Hurricane Floyd

Youths from Grace United Methodist Church in Hampstead traveled to North Carolina last month to help victims devastated by Hurricane Floyd. Chris Cavey and Jane Drozinski accompanied the 11 youths, who volunteered from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day July 15-21. Work included clearing debris, painting, installing insulation, hanging drywall, roofing and building decks. Christian Endeavor, a nonprofit youth ministry near Philadelphia, sponsored four weeks of Disaster Relief Work Camp that sent more than 500 volunteers to the Grifton and Rocky Mount areas of North Carolina.

In the often gaudy, extreme and super-stylized world of fashion, Bill Blass was a subtle American revolutionary who pioneered designing casualwear that was sophisticated and eveningwear that was comfortable. And in a career that spanned more than 40 years, he gathered respect, awards galore and many admirers along the way. When Blass died this week of cancer in his Washington, Conn., home at age 79, his fans, friends and fashion peers remembered him as the gregarious, debonair intellectual who could be gruff, but charming, and possessed the vision and talent to put American fashion on the map. Carmen Marc Valvo, women's eveningwear designer What Bill will be remembered for was his truly American sense of style and his way of showing grandeur through understatement.

For the first time since the blizzard of 1996, when pianist Evgeny Kissin's recital and other concerts fell victim to massive drifts of snow, bad weather forced the cancellation of a performance at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall last night.Hurricane Floyd meant the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and pianist Peter Roesel didn't perform their program of Prokofiev, Wagner and Schumann.The BSO and soloist will take the stage tonight at 8 and tomorrow at 11 a.m. (The Schumann is not on the Saturday program.

PRINCEVILLE, N.C. - The dead sleep snugly again in the town cemetery. New white-sided homes shine in the warm winter's sun. Handfuls of young men are back dealing drugs by the railroad tracks. Madam Rose reads palms along Main Street. Princeville survived Hurricane Floyd, which in 1999 destroyed nearly every home, business and dream. But a wound festers. And because the nation has largely forgotten the hurricane - and Princeville - the town finds itself alone, struggling for its long-term recovery.

MIAMI -- Hurricane Floyd is expected to billow into a major storm this weekend as it cruises the Atlantic -- and turns sharply toward the Southeast, forecasters said yesterday.No land mass is likely to be endangered before early next week, but forecasters believe that Floyd is destined to strike the East Coast, possibly with winds in excess of 120 mph.They are advising coastal residents to prepare."Floridians should make good use of this weekend to review their hurricane plan in the event that Hurricane Floyd becomes a serious threat," said Max Mayfield, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in west Miami-Dade.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. industrial production rose in October at the fastest rate in seven months as utilities and appliance and auto manufacturers bounced back from the effects of Hurricane Floyd, Federal Reserve figures showed yesterday.Output at factories, utilities and mines increased 0.7 percent last month -- the largest gain since March -- after falling 0.1 percent in September when the hurricane disrupted power plants and many factories along the East Coast.The increase demonstrates that the economy can grow with little pressure on prices, analysts said.

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines Co., the dominant carrier at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, said yesterday that its third-quarter profit fell 2.1 percent as jet-fuel costs rose and Hurricane Floyd forced it to cancel flights.Net income fell to $127 million, or 24 cents a share, from $129.6 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier, matching forecasts. Revenue rose 13 percent to $1.23 billion from $1.09 billion.Southwest's fuel and oil costs jumped 48 percent to $142.6 million.

PRINCEVILLE, N.C. - The dead sleep snugly again in the town cemetery. New white-sided homes shine in the warm winter's sun. Handfuls of young men are back dealing drugs by the railroad tracks. Madam Rose reads palms along Main Street. Princeville survived Hurricane Floyd, which in 1999 destroyed nearly every home, business and dream. But a wound festers. And because the nation has largely forgotten the hurricane - and Princeville - the town finds itself alone, struggling for its long-term recovery.

PRINCEVILLE, N.C. -- As she blesses the food on her Thanksgiving table, Linda Worsley gives thanks "for all the changes we've gone through." Her short, simple prayer speaks volumes. Worsley and 24 family members lost their homes in September's floods caused by Hurricane Floyd. But on Thanksgiving, instead of tallying their losses, they count their blessings. "I'm thankful to be alive," says Helen Glass, Worsley's mother. "God brought us through that Floyd, through that water.

Hurricane Floyd has returned to Ellicott City - this time in the form of a satellite image, visible on a computer screen. The storm moves up the East Coast as it did last year, churning in a counterclockwise motion. It's like a television weather broadcast except Floyd appears on computer screens at Centennial High School. Kyle Smith and Mark Perdomo are studying Floyd's existence Sept. 15-17, 1999, and noting its movement patterns and impact on the area. Mark likes space and satellites.

