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Pinellas County beach hotels were ground zero during the chaos of a four-hurricane season. Now they want to address some lessons learned.
The day before Charley, thousands of tourists were evacuated from Pinellas beach hotels into hastily booked Orlando hotels that ended up in the storm's path. St. Pete Beach hotel owner Gregg Nicklaus was evacuated, and his hotel was closed. But the mandatory evacuation order was lifted in a way that enabled his hotel guests to return to the property before he or his employees could get there to unlock the doors.
Disaster planning officials spent days warning people a deadly storm was bearing down on Tampa Bay, but for days, no agency reported much about what the storms left intact. Many hotels housed power crews for free in hopes of getting their power restored, but most hotels have yet to share with government a hurricane plan for their property.
These and other hurricane recovery issues take center stage at a panel discussion of local visitor industry managers, county disaster planning officials, legislative leaders and Progress Energy decision-makers. The workshop begins at noon Wednesday in the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa in Belleair.
The luncheon, sponsored by the Pinellas County Hotel and Motel Association and St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, costs $10.