Who made the call to close Hernando High's shelter early? Accounts vary, and there is no small degree of finger-pointing.
By WILL VAN SANT
Published October 10, 2004
BROOKSVILLE - Seventy-year-old Harry Washburn was shocked.
With his wife, Frances, 67, and a 93-year-old neighbor woman, Washburn had heeded a mandatory mobile home evacuation order and fled the Clover Leaf Farms community. The group took refuge in the Hernando High School gym, one of several school sites used as public shelters during Hurricane Jeanne.
About 7:30 p.m. on that Sunday, Sept. 26, during the deceptively calm eye of the storm, sheriff's deputies told Washburn and the roughly 30 evacuees at Hernando High that it was time to leave.
They were forced out into the night, Washburn said, as the eastern bands of Jeanne, then a strong tropical storm, began to strike.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "It was pouring out, and the wind was blowing. A lot of people were in their 80s, and they had to go out and pack their cars and go back to a mobile home they were not even supposed to be in."
At the time, the evacuation order was still in effect, and county emergency management officials had announced that all shelters would remain open until 6 a.m. Monday.
Some of those told to leave went to other shelters, some to darkened homes; two elderly women made their way to the emergency operations center at the Sheriff's Office. They asked if they could sleep in the parking lot and were directed to another shelter.
The county, the American Red Cross and the school district are involved in shelter management during evacuations. The actual contract for shelter services is between the Red Cross, which manages them, and the school district, which provides the space.
With all the officials involved, one might think it would be a simple matter to determine who made the decision to close Hernando High. But accounts of events vary greatly, and there is no small degree of finger-pointing.
Only county emergency management director Tom Leto, despite the primary roles played by the Red Cross and the school district, said he would assume ultimate responsibility and get to the bottom of the situation.
"Some poor judgments were made," Leto said. "If I offend somebody by saying it, I am going to say it anyway. It's ridiculous. We are going to have to sit down and figure this out."
According to Leto, he was approached at the emergency operations center by Barry Crowley, the school district's coordinator of safety and security. Leto said Crowley noted how few people remained at Hernando High and asked whether it could be closed and shelter space consolidated.
At the time, Crowley and Leto recalled, officials at the operations center were under the impression that there were at most eight people still in the school's gym, far fewer than were actually present.
While estimates vary, Leto said he thought Sheriff's Office figures were the most reliable. Leto said deputies put the figure at about 30.
It makes no sense to keep a shelter open that is no longer needed, and, expecting that reasonable steps would be taken to help move the few folks remaining, Leto said he told Crowley it was a possibility.
"I said, "if you can do it, that's fine,' " Leto recalled. "And I did not discuss it anymore."
According to Crowley, he then approached Susan Harman, a senior facilities specialist with the Red Cross responsible for managing shelters that night. He said the Red Cross has final say whether to make closures, and that Harman said she would confirm that only a few evacuees remained at Hernando High.
Next he knew, Crowley said, he heard word of the closure from a ham radio operator at the emergency center. Presumably, that's how deputies at the shelter were alerted, he said. Given the ultimate authority of the Red Cross, Crowley said he assumed the group had ordered the closing.
Crowley denied having given the order.
Harman said she first heard of the closure order from the Red Cross shelter manager at Hernando High, who had been told by deputies that doors were closing.
"Somebody is trying to save their neck," Harman said. "We don't put people out in the middle of an eye. We don't put people out in the middle of the night. That's not our procedure."
School districts across the state resisted meeting their statutory obligation to provide shelter during evacuations over the course of this hurricane season, according to Harman, and Hernando was no exception.
Not only was Hernando High shuttered under murky circumstances that night, Harman said; so was the shelter at Moton Elementary School.
"They messed up, and they got to cover butt," she said of the school district.
When contacted, district superintendent Wendy Tellone said it was the first she had heard of the dispute. The district does not open or close shelters, she said, and it would surprise her if Crowley had issued such an order.
"It is not our job," Tellone said. "Barry is well aware that he does not have that authority."
As for the broader question of the district's willingness to open its doors to evacuees during a disaster, Tellone said it placed a burden on personnel and resources, but that the district was committed to serving the public in times of need.
The Red Cross shelter manager at Hernando High that night was Tom Jones. Jones said that he had assisted at a shelter during Hurricane Charley, but that Hernando High was the first time he had been asked to be in charge.
It turned out to be a tense and trying experience.
With some exceptions, Jones said, school staff treated the evacuees with scorn, giving them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner, forcing them to eat in a hallway rather than in the gym and providing no water.
Jones said he learned the shelter was being closed by deputies, and it was his understanding that the order had come from Crowley, with whom school staffers were in frequent contact.
Though loath to throw people out into a brewing storm, Jones said he did not see it as his place to take issue with a law enforcement officer.
"I did not feel that I should question his authority or any of the school people's authority," Jones said.
Crowley acknowledged that peanut butter and jelly were served for dinner, but pointed out that it was better than no food at all. Further, he said, the school district's pantry was spare after having housed and fed so many during the previous storms.
When Hernando High was closed, Crowley said, no steps were taken to provide transportation to other shelters. Had any evacuees at Hernando High asked for a ride, transportation would have been provided, he said, but nobody did.
Despite the confusion surrounding events, Leto was fairly certain Crowley ordered the closing.
He dismissed the idea that Crowley first heard of the order from a ham radio operator with, "I'm not even going to comment on that."
"I think he made the call," Leto said. "Whether he is going to admit it or not is another thing."
Still, Leto stressed that both school district and Red Cross workers appeared not to have appreciated the potential harm that would be done by closing Hernando High. Had he known the full number of those still in the shelter and that people were being forced out into a storm, Leto said, he would have stepped in.
The parties involved said they intend to sit down and review what happened at Hernando High to prevent future incidents. "This storm was not over with," said Harry Washburn of Clover Leaf. "We should never have been sent home at that time."
