Hurricane Gordon
by Mike Clary
September 17, 2000
Los Angeles Times
MIAMI
Hurricane Gordon
downsiied into a tropical storm as it
made landfall Sunday evening in
north Florida, but not before lashing
much of the state with heavy rains
and kicking up a storm surge that
flooded parts of the state's west coast.
Residents and tourists fled inland by
the thousands as Gordon churned the
Gulf of Mexico on a path that took
the system ashore over Cedar Key, a
tiny resort island about 80 miles
north of Tampa.
Sustained winds had dropped be
low 74 mph, the minimum threshold
of a hurricane, when the center of the
ragged storm blew ashore about 9
p.m. EDT.
The system spun off at least one
tornado as it passed by the length of
the peninsula and generated a storm
Campaign
Bush targets
middle class with
focus on
by Terry M. Neal
and Dan Balz
The Washington Post
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Gov.
George W. Bush sets off Monday
on a week-long campaign swing
determined to outline cradle-to
grave differences with Vice Presi
dent Al Gore on the issues, deter
mined to woo middle-class voters.
With his fellow Republicans urg
ing him to "get on message," Bush
hopes to regain some of the
ground he has lost over the past
month by using an issue a day to
draw ever-sharper contrasts with
Gore.
"This is a very focused, more
aggressive effort to let voters
know where Governor Bush
stands on the major issues of the
day," campaign spokesman Ari
Fleischer told reporters during a
conference call.
To highlight the differences
with Gore, Bush's campaign Sun
day released what it called a
"Blueprint for the Middle Class,"
a 16-page summary of the Repub
lican nominee's policy proposals
for education, Social Security,
health care, taxes and other areas.
Fleischer said Bush's focus this
week will be on the middle class,
which Gore has targeted. Bush's
goal will be to win back the sup
port of women and stem more ero
sion among male voters who have
responded to Gore's populist ap
peals.
Gore has a wide lead among
women in current polling, and ac
cording to the most recent Gallup
Poll for CNN and USA Today, has
narrowed the gap with Bush
among men. Two weeks ago,
Bush led Gore among men by 58
to 38 percent, but in the latest daily
snapshot of the race, Bush's lead
among men was 47 to 44 percent.
Fleischer said the campaign be
lieves "women are a group that is
going to come back to Governor
Bush the more they hear his
plans," but he said the events this
week will be aimed as much at
men as women
surge predicted to reach 9 feet in
some low-lying areas.
"You just know it's going to he a
mess," said Richard Tindall, manager
of the 10-room Gulfside Motel on
Cedar Key. "We'll have about 5 feet
of water in every room. I'll lose all
my interiors, all the furniture."
Tindall said he considered hauling
the furniture out of the rooms, hut
suddenly, "It was raining too heavy.
I'm just going to lock it up and leave,"
he said.
Although weakened, Gordon is ex
pected to live on Monday as a tropi
cal storm as it spreads rainfall into
Georgia and the Carolinas before
pushing northeast into the Atlantic
Ocean. A tropical storm watch is
posted along the East Coast north
ward to Cape Hatteras, N.C.
Gordon is the first storm of the
tropical season to strike the United
States, and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or
dered emergency teams on alert.
issues
Gore advisers dismissed the Bush
middle-class blueprint. "It says a lot
about the Bush campaign," Gore
spokesman Chris Lehane said. "It's
12 pages of pictures and no sub
stance, reflective of a campaign that's
all imagery and no ideas."
"It says a lot about the Bush
campaign... It's 12 pages of
pictures and no substance. re
flective of a campaign that's all
imagery and no ideas."
-Chris Lehane,
Gore spokesman
Fellow Republicans expressed
confidence that Bush has plenty of
time to put his campaign on track and
defeat Gore. But they agreed Bush
must do a better job of competing
with Gore on the issues voters care
about most.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott,
R-Miss., speaking on CBS's "Face
the Nation," said, "I think Governor
George W. Bush has to get out there
and really get on message."
Bush begins the tour Monday in
Little Rock, Ark., where he will
speak at a hospital about his proposal
to double the child tax credit from
$5OO to $l,OOO. He will carry the
same message to Kansas City, Mo.,
and also visit the Negro Baseball Hall
of Fame.
