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Mr. Hurricane addresses storm fears

Larry Gispert's presentation shows how Tampa would fare if it were hit by a Category 4 or 5 hurricane.

By BILL VARIAN
Published September 24, 2005

TAMPA - Hillsborough County's Mr. Hurricane is a man known for his frank talk and folksy witticisms delivered from below his Wilford Brimley mustache on television when big storms approach.

But it was the visuals Emergency Manager Larry Gispert brought that captured the attention of his audience Friday as he addressed the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa.

The Power Point presentation depicted several Tampa landmarks under a hypothetical worse case scenario: a Category 4 or 5 storm barreling through the teeth of Tampa Bay. It wasn't pretty.

Here was the view of downtown from the Cass Street bridge, water standing three or more stories deep, completely engulfing the Media General building on the Hillsborough River, except for its Channel 8 broadcast tower. At Westshore Plaza, the Sears Roebuck department store, still Dillard's in the illustration, had standing water approaching the bottom of its sign, with 5- to 6-foot waves lapping at it.

Water likely would stand several stories deep at the Monte Carlo Towers on Bayshore Boulevard, he showed. Gispert said he addressed residents there, and one woman said she figured she was safe since she was on the 13th floor.

Sure, Gispert recounted, but he told her she may suddenly find herself on the third or fourth floor.

"Here's what we're afraid of," Gispert said. "Read my lips: storm surge."

Gispert has been a man on demand of late, after Hurricane Katrina's devastating assault on the upper Gulf Coast, with residents and reporters asking what would happen here. As he has said often, Hillsborough County is no New Orleans, with its standing floodwaters, but is nevertheless vulnerable.

Actually, it's more like coastal Mississippi, devastated by a saltwater surge that plowed over flood-prone buildings, pushing them inland before pulling them back toward the sea as they retreated. That's why he said his No. 1 priority if a storm threatens is getting people out of flood-prone areas.

With images of clogged highways in Houston, Gispert said there's no reason for most people in areas not prone to flooding to evacuate. Better to stay put or arrange to stay with a friend or relative in a home less likely to flood.

That's not to say there won't be damage from wind.

Consider that four named storms brushed the Bay area during last year's hurricane season, but sustained winds never topped 45 mph. Still, roughly 7,000 grand oak trees throughout the county toppled and debris cleanup cost about $20-million. Hurricane Jeanne alone damaged more than 2,000 homes, and destroyed 36.

"Can you envision what happens if it was 145 mph?" he asked.

[Last modified September 24, 2005, 00:59:07]