Tropical Storm Leaves 6 Dead in Florida, Menaces the Carolinas

After pounding South Florida with three days of wind-whipped rain, Tropical Storm Gordon sped across the state’s midsection Wednesday, re-emerged in the Atlantic Ocean and headed north for the Carolinas.

Forecasters insisted that Gordon, with top winds of about 45 m.p.h., has little chance to become a full-blown hurricane and is likely to merge with a low-pressure system off the coast of Georgia. Nonetheless, the rare late season storm has been deadly and destructive and gale warnings were posted as far north as North Carolina.

“It shouldn’t be a disaster but we’re looking for some nasty weather” as far north as New England, warned forecaster Jerry Jarrell at the National Hurricane Center.

In Florida, Gordon was blamed for at least six deaths. Gov. Lawton Chiles declared a state of emergency in several South and central Florida counties.

In Haiti, rescue workers continued to pull bodies from swollen creeks and mudslides. By some estimates, the death toll in Haiti has topped 400.

After its birth off the east coast of Nicaragua on Nov. 8, Tropical Storm Gordon became a meandering menace, blowing across Jamaica, ripping through eastern Cuba and the encampment of Cuban and Haitian refugees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay and deluging Haiti with torrential rains before making an about-face and moving toward the Florida peninsula.

For South Florida in particular, Gordon has been a persistent torment, dumping more than 15 inches of rain along sections of the southeast coast, knocking out power, washing out roadways, canceling school classes and causing millions of dollars in damage to the winter vegetable crop. Higher supermarket prices were expected.

“It’s bad news,” said Kathleen Senobe of the Dade County Farm Bureau in Homestead, where 50% of all U.S. winter vegetables are grown. “Beans, peppers, eggplant, squash--all are sitting in fields of water and we can’t get in to harvest. We’ve got a $1-billion industry that’s looking pretty grim.”

State agriculture officials said that crop losses attributable to Gordon would exceed those caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. An appeal for federal disaster relief is planned.

Off the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, the 506-foot freighter Firat remained aground just 75 feet from shore, and provided a diversion for scores of tourists. U.S. Coast Guard officials said that a tug boat would attempt today to pull the ship out of the sand.