The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 15

SECTION MONDAY OCTOBER 5 1992 DEATHS 4B Z)c iiliami Herald FEMA tours tornado disaster By PHIL LONG and LORI ROZSA Herald Staff Writers PINELLAS PARK Still stinging from criticism that federal disaster officials moved too slowly after Hurricane Andrew the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and top brass from the Small Business Administration toured tornado-ravaged sections of Pinellas County on Sunday The tour began well before breakfast barely 19 hours after tornadoes killed three people and seriously damaged more than 500 homes and businesses in west Central Florida Gov Lawton Chiles also visited the county Sunday to survey latest natural disaster and assure residents that help is forthcoming Officials with the National Weather Service also said they would investigate whether fore- Associated Press TORNADO DAMAGE: The roof was ripped off this apartment build- three people and destroyed 482 dwellings More than 50 people ing in Pinellas Park on Saturday by a line of tornadoes that killed were treated for injuries after the tornadoes struck without warning Flying trailer brings death to others Gov Lawton Chiles visited the tornado-ravaged county to survey latest natural disaster casters gave adequate warning before the tornadoes struck As the officials toured Ethel Carter searched carefully through what was left of her mobile home in Park Royale Her two-week old car was a windowless heap in the driveway her husband BP 65 was in intensive care at a hospital miles away His heart went crazy during the Carter said But Carter 62 be living with friends for awhile found reason for joy even as she crawled on hands and knees across a soggy carpet searching for her lost wedding ring am she said biting her lip we came so very very close to not being A neighbor was one of three killed in the storm It will be several days before FEMA decides whether to ask President Bush to declare parts of west Central Florida a federal disaster area FEMA responds only when the problem is beyond state and local ability to handle it said agency director Wallace Stickney who visited the county with US Rep Bill Young a Republican whose district includes some of the harder hit neighborhoods is not one of those situations where it is absolutely obvious like it was in he said The worst pockets of destruction were in Pinellas Park where two of the three were killed 482 houses were destroyed and nearly 500 substantially damaged It is too early for dollar estimates on the Stickney said Although 30000 customers were without electricity Saturday all but the uninhabitable homes had received power by midday Sunday Dozens remained in area motels but none were in public shelters as of JOE CRAKKSHAW TALES OF OLD FLORIDA Spanish bishop advocated rights of natives in 1552 During the observation of the 500th anniversary of Christopher discovery of the New World there have been repeated criticisms of the actions of the Spaniards No doubt the critics believed themselves to be taking a new more objective look at history It may surprise them to learn that their complaints were first registered in the by a Spaniard Bartolome de Las Casas a bold Dominican priest Las Casas was bom in Seville about 1474 He followed his father and uncle to the New World in 1502 Although he became a priest he took part in the conquest of Cuba and received land and Indians as a reward Champion of Indians Twelve years after landing in Cuba something happened to make Las Casas change his views What the incident was no one knows but he became a champion of the cause of the Indians of the New World Las Casas never came to Florida but his influence undoubtedly affected the philosophy and beliefs of the Spaniards who came here He taught that missionaries should learn the language and culture of the Indians they sought to convert and that no force should be used against them Those principles generally were used in the Dominican missions in the state The contemporaries of the Dominican priest had mixed views of him Some regarded him as a saint and sage others a fool and still others a dangerous fanatic Most Americans never study anything of his life and his cause Las Casas worked to reform royal policy in the Spanish court he tried to colonize Venezuela using his principles and he fought against unjust wars in various Latin American states He -succeeded in getting laws passed to protect native Americans In 1 547 at the age of 73 he returned to Spain and acted as attorney for the Indians Prolific writer During the last 20 years of his life Las Casas wrote many papers pamphlets and books on the subject of the Spanish conquest of the New World and the treatment of the natives In 1552 Las Casas wrote a tract Brief Account of the Destruction of the It denounced Spanish cruelty oppression of Indians and was loaded with statistics on the number of natives killed Las Casas was challenging the power structure of his times The men he criticized were the heroes of their day He did not make friends and his writings were seized upon by enemies the English French and Dutch to prove that Spaniards were inhumane and to try to justify their own efforts to move into the New World The bold priest he later became a bishop struggled to make the Spaniards adapt the ways of the Indian and themselves to converting the natives in a peaceful way He was not entirely successful but Dominicans trying to help settle Florida employed many of his techniques including living among the tribes and not behind the walls of a Spanish fort Las Casas was not the only priest to argue against the cruel and unjust practices of some explorers and conquistadores but he was a dominant figure in the debate over how to adapt to the New World Many of the figures used by the detractors of Columbus and later explorers come from the writings of Las Casas It is interesting that the critics of the Spanish settlements never seem to recall Las Casas or any of the other people who fought for justice for the native Americans often at the risk of personal honor wealth and even life neighbor Ron Faber said was standing in the kitchen when it hit and it just sucked her and the kitchen wall out through to the Faber and two other neighbors tried to revive Schotts who was nearly cut in two by debris In Largo rescue workers found Rickey in a reclining chair where she was sitting when the tornado flipped her trailer in the Indian Rocks Mobile Home Park end over end husband John 72 was hospitalized with head injuries happened so quick still kind of hard to belies said Gary Coonev Inquiry to probe why no tornado warning The National Weather Service will investigate why no warning was issued by its