were awakened shortly before 5 a.m. by battering wind and hail. Seconds later, rain, shattered glass, oranges and other debris came flying into the room where they were sleeping. In other parts of the house, the roof was torn away and large pieces of furniture hurled about and destroyed.

Their electric clock stopped at 4:58 a.m. "TWO SECONDS AND it was gone," said Mrs. Kaincaid. "It's one of the most frightening things I've' ever lived through." The Kaincaids said their house on Peppertree Road was worth about $100,000. Residents of the large subdivision pitched in and helped each other to gather possessions from their homes and yards.

Meanwhile, road crews cleared the streets with heavy machinery and rescue workers went house to house to make certain all the injured had been found and treated. Venice Hospital reported that eight of the 41 injured had been admitted, and all were listed in fair condition. By nightfall, the victims had to decide whether to stay at home or to find temporary shelter. The Venice Community Center was opened as an emergency shelter, and several dozen people were expected to stay there overnight, Red Cross officials said. Power in the area hit by the tornado was still off Sunday night, "Everybody has been phenomenal here.

We have had wonderful cooperation from the community. Judy Taschler, Red Cross volunteer at emergency shelter and officials said they had no estimate when electricity would be turned back on. Cars and campers were strewn all over the area near ihe shopping center. At least two of those campers had people sleeping in them when the tornado passed through. I Robert Serfass, 53, was asleep in his camper in the hopping center parking lot when he was awakened by the sound of wind.

He said he tried to get up and drive away, tut his vehicle started to tumble before he could get out. The truck and camper were destroyed, but Serfass and his dog Tiny escaped with minor injuries. "I made myself limp," said Serfass, sitting in the Red Cross emergency shelter wrapped in bandages and wearing a hospital gown. "I went with the flow and I think that saved me." Just Put It In Your Ear And Hear Automatically Loud Sounds Made Soft. It Works! 1 VI Curt Stivers, 17, said he was thrown out of bed by the force of the wind.

Seconds later, the roof and exterior walls of his family's house on Peppertree Road were ripped off their foundation, leaving most of the family's possessions ruined. The Stivers' cars were heavily damaged by flying debris. THE TORNADO uprooted a nearby tree, turned over a neighbor's camper and filled their swimming pool with furniture. "We're lucky to be alive," said Stivers. John Cafazzo was working on scaffolding at a new theater that had been scheduled to open today in the Jacaranda Plaza.

"I was up on scaffolding when it hit. It scared the out of me." Police sealed off the stricken area at dusk Sunday, said Bob Anderson, the county's assistant director of disaster preparedness. Residents will be allowed to return to their homes today during the daylight hours, he said, but only with identification. Many of the more than 200 people who cooperated to help victims of the tornado said they were surprised how smoothly the operation worked. "Everybody has been phenomenal here," said Judy Taschler, one of the Red Cross volunteers in charge of the emergency shelter.

"We have had wonderful cooperation from the community." But some of the victims said they had no idea how they would recover from the disaster. "If I can't get my house rebuilt," said Dick Kaincaid, "I'm going to tear it down, sell the lot and get the hell out of Florida." I THIS IS ALL YOU WEAR I ELtCTBOMCS 1 Retire from 1-A aft ST. PETERSBURG a Nu-EaV announces a completely automatic hearing aid system, designed by Nu-Ear Electronics, San Diego, Calif. This hearing aid is a totally automatic hearing aid system. No Volume Control to Adjust Patented A.N.S.

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A Nu-Ear is providing a factory-trainedstate licensed hearing aid specialist for this special consultation. Come in for a free test to see if this amazing new development in hearing aid technology can help you. ART LINKLETTER endorsed hearing aids are now available exclusively at these local Bay Area Hearing Aid locations: show that age has taken its effect and fire them for failure to perform their duties. It is difficult to subject longtime workers to that treatment." Opponents of mandatory retirement contend that older workers frequently are more efficient and could contribute much to a company's profitability. David Gamse, head of the older worker department at the American Association of Retired Persons, said for example that the McDonald's a major employer of teen-age workers, has had good results from hiring the I FREE PUBLIC TEST DATES: Tuesday March 19 9-5 olHorlu "MrTVnnlH's ia nnw rftrruitintr nlHpr npnnl bp.

