Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 25, 1995                   TAG: 9509250083
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

The Lumsdens found themselves stranded in the U.S. Virgin Islands Sept.16 when the eye of the hurricane hit the tourist mecca head-on.

The couple weathered the worst of the storm huddled in an emergency shelter on the bottom floor of their hotel, along with about 150 other guests who crowded into the windowless laundry and service area of the Sugar Bay hotel.

``All we could do is sit and wait,'' Gary Lumsden said. ``It sounded like we were parked inside of the jet engine of a 747.''

After listening to 100-mph winds - and ominous crashing sounds - for most of the night, the guests ventured outside about 5 a.m. to find the hurricane had demolished the building above them.

"It was a three-story building that was now a one-story building," Lumsden said.

The Lumsdens eventually were evacuated from the island on a military transport plane - but not before living on bagels and fruit for two days in an area that had no water, electricity or telephones.

Before the couple left, workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency moved into the hotel, Lumsden said. He didn't think much about it until the last day, when hotel guests were promised their first cooked meal since the storm hit.

``We went down for our first hot meal,'' Lumsden said, ``and all the damn FEMA people were down there eating our breakfast.''

Advising the instructors

Less than a year after earning a doctoral degree from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, Roanoke School Superintendent Wayne Harris has been appointed to a national advisory panel for the university's Urban Superintendent's Program.

The program is designed to prepare superintendents to lead large urban school systems into the 21st century.

Harris is the third of the first nine students in the urban superintendent's curriculum to receive a doctorate. He is the first program graduate to become a superintendent.

Harris will serve on the advisory panel with superintendents from Atlanta; Boston; El Paso, Texas; Memphis, Tenn.; New York; San Diego; and Tacoma, Wash. The panel will guide the program's design and implementation.

``I am thrilled for the opportunity to interact with the other superintendents from across the country and for the visibility it affords [the Roanoke school] system,'' Harris said.

Robert Peterkin, director of the Harvard program, said Harris' advice will be beneficial.

Harris, a Salem native, has been Roanoke's superintendent since July 1, 1993. He worked for the Fairfax County school system for 25 years before coming to Roanoke.