Hurricane Debby threat washes out planned Bar events.

While hurricane forecasters were puzzling over the sudden demise of Hurricane Debby in August, Florida Bar leaders were already rescheduling and replanning a variety of activities disrupted by the storm's projected but never realized arrival in South Florida.

The Bar Board of Governors meeting, set in Ft. Lauderdale for Friday, August 25 and preceded by one day of committee meetings, was postponed on the morning of August 23. Also affected were the Young Lawyers Division Board of Governors, which had planned its annual joint meeting with the senior board, and the annual Bar Leaders' Workshop for officials of voluntary bars. That, too, had been scheduled in conjunction with the board meeting.

The Bar meetings, as well as several other regional activities, got caught in that zone of uncertainty surrounding forecasts of what Debby would do.

"It was a difficult situation," Bar President Herman Russomanno said. "On Wednesday morning the forecast map showed the storm aiming directly at the Ft. Lauderdale area. The Tribune News Services reported that Debby was likely to intensify and the computerized predictions showed the winds reaching as much as 131 miles per hour -- making it a very dangerous, major hurricane.

"While the hotel [the Harbor Beach Marriott] is in a beautiful location, it also is in a mandatory evacuation zone for hurricanes of any size, so we were faced with the likelihood that the entire Florida Bar contingent would have to be bused to storm shelters in the middle of the meeting," he added. "With all of the available...