Broward report: Half of county without electricity; no major destruction reported

About half the residents of Broward County woke up to life without electricity Sunday, and found their driveways and streets carpeted with palm fronds, leaves and branches.

Giant trees fell over in yards and across some roads, and many traffic signals on major roads were out of order. Two cities had damage to their piers, debris was blocking major intersections in Pompano Beach, beaches are eroded.

Potentially dangerous power lines were scattered across roads and property all around Broward, creating hazards for storm gawker and as well underscoring how many residents were without electricity.

Entire communities such as Century Village in Deer field Beach and the city of Sea Ranch Lakes are without power. A third of Pembroke Pines residents had no power. About half of Fort Lauderdale residents had no power. Six of the city’s 12 fire stations had no power and were running on generators, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle said

A 29-bed seniors’ hospital on East Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale lost power and use of a generator, and power had to be supplied to patients’ ventilators via a power cord hooked up to city fire trucks.

But none of the beach road that was swept over with water was damaged, Naugle said, though there was a little damage to the wavey sitting wall along the beach.

Every city in Broward County reported wind damage of some sort. But no storm-related deaths and no major devastation had been reported by local authorities as of Sunday morning. County and city officials began assessing damage on Sunday.

The National Weather Service at 5 a.m. downgraded the hurricane warning to a tropical storm warning here, and said a flood watch is still in effect. Broward officials said they expect to lift their evacuation order this afternoon

There were signs already Sunday morning that Broward would soon return to normal.

The Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport reopened at 8:30 a.m. to crews but remained closed to the public. Customers were urged to call their airline to check on flight status, and told not to go to the airport just yet.

Port Everglades also is expected to open today, which is crucial in re-supplying South Florida with gasoline.

County bus service will resume on Monday.

The status of the public schools calendar and whether students should report to school Tuesday remained undecided early Sunday. Many schools are still housing evacuees. Some 69,000 people are using county shelters.

Fort Lauderdale officials said they would allow residents, business owners and employees back in the beach area east of the Intracoastal Waterway. The beach, however, is still closed for swimming.

Entry is along 17th Street Causeway, Las Olas Boulevard, Sunrise Boulevard, Oakland Park Boulevard and 42nd Street. To gain entry, residents, business owners and employees must present a valid form of identification.

“Clean-up crews are currently working on final removal of debris and sand on the streets. Once work is completed, the general public will be allowed access into the barrier Island,” the city said in a statement.

All emergency personnel including hospital and medical workers and security personnel were asked to report to duty effective daybreak today.

Broward County officials urged residents to be cautious as they explore their yards and neighborhoods for damage, and to keep their children from playing in any puddles because of downed power lines.

“There can be hidden dangers around your home because of the wind and water damage we’ve had in the community,” County Mayor Ilene Lieberman said. ” …. Don’t let your guard down.”

Residents are urged to conserve water and limit toilet flushing because some 200 lift stations all over the county that are needed to pump wastewater to treatment plants are out of commission due to lack of electricity. Residents were also reminded that generators must be operated in a ventilated place, not from inside a house or garage, because of the dangerous fumes.

At intersections without working signals, treat unsignalized intersections as four-way stops.

A boil water order was issued for Coral Springs, south of Wiles Road, north of Cardinal Road, east of University Drive and west of Riverside Drive. An uprooted trees caused a water main to break.

Fort Lauderdale lifted its boil-water order for the beach, between Sunrise and Oakland Park boulevards. Lauderhill has also lifted its boil-water order.

There is no water right now in a pocket of Hallandale Beach, south of Ocean Drive and Three Islands. The entire city is suffering low water pressure.

In Oakland Park, a boil water order is expected. Water service there is being repaired on Northwest 18th Avenue from Northwest 39th Street to Northwest 40th Avenue.

The Broward County Health Department made some recommendations today to guard against contaminated drinking water.

Anyone with a well was warned that if it was covered with standing water, it could contain disease-causing contaminants.

Boil it before drinking, by holding it in a rolling boil for one minute. Or disinfect it by adding 1/4 a teaspoon of plain unscented bleak per gallon of water and letting it stand a half hour. If it’s still cloudy, repeat the procedure. Another alternative is to use bottled water.

After flooding subsides, the well can be disinfected by following procedures on the state web site, linked from wwww.myflorida.com.

The agency suggests having your well water tested by the health department, or by a lab certified by the state, if it was indeed flooded.

Call the county hurricane hotline at 954-831-4000 with questions or reports or go to www.broward.org

The weather rapidly began deteriorating after dawn Saturday as the first bands of wind and rain from the once-ferocious storm moved ashore. Miramar and Fort Lauderdale recorded wind gusts in excess of 60 mph, the strongest in the county as of mid-afternoon, said Tony Carper, Broward’s emergency management director.

By afternoon, Frances had knocked out power to 242,000 homes throughout Broward, including the entire city of Sea Ranch Lakes and four hurricane shelters.

Fears of contaminated water prompted officials to tell residents of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Lauderhill and the barrier island off Fort Lauderdale between Oakland Park and Sunrise boulevards to boil water.

