Evening star., 1960-09-12
Florida Facing Gigantic Cleanup
As Hurricane Damage Estimate Rises

OOIlIla, dS damage eSIlIHdCeS
rose to nearly a billion dollars.
Gov. Leroy Collins scheduled
a helicopter flight to stricken
section of South Florida today.
In Washington, the Small
Business Administration des-
Eight persons were known
dead in Florida and one 9TH
er was missing and presumed
dead. Southeastern Red Cross
headquarters in Atlanta listed
rs persons injured and 81 hos
pitalized.
The Red Cross reported 655
homes destroyed in Florida
and said 3,208 received major
damage and 9,299 minor dam
age.
Crops Damages High
Property damage in the Flor
ida Keys alone was estimated
by insurance adjustors at be-
tween $50 and $40 million. Fort
Myers and Lee County suffered
damage estimated at $40 to $50
million, according to Sheriff
Flanders Thompson and Civil
Defense Director Michele
Hitting.
Damage to the States $3.50
million citrus crop was expected
to run as high as so to 80 per
cent in some areas.
Marines armed with MI rifles
and orders to shoot any looters,
patrolled the wreckage in the
Keys. Residents of battered
Marathon were reported
boarding water like gold dust"
according to Sheriff John
Spottswood.
A 120-mile pipeline brought
water from the mainland to the
Keys and Key West. One sur
vey party said it counted Is
breaks in the line and authori-
ties said it will take perhaps
two weeks to repair it.
Some Key West homes we're
equipped with cisterns to catch
and hold fresh water, a hold
over from the days before the
pipeline was built.
The Marine patrols from the
Key West Naval Base were
augmented by sailors of the
Navy Shore patrol and all avail
able sheriff's deputies and State
troopers.
The Army, Navy and Air
Force Joined in gigantic CO.
operative military effort to re-
open the overseas highway to
Key West as soon as possible.
Forty Air Force transports
started flying 1T Army bridge
building experts and $4,000
pounds of steel into the area
to replace five bridges destroyed
Friday night when Donna hit
the keys.
Girders to Be Flown
An Air Force officer said
V-130 four-engine transports
would bring 24o.000 pounds of
bridge girders and equipment
from Pope Air Force Base, N. c.
They will carry another $780,
900 pounds from Fort Benning,
Ga, and 240,00O pounds from
Fort Campbell. KY.
The Navy planned to ferry
some of the material to Mara
thon while the Army worked
south from Tavernier. 4,
Hurricane Donna's 150-mile-
per-hour winds and huge tidal
waves cut off the lower Florida
Keys from the mainland and
left some $4,000 persons isolated
except for boat and air trans
portation.
In addition, 5000 gallons of
water was being brought TO
Homestead Air Force Base to
be ferried to residents in the
Keys by the Navy. Civil De-
fense officials said 1000 GAL
Ions of water a day was needed.
Water was rationed at Key
West on the tip of the Keys.
Ernest Ramsey, manager of the
Florida Keys Aqueduct Commits
sion, said water could be used
only between s I'm. and 9 am,
noon to 2 pm, and 6 pm. to
9 pm. Hotels and motels were
asked to drain their swimming
pools and give the water to
residents for washing.
The Keys apparently suffered
most when Donna hit with hur-
ricane force winds GA miles an
hour up near Marathon and
then followed giant semicircle
through the long peninsula.
Donna took 1T lives and in
jured hundreds in its island
hopping course across the South
Atlantic before it slammed into
the Florida mainland in iso-
lated Everglades National Park
with its alligators and man.
grove swamps.
Roared Up Gulf Coast
The hurricane churned up
the Gulf course through Fort
Myers and then headed inland,
passing through Wauchula, east
of Sarasota, through Lakeland,
east of Tampa and then veered
northeast past Orlando and out
to sea at Flagler Beach south
of st. Augustine.
Residents fled from it's path .
in some cases, budding in Red
Cross and civil defense emer-
gency shelters. Others rode it
out in their homes.
The hurricane moved west of
the heavily populated Miami
Fort Lauderdale area, slam
ming gusts of 81 miles an hour
at the famed resort area.
Torrential rains preceded and
followed Donna, dumping more
than 7 inches on Miami in less
than "a hours. Predicted floods
e. L.