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Lessons learned

Officials in some beach towns say recent storms have shown them they need to refocus their hurricane plans.

Evacuation has long ruled the thinking of emergency planning strategists along in waterfront towns and cities.

Four storms, striking within six weeks of one another, forced officials to re-evaluate plans to be ready.

From mid August to Sunday, each of the storms threw coastal cities a cocktail packed with its own personality and powerful consequences.

Charley, whose Category 4 strength prompted emergency experts to urge evacuation early and often, veered east and did minimal damage here. Jeanne's Category 1 rains and wind, on the other hand, never sparked a widespread evacuation order, but whipped cities already bruised by its predecessors.

The storms hit so close together, cities are still struggling to calculate costs.

Some plans stood up to the near-weekly tests of their fortitude. Others need tweaking.

The following is a city-by-city look at some of the lessons learned.

ST. PETE BEACH: Storm to storm, the plan here remained strong enough to need little revision, said Fire Chief Fred Golliner. Alert employees. Secure the city's infrastructure. Place all fire, police and some public works employees on duty. Ride out the weather. Pick up the pieces afterward.

With no beachwide evacuation orders issued for three of the past four storms, Golliner said the "focus goes off in different avenues." Instead of concentrating on getting residents out safely, the emphasis shifted to managing all of those who stayed behind.

The storms also revealed a need to better harness the 85-person voluntary response team, Golliner said. Instead of having them "hang out with nothing to do," they will staff sandbag areas, answer phones and help during the storm's aftermath.

MADEIRA BEACH: Fire Chief Derryl O'Neal learned that storms' unpredictability forced the city to stay on its toes and prepare for the future.

Records get transferred to the second floor of Wachovia Bank, at the corner of Duhme Road and the Tom Stuart Causeway. Vacations get canceled and fire employees prepare to stay on duty at least 72 hours, he said.

Week to week, the city's approach to storm preparation never waivered, he said.

The city plans to look at how City Hall can be hardened for future storms. The building sits in a flood plain and has a lot of large, plate-glass windows, making it vulnerable to flying debris, O'Neal said. The fiscal year 2005 budget now has money set aside for new wiring and a generator, he said.

"We just have to always be prepared for the worst and take what comes," he said.

REDINGTON BEACH: As Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne approached, Redington Beach Town Clerk Larry Bittner backed up computer files and sent copies to a friend in a Missouri courthouse for safekeeping.

Each time, with the exception of Jeanne, important records were moved to the town's temporary headquarters in Seminole.

But it was after Ivan bypassed Pinellas County to strike the Panhandle, Bittner said, that the extensive damage there made him realize that moving records to Seminole is not good enough if the area were to get a direct hit.

"Now we're considering getting a waterproof safe to protect our records," Bittner said. "And by the end of the year, we hope to have everything on disk."

NORTH REDINGTON BEACH: "The one thing I've learned through all of this is that the only cure for high waters is to jack up the entire town, including the roads," said Mayor Harold Radcliffe.

That's not possible, of course, but Radcliffe, an engineer by profession, said he encourages residents to raise their homes above flood level.

As it happens, the floor of Town Hall is 1 foot below flood level, so for each storm, town staff puts all electronic equipment and records up on tables and desks.

REDINGTON SHORES: Town Administrator Don Lusk learned that many of the town's hurricane procedures are inadequate.

He said he will recommend against moving town records off site as in the past. Instead, he said the town should waterproof them and leave them on-site while computerizing as many as possible for easier removal on computer disk or backup tape.

"What good does it do to take file drawers to Seminole? If we got hit like the Panhandle, something could happen to them there as well," Lusk said.

Before Jeanne, Lusk said he was confident the new Town Hall's 12-foot elevation and 120-mph wind rating would provide good protection against most storms.

But Jeanne, which was a tropical storm by the time it arrived in Redington Shores, left more than $11,000 in damage to the building's roof, soffits, wiring and carpets.

BELLEAIR BEACH: "We are fatigued, mentally and physically," said Mayor Mike Kelly.

Three times the town hired extra staff to help pack up 10 tall file cabinets, computers and other office equipment, files and supplies into large rental trucks. Three times the town moved its maintenance equipment to high ground at Belleair Bluffs.

Three times the town moved it all back.

Although Belleair Beach has decided to spend $25,000 to begin archiving its records on microfiche film, it won't happen for at least another year.

BELLEAIR SHORE: The owners of the town's 55 or so beachfront homes are responsible for cleaning up their own yards as well as their individual sections of beach extending to the high tide line. The high swells churned up by Ivan resculpted the beach, moving much of it into pools and up to homeowner's back doors, in some cases to depths of three or four feet.

So when other beach communities rolled out their maintenance crews to remove beach debris, each Belleair Shore homeowner struggled to locate contractors with tractors and backhoes not already engaged elsewhere.

TREASURE ISLAND: Charley cost about $20,000, Frances about half that much.

Most of the expenses for Charley were spent in preparation. City teams evacuated to St. Petersburg headquarters at Pasadena Community Church. City employees loaded historical records and file cabinets in rented trucks to move to higher ground. The public works department rented large front-loaders and dump trucks to haul away debris from the anticipated storm. The city stocked enough supplies for its workers for at least two days.

In the future, City Manager Ralph Stone said if the records are on a computer back-up file, that should be enough protection.

After the storms, county coastal engineers decided to put additional sand along Sunset Beach during a renourishment project that began the week of Charley. In addition, Stone said the city will receive 40,000 sea oats to plant along the coastline.

SOUTH PASADENA: Mayor Dick Holmes said that, despite nervousness, the city will keep its insurance plan, which it shares with several other cities. The benefit - and the danger - of such a "risk pool" arrangement is if one city is hit hard by a storm, it does not have to bear all of the costs by itself.

South Pasadena will likely see its rates go up by virtue of being in the same risk pool with Punta Gorda, which was severely damaged by Charley. Holmes said commissioners talked about looking for another policy, but the season has not left the city looking good to insurers.

"When you've had four hurricanes hit you, who is going to want you?" Holmes said.

GULFPORT: Workers have barricades around six downed power lines that kept some residents without power into Tuesday. Before Jeanne, the city had spent $25,000 to $50,000 on storm planning, cleanup and overtime, City Manager Tom Brobeil estimated.

INDIAN SHORES: Mayor Don Taber estimated the storms have taken about half of the beach. Officials will meet with Army Corps of Engineers representatives in October to discuss the possibility of moving up a beach renourishment project scheduled for 2008, Taber said. The city has not had sand pumped onto its beaches since 1996.

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH: Staff recommendations will be headed by a request to add one more generator to the five the city already has in order to keep the sewer system running. Staff also will develop an aftermath plan emphasizing how to return the city more smoothly to normal operations, clearing roads, and letting residents know when City Hall and the library will open. "We have a hurricane preparedness plan," City Manager John Coffey said. "We need a re-entry and recovery plan."

Times correspondents Sheila Mullane Estrada, Andrew Meacham and Kathy Saunders contributed to this report.