April 2008

Pinellas County’s hurricane education
efforts recognized

Pinellas County has worked hard to educate residents, businesses and visitors about the threat tropical weather can bring to our shores. And the efforts have caught the attention of some hurricane experts.

The National Hurricane Conference’s award committee recognized the county’s public education efforts as the best in the nation. The awards committee reviewed the entire 2007 overall hurricane public education effort, including such notable projects as the Know Your Zone campaign, the Host Home evacuation program, the extensive public speaking effort and the E-Lert emergency newsletter. The contest committee featured Dr. Neil Frank and Dr. Max Mayfield, two former directors of the National Hurricane Center.

Surviving assembly of your survival kit

Do you have a survival kit for your family? If the answer is no, odds are that one of the main obstacles is the cost to assemble one. After all, news stories claim that assembling a well-stocked survival kit for a family of four can run in excess of $500. Who has that kind of money to buy supplies for an event that may not occur?

Fortunately, by following some common-sense advice, you can easily assemble a versatile survival kit that won’t be devastating to your family’s budget.

• Check for what you already own. If you take a quick inventory, you just might discover that you have a great number of the items on hand to include in your survival kit. Flashlights and portable radios might only need new batteries to be made ready for hurricane season. And a quick peek in your pantry may show that you can easily stretch three or four days worth of meals out of the supplies already on hand.

• Look for expiration dates. Believe it or not, non-perishable food does have a shelf life. If the last time you assembled your survival kit was after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, you might want to discard those items and start fresh.

• Make a list. When you do spend money on stocking your survival kit, the last thing you want to do is go and buy things randomly. There’s a good chance you might buy too much of this and not enough of that. By having a plan, you’ll be sure to buy just what you need to complete your kit.

• Get a little bit at a time. If you start now by throwing an extra item or two into your shopping cart, you might be surprised how quickly you can complete your kit. The added bonus: by getting your items a little at a time, you spread out the expense and can look for sales.

• Buy only stuff you will use. If you do not like a particular canned or nonperishable product, you are under no obligation to buy it! During times of stress, such as the aftermath of a hurricane, you don’t want eating to become something you dread. Buy your favorite foods and stock those.

For a checklist of items to include in your survival kit, click here.
(www.pinellascounty.org/emergency/Handbook/disaster_survival_kit.htm)

Special needs? Register now!

One of the most heartbreaking experiences during the busy 2004 hurricane season was listening to the number of people with special medical needs calling the Citizen Information Center to ask for evacuation assistance as the storms approached. Fortunately, none of the storms greatly affected Pinellas County, but the outcome could have been tragic had the storms not changed course.
Pinellas County has an ongoing partnership with local municipalities to offer sheltering and transportation for residents who meet the eligibility requirements. Those with certain medical conditions may be able to stay in special needs shelters.

Please do not wait until there is a threat of evacuation. That may be too late. Register now. Local fire departments and the Department of Health will assess each person and notify him or her directly.

To help citizens with special needs, the Department of Health and the Pinellas County School Board staff special needs shelters with nurses and other medical personnel. Oxygen is available, but citizens should plan on bringing their own medication and any needed portable special equipment.

Special needs shelters are offered only if you have no other options for sheltering, and you require limited medical assistance. Shelters do not have hospital beds and cannot assist those with acute medical problems.

To register, call Emergency Management at (727) 464-3800, your local fire department or visit www.pinellascounty.org/emergency/handbook/special_needs.htm

Make your home a Safe Florida Home

Hardening your home is one of the most effective ways to protect it should a hurricane’s effects be felt in Pinellas County.

2008 marks year three of the My Safe Florida Home program, and people have been taking the state up on the offer for improving their homes. To date, more than 11,000 home inspections have been completed in Pinellas County, and the state has issued nearly $1.5 million to 487 homeowners for important home-hardening projects such as roof retrofits and window protection. Low-income home owners can also receive assistance through Pinellas County Habitat for Humanity for these important refits. Visit www.mysafefloridahome.com/ForNon-ProfitVFF.asp for details.

