Surprise Hurricane Strikes Gulf, Washes Away Oil Rig : At Least 2 Dead, 4 Missing as Waves Hit 20 Ft.

NEW IBERIA, La. —  Hurricane Juan, a surprising late-season storm, thrashed offshore oil rigs with 85-m.p.h. winds and waves up to 20 feet today on the Gulf of Mexico, swamping boats and forcing 80 oil workers on two offshore rigs to take to lifeboats. High water stranded hundreds of people on land.

At least two people were killed, and the Coast Guard was searching for four people missing on the Gulf, one of them from an oil rig that disappeared during the night, spokesman Keith Spangler said.

Because the storm came so late in the season, many people paid little attention to warnings until Juan reached hurricane strength Sunday afternoon, and by then three days of rain and high tides had already flooded some homes and roads. Many offshore oil workers also were caught unprepared.

Tides Unusually High

Tides were reported up to seven feet above normal along the coast.

Tornadoes that spun off the hurricane’s outlying storms struck Florida’s Panhandle, and heavy rain prompted flash-flood watches in parts of Texas and Mississippi.

The Coast Guard rescued most of the 80 oil rig workers who were forced to go overboard in “unsinkable” escape capsules--special 30-foot lifeboats--when one rig lost its moorings and smashed into another 35 miles south of Leesville, Spangler said.

“There are people in the life capsules, there are people hanging onto the sides of the life capsules, there are people floating in the water,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Thomas Peck in New Orleans.

Some Flown to Shore

Coast Guard spokeswoman Debby Westerberg said that 35 people were flown to shore by midday and that one body was recovered. Acadian ambulance paramedic Scott Rudolph said 20 more were taken to Grand Isle, the majority in apparent good condition.

“Most of them are cold and scared, but they’re glad to be on shore,” Acadian paramedic Andy Bruch said.

“We saw a wall of water come through here . . . that must have been at least 45 feet. It did a little damage to one of our platforms,” said Frankie Husser, a worker contacted by telephone on another oil rig about 30 miles offshore about the time the eye of the storm came near.

Of the missing rig, Spangler said people on a neighboring rig noticed at daybreak that it had disappeared, but there was no indication whether had sunk or had floated away.

He said later that four crewmen from that rig had been rescued, although he didn’t know where or how, and that one remained missing.

Near Lake Charles

At noon Central Standard Time, the National Weather Service said the center of Juan was nearly stationary after drifting west-northwest along the coast and was near the coast south of Lake Charles.

Gales and heavy rain spread westward along southern Texas, and hurricane warnings were posted from Port Arthur, Tex., to the mouth of the Mississippi, with gale warnings extended southwestward to Brownsville, Tex.

Gale warnings also extended east to Apalachicola, Fla., and tornadoes destroyed or damaged homes and businesses in the Florida Panhandle, with the worst damage at Fort Walton Beach. Several people were injured but only one was hospitalized, authorities said.

The second death attributed to the storm was that of a motorist who was electrocuted Sunday when he stepped on a power line at Arnaudville, Fla.