 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Back
|
Human storm tide is a problem
By STEPHEN HEGARTY, Times Staff Writer TAMPA -- Jeb Bush joked Wednesday about a lesson he learned during Hurricane Floyd, which prompted the largest peacetime evacuation in history when it whipped the east coast not long after Bush became governor. "What I learned is that not everyone needs to get on the road at the same time," Bush said. "It was a simple lesson to learn." It drew a few laughs, but the message was taken to heart by many of the 1,800 who attended the 16th Annual Governor's Hurricane Conference at the Tampa Convention Center. The hurricane season officially starts June 1. Emergency management officials around the state learned with Hurricane Floyd in 1999 that they could mobilize large groups of Florida residents and get them to move to safety. Between 1.5-million and 2-million Floridians evacuated their homes during the storm, causing gridlock up and down the state. Now state and local officials are trying to figure out how to get the right people to stay put, or at least to not travel unnecessarily. "Now we have to get really proficient at turning off an evacuation," said Robert Collins, planning manager for the Florida Department of Community Affairs Division of Emergency Management. "If you think starting an evacuation is difficult, try stopping one." Emergency management officials face a quandary each time a hurricane or tropical storm threatens the state. They want people to take the threat seriously because many need to evacuate. But they don't want people to overreact. "It's human nature; you end up with all these people trying to evacuate inland who waited too long," said Gary Vickers, senior coordinator with Pinellas County's emergency management program. "The key is don't go any farther than you absolutely have to go." Participants at the conference Wednesday heard from colleagues and from researchers who have studied the problems caused by massive evacuations. Collins estimated that roughly 700,000 of those who evacuated during Hurricane Floyd did not need to leave their homes. They would have been better off at home or going just a short distance to the home of a friend or family member or to a nearby shelter. Many attempted to drive great distances, well out of harm's way, but ended up in traffic jams. Pinellas and other counties have devised procedures that go beyond the traditional evacuation plans and designated shelters. In recent years, the concept of a "refuge of last resort" has become a key strategy. The concept involves designating certain facilities near major thoroughfares as refuges and having motorists directed there during a dangerous storm. A refuge -- a movie theater, perhaps -- would not be equipped or staffed as would a Red Cross shelter, but would enable emergency management teams to get motorists to safety quickly. Tom Schmidlin, a climatology professor from Kent State University, studied the effects of high winds on mobile homes and cars to see which would be safest in a hurricane or tornado. Schmidlin said he had read advice that mobile home residents should go outside and lie down in a ditch during a storm. But his study concluded that the safest alternative is a car or truck. After a series of studies involving wind tunnels and visits to sites damaged by storms, Schmidlin found that mobile homes are easily destroyed in wind storms, but cars are not, even in some of the most powerful categories of storm. "Vehicles are pretty good protection for us ... if they're not blown over," Schmidlin said.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
Headlines From the Times local news desks |
