Thursday, June 1, 2000

Hurricane shelters fall short
Four Manatee County sites were dropped from an last year's list.

By KEVIN HORAN

Herald Staff Writer



BRADENTON - With Florida's annual six-month hurricane season kicking off today, county leaders continue to work on finding safe space for evacuees.

A state-led survey has shown that some shelters used previously in Manatee County don't stand up to a strict list of standards, forcing local leaders to drop four structures from last year's list.

"We pulled four (schools) because the state came back and told us it would not be cost-beneficial to retrofit them," said Laurie Feagans, the county's emergency management chief.

"Even with those four schools, we just took them off the list that doesn't mean we won't use them as a refuge of last resort."

State inspectors began fanning out in 1995 to gauge whether the Florida's roster of storm shelters would withstand a direct hurricane hit or the flooding that would follow. Draft results from that survey, which reached Manatee County last year, show shelters here lag a little.

But likely just a little.

Of the nine shelters survey crews inspected, four fell short of meeting American Red Cross codes issued in the wake of Hurricane Hugo's devastation. That 1989 storm ripped into North Carolina, wreaking havoc on poorly prepared shelters and forcing leaders to rethink their safety plans.

They came up with a set of guidelines that call for storm shelters to withstand steady winds of at least 110 mph - as in a moderate-strength hurricane - have roofs secured to walls, cover windows with shutters or plywood and more.

Unfortunately, many of the state's shelters predate the codes, and don't stand up to the standards.

"We thought we had maybe a 300,000-space deficit in our shelter needs," said Jim Loftus, a spokesman with the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the agency inspecting shelters. "We get to 1.5 million with some better criteria, though.

"We may have had our heads in the sand."

Manatee County lost some ground, as well.

Here, emergency planners had prepared a list last year of 23 shelters they could route evacuees to should the powerful storms approach. Those shelters could have housed just less than 31,000 people.

But local planners, acting on the cautious side, wondered how the shelters would fare in foul weather. When state and federal officials offered to pony up money to rehab outdated shelters, local leaders asked inspectors to survey nine shelters here.

Four failed.

"They look at the blueprints, then go out and look at the schools," Feagans said of the state survey crews. "They tell us if a school is compliant (with codes) or, if not, what type of retrofit it would take to make it compliant."

For the four that failed, the cost to bring the buildings up to code outpaced the value to do so, Feagans said. The remaining five need simple fixes, like window shutters, which federal funds will pay for later this summer.

The loss drops the county's ability to house evacuees during threatening conditions, down to roughly 26,000 people.

But it could have been worse - far worse. Elsewhere around the state, inspectors continue to find a flood of schools that don't meet the Red Cross shelter codes.

Blame a good chunk of the problem on growth - or the lack of it. Many areas with little room to grow have had schools in place for years. And the older buildings don't meet the newer codes.

"If the school was built before 1989, it might be questionable, as far as the structure," Feagans explained.

But Manatee County, with a flurry of recent growth, has a full slate of modern schools. The newer buildings, complete with shutters, roof and wall bracing and more, match up well with the codes, Feagans learned from DEM inspectors.

"In asking their supervisor for a verbal (appraisal)," she said, "we look to be faring fairly well compared to other counties, because of our newer schools."

And county leaders still could choose to open the four "failing" shelters - either as areas where people can go when all else fails or as full-fledged shelters.

"County emergency managers can still assess the risk," Loftus said. "They're the ones that certify whether a building can be used as a shelter."

Local leaders will sit down for that decision-making process June 13, Feagans said.

In the meantime, all emergency planners stress that the shelter space shouldn't surface as an issue, if residents and visitors plan ahead a course of action for when - not if - the giant storms roll in.

Check with emergency officials to identify evacuation zones and flood-prone areas, they say. Find a safe, storm-worthy place to stay with friends or family, if possible. Plan evacuation routes. Gather together a kit with food, water, medicine and insurance papers. Find a spot for Spot to stay, since most shelters don't take pets.

In short, get ready now, before the shelter issue becomes a crisis.

"If it's nice out in the Gulf (of Mexico), if there are no lines at the grocery or hardware store, make time to get your family and home ready for a hurricane now," Loftus said. "Now is the time to do it, not when a storm is bearing down."


Kevin Horan, environmental reporter, can be reached at 745-7037, or at khoran@bradenton.com




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