Record Cold Damages Citrus Crop in Florida; Snow Hits Great Lakes

Florida citrus growers reported scattered damage to fruit Friday from a second night of record cold, while wind gusting to 40 m.p.h. drifted snow around the Great Lakes, pushing accumulations near a December record.

But the severe weather relaxed a bit Friday as Florida warmed up and a storm edged east from the Midwest.

At least 16 deaths in seven states since Wednesday were blamed on weather, mostly in the Midwest.

A temperature of 2 degrees below zero Friday morning combined with-23 m.p.h. wind for a wind chill of minus 46 in Alexandria, Minn. Before moving east, the storm lashed northeastern Ohio overnight with winds gusting to 50 m.p.h.

Heavy winds also buffeted parts of the Pacific Northwest. Gusts of up to 50 m.p.h. were reported in Gresham, Ore.

More than 40 people were injured, none seriously, in a chain-reaction crash Friday night on Interstate 69 near Marion, Ind. More than 15 cars were involved in the accident, blamed on icy pavement and near-zero visibility caused by blowing snow, authorities said.

Inspectors in Groves

In the South, Florida Crop & Livestock Reporting Service inspectors were in groves Friday, but damage estimates probably will not be available for days. Temperatures overnight were in the mid-20s over parts of the 600,000-acre citrus belt for four hours, the level at which fruit can be damaged.

“Heavy frost . . . caused considerable burning of foliage and created some ice in leafy vegetables around Immokalee and Belle Glade,” said Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner. “Although there will be some loss, we are fortunate to escape the kind of disasters we have had in the last two years.”

A killing freeze made 1983 a financial disaster for growers. Another freeze hit in January, 1984.

Temperatures in Florida should be normal by today as the cold air moves into the Atlantic, said Bill Sammler, a meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City.

Records were broken early Friday in at least seven Florida cities, including the 23 degrees at Daytona Beach that broke a record of 27 degrees set in 1935; 34 degrees at Fort Myers that broke by 4 degrees a 1977 record and 44 degrees in Key West that broke by 4 degrees a record set in 1906.

People Bundled Up

“It’s quite weird to see people walking around in fur coats and scarfs and boots,” said Tony Howard, who sells suntan lotion at a hotel in Miami, where the mercury dipped to 38 degrees. “Yesterday there were people in the pool. . . . They must all be in bed with a cold.”

Bundling up would be quite normal around the Great Lakes, where Buffalo, N.Y., received enough snow to put it in reach of a December record.

More than three inches of new snow was on the ground by 1 p.m., raising Buffalo’s total for December to 54.7 inches, said Donald Wuerch, meteorologist at the Buffalo airport. The record, set in 1976, is 60.7 inches.

Strong wind lifted water from the eastern basin of Lake Erie, posing another threat to beachfront homes in Hamburg, N.Y., which sustained $1.5 million in damage from floods earlier this month. But officials said the current storm would not be as damaging.

Water Spraying Houses

“The water is now starting to come up over Route 5. The water is coming over and spraying the houses and turning to ice,” said Hamburg Patrolman Robert Braman.

And in New York, more people were reported in city shelters Thursday night than at any time since the Great Depression, officials said Friday.

Suzanne Trazoff, a spokeswoman for the city’s Human Resources Administration, said the city housed nearly 23,000 people Thursday night. The previous record number of homeless sheltered was set only last week, she said.