Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida • Page 30

2D FLORIDA TODAY, Saturday, August 19, 2000 Latest hurricane warning: Stay home State says shelter shortage unrealistic rfk" I I i 1 i rr i -f ir it i Mil farr It fiif0! I ous wastes, a nuclear plant or in a flood zone. Several shelters failed to meet those standards last year -5' ia-( rmm 7 fei it -V-i-rt -ri Tim Shortt.FLORIDA TODAY THOUSANDS OF BREVARD residents drove in- more than needed to according to emergency land to escape Hurricane Floyd last year many management officials. Emergency network stations These public radio stations will By Alisa LaPoit FLORIDA TODAY TALLAHASSEE A report that indicates Florida has a shortage of 1.5 million shelters for hurricane evacuees this year is "unrealistic" and the number should be drastically downsized, state officials say. The shelter shortage, outlined in a January report, is based on the worst possible scenario: a Category 5 hurricane that hits all 67 counties. And that's nearly impossible, said Jim Loftus, spokesman for the state Department of Community Affairs.

"I don't know if the state has a deficit," said Jay Baker, a Florida State University geography professor who consults local, state and federal governments on effective evacuations. "If it does have a deficit, I don't know if it's as bad as the state thinks it is." Brevard, Gadsden, Escambia, Flagler, Madison and Santa Rosa counties show a surplus of shelter spaces in the event of a Category 5 hurricane, which has winds higher than 155 mph. According to a January report by the Department of Community Affairs, Brevard County has a shelter demand for 16,500 people and has enough space to meet that need plus enough space for an additional 17,550 people. Indian River County has a demand for 11,847 people and has no space available under state guidelines. Hurricane shelters typically are housed in schools, community centers and other public buildings.

Recently, state officials and the American Red Cross developed a 15-point list of safety requirements shelters must meet Inspectors check out whether a building has a reinforced roof, window protection or is near hazard and the state has since declared them unsafe to house people. Critics say the checklist is too picky. But it doesn't help matters Florida's population continues to grow annually by 253,500 people and three-fourths settle down within five miles of the. coast. In the current state budget, the Legislature set aside $18 million worth of grants that counties can seek to improve buildings and increase shelter space.

Palm Beach County made minor improvements to public buildings and turned 6,000 spaces into 20,000, Loftus said. But behavioral studies on how people respond to hurricane evacuations show that only 5 percent seek public shelters for safety. Baker said. Most people go to the homes of friends and relatives, as well as hotels. Evacuees in public shelters likely need about 10 square feet be cause they tend to form clusters in small areas, Baker said.

But the state defines a shelter as 20 square feet of useable floor space for each person, which reduces available space. "If you overestimate the shelter demand and overestimate the space for each person, you've quadrupled your overestimate," Baker said. Now, state officials are trying to find out exactly how many shelters are needed by asking county officials to take an inventory. The measure was among the outcomes of a shelter summit last month. "It's safe to say there's a deficit," Loftus said.

"But we're a lot better than we were." By Alisa LaPolt FLORIDA TODAY TALLAHASSEE Nearly a year after Hurricane Floyd caused the nation's largest evacuation, state officials have a surprising new advisory for many Floridians this hurricane season: Stay home. Officials at local and state emergency management centers are fine-tuning their messages about hurricanes, the threat they pose and which residents face danger. In a change of protocol, officials who have historically announced which areas are evacuated will now clarify places where which residents can safely stay home. "One million more people evacuated from Floyd than needed to," said Jim Loftus, spokesman for the state Department of Community Affairs. "It's clear we need to do a better job of communicating who should evacuate and who should not." If residents only face hurricane winds, they're better off staying put, especially if their homes have reinforcements such as hurricane shutters, officials said.

The true damage from hurricanes comes from flooding. That's why only residents in coastal flood zones and mobiles homes should seek shelter elsewhere. "Some people are by far better off in their own home without electricity but with the supplies they need," Loftus said. To better inform people of their risk during a hurricane, the department has enhanced its Web site. By going to www.floridadi-saster.org and typing in their address and ZIP code, residents can find out: the status of tropical storms and hurricanes; whether they live in an area in danger of a hurricane, particularly flooding; whether local officials say they must evacuate; how to develop an evacuation plan; where to head to the nearest public shelter; traffic conditions on evacuation routes; nearby hotels, including links to those that accept pets.

The department beefed up its Web site after thousands of people unnecessarily fled Floyd. Only 1.3 million of the 2.2 million who left had evacuation orders to do so. The site improvement was among several measures recommended in late 1999 by a task carry emergency hurricane broadcasts in the state: Pensacola WUWF 88.1 FM Panama City WKGC 90.7 FM WFSW 89.1 FM Tallahassee WFSU 88.9 FM Gainesville WUFT 89.1 FM Jacksonville WJCT 89.9 FM Tampa WUSF 89.7 FM Orlando WMFE 90.7 FM Fort Myers WGCU 90.1 FM Fort Pierce WQCS 88.9 FM West Palm Beach WXEL 90.7 FM Miami WLRN 91.3 FM WDNA 88.9 FM danger from flooding. It later hit North Carolina. State officials acknowledge they need to do a better job in sending out a clear message, Loftus said.

"People get confused about which areas are being discussed," said Dr. Richard Greenfield of the American Meteorological Society in Washington, D.C. "People are not confident that they don't live in areas vulnerable to flooding." That's why Greenfield, director of the agency's atmospheric policy program, was among hurricane forecasters, members of the media and emergency management directors who attended a national hurricane preparedness conference after Hurricane Floyd. "There has to be much closer coordination among these three groups, so the message is developed as accurately as possible and people receive the message as accurately as possible," he said. State officials have since developed a partnership with public radio stations so they can announce who should leave home, where they can go, road conditions, traffic jams and other information that has been left out of hurricane response plans in the past.

Baker, a Florida State University geography professor and an expert in hurricane evacuation plans. But when it came to areas inland from those coastal communities, 40 percent of residents decided to leave their homes as well, even though they faced no danger, Baker said. They largely contributed to the unprecedented traffic jams on interstates and other roadways during Floyd. "These are people from areas that never flood, yet they're leaving their homes," Baker said. Several people said they thought they were told to leave." That's what Baker and his colleagues discovered in a post-Floyd telephone survey of about 2,400 east coast residents in and around areas that were evacuated.

Many said they self-evacuated after hearing reports from the media and state officials that Floyd was considered "Hurricane Andrew's big brother" because of its strength. That 1992 hurricane caused $16 billion in losses in South Florida. What people apparently didn't understand is that Floyd was far offshore and only those closest to the coast faced possible force assembled by Gov. Jeb Bush after Floyd. Other suggestions included converting interstates into oneway traffic to quickly accommodate evacuees.

"Sometimes we get a little too enthusiastic in trying to get the word out, and we need to be as enthusiastic in telling people they're not at risk," said John Wilson, Lee County's public safety director and a task force member. When Floyd loomed off Florida's eastern coast in September, officials called for residents to evacuate only if they lived on barrier islands or on the mainland close to the shore. A whopping 80 percent of residents from Daytona Beach to Kennedy Space Center south to Vero Beach did so, said Jay I We'll be here when others aren't! Sun Plumbing, inc. Deans Septic 1 I I af I 2m I SAVE $1111 24 HOUR EMERGENCY SERVICE and Minutes Activity Based Assisted Living for Alzheimer's ui and other Memory 4 1 'V -sTV 1 on any two Sprint PCS Phones" when you select a Sprint PCS Free Clear Plan of $29.99 or more. Or save $30 on one.

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