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The News-Press,A Gannett NewspaperCopyright 2008

¸ For liveDoppler radarand updatesthroughoutthe day go tonews-press.com.

BONITA NEWS-PRESSSUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2008 | PUBLISHED SINCE 1884 news-press.com BONITA | $1.00

It’ll beslow atairportin Sept.BY LAURA RUANElruane@news-press.com

Southwest Florida Internation-al air service in September willnot be “a pretty picture.”

That’s according to CarolObermeier, airport market devel-opment manager.

Airline seat availability —“capacity” in aviation jargon —will drop more than 16 percentyear over year in September,according to an analysis Ober-meier did for The News-Press.

The good news is the pictureappears to improve with eachsuccessive month, culminating ina 6.7 percent capacity increase inflights for December.

At least that’s how it looked asof Friday.

“With the way the economy isgoing now, these numbers changeweek to week,” Obermeier said,

But seat availabilitywill take off soon after

MONSTER IN THE GULFSPECIAL REPORT: HURRICANE GUSTAV

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

¸ Jeffrey Vannor carries belongings while evacuating Saturday at the Greyhound Bus and Amtrak station in New Orleans as Hurricane Gustav approaches. A mil-lion people took to Gulf Coast highways, boarding up homes and businesses and fleeing dangerous Hurricane Gustav by bus and car. Heavy rain

is a drainon BonitaBY DAVE BREITENSTEINdbreitenstein@news-press.com

Picture a giant bathtub, filledto the brim.

Despite its enormity, the tubfeatures just one tiny drain. Tocomplicate matters, the faucetwon’t shut off.

Bonita Springs is the drain.The tub is a 315-square-mile

waterlogged region of South-west Florida.

Bonita’s main waterway, theImperial River, is unable tochannel millions of gallons ofrainwater from Tropical StormFay out to sea.

Thirteen years after Bonita’slast major flood, and $106.4 mil-lion later, a bevy of flood controland restoration projects stillcouldn’t stop the water from Fayfrom flooding the same Bonitaneighborhoods.

“The idea is to have multipledrains,” said Phil Flood, directorof South Florida Water Manage-ment District’s lower west coastdivision. “But being one big

¸ PHOTO GALLERIES:View scenes from Cuba as Gustavslams ashore as a Category 4.

¸ PHOTO GALLERIES:View preparation along Gulf Coast,including New Orleans evacuation.

¸ HURRICANE GUIDE 2008:View latest tracking maps, news,preparedness tips for your family.

¸ TEXT MESSAGE ALERTS:Sign up for tropical weather newsat news-press.com/text.

¸ See AIR SERVICE A2¸ Also see local ups, downs A2

¸ WEATHERHigh 88 Low 77Showers and storms,80 percent chance ofrain; forecast B14

INSIDE

Railroad ties to historyA new book by Fort Myers historianGregg Turner details how Florida owesmuch of its history to the railroad.

¸ TROPICALIA

¸ See FLOODS A12¸ Also see Bonita flooding A12¸ Also see Sam Cook columnB1

Cat 4 hurricane slams Cuba, aims at Gulf Coast

Eyeing stormwith those whofly through itBYMARYWOZNIAKmwozniak@news-press.com

As Hurricane Gustav strengthens into a mon-ster, Hurricane Hunter aircraft are flying ’round-the-clock into the thick of the storm and straightinto the cauldron of its mysterious eye.

The News-Press flew on the Hurricane HunterFriday as Gustav developed from a youthful trop-ical storm into a mature, powerful hurricane withpotential to devastate life and property.

During the Hurricane Hunter’s flight, wewatched and spoke with the six-member crewand learned about the crew members’ individualjobs. We rode in the cockpit with pilots and navi-gator. Most dramatically, we experienced beakingthrough roiling winds of the eye wall four times tofly across its broad expanse and back out again.

¸ See HURRICANE A11

The News-Press and wire reports

HAVANA — Gustav slammed into Cuba’s tobac-co-growing western tip as a monstrous Category 4hurricane Saturday while both Cubans and Amer-icans scrambled to flee the storm as it roaredtoward the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico and NewOrleans.

Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, onSat-urday night ordered an evacuation of thecity that becomes effective at 8 a.m. today.