Youths from Grace United Methodist Church in Hampstead traveled to North Carolina last month to help victims devastated by Hurricane Floyd. Chris Cavey and Jane Drozinski accompanied the 11 youths, who volunteered from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day July 15-21. Work included clearing debris, painting, installing insulation, hanging drywall, roofing and building decks. Christian Endeavor, a nonprofit youth ministry near Philadelphia, sponsored four weeks of Disaster Relief Work Camp that sent more than 500 volunteers to the Grifton and Rocky Mount areas of North Carolina.

PRINCEVILLE, N.C. - Hurricane Floyd is probably just a memory to people not affected by it. But it often crosses the mind of Barbara Torres. Torres, 38, was living in an apartment with her husband, Jose, and two children, Latishia Johnson, 14, and Jonathan Johnson, 13, when home as she knew it was destroyed. Pictures, clothes, furniture. Gone. That was 16 months ago. Now, thanks to volunteers from Habitat for Humanity and her sweat equity, Torres and her family are less than two weeks from moving into a new home in Princeville, the nation's oldest town chartered by blacks.

Hurricane Floyd has returned to Ellicott City - this time in the form of a satellite image, visible on a computer screen. The storm moves up the East Coast as it did last year, churning in a counterclockwise motion. It's like a television weather broadcast except Floyd appears on computer screens at Centennial High School. Kyle Smith and Mark Perdomo are studying Floyd's existence Sept. 15-17, 1999, and noting its movement patterns and impact on the area. Mark likes space and satellites.

Earlier this year, Anne Arundel County officials remembered the fallen firefighters who gave their lives in service. Tonight, they plan to pay tribute to the heroes who are walking among them. About 200 paramedics and firefighters -- career and volunteers -- will be recognized for meritorious and exemplary performance. They will be honored for bravery, dedication and preserving at the 6: 30 p.m. ceremony at the Earleigh Heights Fire Hall. They are the emergency dispatchers who worked 17 hours straight through Hurricane Floyd, the rescuers who pulled people from flood waters and fiery cars and firefighters who risked their lives to pull children from a burning building.

With what is forecast to be one of the nation's most active hurricane seasons less than a month away, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said it is prepared to handle another Hurricane Floyd - and more. Mass outages - some as long as eight days - after the hurricane struck in September led to intense criticism from Gov. Parris N. Glendening, the Maryland Public Service Commission and frustrated customers. The widespread outages - nearly half of BGE's 1.1 million customers were left without power - prompted the PSC to hold hearings to investigate the repair performance and preparedness of all of the electric and telephone utilities active in the state.

WHEN THE throaty-voiced lady calls and asks, "Sweetie, can you do something for me?" what's a Neighborly Correspondent to do? The voice was that of Peg Wallace, Queen Mum of the Barge House Museum, and she wants the word out that because today is May Day, it's time for the Eastport May Basket Competition. There will be two categories, residential and commercial, subdivided into Most Beautiful and Most Eastport. Residential will include a category for age 12 and younger. There will be 20 judges who will start their work at 11 a.m. "Judges will be required to wear some kind of a wonderful flowered hat," she said.

The Maryland Disaster Recovery Center, established at 2662 Riva Road in Annapolis to assist victims of Hurricane Floyd, will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. beginning today through Saturday.The center will answer questions about housing assistance, flood insurance, problems of small businesses destroyed by the storm and other issues.To apply for disaster relief through the federal government, call 1-800-462-9029.

Commish Frazier is leaving to hand out federal police aid to cities, and some bar singer who would be mayor gratuitously maligns him. Lord save us.Bill and Congress are playing games over the budget and taxes, and heading into overtime.Big bully Russia is bombing poor little Chechnya! Let's not bomb Russia.The Court of Appeals decided that a tax break for a hotel on land the city does not own is legal. It did not rule on whether one so far from the convention center ever made sense.Think of Hurricane Floyd as practice for the big one ahead.

MIAMI -- When a monster hurricane spirals toward the East Coast, it's a sure bet that a 25,000-square-foot vault, reinforced with enough concrete to pave a mile of Interstate 95, will take a direct hit from a storm of second-guessing. Satellites have changed the way hurricanes are tracked, but it is up to the forecasters here at the National Hurricane Center to figure out where a storm is headed. They will be the first to tell you that they do not always know. But that will never stop the people who make evacuation decisions from demanding immediate answers.

CONETOE, N.C. -- Before preparing sweet potato beds for the seedling harvest and beginning work on dormant farm equipment last month, Wayne Harrell talked with his insurance adjuster. Six months since September's flooding, Harrell is still haggling over his losses. He found out recently that he will have to hire a lawyer and go to court to pick an arbitrator to settle his claims. "Twenty-five to 30 percent of every day I spend dealing with the flood," said Harrell, an Edgecombe County farmer.