office in Ruskin before tornadoes hit Pinellas County Paul Hebert the top weather official said Sunday The Weather Service routinely convenes a board of inquiry whea a storm causes loss of life or extensive damage The meteorologist on duty when the tornadoes struck said he issued no warning because there was no radar indication PATRICK FARRELL Miami Herald Staff Server Lisa Encarnacion at Miami Burger King Like an organ transplant home of the Whopper is transformed into BK Lounge From 4 to 8 pm an option exists to food in a sack Customers get a new dinner menu like fried shrimp baked potato tossed salad in a five-by-eight-inch leak-proof basket get popcorn while food quickly cooks get waited on not exactly hand and foot but without having to tip and get value Prices vary from $349 to $449 Beverages are extra but are refillablc vt -v hw-vrL of the trailer On Sunday Glen Moore sifted through the pile for anthing of value jewelry I know he said distractedly trying to find something to Across where the back fence used to be the gray stucco walls of Samantha house are speckled with mud The swimming pool water is now a blue-black miasma Schotts spotted a funnel cloud and grabbed her teenage son and his friend as they were just about to go out the door told them to get for the wedding ring Ethel! found he called Behind the Tears of happiness rolled down Carter's cheeks as she took the ring and turned away Linda Fogle believe there was any question that she and her Park Royale neighbors would qualify for assistance look around she told Chiles as the two stood on what was left of front porch thank God all alive but we have nothing Burger King offers service at your table By GEOFFREY TOMB Herald Staff Writer Eyes like limpid pools raven tresses softly uncoiling romance is suddenly possible We can linger and sup A server garbed in royal blues is dedicated to our beckon attending to culinary caprice Coming forth she said: had the Whopper Yes they have taken the rush-rush out of din-din at hometown Burger King but they take the fast out of the food at your is going national this week in 5700 stores is designed to be a breakthrough to get us to change our thinking about fast-food restaurants The neighborhood Burger King is now a place to stop for a relaxing dinner to idle down to converse to dare we dream romance each other through central Pinellas County on Saturday Teresa Moore 64 of Pinellas Park and Mary Rickey 72 of Largo both died when their mobile homes toppled Samantha Schotts 34 was crushed by debris in the garage of her Pinellas Park house In all 53 people were treated for injuries and six were hospitalized Between four and 13 deaths initially were reported Teresa Moore was sitting in the living room of the mobile home when the tornado skipped down the street It lifted one mobile home launched it over six others and smashed it into the side thought I would bleed to death Look at the he said pointing to his forehead with a hand that still wore the plastic wrist band put there by emergency room workers on Saturday Later he dug out the bloody lounge chair where he sat trapped by debris Saturday Nearby his wife Emily carefully peeled away layers of rubble suddenly rejoicing that an antique lamp owned by her grandmother came through the storm unscathed Blocks away in the Carter mobile home family friend Tom Riley had taken over the search loved working on the Atkins said The subject lent itself to superlatives such as and animals that exist nowhere else in the or tallest sea cliffs in the a most powerful tool sometimes when trying to interest television viewers got to grab and hold Atkins said a playwright and a novelist so I suppose I bring a dramatic flair to Along with the frightening similarities between Florida and Hawaii fortunately there are reasons for optimism The documentary shows for example Hawaiian field biologists rappeling down cliffs to cross-pollinate a rare mountain flower with tiny paint brushes doing the work of a disappearing insect It calls to mind the many biologists tracking the endangered Florida panther capturing cubs for a breeding program got to play doctor and missionary to the environment Atkins said By LORI ROZSA Herald Staff Writer PINELLAS PARK Glen Moore knew the awful truth the moment he saw the unspeakable mess tried to tell me that she was all right that she went to a Moore said Sunday we really know anybody around here She have left without me I knew she had to be here in all of Moore spoke from atop a mountain of rubble that was once the mobile home he shared with his wife Teresa one of three people killed when tornadoes swept Sunday afternoon Six Red Cross feeding trucks began offering meals to those in the devastated areas Sunday Even if Pinellas County qualify as a federal disaster area there may be low-interest long-term loans available for businesses and residents Bernard Kulik assistant administrator in charge of disaster assistance for the Small Business Administration told a hastily called meeting of western Pinellas County officials Raymond Smith urged the visiting officials to view the remains of his mobile home cating although it is cherished on the mainland of America In South Florida sugar cane plantations are blamed for polluting the native wetlands downstream In Hawaii sugar farms hasten erosion and muddy the sea Atkins has chaired the Department of Theatre at Florida Atlantic University since January He wrote the script for the documentary a National Geographic Society special that aired on public television late last year and is available for rental at some video stores Nominated for four Emmys the film won two at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Sept 9 one for best information and cultural programming the other for best sound The film has an astounding sweep historically and geographically from the Polynesian conquest of the islands 20 centuries ago to the age of hotels and jet skis and from the eruption of undersea volcanoes to the era of snow-capped peaks FAU ecological film wins two Emmys for data sound By MICHAEL CROOK Herald Staff Writer Tom Atkins sees chilling ecological similarities in two versions of American tropical paradise: Florida and Hawaii Examples are easy to find said the Florida Atlantic University professor who shared Emmy Awards recently with his brother and sister-in-law for an hour-long documentary called Hawaii: Strangers in Paradise on dis- Atkins ruption of the fragile and unique Hawaiian ecosystem parallels are Atkins said In the Everglades the mela-leuca tree poses one of the greatest threats to native plants although the tree is harmless in its native Australia In Hawaiian forests the transplanted blackberry vine becomes a suffo.