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Guest column

Preparing for emergencies a continuing process

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following column was received in response to an Oct. 6 St. Petersburg Times editorial, Preparing for the worst.

The aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has focused much media attention on emergency operations plans. The Pinellas County Emergency Management Department invites the scrutiny and welcomes the opportunity to educate and inform. We hope the press and public will understand that planning documents and written processes are dynamic tools in emergency preparedness and should be considered within the context of the other extensive efforts to protect people during a disaster.

Pinellas County's Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan is solid and has withstood the test of serious storm threats. It was not written as a guide for residents; rather, it's a collection of guidelines and procedures for emergency management officials and support agencies. The plan is not perfect. The areas that could benefit from more detail are being reworked and have proved successful in practice.

Transportation is one such area. The plan outlines the specific allocation of more than 230 buses to our cities and preidentified health care facilities for assistance in transporting vulnerable residents to a shelter. Hundreds more buses are available in reserve. The plan also advises advance registration for those with special needs, which includes our residents without vehicles. We have encouraged these residents to register in advance for years.

With the capability to better map where residents live who have socioeconomic barriers to their timely evacuation, we are working with the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority and the Pinellas County schools to develop improved bus deployment plans. We are also working with PSTA to get more information to the people who need it most.

Pinellas County successfully evacuated and transported thousands of residents during Hurricane Elena in 1985 with the same strategy we use today. Buses took evacuees to shelters, just as they did last year during the largest evacuation order in county history for Hurricane Charley. Gridlock on roadways is not a considerable factor because the buses are traveling through communities to and from neighborhood shelters and are not competing with drivers leaving the area on major outbound roadways. A ride to a shelter is merely a phone call away for any resident with a transportation need.

The most disadvantaged portion of our population is the homeless. We recognized gaps in our ability to identify and help these people during the storms last year. Since then, we have been working with Pinellas County Human Services, the Homeless Coalition and our municipalities to ensure that these people know how to get transportation to a shelter.

Pinellas County School District, which manages most of our shelters, is fully prepared to meet the needs of evacuees for three days. Although this can be more clearly detailed, principals and other shelter staff members receive annual training. They know to request additional supplies from warehouses or the County Emergency Operations Center. Our resource management group handles those requests. During Hurricane Elena, our county successfully sheltered and fed 113,727 residents for nearly three days.

Solving our current shelter deficit is our top priority. We applaud the news media for drawing attention to this need and asking the community to help. We have only half of the 140,000 shelter spaces that the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council Hurricane Evacuation Study (2000) estimates we might need. We continue to emphasize that staying in a public shelter is not a comfortable or enjoyable experience. It is intended as a safe place for those who have no other options to ride out the storm.

We have considered government-owned facilities and some private buildings for additional space that will meet the state requirements for survivability. Our engineers are actively seeking viable buildings and new school construction is helping. Currently, we have 25 public shelters in the county: 22 are supplied by the school system, two (pet friendly) by the County Commission and one by the American Red Cross.

We are also working with other local governments throughout the bay area and the TBRPC to approach planning from a regional perspective. A recent meeting of emergency managers and elected officials, requested by Pinellas County Administrator Steve Spratt, was an excellent first step. Another meeting between county and city officials in St. Petersburg also explored strengths and weaknesses in planning that we are addressing together.

Our emergency responders bring to the table years of planning, training and real-world experience. Emergency management is a process of constant re-evaluation and improvement. We are updating our emergency plan and we will be providing more needed detail in key areas. Once complete, the plan will be posted at www.pinellascounty.org/emergency where residents can find a host of valuable information and advance registration forms that will help them build their personal hurricane plan.

Comprehensive news media coverage reveals that our overall disaster planning and strategies are sound. Our plan was tested repeatedly last year and it works well, but no amount of planning can fully prepare any of us for the devastation a Category 5 hurricane would bring to Pinellas. Strong leadership, the ability to coordinate support across political boundaries and the involvement of our residents are the keys to successfully surviving a disaster.

Gary Vickers is Pinellas County's director of emergency management. Guest columnists write their own views on subjects they choose, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.

[Last modified October 14, 2005, 01:40:20]