In all, Georges pummeled Key West for more than 24 hours. It also prompted the largest mandatory evacuation order in Florida history, affecting some 1.9 million people along the state’s west coast as far north as St. Petersburg. Then the storm veered away into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving many Floridians feeling thankful–no one died–and some with a sense of anticlimax. ““An awful lot of money was spent to get ready for this, and it’s not going to happen,’’ said Bill McKenzie, 49, who lives near Sarasota. ““The media blew this way out of proportion.’’ But Georges was by any standard a very dangerous storm. In a five-day rampage through the Caribbean it claimed more than 300 lives in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba, and it was expected to gather strength as it churned northwestward toward Louisiana over the weekend.
From Guadeloupe to Cuba, the storm left chaos in its wake across the Caribbean. The resort islands of Antigua, St. Kitts and Nevis suffered five deaths and millions of dollars in property losses, while the damage on Puerto Rico (three dead) was estimated at $2 billion. But Georges bore a special malice toward the island of Hispaniola, where damage and loss of life were very high. Haiti, at the west end of the island, reported 87 deaths after widespread flooding around Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien. The Dominican Republic, on the eastern half of the island, suffered an even worse blow: 200 or more deaths, at least 600 missing and up to 200,000 people homeless. The worst single tragedy occurred near the town of San Cristobal, where more than 30 people died when the Nizao River overran its banks and simply swallowed the local schoolhouse.
Behind the statistics lay what appeared to be a tragic misjudgment by Dominican officials. According to Eduardo Romero of the International Red Cross, authorities rejected repeated warnings about the threat Georges posed to the island. ““They didn’t believe us,’’ Romero told The Miami Herald. ““They said, “It’s not coming. You’re going to alarm the population’.’’ Paul Bell, a coordinator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the civil-defense network was ““in a shambles.’’ Officials reportedly did not announce a list of shelters until after Georges hit the island.
The year 1998 could set a record for hurricane congestion. Last week forecasters counted four active storms simultaneously, which hasn’t happened since 1893. (In addition to Georges, hurricanes Ivan, Jeanne and Karl were wallowing over the Atlantic.) ““We need a break,’’ one storm tracker said. But since hurricane season ends Nov. 30, the risk will continue for 10 long weeks.
