Cantabs Ride Out Hurricane Unscathed

Gusting winds rolled through the streets and a light rain spattered the city, but Cambridge weathered Hurricane Gloria without a serious incident, municipal officials said last night.

Power outages left roughly 25 percent of the city's homes without electrical power most of yesterday afternoon, according to City Manager Robert W. Healy, who coordinated the city's emergency relief efforts.

Damage was most severe in the western part of the city around Fresh Pond, where fallen trees and downed utility wires brought police cruisers and city cleanup crews to virtually every debris-littered street corner.

No injuries related to the storm were reported in the city.

Although several shattered windowfronts were spotted in Porter Square and Cambridgeport stores, only one incident of looting was reported last night. Cambridge police apprehended a man and woman allegedly stealing merchandise from a computer store at 1000 Mass. Ave. at about 2 p.m. yesterday.

Ready for Worst

Cambridge officials had prepared for Gloria's onslaught all week, designating three shelters across the city for stranded residents, preparing food supplies, and coordinating communications for law enforcement, said the city's civil defense coordinator, David B. O'Connor.

O'Connor said that 69 people--mostly with medical problems or small children--took refuge from the storm in the city-run shelters and received a school lunch, television, and cots. Officials offered free transportation to the elderly and handicapped.

Mary Costa, a resident of the flooded Bristol Arms apartment building, walked into the National Guard Armory on Concord Ave. around 10 a.m. yesterday equipped with her cribbage board, playing cards, and rosary. Costa said she would stay at the armory "as long as they can stand me."

Civil defense authorities also said they sent dinners to 85 senior citizens in a Mass. Ave. apartment building which was without power and food all day.

Square in the Eye

Harvard Square businessmen closed up shop early yesterday, taping windows and reinforcing storefronts. The worst damage occurred at the Coop, where the thirty-foot metal "Harvard Cooperative Society" sign crashed to the street at 1:30 p.m. No one was hurt.

It took five city workers to move the 27 year-old Square fixture, which they said would not be restored to its resting place above the department store's Mass. Ave. entrance.

While students from Harvard, MIT, and Boston University frolicked along the banks of the Charles River, others went on buying sprees for batteries, candles, and food at The Store 24 and even Au Bon Pain before it closed.

"People are stocking up. I don't know why they're stocking up on croissants, but they are," said Associate Manager Elliot A. Gillies.

Louie's Superette across Banks Street from Mather House also reported a booming business, with 974 sales--10 times the usual number. Clerk Angel V. Gallinal '85 said a steady stream of customers snaked through the aisles and out the door until noon yesterday.

"It's been unbelievable," said Jim Frazier at Nini's Corner newsstand on the Square. "We sold through the papers, the magazines...everybody wants something to read."

At the six-month-old Charles Hotel, about 200 stranded guests paid to stay an extra day in their posh Cambridge suites due to the inclement weather. "They couldn't get out," said hotel spokesman Joanne R. Emerson.

Down at the city's emergency command post on Hampshire Street, several hundred calls flooded switchboards all day long. Armed with walkie talkies and flashlights, city department heads huddled around a black and white television set for weather updates and fielded citizens' questions until last night.

Assistant City Manager Richard P. Rossi said the storm would probably cost the city much less than winter blizzards do, when Cambridge must mobilize extra snow plows.

One candidate for city council reportedly scrambled about the city to recover campaign signs, while others pumped the hands of likely voters stuck in the city's shelters.

Although Cambridge public schools were closed yesterday, 12 students showed up for classes at Rindge and Latin High School on Broadway St. "I guess some students like school a lot better than home," said Assistant Superintendent Oliver S. Brown