The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 22

The Miami Herald Thursday September 27 1984 22k F-2 TiropicaS Storm Hsidore South Floridians stock up for arrival dozen bag boys rolled carts filled with bulging brown grocery bags to cars Still the check-out lines were long snaking into the aisles Scherry cart was filled with paper plates and cans of fruit and vegetables Angela basket had four gallon jugs of water The Coral Gables resident had driven to the South Dade Publix just to buy the water the storm hits at least have the she said One dark-haired bearded man who would identify himself only as Lariy stood in the speed lane clutching a plastic bottle of catsup and two bunches of gladiolus His wife he said was in charge of getting storm-survival materials in charge of he said Herald Staff Writers Yves Colon and Carlos Briceno contributed to this article Flags decorating the parking lot at Lindsley Cutler Ridge store snapped in the gusty wind Inside the store business was more brisk than usual and conversation was spoken in terms of and Pablo Barrientos was buying a flashlight and batteries for his mother She was sure the storm would hit seen hurricanes before and wants to be Barrientos said put tape on the windows and doors Andres Hernandez who owns a clothing retail store in Allapattah said he closed his business early to get his home ready for the storm I use the canned goods bought I can always use them he said Cans of soup and powdered milk were piled high in his cart Gasoline stations were doing The Home Depot hardware store in Hialeah set up a in a corner of the store It even included a hurricane plotting chart with a yellow arrow indicating the position Conrad Brown who was in charge of that corner said is getting excited with the storm coming" Even as he spoke customers milled around him grabbing rolls of tape flashlights batteries and rope Marcos Guttierez bought six plywood sheets to board up his windows lived through a hurricane in 1952 and I know their he said better to be safe than said salesman Robert Jatib have been coming in and out Me I am not worried I have God protecting me But then again I am not going to take any chances bumper-to-bumper business Cars surrounded all four double-pumps at the Union 76 Service Station at South Dixie Highway and SW 168th Street a dozen more customers waited in idling cars If the power goes off said station manager Louis Lozada the electrically operated pumps will not work The parking lot at the huge Publix Market at South Dixie Highway and SW 146 Street was filled to overflowing and shoppers circled the lot vying for the few prized parking spaces Activity inside the store was just as hectic The store called in additional employees because of the storm said assistant store manager Tom McDermott All 13 check-out lanes were open as checkers slid huge amounts of canned goods bread candles and lunch meats over the electronic pricing scanner A By YOLANDA ULRICH Herald Staff Writer South Floridians lined up at supermarkets bought feverishly at hardware stores and waited in line at gas stations Wednesday as they prepared quickly for the sudden arrival of Tropical Storm Isidore am said Ana Fernandez who has a 3-year-old child and was eagerly raiding the shelves at a Winn Dixie store on West 49th Street in Hialeah stocking up on condensed milk for our son Henry also getting water and juice getting coming in since announced that the storm was coming said store manager Luis Anguera buying lots of water The main thing is Slow storm is a cause for worry It can pick up fury from the warm ocean Isidore hits coast with winds rain It moves at 10 mph with 50 mph gales STORM from I A said Pat Simonson at the Aquarius Lounge in Miami And many Dade television watchers were put out when a storm bulletin interrupted a crucial scene in the middle of the steamy mini-series Daughter At midnight the center of Isidore was marked at latitude 254 and longitude 788 northwest of Andros Island and spreading 100 miles in all directions expect it to resume a generally westbound course during the forecaster Hal Gerrish said shortly after Isidore began to move off Andros Island Even with the edge of gale force winds of 35 mph just off the Florida coast at midnight Hurricane Center forecasters in Coral Gables too worried that the storm would strengthen dramatically before reaching Florida particular storm is in a basically cool environment and we think because of that it may not strengthen he said people really have to pay attention to it because still September and we do get hurricanes from that direction at this time of Earlier Wednesday the storm created a sense of urgency with its six-hour stall over Andros Island Nassau only a few miles north of the storm path through the Bahamas was overcast and drizzled Wednesday but with little wind The heaviest rain had gone through during the previous night when some areas