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Re: Emergency planning poor, letter by Diane Blakeslee, Sept. 28.
I beg to differ with the letter writer regarding the planning by the Pinellas County Emergency Operations Center.
The EOC has been working 24 hours a day, seven days a week since the week leading up to Charley and not once in these six weeks have they dropped the ball or failed to give residents timely and appropriate information regarding evacuations, shelter availability, evacuation zones and all related critical information.
Face it, people. Although we live in an area that would be considered paradise by those not fortunate enough to live here, we face very real and dangerous weather conditions.
Every year, starting in May and continuing until Thanksgiving, television news departments, the St. Petersburg Times, the Tampa Tribune and other sources print pertinent information about what to do and where to go when a hurricane or other natural disaster threatens the bay area. It is up to us to take just a little responsibility and to use the information given that will best protect us, our families and our homes.
Simply put, Mrs. Blakeslee waited until the last possible moment to act and then, when the situation became dangerous, chose to blame someone else rather than herself. That is another reason to prohibit building of any more mobile home parks in a state where tornadoes and hurricanes are par for the course.
Re: Emergency planning poor, letter by Diane Blakeslee, Sept. 28.
I was incensed when I read this lady's letter. All day Saturday the news media were reporting that they strongly recommended evacuation of mobile homes. Everyone knows that hurricanes have a mind of their own. The writer complained of poor planning by the county Emergency Operations Center.
This lady needs to take responsibility for herself. In any event, we were going to get high winds. Why didn't she evacuate on Saturday when she still had time? Why did she wait until the evacuation order came around midnight?
If the EOC had ordered evacuation and there were no high winds, people would be criticizing them for that.
People should use their own heads and if they live in a mobile home with a hurricane coming close, they should leave - not because someone tells them to, but because it is the safe thing to do.
The bad planning was on the part of the mobile home owner, not the EOC. Take responsibility for yourself!
Hurricane Jeanne hit us all with a vengeance! Midway through this storm, one of our trees was completely uprooted and fell into the street in front of our home.
I was concerned that neighbors driving down the street, particularly after dark, might be in harm's way as a result, so I placed a call to the Emergency Operations Center as well as to 911.
Within a very short time, emergency vehicles arrived and Clearwater Utilities employees as well as city Urban Forestry employees cleared the street of this tree, under very, very heavy rain and wind.
I just want to thank those who responded to this situation. I also wish to give my thanks for the Clearwater Police Department employees, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office employees and all firefighters and other emergency workers who risk their lives during such situations to help us all. My family thanks you one and all.
In light of the recent storms, I feel the need to thank the employees of several Pinellas County agencies and local businesses:
I would like to start with the School Board employees, paramedics, nursing staff and law enforcement personnel who manned the evacuation shelters. These people were called out in the middle of the night and had to leave their families so that stranded residents would have a safe place to stay during the storm.
The police and fire departments for keeping us safe on the roads when the power lines were down and the traffic lights were not working. I saw several sheriff's deputies standing out in the hot sun all day directing traffic at intersections with no traffic signals. They risked their lives standing in the roadway so that we could get to our destination safely.
A big thank you to the Progress Energy employees who are still putting in 15-plus-hour days restoring power to the homes without electricity. My power was restored Tuesday night at 9:15 p.m. To that hard-working crew, I am eternally grateful.
Pinellas County Utilities also had to respond to my neighborhood because one of my neighbors thought it was important to grind down a stump in their yard during the power outage. The stump grinder struck the underground water line, causing a 20-foot geyser. This case of bad timing caused the stress level to rise even higher in the neighborhood. The Utilities crew showed up and repaired the ruptured line in no time.
The Pinellas County Public Works crews who put in long days clearing the debris out of the roadways and right-of-ways.
These are just a few of the many agencies that we should all thank. If you see any of these people who were called away from their families so that they could help the rest of us get our lives back together, be sure to thank them for their efforts.
Monday morning after the long, dark night of Hurricane Jeanne's wind and rain, my husband and I looked with woe at the mess our frontyard jacaranda tree was in and wondered how we would ever clean it up.
Angels - four of them - arrived at 8 a.m. in an orange Southwest Highway Department truck and cheerfully began removing large branches from the street and dropping dangling branches from the tree. In an hour the street was cleared - they even raked up all the leaves out of the street.
We wish to send a heartfelt "thank you" to the men and the women of the Southwest Highway Department for the great job they are doing to keep our roads safe.
Safety Harbor definitely lives up to its name. At about noon on Sunday, Hurricane Jeanne forced a large oak tree onto our lawn, trapping both of our vehicles and destroying our power lines in the process. If it were not for the help of our neighbors, my fiance and I still might be homebound.
When the storm subsided, the sounds of chain saws and pruning shears could be heard trimming to free our vehicles. Not only did our neighbors help us with the cleanup, they were also instrumental in getting our power restored.
Our thanks go out to all the residents of Fourth Street S, with special thanks to Bob, John and Mila. These acts of kindness make us proud to call Safety Harbor our home. We now feel closer to our neighbors than ever before and we truly feel safe in Safety Harbor.
There are always some people who criticize the way things are done or not done at a time like this past hurricane. I want to thank the power company and our paper carrier, who doubled-bagged our St. Petersburg Times.
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