Forecasters said Gustav was just short ofbecoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane as ithit Cuba’s mainland Saturday after passing over itsIsla de la Juventud province, where shrieking 150-mph winds toppled telephone poles, mango andalmond trees and peeled back the tin roofs ofhomes.

Isla de la Juventud civil defense chief Ana Islasaid there were “many people injured” on theisland south of mainland Cuba, but no reports ofdeaths. She said nearly all its roads were washedout and some regions were heavily flooded.

“It’s been very difficult here,” she said on statetelevision.

Authorities evacuated at least 300,000 peoplefrom western Cuba, including Isla de la Juventud.

Jaime Iparraguirre’s in-laws, who live on thewest coast of Cuba, have been evacuated becauseof the hurricane.

¸ See GUSTAV A11¸ Also see New Orleans evacuates A4

news-press.com/hurricane: Expanded storm coverage online; view more photos from New Orleans

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ANDREA STETSON/THE NEWS-PRESS

¸ Alejandro Perez, Rosa Paz, Juan Fernandez and Yancy Cobno stand outside Manna Christian RV Park on Saturday inBonita Springs, hoping to get in to get some of their things. They are not allowed in because of the high water.

basin, the water all flows down to theImperial River.”

There are other exits north of theImperial for surplus water. But SpringCreek isn’t tied into the overalldrainage system, Halfway Creek isconstricted to a few feet at one pointand the Estero River is shallow andmeandering.

When gravity takes hold of stand-ing water, it looks for the quickest exit.If the smaller drains are clogged, thewater continues flowing downhill —right into Bonita Springs, right overthe river banks and right into resi-dents’ front doors.

“That’s the problem,” said BonitaSprings City Manager Gary Price. “Ithas become a big funnel.

“If we can’t divert that water awayfrom the Imperial River, things won’tchange.”

Bonita Mayor Ben Nelson said out-side groups, from homeowners todevelopers to environmentalists, havesuccessfully fought to divert waterfrom their properties, sending every-thing Bonita’s direction.

“We don’t think Bonita Springsshould bear the burden for all of therunoff for the entire region,” Nelsonsaid. “There should be equitable dis-tribution. It’s just not fair.”

Local, state and national agencieshave purchased sensitive land north-east of Bonita to restore wetlands.They have dredged canals and creeks,removed poorly designed bridges thatimpeded water flow, dug new tributar-ies and launched multiple water flowstudies.

Despite 13 years worth of work,Gloria Gonzalez finds herself holedup at Estero Community Center, ashelter housing about 535 evacuees.She still isn’t sure what happenedafter she went to bed Aug. 22, whenManna Christian mobile home parkwas high and dry. When she left forwork at 5 a.m. Aug. 23, there was a lit-tle water on the ground, but nothingout of the ordinary.

Four hours later, her husband calledand said to come home immediately— there was a foot of water surround-ing their home and the water kept ris-ing.

“We never saw anything like that,”said Gonzalez, who’s lived at MannaChristian for nine years. “Where didall of that water come from?

“Nobody knew the answer.”It was headwaters of the Imperial

River. It was backed up.

Drainage system explainedWater doesn’t sit still. As it travels

from the sky to the ground to the Gulfof Mexico, there are just three parts to

the equation:¸ The faucet: Tropical Storm Fay

drenched Bonita with 8.2 inches ofrain, while Estero recorded 10.8 inch-es. Satellite estimates from theNational Weather Service show por-tions of the drainage basin received 16to 20 inches of rain during Fay’s six-day assault on Florida.

¸ The bathtub: The drainage basinin question runs along the coast toEstero, cuts just south of SouthwestFlorida International Airport, followsState Road 82 through Lehigh Acresand catches State Road 29 down toImmokalee. It then makes a beelineback to Bonita Beach Road.

¸ The drain: The Kehl Canal, justeast of Bonita Grande Drive, collectsrunoff from the basin and feeds intothe Imperial River, which constricts to20 feet wide at some points as it bendsand turns to the Gulf of Mexico. High-er than normal tides associated with afull moon after Fay were pushing salt-water into the bay as Fay’s rainwaterwas trying to exit.

1995 a wake-up callBonita’s flood of 1995 was a wake-up

call. Lee County and South FloridaWater Management immediatelylaunched the South Lee CountyWatershed Plan, looking for drainagesolutions to avoid a repeat of theflooding that displaced 1,700 people. Ittook four years to complete.