of the city were flooded but not severely Water still standing caused school closings Wednesday Watching its progress later the Hurricane Center did not advise evacuation nor had South Florida storm shelters been opened Forecasters said Isidore could drop five to 10 inches of rain here though it is not an exceptionally rainy storm By midnight some streets in Miami Beach were covered with water And in the Keys Card Sound Road had to be closed to all traffic early Wednesday night because of flooding CAROL GUZY Miami Herald Staff Scott Seigel manager of sailboat rental firm secures boat at Dinner Key Marina in Miami Unusually high tides caused by the storm had covered parts of the Card Sound Road with seven to eight inches of water Card Sound Road connects North Key Largo to Florida City on the mainland An emergency operations center was opened by the Monroe County Civil Defense Office in Plantation Key telling everyone in the county that they should certainly secure boats and loose ends and everything else that could fly said Monroe County civil defense spokesman Janice brewing South Florida officials set up hotline numbers 596-8735 in Dade and 357-8454 in Broward to call for information about the approaching storm Gale warnings were broadcast from Cape Canaveral north to St Augustine and south through the Florida Keys as Isidore made its way across Cat and Eleuthera Islands and the Exuma chain No confident predictions were being made for severity Wednesday night faster it moves toward us the less time it has to gain strength over the open water and all vote for Hebert said it slows down every hour can mean five more miles per hour of wind speed but no way to make an estimate like Hurricane-wary boaters were heading for safe harbor early By midnight Rudolfo Homerlein bridge tender at the Miami SW Second Avenue drawbridge had logged 194 openings Those who moved early were playing it both safe and smart The Miami River the Coral Gables Waterway and Keystone Point are Coast Guard-recommended areas for Dade County boaters seeking shelter for their craft When or if evacuation plans are implemented no drawbridge will open on demand Instead bridges will open only for groups of boats says a spokesman for the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami Another storm Hortense was demoted from a hurricane to a tropical storm early Wednesday Hortense was about 215 miles east of Bermuda with its center marked at latitude 322 and longitude 618 strongest sustained winds had diminished by then to 63 mph 1 1 below minimum hurricane force It was expected to continue drifting north without potential harm to land areas By ERIC SHARP Herald Staff Writer i A stalling or slow moving storm over the Western Bahamas is cause for Floridians to worry since a sluggish storm soaks up energy from the warm waters and increases the punch of its winds Heat from the ocean is the fuel that makes these still imperfectly understood storms go Their lateral motion is mostly a product of the hemispheric weather patterns as they are pushed to and fro by immense high pressure regions But the cyclonic winds circling a relatively small central eye are created by local conditions as higher pressure air flows into the low pressure area at the center of the storm Speed is crucial The speed at which this air flows in and the heat energy released as atmospheric moisture is condensed into rain is crucial in determining whether a storm becomes a hurricane If the storm moves forward quickly it picks up less energy and usually runs into a large land mass that causes it to break up The storm becomes disorganized because friction from the land mass bounces the cyclonic winds around and fill up the eye thus eliminating the low pressure area It also breaks up because the land hot enough to supply more energy But a storm that slows or stops over warm water has nothing to distort its shape and a lot of time to gather energy and build up winds However a storm pulling air in at the bottom also needs a big opening at the top for an outflow That is something Isidore did not yet have Tuesday night The high cyclonic winds that helped form the original tropical depression several days ago were still sitting over the storm preventing it from reaching hurricane strength you look at a satellite picture of a hurricane most of what you are seeing is the outflow pattern of winds at the top of the explained Gil Clark a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center Hurricane Diana which belted the North Carolina coast earlier this month started out much the same way as Isidore but after a few days slipped out from under the cyclonic winds above it This allowed the storm to form an outflow pattern and become a hurricane Wobbling roughly defined center stopped for a few hours near Andros Island in the Western Bahamas Tuesday but this island was too low small and warm to cause any disruption of the