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Pinellas County won't dillydally if the big one hits, official says

Pinellas' emergency management director tells the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club the county would take the reins.

By WILL VAN SANT
Published November 23, 2005

Who would be in charge in Pinellas County if the big one hit?

Clerk of the Circuit Court Ken Burke, a member of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club, posed that question to county emergency management director Gary Vickers at a club meeting Tuesday at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

Vickers was unambiguous in his response.

Pinellas officials would consult with local governments if a hurricane like Katrina struck, but once a state of emergency had been declared, the county would take the lead.

"If it's critical, and lives are in the balance, we will do what needs to be done," Vickers said. "It's the closest to martial law you will ever want to see in the civilian world."

Vickers also told the audience of about 60 that he would have done several things that officials in New Orleans did not.

He would not have let local politicians take over the TV cameras, he said. Instead, he said, the city's disaster specialists should have been the public face of emergency operations because they were better equipped to supply critical information.

Vickers said he would have ordered local officials to promptly relocate evacuees who had taken refuge in the Louisiana Superdome instead of waiting for state and federal help.

Before he took questions, Vickers told the group that his office has learned a great deal from the savage hurricane seasons of the past two years. But he stressed that even with a thorough preparedness plan, a Category 3 storm or higher would alter Pinellas County forever.

In fact, Vickers said, since 1978 the National Weather Service has ranked Tampa Bay second only to New Orleans in vulnerability to a severe storm, largely because low-lying Pinellas County is surrounded by water on three sides.

About 207,600 county residents are older than 65, 100,300 Pinellas residents live in poverty and 38,600 households don't have cars, he said. In a Category 5 storm, 546,400 residents - about half of the county's population - could be forced to flee.

Officials predict a need for about 140,000 shelter spaces in that scenario. The county has only 70,000 spaces, Vickers said.

Former club president Lou Kubler asked Vickers whether redevelopment of Pinellas' barrier beaches should be allowed if a hurricane obliterates existing buildings.

While not answering the question directly - Vickers said that in such a situation the public interest and the rights of individual property owners need to be balanced - Vickers made it clear that such redevelopment would be likely.

[Last modified November 23, 2005, 00:44:19]