A vast majority of that study’s rec-ommendations have been completed.Cleaning up waterways was key.Downed trees, sediment and trashact like globs of hair in a sink drain,slowing or blocking the flow of water.Scooping out the debris with con-struction equipment is like theDrano.

Possibly just as important are LeeCounty’s Conservation 2020 plan andSouth Florida Water Management’sCorkscrew Regional EcosystemWatershed plan. The tally for thoseland-buying initiatives is $61.9 millionand rising as the two groups continuebuying property. Their aim is to recre-ate natural flowways through southLee, allowing undeveloped land toflood instead of funneling it down-stream.

The checklist isn’t complete,though. Spring Creek and HalfwayCreek, which are north of CoconutPoint Town Center and betweenMarsh Landing and Fountain Lakes,are not connected to the overalldrainage system.

Nelson said opposition to twoflowways — under Interstate 75 thenthrough the Brooks development andanother that heads south past theMirasol development into CollierCounty — were not completed formonetary reasons and bogged downin permitting with the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers, and also objec-

tions from the Conservancy of South-west Florida and other environmen-talists.

“It’s just kind of a shame,” Nelsonsaid. “It would have a dramatic influ-ence. Would you still have flooding?Yes.” But not to that degree or lengthof time, he said.

Flood, from South Florida WaterManagement, cited a resident’sdescription the rising water was knee-high in some places.

“They say they were standing inwater that was knee high,” Flood said.“But you know, it could have been upto your chest.”

Living in a flood plainIf an area has flooded once, it can

flood again. Newer developments eastof I-75, like Palmira and Village Walk,do not necessarily worsen the flood-ing problem outside their gates. Floodsaid newer developments must com-ply with tighter environmental regula-tions that require runoff water to bestored on site instead of being chan-neled off the property.

Those areas of Bonita that floodedare older neighborhoods and trailerparks that weren’t subject to modernenvironmental scrutiny when devel-oped. Homes weren’t built on elevatedpads, and roads weren’t designed todivert stormwater. That’s why thesame homes are facing the same prob-lems.

“Ideally, they shouldn’t be living inthere, or they should have built onstilts,” said Roland Ottolini, naturalresources director for Lee County.“We could have this problem againnext year, or not again for 20 years.”

A simple solution is straightening,widening and deepening the ImperialRiver so rainwater has an easy exit.Flood said deep, wide canals oncewere South Florida’s means of con-trolling floods, but during droughts,they empty the Everglades and sur-rounding wetlands.

Plus, Bonita leaders want to keepthe Imperial as natural as possible.

“We don’t want to destroy whatmany call the jewel of Bonita,” Pricesaid. “But something needs to be done,including something with the twomigrant camps in east Bonita.”

Gonzalez, who is married with twochildren, isn’t so concerned with find-ing a cause of the flooding or who is atfault. She just wants to go home.

“We don’t know how long we aregoing to stay here,” she said at theshelter. “If there is damage, we mightnot be able to go back home.”

¸ Continued from A1

FLOODS¸ Evacuees at shelters as of late Saturday: 545¸ Six-day rainfall totals from Tropical Storm Fay:8 inches in Bonita, 11 inches in Estero, 16-20 inch-es near Lehigh Acres

BY THE NUMBERS

Bonita Springs, Lee County, SouthFlorida Water Management, pri-vate developers and even the fed-eral government have combinedto spend $106.4 million on flood-related projects since Bonita’slast major flood in 1995:

¸ Imperial River floodway study:$68,000¸ Southern Lee County floodwaystudy: $645,700¸ Update to elevation data inflooded areas using aerial pho-tography: $300,000¸ Clean and snag Imperial River:$240,000¸ Diversion of Bonita Beachwaterway into Oak Creek:$150,000¸ Clean and snag Oak Creek andLeitner Creek: $160,000¸ Clean and snag Kehl Canal:$100,000¸ Clean and snag Estero River:$170,000¸ Oak Creek restoration:$52,000¸ Remove and replace ImperialBonita Estates bridge: $498,500¸ Reconstruct Kehl Canal weirwith flood control gates:$615,000¸ Kehl Canal connection to I-75:$1 million¸ Clean and snag Halfway Creek:$85,000¸ Remove FPL bridge at HalfwayCreek: $104,000¸ Reconnect the north and southbranches of the Estero River to I-75: $300,000¸ Reconnect Halfway Creek to I-75: $300,000¸ Imperial River maintenance:$50,000¸ Estero River maintenance:$50,000¸ Halfway Creek maintenance:$50,000¸ Corkscrew Regional EcosystemWatershed land purchases:$45,351,513¸ Railroad improvements:$900,000¸ Emergency control structuresin the Brooks: $600,000¸ Restoration of lands purchasedin east Bonita floodplain:$800,000¸ Improve and protect the Impe-rial River corridor for one-to-10year event: $300,000¸ East Terry Street and BonitaGrande Drive improvements:$1.13 million¸ Pueblo Bonito land acquisitionto provide affordable housing:$810,000¸ Feasibility study addressingrelocation and acquisition ofhomes with repetitive flood loss-es: $315,255¸ Continue programs that sup-port land development initiativesand regulations: $4,946,490¸ Purchase land parcels to pro-mote open space preservation:$16,463,932¸ Continue enforcement offloodplain regulations:$13,165,570¸ Continue surface water man-agement program: $1,174,288¸ Continue drainage systemmaintenance of canals and ditch-es: $3,013,419¸ Conduct core level stormwatersystem inventory: $5,356,328¸ Implement long-range beacherosion plan: $2,600,000¸ Purchase repetitive loss prop-erties: $132,442¸ Retrofit eligible repetitive lossproperties: $273,827¸ Continue wetland coordinationand evaluation program with stateand water agencies: $50,000¸ Continue current flood warningsystem: $622,018¸ Incorporate emergency alertsystem into flood warning system:$5,000¸ Increase the number of shelterspaces near areas vulnerable tofloods: $3,481,187

FLOOD PROJECTSSINCE 1995 Bonita lifts

evacuationfor some

BY ANDREA STETSONSpecial to the News-Press

The mandatory evacuation order has beenlifted for all flooded streets in Bonita Springswest of Interstate 75. While roads there arestill partially flooded, the water has drainedfrom homes and is receding quickly.

The situation is different on the east sideof I-75, where high water levels remain andresidents are forced to stay away from theirhomes.

Federal, state, county and city officialstoured flooded areas Saturday in BonitaSprings to assess the damage and determinewhether the area qualifies for aid from theFederal Emergency Management Agency.The agency expects to take five to sevendays to make the determination. If the areaqualifies, residents of homes damaged byfloods can receive aid from both the federalgovernment and the Small Business Admin-istration.

“The purpose of this assessment is todetermine how badly people are impacted bythis event,” said John Wilson, director of LeeCounty Emergency Management.

Wilson said he did not know how muchdamage the area needs to qualify.

The Bonita Springs Fire Department hasrecorded 38 damaged homes on streetsjust west of I-75 and at least 52 trailersdamaged at Manna Christian and SaldivarRV parks.

About 535 people are staying at the shelterat the Estero Community Center, accordingto the American Red Cross.

Meanwhile, officials say water levelsdropped 2 inches overnight in the floodedareas for a total of a 10-inch drop over thepast few days.

“All the streets in the city of Bonita Springsare opened back up,” said Mayor Ben Nelson,who noted Manna Christian and Saldivar arestill closed. “We actually want them to goback in and make repairs.”

But as of Saturday afternoon most of theflooded homes were empty.

Leon Herrera, who lives on McKennaAvenue, was home because the water filledhis lawn but never reached his house. Hiscousin wasn’t as lucky.

“My cousin’s house is on the next streetand he had water almost up to the top of hiscounters,” Herrera said.

Wilson said even those allowed to returnhome may face hardships.

“We’re a little concerned about what therain will do this weekend and what TropicalStorm Hanna will do,” Wilson said. “If we getadditional rain in the areas flowing into Boni-ta Springs, there might be more water flow-ing into the area.”

Sadder tale to be toldWhile residents west of I-75 can go home

it’s a much sadder story on the east side.Saturday, residents of Manna Christian RVPark crowded along a dry fringe of grassoutside the mobile home park, hoping to getin. They said the water came up so fast lastweek they could only get out with a few pos-sessions and they want to retrieve morebelongings.

Ricardo Zambrano has lived in the park for14 years, including the 1995 floods.

“Last time the water came up slow and wehad more time to get everything out,” he said.“This time there was no time.”

Zambrano said he just bought a new plas-ma TV two months ago and wants to save it.He also wants to retrieve his computer.

