David Was a Goliath

Tragedy in the Caribbean and a close call in the U.S.

Spawned in the warm waters off the west coast of Africa, David was a Cape Verde hurricane, the most lethal of late summer storms and one of the strongest of this century. In its 3,000-mile trek across the Atlantic, it grew in size and intensity until it measured some 300 miles across, with an eye 30 miles wide. It entered the Caribbean almost surreptitiously, barely touching the island of Barbados.

Then the full force of its 150-m.p.h. winds slammed into the former British colony of Dominica, killing at least 22 people and leaving some 60,000 homeless. The capital of Roseau was flattened in a five-hour assault. The banana crop, mainstay of the island's economy, was totally destroyed. The nearby islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique suffered heavy damage from the winds and torrential rains. So did Puerto Rico, where the storm left at least seven dead.

David wreaked its greatest havoc on the island of Hispaniola, which is shared jointly by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In the town of Padre Las Casas, 75 miles west of Santo Domingo, some 400 people who had huddled for safety in a church and a school were killed when floodwaters from the Yaque River swept them away. At least 600 more were killed in the Dominican Republic, while an estimated 150,000 were left homeless, including 90,000 in Santo Domingo alone. President Antonio Guzman understandably described the storm as "this terrible tragedy of David," and reckoned his country had suffered almost $1 billion in agricultural, industrial and other property losses. To make matters worse, tropical storm Frederic suddenly appeared in the wake of David, flooding the streets of the already battered capital and dumping even more rain on the ravaged countryside.

Though its course across Hispaniola weakened the storm, David was still packing winds of 90 m.p.h. and more when it passed over the eastern tip of Cuba and headed straight for Florida's southeast coast. Governor Robert Graham ordered the evacuation of low-lying areas, and as many as 300,000 people headed for higher ground, including 15,000 from the Keys alone. Public buses carried senior citizens from Miami Beach to stormproof shelters, while animals at Crandon Park Zoo in Key Biscayne were trucked to safety. There were sudden shortages of candles and flashlights and other household items as thousands of Floridians jammed their local stores. At Saunders Hardware Store in Miami, there were fights in the aisles when hundreds crowded in to grab batteries, tape and Sterno. But four hours before the storm was due to hit Florida's Gold Coast, it changed course, sparing Miami and the Keys.

Despite the danger, some Floridians greeted the storm with abandon, holding hurricane parties in Miami, Key West and other resorts. Part of the come-what-may attitude may have been a result of the complacency that civil defense' officials say has grown in the 14 years since southern Florida's last major hurricane, in 1965. In coastal Dade County, the population has increased almost 55% since then, and an estimated 80% of the 1.7 million residents have never lived through a big storm.

While Dade County has one of the strictest building codes in the nation, requiring that buildings be capable of withstanding 120-m.p.h. winds, it offers no safeguards against storm "surges," the walls of water a hurricane pushes in front of it. And building codes elsewhere are less strict. The risk to life and property, say officials, is still considerable despite giant leaps in the art of weather forecasting. Such is the wildly unpredictable nature of hurricanes that the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables gives itself a 100-mile margin of error on a 24-hour forecast.

After veering away from the Florida coast, David swung back again to hit land just north of Palm Beach and again in Georgia, sweeping through the historic cities of Savannah and Charleston, S.C., with top winds of 90 m.p.h. As it moved north, property and agricultural damage was generally light, but accompanying rains were torrential, flooding the streets of several Eastern cities, interrupting rail traffic and causing major power failures. The final death toll: at least 1,100.

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