Sally Says
From the Desk of Pinellas County’s Emergency Management Director
The human memory is a very interesting thing. Why is it that I can vividly remember exactly what I was doing on a given day while I was in third grade, but I can’t remember where I put my glasses just a minute after I set them down?
And while we may be able to better recall our long-term memories, sometimes we get the details all mixed up. In my mind, I can remember just about all of my schoolmates, but since I attended school in New York and Florida, I can’t quite remember which state went with whom.
In much the same way, when it comes to remembering details of past events, we sometimes don’t get all of the specifics right. For instance, anyone living in Pinellas County in the summer of 2004 may remember the period from August 12 to September 27 as a blur, with hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne lashing our coast with hurricane-force winds. While all four of these storms did threaten Pinellas County, not one of them brought hurricane-force winds anywhere in Pinellas.
In reality, we were spared the imminent destruction brought by Hurricane Charley, which veered off its forecast path and made landfall in Charlotte Harbor. Hurricane Ivan’s wrath was held for Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Hurricanes Jeanne and Frances spent much of their energy causing massive damage on the east coast before crossing to the Tampa Bay area as minimal tropical storms.
With August 13 marking the fifth anniversary of Charley’s landfall, it more important than ever that we clearly remember the lessons from 2004. If you go to our hurricane video page at www.pinellascounty.org/emergency/hurricane_videos.html, you can watch the show called Charley’s Aftermath, which shows the conditions in the storm-ravaged areas just one week after it passed. Take a moment to realize what we could have experienced had the storm not changed course and what you need to do in order to get ready for this season.
Will we ever see another season like 2004? I certainly hope not. But we shouldn’t prepare for what we have already experienced – we should be planning for what could come. Try turning off your water and power for a weekend at your home to get a taste of how bad things could become in the aftermath of a storm.
Remember that Surviving the Storm is Everyone’s Responsibility. Do your part to get ready.
Businesses can prepare for the challenges of disasters
The best new tool for Florida’s business continuity of operations planning was developed locally. The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council and their partners created the Florida Business Disaster Survival Kit. Here you’ll find the Disaster Planning Wizard, an interactive step-by-step tool that asks questions and provides instructions for creating your business continuity plan.
The site also includes a Preparedness Information Center with easily-referenced business continuity checklists arranged by topic that address a wide variety of potential disasters. The Pandemic Influenza checklist details strategies to minimize the impact of absenteeism. Local companies should review this list as we head into the fall flu season with uncertainty as to the effect the H1N1 virus may have upon our workplaces.
Finally, if you think you’re a planning pro and ready for anything, test your skills with the Pirate Bay Game. This interactive exercise pits your disaster planning skills as a Florida theme park entrepreneur against escaped alligators, flooded gift shops, fires and hazardous materials spills. Will you have any money left to pay the ride operators?
For more information about how you can make your business more disaster prepared, call Pinellas County Economic Development at (727) 464-7332, or visit www.pced.org/hurricane.
Lookup has new look
Knowing your evacuation level is a critical first piece to the disaster preparedness puzzle. And if you are comfortable using the Internet to look up your home’s information, Pinellas County Emergency Management’s lookup page has a brand new look.
While it will still be as easy as ever to enter your address, the amount of information you will be able to see will be greatly enhanced. When we are not under the threat of a hurricane, the standard information of the property’s evacuation level and the three nearest shelters will be listed. Additionally, the three closest hotels which are outside of your evacuation area will be listed. This way, viewers will be able to get the information about nearby lodging should a storm threaten.
When Pinellas County does issue an evacuation order, the lookup information will be even further enhanced. Only the accommodations in higher evacuation levels and non-evacuation zones will appear on the web site. During activation, Pinellas County’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau will provide updates to give residents an up-to-date look at which facilities have available rooms.
You can find Pinellas County’s online lookup service at gis.pinellascounty.org/hurricane_txt.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
The American Red Cross is one of the oldest humanitarian relief agencies in the country, answering the call to provide assistance to disaster survivors across the country. Here in the Tampa Bay area, the Red Cross of the Tampa Bay Region relies heavily on the volunteers who offer freely of their time and donations to help those who need assistance.
Red Cross volunteers help provide support to disaster victims, teach safety classes and assist military members and their families facing crisis situations. Through all of the programs offered, Red Cross volunteers help change the lives of approximately 100,000 local residents each year.
All Red Cross chapters are well known for their comprehensive training programs for First Aid, CPR and Disaster Recovery. Volunteers who take these classes may be able to save lives after a disaster.
If you are interested in becoming a local volunteer for the Tampa Bay chapter of the Red Cross, e-mail koikej@usa.redcross.org or call the Office of Volunteers at (813) 348-4820 ext. 858 or 823.