Alejandro Perez said he just wants to getclothing

“I took nothing, just the clothes I have on,”Perez said. “There was no time to take any-thing.”

Perez works for a tree service companyand wants to get his tools from his trailer.

“I want to get my tools out but they said Ican’t go inside,” he said.

Wilson said anyone who wants to retrieveitems from the park must be escorted in andthere’s just not enough manpower to bringhundreds of people in and out. So he saidonly those with very important needs such asmedications and work tools would be takenin.

Ana Garcia wants to get special familyphotos.

“We really didn’t get anything except a fewclothes,” she said. “Last time we had morewarning. This time it came up all of a sud-den.”

Wilson understood.“I was amazed at how quickly the water

came back,” he said, noting he had no ideawhy it came up so much faster this time. “Itseemed a lot quicker coming in than in 1995. Iwas surprised at how quickly the areas east ofI-75 flooded.”

Anelly Garcia, 15, made it out with clothes,but would like to get more, including hercomputer. Still, she knows she is luckier thanmany others.

“There are some people that have only theclothes on their backs. It makes me feel sorryfor them,” she said.

Those east of I-75 remainbarred from flooded area

All flooded streets west of Interstate 75 are open to resi-dents. Mandatory evacuations are still in effect for MannaChristian and Saldivar RV parks. Bonita Springs wants resi-dents to put debris such as wallboard, carpet and appli-ances out by the curb for pickup that will be made dailybeginning Tuesday. Residents are asked to keep appliancesseparate from other debris. Collection will be free.

THE LATEST

¸ Photo galleries & video: Flooding persists at Manna Christian mobile home park in Bonita Springs.news-press.com/bonita

Iraqi police want equipment to stop bombersThe Associated Press

TAL AFAR, IRAQ — Iraqi police inthis provincial backwater got a tipearlier this month that a suicidebomber was on the loose. Theywere even given his name, age and adescription of his car.

With all that, they still couldn’tstop him.

Four days after the initial warn-ing, 19-year-old Ashraf al-Yas talkedhis way through a police check-point, drove his vehicle into acrowded farmers market and deto-nated his explosives. He killed 28people and injured 72.

The attack raised questions aboutwhether Iraqi forces are yet capableof protecting civilians from deter-mined extremists as across the

country, the Americans hand overprimary responsibility for securityto Iraqi soldiers and police.

The U.S. insists the Iraqi armyhas made great progress in improv-ing its operational capability. Butthere are still doubts about efficien-cy, training and professionalismamong police, who must bear pri-mary responsibility for maintainingsecurity in the cities.

U.S. forces only conduct occa-sional patrols in this northern Iraqicity of 220,000, settled mostly byTurkomen, an ethnic minoritydivided along religious lines herebetween Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Tal Afar’s Iraqi army units havebeen shifted to more troublesomeMosul, a nearby stronghold of Sunniinsurgents.

After receiving the initial warn-ing about a suicide bomber, Tal Afarpolice enforced a vehicle ban to tryto keep the assailant off the streets.It’s an effective method but can’t beimposed for too long withoutseverely disrupting daily life.

In the evening of Aug. 8, policelifted the curfew, and residentscrowded the local market.

At one point, a car carrying twomen approached the police check-point near the market, witnessessay. Hajji Zainel, the local securitychief, said police searched the carand allowed it to proceed.

Moments later, the passenger gotout, the driver drove into the marketand detonated the explosives, wit-nesses say. It appears the bombercarried a passenger to get aroundthe ban on single men driving alone,imposed to deter lone assailants.

The U.S. military said Iraqi forcesshould have done a better job ofsearching at the checkpoints.

But Zainel says he needs moreequipment to do the job.

“The main problem we face is alack of equipment that detectsexplosives,” said Zainel, addingthat only two of the four check-points at the city’s gates have suchdevices.

Maj. John Blankenhorn, a U.S.officer in the area, said the U.S. isn’tplanning to provide equipment todetect explosives, but noted that TalAfar police have put in requests tothe Iraqi government.

On Wednesday, another suicidecar bomber struck in Tal Afar, injur-ing 23 people, the latest in a string ofattacks. Tal Afar’s deadliest attackwas a March 2007 truck bombingthat killed 152.

Attackers pass by checkpoints with deadly explosives

A12 | THE NEWS-PRESS, NATION & WORLD, SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2008 ***