Even if ordered to evacuate, many North Pinellas folks declined. Some who did went to relatives' homes; others took a pillow to East Lake High.
By RICHARD DANIELSON
Published August 14, 2004
OLDSMAR - Hurricane Charley forced thousands of North Pinellas residents to answer a question they had never before faced: Do I stay or go?
Often, the decision was made in the gut.
By mid Friday morning, Gull Aire Village stood virtually empty. The neighborhood, which includes houses and mobile homes, has a mostly older population. Around 9 a.m., Bill and Jean Conklin rode their bikes through the deserted streets but decided to stay put.
They said yes, they were a little nervous, but they had a laundry room in their two-bedroom house where they could ride out the storm and plenty of supplies.
"Everything is probably put together as good as it can be done," said Bill Conklin, 66, a former trucker. "We've got a secured spot where we're safe ... with good walls all the way around."
To the folks calling from Buffalo, N.Y., where they used to live, "we've told them the refrigerator's full, we've got coffee, we've got food, we've even got a little beer and wine, just in case," he said.
Although their home is on Canal Way, within 100 yards of the Lake Tarpon Outfall Canal, Conklin said he thought they were high enough to escape any flooding.
Besides, he wanted to take care of his home.
"With what everybody's worked for and everybody's accomplished, you hate to walk away and come back to find it all on the ground," he said.
Across town, Scott Turner, 41, has lived on Shore Drive Place for 10 years. He has never seen his street flood even though he can see Tampa Bay from the end of his driveway.
If he had only himself to consider, he probably would have stayed home. But his wife wanted to leave, so Turner spent the morning rounding up photo albums and valuables to get ready for a trip to an in-law's home in Dade City.
"With the kids and everything, it's a lot different," said Turner, a mail processor.
The evacuation order covered Oldsmar's entire population, but a large percentage apparently decided to stay put. Driving through town early Friday, "I saw more people around than I would have liked to have seen," said City Manager Bruce Haddock.
Of those who decided to leave and called city hotlines with questions, "it was about 50-50 shelter versus going to family," City Clerk Lisa Lene said.
For hundreds of North Pinellas residents, the shelter at East Lake High School provided reassurance and the perception that there was safety in numbers.
By about noon, 270 people had checked into the shelter, which had room for 500 and offered a lunch of tomato soup, cheese crackers and milk.
"This storm is different ... it's not something to be taken lightly," said Marian Jung, 60, a semiretired office manager whose condominium backs up to the Brooker Creek Preserve. On Friday morning, a neighbor told her that her son, a firefighter, had said the creek could overflow and flood the area.
That decided it.
"I'm less worried," said Jung, who checked into the high school late Friday morning. "I was scared to death at home. I'm glad we have this place to come to. ... Here, you have other people to talk to and you can walk around. At home, you're pacing around by yourself."
Sandi Schwalen, a retired Delta airlines reservationist, left her villa in East Lake for a similar reason.
"This is more fun than spending the night in my bathtub," she said.
Retired electrical engineer Don Steen, 64, said he left home because of the risk of high winds.
"If they get up to 100 mph, you don't know what might happen," he said.
Of the evacuees at the shelter around noon, a dozen were considered special-needs cases, such as people on oxygen, patients with cardiac conditions or older people who had suffered strokes. Five nurses were on hand to help with their care. One man came with his own home health nurse, but officials determined that he would need too much care and sent him to a local hospital, said Robyn Pasto, a Pinellas County health department official who led a team working with special-needs evacuees at the shelter.
So far, she said, the day had brought no surprises.
"Hectic, busy," she said, "but we expected that. We planned for it."
Those who answered Charley's question by leaving their homes were grateful for shelter, but they looked forward to going home, too.
"I don't want to live here," said Jean Kwiatkowski, 56, of East Lake. "Temporary's fine."
