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City, county leaders ask, 'Are we ready?'

Katrina's wake has officials rechecking evacuation and sheltering plans, and thinking about the worst a Category 5 hurricane could bring.

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published September 20, 2005

TAMPA - Tropical Storm Rita's track hung on a front screen while a digital clock ticked down the seconds of the day. A "MASS CASUALTY" dry-erase board sat in the back of the Hillsborough County Emergency Operations Center.

Government officials, including county commissioners and Tampa's mayor, met Monday to talk about hurricane preparedness, an urgent topic pushed to the forefront by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

The meeting followed a week of leaders airing individual concerns about the area's readiness, and some moves that made it appear city and county officials were having trouble getting together on the topic.

Monday might have been a day to resolve some specific concerns raised over the past week. Instead, the resounding message from the meeting was that Hillsborough officials felt they were prepared. The county follows th e motto, "Semper Gumby," or "always flexible," Hillsborough emergency manager Larry Gispert repeated.

"We are gonna get 'er done," he said. "It ain't gonna be pretty, but we're gonna get 'er done."

The Executive Policy Group - three Hillsborough commissioners, the mayors of Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City, and the sheriff - has authority to declare a state of emergency. Members heard a broad review of the county's emergency plans Monday, which Gispert assured were in full working order.

The meeting seemed aimed at sending the public message that Hillsborough was on the ball, even though some still harbored the same concerns.

When asked to introduce herself at the beginning, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio made a two-minute speech on what the city was doing to prepare. She also raised concerns about shelter space and evacuation procedures.

Gispert responded that the unpredictability of storms gives Hillsborough about 24 hours or less to order people out - even though the county's hurricane plan said it would take between 50 and 60 hours to evacuate before a Category 5 storm.

"The simple matter is, we can't evacuate everybody," Gispert said.

Those inland should just board up and stay in. Others with transportation should head for a safe place outside the flood zones.

For still others, buses stand ready to help with the evacuation, Gispert said, including 195 from HARTline and 1,000 school buses.

He estimated about 150,000 people could need shelter during a Category 5 storm. Iorio pointed out the county had only between 50,000 and 75,000 shelter spaces. But Gispert said space could be doubled by cramming people in.

Less than 10 percent ever show up, he added.

Iorio asked whether shelters had three days of food on hand. Yes, Gispert replied.

Commissioner Ronda Storms, who was in the audience, asked whether law officers had adequate resting quarters if they had to patrol streets embroiled in "anarchy." A school is reserved for them, Sheriff David Gee said.

Gee raised his own concerns about converting major highways into one-way routes if a widespread evacuation were ordered. He worries the extensive Interstate 4 construction could make that difficult.

Others wondered whether there were enough ways to communicate evacuation orders. Putting stickers on HARTline buses with procedural information was one idea. Meetings in poor neighborhoods are already taking place, County Administrator Pat Bean said. Mass cell phone text messaging was another idea.

But Commissioner Kathy Castor, a member of the policy group, wanted officials to reach churches, and community and neighborhood organizations. Iorio, meanwhile, wanted more year-round preparedness meetings between city and county officials.

The Executive Policy Group approved both recommendations.

Afterward, County Commission Chairman Jim Norman reiterated what he had said all along: "We have a solid plan in place."

He joked that the mayor was welcome to seek shelter in his home during a storm, trying to defuse any perception of a feud.

Iorio said there was no squabbling, either.

But she would not answer whether the meeting addressed concerns she had. She just reiterated what the city was doing to prepare.

Castor said she still wasn't happy with evacuation procedures that call for south Hillsborough residents to wave down school buses if they don't have cars.

And Gerald White, a Tampa Housing Authority board member who attended the meeting, said it was a problem that the Executive Policy Group had no black representatives.

It's going to be hard to persuade poor black residents to move to shelters after they sawpeople suffering without food and water in the New Orleans Superdome and convention center, he said.

--Justin George can be reached at 813 226-3368 or jgeorge@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 20, 2005, 04:42:06]