storm Clark said that when Isidore encountered Andros was like a spinning top running into a small obstacle The (center wobbled around a little bit but it big enough to stop The storm resumed a west-northwest movement at nightfall where it would soon encounter the Gulf Stream This warm river in the sea was not expected to change the rate at which Isidore gathered energy since the waters around Andros are as warm as the Gulf Stream after a full summer of soaking up heat The Stream sometimes causes tropical storms to change their track but this is more likely in higher latitudes where there is a greater difference between the temperature of the stream and surrounding waters Off Florida the open waters gave Isidore a greater chance of strengthening although Clark said that was not likely Tuesday night it maintains its organization as it passes across Florida it could become a tropical storm again once it get out over the Gulf of Mexico and then it would have plenty of time to become a hurricane what (hurricanel Barry did last year before it went into Brownsville Birds take shelter most zoo animals stay put can tell when going to rain but we notice anything odd in their Fontana said The zoo has a standing plan for hurricane preparation mainly involving checking that animals have adequate food and water that zoo vehicles are gassed up and that employee phone lists are up to date Fontana planned to head for his Southwest Dade home but to stay in close contact with the night security staff probably be running back and he said the other animals ordinarily go inside at night assistant zoo director A1 Fontana said Their concrete would protect them from the strongest storm he said The birds some of them caged were moved while the zoo was open for business and no extra staff had to be called in Fontana said Zoo keepers notice any special stress in their charges he said although many experts say animals can sense an approaching storm Some of the water fowl were left outside because they would be capable of handling 45 to 50 mile per hour winds Fontana said If the storm strengthened overnight they would be moved he said The birds that were moved could be thrown about in high winds he said but other animals are less susceptible to injury in a storm A rhinoceros can handle itself and Fontana said think an elephant would get blown By PETER HAMM Herald Staff Writer The greater Indian hornbills the marabou stork and about 75 other birds were prepared for foul weather at Metrozoo Wednesday but the rest of the animals stayed put The birds were moved from the new aviary to barns maintenance buildings and storage areas The aviary has not yet opened and most of the birds have not been on public display Ramar the gorilla Nicolai the tiger and students have wait for word Dade Broward day off others about and individual decisions to make usually do what the public schools said Joan Lutton principal of the Cushman School in Miami just holding off until late she said Wednesday have to watch said Barbara Parry lower school principal at Gulliver Academy in Coral Gables 6 am it should be obvious to all of Like Cushman Gulliver notifies parents by telephone tree call the grade chairmen they call their teachers teachers call two room mothers and they call the said Parry whose division has 365 students The impending storm left some Dade public school parents in a quandary when the YWCA canceled student field trips that had been scheduled for today About 800 students at 25 schools were affected said YWCA Executive Director Beverly Phillips also a Metro commissioner The students many of whom have two working parents were supposed to go to Metrozoo the park and the Seaquarium saying this thing is going to hit sometime and not taking any Phillips said By CATHY SHAW Herald Staff Writer While others sweated out the storm watch Dade and Broward public school officials had no worries Wednesday night about whether to cancel classes Students already had been scheduled to stay home because of a teacher work day try to schedule them on days when some students are going to be out of school Dade Assistant Superintendent James Fleming said we scheduled one on Rosh Palm Beach County officials said they would announce at 5 am today whether classes would be canceled On teacher work days teachers go to school to plan lessons and hold conferences Fleming said Wednesday evening that unless Tropical Storm Isidore intensified schools would be open for teachers today Downtown administrative offices also would be open he added To prepare for Isidore Fleming said principals were told to move papers and books away from windows and to bring in any outdoor equipment that could blow away Private school principals had more to worry vm ftS n-frfcMfifUt rinnrtifrf flWr il jfVrfttir ir virfi rft WALTER MICHOT Miami Herald Staff Garland Hardin prepares for the storm at a Fort Lauderdale apartment building i i A I.