Pinellas County residents are banding together to help their neighbors survive this year’s hurricane season.

“People need to reach out to their neighbors,” said Pinellas County Administrator Stephen Spratt (left). “Hurricane Katrina showed us that government assistance is limited, and everyone has to take it upon themselves to protect their families and their neighbors.”

Although Pinellas hasn’t faced a direct hit since 1921, lessons from the past two years have residents helping each other and emergency planners looking for more community partnerships

Officials are working with local agencies to increase the number of residents that can be safely housed inside the county, including the homeless and medically dependent.

Municipal fire departments are reaching out to business, civic, religious and neighborhood organizations to enlist their aid to increase public awareness and the need to be prepared.

“We’ve learned from New Orleans that the state and federal government can’t respond as quickly as people expect,” said Seminole Fire Rescue spokesperson Alison McCarty.

McCarty says Seminole is doubling or tripling past reserves of water, food and fuel, and she urges residents to follow suit.

“People have to expect at least three to ten days of living in the Stone Age,” she said. “They have to anticipate being without food, running water and electricity.”

McCarty has seen many more requests for educational programs during the past few months than in previous years.

“People are much more concerned now because of Katrina,” she said.

Neighborhood Groups

Many neighborhoods have banded together to increase hurricane preparation and disaster response.

At the Blue Jay Estates mobile home park in Palm Harbor, for example, residents published The Hurricane Guide for Blue Jay Residents, outlining how each of the 235 homeowners should prepare for a hurricane.

Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT)

Volunteers throughout the area are ready to assist police, fire and rescue teams, as well as their neighbors through organized auxiliaries known as Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT),

The St. Pete Beach Volunteer Response Team formed 15 years ago. In addition to helping in evacuations and recovery, the team sponsors an annual hurricane symposium to help prepare residents.

Lyn Heiges, the team’s president, said about 60 members would be activated to report to areas near their homes. Some carry pagers; others have two-way radios provided by the city to organize volunteers in their neighborhood.

“We’ll be dispatched to homes where there are special needs people,” Heiges said. “We can help them get to a shelter or hospital. We’ll knock on doors where someone has indicated they planned to ride out the storm at home...we’ll try to convince them to think better of it.”

After the storm, volunteers will help firefighters assess damage and go on patrol to prevent looting, he said.

Some members are amateur radio operators and, with city-owned short-wave radios, can maintain communications between the barrier islands and the mainland when other communications fail, he noted.

CERT operates in other communities including Dunedin, Treasure Island and cities served by Suncoast Volunteer Fire Rescue.

Church Community

The religious community has also gotten involved out of concern for their congregations.

Tim Ferguson, administrator at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks Beach, says they have reinforced their fellowship center against hurricane winds so it can be used as a shelter for members.

“We don’t turn anyone away,” he said. “But we primarily want to take care of our members who are evacuated from the beach communities and mobile homes.” While they have no bedding available, a well-stocked kitchen is opened.

And, the church is providing shelter for nearby firefighters and Sunstar ambulance employees who need off-duty shelter.

“We’ve formed a strategic partnership with these organizations. We help them with shelters. We benefit, too, by having the paramedics in our shelter and getting communications from them,” he said.

“We also rely a lot on our congregation to look out for each other,” he said. “This isn’t really anything special for hurricanes, just part of our teaching. Our members look out for others with special needs.”

Hurricane Handbook Table of Contents