By Paul Duggan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 4, 1998; Page A2

PANAMA CITY, Fla., Sept. 3 – Hurricane Earl blew through the vacation towns of Florida's Panhandle today like a drunken tourist, a relatively harmless visitor, making lots of noise and shattering some glass before tiring and wobbling away, soon to be forgotten.

Like Hurricane Bonnie, which came ashore in North Carolina last week, Earl proved far less destructive than disaster officials had feared. By the time meteorologists downgraded the storm to a low pressure system about 11 a.m. – nine hours after it made landfall in Panama City – Gulf Coast authorities had finished preliminary damage assessments and declared themselves relieved.

"We feel like we dodged a bullet," said Charles Goodman, spokesman for the Bay County Board of Commissioners in Panama City.

Winds of 80 mph, surging surf and about 15 inches of whipping rain descended on this area, about 60 miles east of Pensacola. But they caused only minor flooding and property damage, authorities reported, and few if any were left homeless.

The Coast Guard said, however, that two fishermen were believed to have drowned three miles off Panama City when two boats trying to reach shore capsized during the storm about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. Four others aboard were rescued.

Authorities in South Carolina said some houses were damaged and one person was killed by a tornado that struck there this morning on St. Helena Island as winds ahead of the main part of the dwindling storm passed through. Another person was listed as missing.

In Florida, though, noontime strollers along the Panhandle shore were gazing at a choppy but tame sea, whitecaps breaking under a pale sky in brilliant sun.

In a vacation area known for its pristine, white sand beaches, merchants and local officials along a 120-mile stretch of coastline, from Panama City to Alligator Point south of Tallahassee, had feared a financial washout of the traditionally lucrative Labor Day weekend.

"We had no significant damage on the beaches," said Danny Sparks, chairman of the Bay County Commission, echoing officials in neighboring Gulf, Franklin and Wakulla counties to the southeast, where Earl's winds blew the hardest.

"We feel by Saturday we'll be all the way back to normal, other than a few low areas where there'll be some flooding. . . . If you come down here, you won't know there was a storm on Panama City Beach."

Earl, declared a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday after its winds topped 74 mph, lost momentum in the gulf and began to drift, making it difficult for meteorologists to predict where and when it would reach land, said forecaster Brian Jarvinen of the National Hurricane Center near Miami. It was upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane after its winds surpassed 96 mph about 5 p.m. Wednesday.

But its winds had dipped back to 80 mph by the time it finally lumbered ashore early today, then it soon dissipated further, Jarvinen said.

Earl was the third hurricane of the Atlantic region's season and was the third to pass without causing major damage. After Bonnie petered out last week, Hurricane Danielle whirled harmlessly offshore without reaching land.

Still, there was no mistaking today that nasty weather had visited the Panhandle. Near the coast, parking lots outside some motels, car dealerships and churches were under two or three feet of water. Golf courses were flooded and tree limbs and other debris littered some streets.

"Oh, my, we had lots of wind, lots of rain. It was a little frightening," said Mary Story, 80, as she swept branches and leaves from her driveway, a half-mile inland. But like many others here, Story said she was not frightened enough to evacuate. "I thought the good Lord would take care of me, and He did."

June Young, her front yard separated from the gulf only by a narrow street and small seawall, said she also found no reason to leave.

"I've been in three or four hurricanes," she said while clearing snapped branches from in front of her home. "We lost our house in Miami to Andrew in '92. And then we moved up here in '93, and after that we had Opal, which we had to evacuate. That was in '95 . . . so we've seen a lot worse."

In Gulf County, emergency management director Larry Wells said: "Thus far we've found 220 houses with minor damage and 30-something with major damage. We've had some businesses, about 15, with minor damages."

Still, he said, "We've received a lot higher winds in the past, so comparatively this wasn't bad."

Like Wells and Sparks, officials farther east in Franklin and Wakulla measured Earl's damage against the devastation wrought three years ago by Hurricane Opal, which slammed into the Panhandle with 115 mph winds, killing 63 people and causing $500 million in damage.

Sparks said one of his biggest worries is snakes. "We have water moccasins, rattlesnakes, very poisonous snakes," he said.

"When we have flooding we have snake problems . . . people are going to be out in their yards picking up limbs that have fallen and things like that. And snakes, they're out there too, doing their own hurricane recovery."