“Every city is reporting problems related to the heavy winds and rain hitting our area,” County Mayor Ilene Lieberman said.

Still, residents and emergency workers were grateful, saying it could have been much worse.

“We should count our blessings when you consider how Fort Pierce and Stuart are getting pounded,” Carper said.

Flooding and beach erosion remained the biggest concerns. Most of Broward had received less than two inches of rain by midafternoon Saturday, but Frances was expected to dump four to six inches before it passed through today.

The storm may have washed out the beach in Hollywood, just north of the Westin Diplomat hotel. Officials said they would have to wait for the water to recede to determine the extent of the damage.

“You had water on A1A from the Intracoastal and the ocean in some areas meeting in the street,” said Mayor Mara Giulianti of Hollywood. “It’s pretty frightening this early in this storm.”

Officials in Dania Beach and Hallandale Beach also feared severe beach erosion.

“It’s pretty considerable,” said Dania Beach City Manager Ivan Pato. “It’s hard to determine just how much because the water is covering a lot of it.”

The county has been set to begin a $52 million project to replenish and widen beaches from Hillsboro Inlet to Fort Lauderdale and from John U. Lloyd State Recreation Area to the Miami-Dade County line.

The pounding surf, prolonged by the slow movement of the storm, took out a section of the popular Anglin’s Fishing Pier at Commercial Boulevard and A1A in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea just after 5 p.m. It appeared that two concrete pilings gave way and the wooden deck broke apart, said Capt. Dave Erdman of the Broward Sheriff’s Office Department of Fire Rescue.

Authorities closed A1A between Oakland Park and Sunrise boulevards after water rose over the sea wall, and emergency workers fielded hundreds of storm-related calls Saturday.

“I can’t even begin to count the number of electrical hazard calls that we’re dispatching,” Erdman said. “The trees hit the power lines, the power lines hit the ground.”

Most were merely close calls, and authorities reported only minor injuries.

Joshua Anderson, of Fort Lauderdale, suffered scratches to his ear and neck when a 50-foot ficus tree fell on his parents’ home at 1760 Riverland Road. Anderson, 28, a college student, was asleep when the tree fell about 3 p.m.

“I’m lucky to be alive,” he said. “I thought the entire house was collapsing. I heard a big boom, ran to the other room under a bed and called 911.”

A downed ficus tree near Pompano Beach forced authorities to evacuate three homes when the tree punctured a gas line and could have triggered an explosion. The electricity remained on as one of the homes in the 200 block of Northwest 40th Court filled with gas.

“Every light fixture, lamp and the refrigerator is a potential ignition source,” Erdman said. The danger was averted when TECO People’s Gas repaired the break.

Pompano Beach Fire Chief Harry Small watched television news footage of a surfer jumping off a fishing pier into wind-whipped surf in his city. Small ran out the door only to find 10 others, including children, walking along the beach. He said he encouraged them to leave and seek safety indoors.

Every city in Broward reported power outages, Lieberman said. Shelters at Foxtrail Elementary in Davie, Lyons Creek Middle in Coconut Creek and two for the handicapped and elderly in Weston and Fort Lauderdale lost electricity and were operating on generators Saturday night.

Officials were concerned the outages could affect the county’s sewer system. By late Saturday afternoon, 17 lift stations in Deerfield Beach had no power, with another eight out in Lauderhill and Hallandale Beach and six in Miramar running on backup generators.

Emergency officials advised residents to conserve water to help lessen the strain on the system and be cautious about allowing children around standing water. When lift stations that pump wastewater to treatment plants are without power for more than 24 hours, the drainage system can back up, causing spills that contaminate standing water.

Electric crews will begin repairs once Frances clears out. They will assess damage and restore power beginning with essential services such as hospitals and law enforcement.

Officials are not certain when they will lift an evacuation order issued for the barrier islands and mobile home parks but planned to keep it in effect until the hurricane warning is lifted.

Lieberman and other county officials stood by their decisions to order the evacuations and go into emergency mode, made when Frances was a powerful Category 4 hurricane on a path toward South Florida. Hurricanes are unpredictable, as Charley proved last month, changing course at the last minute and striking three counties to the south.

“We took the cautious route, and that’s the appropriate route to take,” Lieberman said. “Look at what happened with Charley. I’d rather be explaining why we overreacted than explain why we did too little.”

About 8,000 people who were on multi-day cruises out of Port Everglades have been waiting on the east side of Cuba for Hurricane Frances to pass, so they can go home.

Larry Strain, assistant to the port director, reported Sunday afternoon that four cruise ships full of passengers are expected to be brought into the port early Monday morning. The cruises were all due in the port Saturday morning, but the port closed to sea vessels because of the hurricane.

Strain said the port was expected to re-open Sunday afternoon, but waters wouldn’t be considered safe enough by the port “pilots” to board the ships and bring them in until hours later.

The passengers might end up filling the many empty hotel rooms on the beaches. Strain said the cruise lines, airlines and county tourism official Nicki Grossman coordinated so the cruise passengers would have somewhere to go while waiting for their flights.