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Council member pushes for bus evacuation plan

John Bryan wants buses ready to move to safety those with no other means to flee a major hurricane.

By JON WILSON
Published September 21, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Fearing hurricane evacuation problems like those that bedeviled New Orleans, City Council member John Bryan has proposed moving the city's most vulnerable people on special buses and routes.

Bryan wants to make available Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority buses to evacuate people who have no other way to get out of town if a major storm heads this way and authorities order evacuation.

"As soon as the evacuation is announced, you start the service," said Bryan, a PSTA board member.

He has asked the board to take up the subject at its Sept. 28 meeting.

As Bryan envisions it, a prearranged pickup point such as Williams Park would serve as a gathering point. They would be bused to a safer destination inland, perhaps a civic center or other shelter in, for example, Orlando.

The evacuees would be returned to St. Petersburg when authorities deemed it safe to come home.

"It would be very clear to people that they would come to Williams Park. That way, you know you wouldn't be trapped," Bryan said, estimating it would be possible to move 100 people out of town about every two hours using several buses.

He said the "X" route buses would be particularly suitable. They comprise the PSTA's bigger coaches and run the routes across the Gandy, Howard Frankland and Courtney Campbell bridges."

Bryan's idea comes during a period of official unease following the Katrina-caused catastrophe along the northern Gulf Coast. City Council chair Richard Kriseman on Sept. 14 called for a council workshop to consider the city's emergency plans and tweak them if necessary.

City officials, Bryan said, have been hearing from the public.

"They want to know, "What are you planning, what are you planning?' " Bryan said.

In a letter to PSTA chair Deborah Kynes, Bryan also suggested:

Prearranging a fuel supply for buses in Orlando - or wherever the evacuation destination might be.

Prearranging hotel rooms at the destination for bus drivers and other emergency workers and the families, thereby relieving the worry of some of those helping with evacuation.

Solidifying cooperation with unions and getting their input.

Prearranging with the Red Cross for possible shelter locations for services.

Some of the the ideas, he said in the letter, are outside the PSTA's normal thrust of service.

But he said they should be "the groundwork for immediate discussion so that PSTA might have a viable action plan in the event that the Pinellas peninsula is threatened by the forces of nature or a terrorist attack."

[Last modified September 21, 2005, 00:24:18]