Tuesday, Bush will appear on the
"Oprah Winfrey Show" in Chicago
before discussing how to stem school
violence at an elementary school.
Wednesday, he will promote his tax
plan in Pittsburgh, focusing on the
marriage penalty.
Thursday he will travel to Cleve
land and Nashville, Tern., to tout his
plan to allow workers to put a por
tion of their Social Security contri
butions in private investment ac
counts. Bush will also tape the Regis
Philbin show in New York. Friday in
Florida, Bush will offer a new pro
posal designed to help the elderly
with health care, Fleischer said.
weakens
"You just know it's going
to be a mess, _We'll
have about 5 feet of wa
ter in every room. I'll lose
all my interiors, all the
furniture."
"This storm is going to impact the
entire state," he told reporters in Tal-
lahassee
2000 UPDATE
Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. George W. Bush
speaks to students and teachers in the school library Thursday,
September 14, 2000 in Santa Ana, California.
Al Gore campaigns at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Friday. Speaking to a crowd of about 1,600 students, teachers
and lawmakers, Gore said he wants to hire 100,000 new public
school teachers, give big bonuses to people who teach in
underserved areas and offer paid leave to teachers for profes
sional development.
w 7 . \
r LD i\TION
-Richard Tindall,
manager of the 10-room
Gulfside Motel on
Cedar Key.
but spurs Florida flooding
While forecasters emphasized the
dangers of tornadoes and flooding,
south Florida water managers wel
comed the rain. Low reserves in Lake
Okeechobee, the main fresh water
reservoir for metropolitan areas from
Miami to West Palm Beach, have
spurred talk of rationing during the
dry season, which begins in Decem
ber.
Seaside residents of two west coast
Florida counties were told to leave
their homes. Voluntary evacuations
were advised in several other areas
around Tampa Bay, and several
emergency shelters were opened.
On the other side of the state, at
Cape Canaveral, officials at the
Kennedy Space Center made plans
to move the shuttle Discovery from
the launch pad if the storm veers in
that direction. The shuttle is poised
for an Oct. 5 mission to the interna
tional space station.
Gordon, born out of a broad area
UPDATE
P, 3
Democratic Vice Presi
dential Candidate Sen.
Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
hugs Senator John
McCain (R-AZ) following
his statement before the
Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science and
Transportation on the
marketing of violence to
children. Lieberman,
among others including
Lynne Cheney, vice
presidential aspirant Dick
Cheney's wife, provided
testimony on violence in
teen entertainment.
of low pressure south of Cuba, never
blossomed into a powerhouse. Strong
southwest winds above 10,000 feet
sheared off the tops ot thunderstorms
and prevented Gordon front develop
ing a well-defined center, said Chri
stopher Burr, a forecaster at Miami's
National Hurricane Center .
"And the latest forecast shows that
it is not going to regenerate into a hur
ricane'' when it Humes off the coast
of South Carolina Monday, Burr said.
But even without killer winds, Gor
don caused anxiety and dislocation
along more than :100 miles of Horida
coastline. A 54 mph wind gust was re
ported in Tampa. Steady winds of 40
mph or more raged on Cedar Key for
hours.
As storm hands well cast of
Gordon's center swept through south
Florida early Sunday. a tornado was
spotted west of Fort Lauderdale.
In Cross City. town of 2.000 in
the sparsely populated Big fiend area
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2000
of north Florida, south of Tallahas
see. all 25 rooms at the Carriage Inn
were filled early Sunday. Owner
Mike Zombar said residents of mo
hile homes and those who live along
the marshy coast were checking in for
safety.
"It's been so busy here I haven't had
time to prepare myself," Zombar said.
"I'm hopeful this is not going to be
100 had
The bridge to Cedar Key and the
roads to the coastal hamlet of
Yankeetown were closed at
midafternoon. Most residents moved
inland. "We've got a few trees down;
we lost power for a while, but water
is what we're worried about," said
Levy County Sheriff Maj. Bob
McCallum.
Rains associated with Gordon
caused floods and landslides that
killed 19 people in Guatemala last
week. More than 50 people were re
ported injured.
Carryout