The MSFH program provides eligible program participants with certified mitigation forms, which can be given to the homeowners insurance company in order to receive the estimated savings. A sample mitigation form that looks like the one homeowners will receive can be found at www.mysafefloridahome.com/MitForm.asp. Homeowners who might experience any difficulties with their insurance companies are encouraged to contact the Department of Financial Services helpline at (800) 342-2762.

For more information or to apply for an inspection, visit the MSFH program’s website at www.MySafeFloridaHome.com or call the program’s toll-free helpline at (866) 513-MSFH (6734).

For additional information on how to harden your home on your own, visit the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes website at www.flash.org.

You gotta know when to hold ’em...

Or, at least, tie them down. When storm winds blow, mechanical tie-down systems can help hold your shed, mobile home or carport in place by providing secure anchor points to resist wind uplift. Many systems attach with metal anchors into the ground, while others attach to buried concrete piers. From those points, loops of heavy wire or metal bands wrap around the structure, holding it together and down against wind forces. It’s not only structures that can benefit from tie-downs. Items such as air conditioner compressor units can be blown over during a hurricane. Tie-downs can hold these units well enough to resist wind loads.

Some important things to consider about tie-down systems:

• Check local codes to ensure you buy an approved system.

• Buy an appropriately strong system to secure your structures.

• Have a licensed contractor install a tie-down system for your mobile home.

• Follow manufacturer’s directions carefully to ensure maximum strength.

• Routinely inspect your tie-downs for rust or other decay.

While tie-down systems do provide some measure of protection against wind, do NOT consider the structures they secure as a safe shelter if we are affected by a hurricane! Even the most modern, well-built post-Hurricane Andrew mobile homes can be overturned by high winds if the anchors fail. Seek shelter in a substantially built structure.

We take our show on the road

Hurricane season is coming, and, if you’re looking for a presentation for your homeowner’s association, civic group, church, business or other gathering, Pinellas County can help.

Currently, there are four hurricane-related presentations that can be requested:

• Becoming Storm Savvy: While we are still in the hurricane preseason, it’s an excellent time to learn how you can prepare yourself to prevent panic if we are affected by a storm. From learning how to put together a survival kit without busting your budget to planning ahead for evacuations, tips are offered for everyone.

• Hurricane 101: What is a hurricane? How do they form? What are their effects? Get the basics on these dangerous tropical storms.

• Busting Hurricane Myths: Learn the dangers of some commonly held beliefs when hurricanes approach. Not only will you find the real story, you may also save your life if the big one comes.

• Hurricanes for Kids: Hurricane season can be a very trying time for younger family members. By using experiments and easy-to-understand language, your youngsters can find some control over these scary situations.

To schedule a speaker, call Pinellas County’s Speakers Bureau at (727) 464-3000. Remember, knowledge is power. You can’t do anything about the weather, but by knowing what to do when bad weather threatens, you can gain control over your personal safety.

What does THAT mean?

This month, we come back to Earth to take a look at the clouds that form in the lowest parts of the atmosphere.

From the hard ground under your feet to about a mile and a half up, you’ll find the low or strato- clouds. These clouds are comprised of very fine water droplets or ice crystals during winter – but don’t look for ice crystals in these clouds in Florida. It rarely gets cold enough for that, even on our coldest winter days. The strato- clouds can take three distinct forms:

• 

  Stratus: If you are lost in a fog, you are in the middle of a stratus cloud. A stratus cloud is fog or, if it lifts from the ground, it can form a uniformly gray cover that stretches from horizon to horizon. This is the cloud that can also obscure the upper levels of high rise buildings.
• 

  Stratocumulus: These large clumps of low clouds can be found in rows and patches, and can leave clear patches of blue with streaks of sunshine between them. Sure, they look threatening, but they rarely bring rain.
• 

  Nimbostratus: These clouds definitely bring light to moderate rain. They form a gray deck of clouds darker than a layer of stratus clouds. The bottoms of these clouds can feature ragged cloud fragments called scuds.

Because these low-level clouds do not have a lot of ‘lift’ in them from convection (rising of hot air from below), the rain that falls from them is typically very slow and gentle, as they do not have the energy contained in the higher-soaring vertical clouds.

Just what are those vertical clouds? I could answer that now, but what would I have to write about next month?