Monday March 18 9-5 i i. I i ry 1 cause tney are a iremenaous roie moaei, uamse saia. "Productivity tends to increase when they are hired. McDonald's is deriving some real benefit from that intergenerational mix." THE filTNATIT'S rnrrmoninn Kill in Pennor'e mn- -if ll I Is Thursday March 2 1 9-5 Wednesday March 20 9-5 abolition of mandatory retirement. One of these involved the Union Carbide chief labor lawyer, John Whittlesey, who challenged his own forced retirement.

Union Carbide forced him to retire at 65 under the exemption that permits such mandatory action at that age for policy-making employees. Whittlesey argued successfully in federal district court that although he held an important job and earned a salary of more than $100,000 a year, he was not a policy-maker. Judge Pierre N. Leval awarded Whittlesey back pay and also "forward" pay totaling $242,649. He said Whittlesey's return to work would not be feasible in view of the bad feeling engendered by the suit.

Whittlesey, now 67, lives in Chappaqua, N.Y., where he is practicing law and consulting. "The trend is for people to question being tossed out when they are not ready to retire," he said. "There is a stereotype that at age 65 you lose your zing and ought to be turned out to pasture, and that is not the case." Another victory came last week when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled tentatively that employers were required to continue to provide pension benefits for employees who turn 65. "BEFORE NOW," said Steve Mehlman, a spokesman for the American Association of Retired Persons, "an employer could arbitrarily tell a worker that he could continue to work until 70 but that he would not accrue additional pension benefits, so there was a disincentive to continue working." The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear two major cases on mandatory retirement.

One is a challenge to Western Airlines' practice of applying to flight engineers the retirement age of 60 that the Federal Aviation Administration requires for pilots. The other is a challenge to an effort by the city of Baltimore to require that its firefighters retire at 55. In a 1983 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal law barring mandatory retirement before 70 applied to states as well, and it has been applied to cities also. Mandatory retirement does not apply to Pepper, Cranston or President Reagan, who at 74 is the oldest person ever to have served as president. Those opposed to mandatory retirement take heart in both the President's example and his support for change in mandatory retirement rules.

"It does help psychologically," said Mehlman. "It ST. PETERSBURG 343-3019 Tyrone Square Mail (Around the corner from JCPenney) PORT RICHEY 049-1105 Gulf View Sq. Mail (Near Radio Shack CLEARWATER 446-4417 Sunshine Mall (Near Robert's Cafeteria) sure has been introduced for several years by Alan Cranston, who is 70. "He views it as a civil rights issue, that people should be judged on their ability, not their chronological age," I said Susanne Martinez, an aide to Cranston.

Sen. John Heinz, has introduced a similar bill I abolishing mandatory retirement for most workers. But the Heinz bill would include a provision that would extend for 15 years the provision allowing colleges and universities to require retirement of professors at 70. Pepper's aide said the congressman did not accept the colleges' argument that they had to have the right to retire older professors in order to make room for junior staff. "If you have an exciting, competent professor who is 71, why should his job be turned over to someone who is 35 just because of his age?" she said.

Gamse said that the American Association of Retired Persons was mounting a broad campaign to remove mandatory retirement. It plans to lobby for the Pepper, Cranston and Heinz bills, and to encourage people to combat age discrimination as they do race and sex discrimination. AGE DISCRIMINATION has already become the largest category of cases handled by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, surpassing race and sex discrimination charges. There were 9,500 age discrimina-tion charges filed in 1981; the number jumped to 18,000 in 1983. The prospects in Congress are uncertain, but there have been court and agency decisions favorable to the I II 1 ST.

PETERSBURG 022-3335 643 Central Avenue CLEARWATER 796-1486 Clearwater Mall (Near General Nutrition) ii LARGO 581-3359 Midway Shopping Center (1277 N. Missouri Ave.) Long Distance? Call Toll Free 1-800-342-0251 NEW PORT RICHEY Elfers Square 849-01 1 3 Elfers Hearing Optical 6101 County Rd. 54 11 shows that one can be capable and competent without regard to age. You can always point to the Winston Churchills and Helen.Hayeses." 1.