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Schools sit idle - and empty

Some parents wonder whether officials jumped the gun in their attempt to prepare for evacuees who have yet to show up.

More than 110,000 Pinellas County children stayed home from school Friday to make room for hurricane evacuees who never arrived.

The children missed another day of school just three weeks ago for Hurricane Charley, and some parents ended up wondering whether the district had jumped the gun in ordering the closures.

"I guess it's better to be safe than sorry, but they've already missed one day," said Daphne Kendricks, who, like many parents, was forced to arrange last-minute child care for her three children. "I guess Hurricane Charley kind of scared everybody."

County officials in Pinellas also erred on the side of caution Friday and approved a local state of emergency for the weekend. That will allow officials to issue evacuation orders if Hurricane Frances changes course and hurricane winds come this way.

But Pinellas and Hillsborough county emergency officials held off Friday on ordering mandatory evacuations or even calling for voluntary evacuations.

Emergency officials said the current track shows Pinellas on the outer edges of the weak side of the storm. If the storm continues on that path, residents can expect tropical storm force winds of up to 60 mph and heavy rains Saturday night and Sunday.

"We are riding the edge right now, and we are ready to go either way," said Gary Vickers, Pinellas County's emergency management director.

In St. Petersburg, mobile home resident Rose Bridges packed a suitcase with three outfits, toiletries and important papers in case she was ordered to evacuate.

Bridges saw photographs of mobile home damage in Punta Gorda from Hurricane Charley and said she won't take any chances with Frances.

"I won't be one of the stubborn ones," said Bridges, 64, who lives at Al-Da-Ky mobile home park on Fourth Street N. "If they say, "Go,' I'm gone."

If she had gone early Friday morning to one of the 21 Pinellas schools that serve as shelters, she would have been welcomed with breakfast. The schools were prepped for evacuees, with bus drivers standing by to pick up local residents if necessary.

But the demand never materialized.

Even in Hillsborough, which would probably encounter people fleeing Frances from the east coast first, only a few had shown up at school shelters Friday.

"We are monitoring Hillsborough County's demand for shelter space from people coming across the state. So far, they've only had about 20 or 30 people," said Tom Iovino, spokesman for Pinellas County emergency management.

In an e-mail Thursday, Jim Warford, the state's K-12 chancellor of education, told 20 district superintendents, including outgoing Pinellas schools chief Howard Hinesley, that the state Emergency Operations Center had ordered schools to be closed Friday so they could be used as shelters for residents fleeing Frances from other counties. Locally, emergency officials also thought they might need the shelters for mobile home residents or people in low-lying areas.

"About 2.5-million Floridians received evacuation orders," said Frances Marine, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education. "They needed places to go. The state Emergency Operations Center issued that order in order to preserve life."

But Marine acknowledged Friday that the e-mail could have been more clear, specifying that local districts, which are responsible for providing shelter to evacuees, have the discretion to close only those schools used as shelters. The Hernando County school district, for example, which has three schools designated as shelters, found alternative sites.

But given the short notice and the large number of schools in Pinellas that are used as shelters, closing only those schools would have been impossible, said Ron Stone, spokesman for the Pinellas school district.

"The logistics, especially overnight, of rerouting students would be unbelievable," Stone said. "I think this was a situation where everyone was trying to do the best they could in a short period of time."

Meanwhile, Bayflite and other medical helicopter services were busy Friday ferrying patients to hospitals out of the storm's path. Bayflite flew at least 10 patients from hospitals being evacuated, and at least two were brought to Bayfront Medical Center, where Bayflite is based, said a hospital spokeswoman. That also stretched the helicopters thin. Rescue services called in a helicopter from Orlando to a Pasco County accident Friday morning because all three Bayflite helicopters in service were busy.

At Leisure World mobile home park in Clearwater, windows throughout the park were marked up with tape, but few residents were planning to leave.

In fact, Paul Young went ahead with a rummage sale. Stacks of old picture frames and dishes were piled in his front yard.

"Charley was supposed to come through here, and I boarded everything up and nothing happened," said Young, 43. "This time, I'm just going to sit here, and if it blows, it blows."

John Zeller was printing letters to distribute to his neighbors, inviting them to join him in his manufactured home, which he said is sturdier than some of the other residences.

During Charley, more than 35 people and four dogs crowded into his house. But this time, Zeller, 60, didn't have many takers.

"I think we'll probably get more over the weekend," said Zeller. "We'll see what happens once the wind starts to pick up."

Times staff writers Carrie Johnson, Lisa Greene and Michael Sandler contributed to this report.