CHAINS ASSESS 'OPAL' STORM DAMAGE OR HURRICANE CAUSES STORE CLOSINGS

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Hurricane Opal caused power outages and temporary store closings of supermarkets along the Gulf Coast of Florida, and in some parts of Georgia, last week.

tent of the damage. Also, curfews in some coastal cities prevented local managements from checking out the damage to their stores. However, an early reading of the situation at midday last Thursday showed the following:

Winn-Dixie Stores, Jacksonville, Fla., had 30 stores along the Gulf Coast closed for part of Wednesday due to power outages or local curfews. Another 30 Winn-Dixies in Georgia, plus the chain's distribution center there, also closed Wednesday. However, 24 Georgia stores re-opened on Thursday using generator power. Six remained shut for an undetermined period. The company said difficulties getting through to the warehouse made it unclear late last week whether the facility had reopened.

Bruno's, Birmingham, Ala., had about 40 stores along the coast closed and out of power.

Delchamps, Montgomery, Ala., had all seven stores here closed and out of power. Richard La Trace, president, said the stores had not experienced any major structural damage. He also said Delchamps was trying to deliver heavy-duty generators to its stores here, "but because bridges are down, we're not sure we can get through," he told SN.

Albertson's, Boise, Idaho, had four northern Florida stores shut down and out of power. Two stores here had re-opened by Thursday afternoon with emergency generators, but stores in Fort Walton Beach and Panama City, Fla. were still closed due to local curfews, a spokesman said.

Publix Super Markets, Lakeland, Fla., had only two stores closed for any period of time. One of those, in Panama City, remained closed early Thursday because of a local curfew order, while a store in Panama City that lost some roof tiles was back in business Thursday after closing briefly a day earlier.