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There are seven shopping days left until Christmas and 164 days before the start of the next hurricane season.
Last-minute retail activity is to be expected this week. But rushing to make the 2006 hurricane season safer should not wait until next summer.
Toward that end, Pasco County should consider designating a public building as a third special needs shelter for use during evacuations. (Pasco already uses River Ridge and Zephyrhills high schools as special needs shelters.) The designation could expedite an expected influx of federal and state money to retrofit or expand such buildings.
That advice comes from state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who is seeking shelter money for Pasco, Hernando and Pinellas counties after Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed last year's appropriations of $1.1-million for special needs shelters in Zephyrhills and Hernando County and $179,400 for a building used by the Pinellas Association for Retarded Children to house up to 100 children and adults during a hurricane.
Next year, as much as $70-million, half of it in non-recurring dollars in the state budget, could become available to local governments to retrofit existing shelters, said Fasano. Better yet, the grants may not require local matching dollars contrary to Gov. Bush's previously stated preference.
The need for shelters is evident. In a Category 5 hurricane, more than 237,000 people would need to evacuate an area of west Pasco stretching from the coast to Little Road. More than 4,000 patients in hospitals, nursing homes and adult living facilities would need to move. Nearly 62,000 people would go to Pasco shelters, which have space for less than half of them.
There is space for just 649 people with special needs - defined as people who need assistance with daily living. But nearly 2,100 have registered with the county for help during an evacuation.
The actual number of people needing help is projected to be significantly higher. Close to 11,000 households don't have a car in Pasco and almost 8,000 people are registered with the county for its coordination transportation system. Some of those likely could stay with friends or at shelters housing a general population.
Space in special needs shelters is at premium, in part, because governments must allow 40 square feet of room per person - twice the per-capita space of a regular shelter - to accommodate caregivers and medical equipment, such as oxygen tanks.
But the physical structure is only part of the equation. Special needs shelters require Health Department staffing. Pasco wouldn't be able to adequately staff a third shelter if one opens in the near future, according to the Health Department and county Emergency Management officials.
"The biggest problem is the depth of volunteers. When shelters open, we're usually okay for 48 hours. After that it's problematic," said Dr. Marc Yacht, director of the Pasco County Health Department.
To ensure the infirm aren't just dumped at a shelter to fend for themselves, the Legislature will consider HB 89 next year to better coordinate emergency management responses on the local level. A key provision of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Fort Pierce, is a requirement for home health agencies and hospice workers to make a good-faith effort to provide services to their clients in the shelter. Failure to do so would trigger regulatory review of their state license to practice. Harrell's bill passed the House unanimously in the 2005 session but died in the Senate on a technicality.
Legislators and the governor should be eager to appropriate enough money for these special needs shelters and approve Harrell's bill. It will provide extra protection to a group that is even more vulnerable to the forces of nature than the rest of us.