Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 1

4 INSIDE TODAY I VY on the Suncoast IN SPORTS Miami tops Florida State 19-16 bum Wiwts Florida 's Best Newspaper PA Weather High, upper 80s; 40 chance of rain. 2B The Pinellas County neighborhoods of Autumn Run and Beacon Run, once so neat and tidy, now lie in shreds. 1B The National Weather Service will investigate why forecasters didn't issue a tornado warning sooner. 1B One storm victim took a wild ride on a mattress before coming to rest near his family's upside-down mobile home. 4B The tornadoes interrupted one proposal, but after sifting through the rubble to find the ring, the wedding's on.

12A DEAD I7' yaw mm kite tanni At least five tornadoes touch down, damaging hundreds of homes and leaving 30,000 residences without power. WHk 4 By DAVID BALLINGRUD Timet Start Writer At least five tornadoes dropped from the sky on an unsuspecting Tampa Bay area on Saturday, killing three people, injuring dozens and blowing almost 100 homes to bits. Between 150 and 300 mobile homes were destroyed or badly damaged, and 200 single-family homes were damaged or ruined, according to initial damage assessment by Red Cross teams. The search for bodies was essentially over Saturday night and the death toll was not expected to rise, said David Bilodeau, Pinellas County director of emergency management. Two people died in the Pinellas Park area, another in a Largo mobile home park.

Late Saturday night, the victims' identities had not been made public. Among the dead: A female resident of Park Royale Mobile Home Village, who died when her home was driven into a house. A woman who was killed in her garage just north of Park Roy-ale, probably by falling debris. An elderly woman in the Indian Rocks Mobile Home Park in Largo, who died when her mobile home flipped. At one point Saturday, 30,000 homes were without power.

By evening, that number had been cut by about half, but Florida Power spokesman Will Rodgers said he expected that some still would be without power today, Gov, Lawton Chiles was scheduled to tour the damaged areas this afternoon. Security in the storm-damaged areas, including walking patrols, was in place by nightfall. There were isolated reports of looting, but no arrests and no curfew. Red Cross officials had planned to open two shelters but indicated Please see STORM 10A Timet photo FRED VICTORIN A tornado that ripped through the Oakhaven area of Pinellas Park on Saturday flattened some mobile homes, damaged others and left some unscathed. Tornadoes hit without warning Minutes after the storm hit, residents applied lessons learned from Andrew.

is ft t'r Joseph Corcoran stands amid the wreckage of his trailer Saturday after a tornado slammed through Travel World Trailer Park on U.S. 19 between Pinellas Park and Clearwater. No one had expected worse than a rainy day. Unlike Hurricane Andrew, a storm closely watched and widely warned, Saturday's tornadoes came from nowhere. Those in the path of the violent but nameless storms emerged from their demolished homes in shock or crying.

In Pinellas Park, where several neighborhoods suffered devastation, the smell of pine from snapped pine trees floated Please see WARNING 9A in her lounge chair next to him. "I was very rudely awakened by stuff hitting me in the face," said the 78-year-old Mrs. Wienecke. "I stood up. The wind was blowing so hard I couldn't move." Within seconds, the Wie-necke's house at 6325 102nd Ter.

was a pile of rubble. The tornadoes that whipped off the Gulf of Mexico and hop-scotched across Pinellas and Pasco counties Saturday morning caught thousands of residents by surprise. By ANNE V. HULL Tlnwi Staff Writer 1 a iTPM'i W. H.

Wienecke of Pinellas Park was in his lounge chair Saturday morning watching This Old House, a TV show on home renovation. His wife, Evelyn, was dozing Hi jy Tlmat photo ADRIAN DENNI3 Candidates try to stake a claim for contested Florida decision Starting Monday: Where For years the state has handed GOP presidential candidates victory after victory. This year, that could be different. f. I I a.

TIT? AMMTn ATT7Q STA Kill 111JU ViUlLlLillLu Uliiilly By DAVID DAHL Time Staff Witter had on Florida for all but two elections in the past 40 years. His strong showing in a state the GOP usually takes for granted means President Bush has to spend time and resources here rather than elsewhere around the country. "It's competitive, which it hasn't been for a long time," said Sen. Bob Graham, citing a series of Florida polls, including a private Democratic survey, that show Bush and Clinton in a neck-and-neck contest. It's quite a switch from the late 1980s, when it looked like the Republican revolution had taken hold in Florida.

Bob Martinez Please see FLORIDA 2A Starting Monday, the Times will publish a series of stories about the major issues in the presidential campaign. The Times' veteran reporters have brought their expertise to the task and will spell out what each candidate proposes for the next four years. Watch for Decision '92: The Issues throughout October. In Section A 1 BSlll Hill I' I The Issues By this time four years ago, Democrats were waving white flags of surrender in Florida's presidential campaign. This October, though, they're cheering like college students at a football game.

Their man, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, is threatening the hold Republicans have Timet photo JIM DAMASKE The shift in President Bush's popularity in Florida is similar to what is happening across the country. More on Bush, 1B; other political news, 2A and 8A Index appears on 2A 12 sections, Vol. 109 -No. 57.