Tropical Storm Helene Soaks Fla.

P O R T   S T.   J O E, Fla., Sept. 22, 2000 -- Tropical Storm Helene came ashore atdaybreak today in the Florida Panhandle, bringing bands of heavyrains but causing only minor damage before leaving the state as atropical depression.

Helene had dumped 7.75 inches of rain on Tallahassee by 2 p.m.,flooding roads, ditches and a couple of apartment buildings, saidAnn Rowe, a spokeswoman for the Florida Division of EmergencyManagement.

The storm spun off at least six tornados south of Tallahassee inWakulla and Franklin counties but no significant damage wasreported in the lightly populated area, officials said.

Power outages left 5,000 people in the dark, flights werecanceled at Tallahassee’s airport and city buses stopped runningduring the storm, Tallahassee officials said.

Schools throughout the Panhandle and state offices inTallahassee had closed in anticipation of the storm.

Helene’s center made landfall with top winds near 45 mph atabout 8 a.m. near Fort Walton Beach, but the heaviest rain of up to8 inches was 100 to 150 miles east of the center, includingTallahassee.

No Complaints

“We get geared up and don’t get hit; who’s complaining?” saidCraig Fugate, leader of the state’s emergency response team inTallahassee.

The main reason for no complaints was that Helene weakened frompeak sustained winds of 65 mph before making landfall. Furtherrapid weakening was occurring as the storm moved on anorth-northeast track taking its rains into Alabama, Georgia andthe Carolinas later today, forecasters said.

The center of Helene, downgraded to a tropical depression withmaximum sustained winds of 35 mph, was 20 miles north of Dothan,Ala., at 2 p.m. It was moving northeast at 16 mph.

“What storm?” asked Charles Ingram, 62, a retired paper millworker at breakfast at Linda’s Restaurant in Port St. Joe, whichgot some of the heaviest rains.

“There’s an awful lot of water standing around, which weneed,” Ingram said. “We had a lot of lightning, a lot of rain,but not much damage. It’s just business as usual. We planned forit, sandbagged and everything, but it didn’t come.”

Marshall Nelson, Gulf County Division of Emergency Managementcoordinator, estimated between $100,000 to $300,000 in road andbeach erosion damage at Cape San Blas near Port St. Joe.

“We have several low-lying areas that are flooded,” Nelsonsaid, but he added that was not unusual for summer rains.

Isaac Strengthens, No Threat

About 130 people stayed in shelters overnight, mostly inEscambia and Santa Rosa counties, in the western end of thePanhandle, said Irene Cabral, the state’s emergency response humanservices chief.

Tropical storm warnings had stretched from Pascagoula, Miss., toFlorida’s Aucilla River, southeast of Tallahassee, before landfallbut were later lifted. Flood warnings were up for parts of theFlorida, including areas still soggy from the weekend passage ofTropical Storm Gordon. A flood watch was posted in northernGeorgia.

Mandatory evacuations are not required for a storm of Helene’sintensity, but authorities along the Gulf Coast prepared disasterplans anyway. A voluntary evacuation was in effect in some coastalareas.

Helene was forecast to rapidly lose intensity due to a frontaltrough, said Martin Nelson, a forecaster at the National HurricaneCenter near Miami.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Isaac, which strengthened from adepression late Thursday, posed no threat to land. The storm, withmaximum sustained winds of nearly 50 mph, was in the far easternAtlantic, about 405 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islandsoff northwestern Africa at 11 a.m. today.

Isaac was moving toward the west-northwest at nearly 18 mph anda general west to west-northwest motion was expected to continuefor the next 24 hours.