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Stormy gulf returns cross months later
Associated Press
Published June 21, 2005
FORT WALTON BEACH - A foot-tall cross that had been washed away from a ground-floor condominium during Hurricane Ivan's storm surge last September was washed back ashore when Tropical Storm Arlene hit the Panhandle earlier this month.
As Island Echoes condominium workers watched Arlene roll in June 11, they noticed an object that had been swept in by the water.
"I looked down and said, "Pick up the cross,"' said general manager Phyllis Shanks.
A closer look showed "1E" inscribed on the bottom of the cross' pedestal. Shanks then suspected that the cross must have come from the Island Echoes complex because other nearby condos number their units differently.
Unit owners Dean and Ruth Lindsey of Carmel, Ind., were stunned when they got an e-mail from Shanks about the cross.
"It was amazing," Ruth Lindsey said. "It's the most miraculous thing I've ever seen."
The couple leave the cross in the condo when they return to Indiana after spending the winter in the Florida Panhandle and will do so again. "Maybe that cross will protect us," Ruth Lindsey said. "We just assumed everything was gone. All the furniture (in the condo) was smashed against the wall."
[Last modified June 21, 2005, 02:30:30]
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