Electrifying weather
You've seen it before. Those menacing clouds roll in, towering high into the sky. The dark cloud bottoms look ready to unload a downpour. The distant rumble of thunder. Most of Florida’s thunderstorms bring cool relief at the end of a long, hot summer day, but these storms also have the potential to do some serious damage.
Central Florida is the lightning capital of the United States, with an average of more than 120 thunderstorm days a year. Sea breezes from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico collide over the Florida peninsula, providing the necessary humid air and lifting that can cause these storms to grow.
What are some of the reasons these storms are so dangerous? The hazards are:
- Lightning: The most spectacular part of a thunderstorm can be one of the deadliest. Lightning carries a massive electric charge. If it strikes you, you could be injured severely or killed. If you are close enough to the storm to hear thunder, then you are close enough to the storm to be struck by lightning. Seek shelter and remain under cover until 30 minutes after the final clap of thunder.
- Heavy Rain: Tremendous amounts of rain can fall in a short time from slow-moving thunderstorms. This rain can cause localized street flooding and even house flooding in affected areas. Do not drive through standing water you don’t know the depth of – your car can be swept off the roadway in as little as 12 inches of water.
- High Winds: Downbursts, gustnados, tornadoes and waterspouts can occur during severe thunderstorms. While each has a different formation, they can produce very high winds that can seriously damage your property and put you in danger.
If you see thunderstorms are on the way, get indoors as soon as possible. Stay away from windows and don’t touch electric appliances, bathe or shower – copper water pipes are also excellent electrical conductors. Phones connected to land lines (actual copper wires) can conduct a charge as well, so stay off the phone during thunderstorms or use cell phones.
If you can’t make it indoors, seek shelter in a hard-topped vehicle – not a convertible. Do not take shelter under a tree – the extreme heat of a lightning strike can cause the sap to boil and the tree to explode violently.
For more information on lightning safety, visit FEMA’s lightning safety website at www.fema.gov/hazard/thunderstorm.
Storms in History
Tropical Storm Bonnie,
August 3 – 14, 2004
Tropical Storm Bonnie was a very unremarkable storm. Starting from a tropical wave near the Lesser Antilles, the storm nearly fell apart as it moved across the western Caribbean Sea. Bonnie threaded the narrow Yucatan channel, not making landfall in Cuba or Mexico – quite a feat given that the Channel is a mere 125 miles wide at its narrowest point. About this time, Bonnie developed a nine-mile-wide eyewall, a very unusual structure for a storm at such a low intensity.
The storm then moved to the middle of the Gulf before it began to recurve eastward, eventually making landfall as a 45 mph tropical storm just south of Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle. The storm later crossed the state into the Atlantic Ocean, bringing heavy rain to the mid-Atlantic states and later to New England and the Maritime provinces of Canada. These rains did require some small-level evacuations due to rainfall totals of six to eight inches.
While Bonnie itself was no big deal, what happened immediately afterward was. Bonnie was the first of five tropical systems to make landfall in the state of Florida over a 46-day stretch. While Bonnie was making landfall, strengthening Hurricane Charley was crossing the Dry Tortugas, making this tandem the only two storms to make landfall in the same day in recorded history. The quartet of Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne mark the first time that one state was directly impacted by four hurricanes since the busy 1886 season.
It was truly a season no one could forget.
For more information on 2004’s Tropical Storm Bonnie, check out the Wikipedia page at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Bonnie_(2004).
We take our show on the road
Hurricane season is here, 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:
- Hurricane 101 What are hurricanes? How do they form? What are their effects? Get the basics on these dangerous tropical storms.
- Does it Take a Category 5? Everyone in Florida worries about the next ‘big one.’ But does a hurricane have to be a monster to do major damage? See what damage storms of all Saffir-Simpson categories are able to do.
- 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 when a storm comes.
- Hurricanes for Kids Hurricane season can be a very trying time for younger family members. Through 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. We 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?
Congratulations! It’s a boy!
No, we aren’t celebrating the birth of a child, we’re actually entering into a period known as El Niño, the Little Boy.
When the waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean are warmer than average, we enter into an El Niño period – more properly referred to by meteorologists as a warm period in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The waters off the west coast of South America run warmer than the average, which can have dramatic effects on global weather.
For example, in El Niño years, we can typically expect cooler and wetter conditions here in Florida, while Australia’s weather turns very hot and dry.
When it comes to hurricanes, you might expect that warmer sea surface temperatures would bring more hurricanes, since these storms are powered by the evaporation and condensation of water. However, El Niño periods will often increase the speed of the trade winds in the tropics. With these faster winds, there is a greater wind shear which tears storms apart. The least active season in recorded history – 1983 – happened during a strong El Niño period.
Remember that El Niño is just one indication of how bad a hurricane season can be. Even though there may be only a few storms recorded in the season, it takes only one to cause a tremendous amount of damage.
For more information about El Niño and its effects on weather, visit the Wikipedia page on the phenomena at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Nino.
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