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Coastal areas better prepared this year after Floyd 1999's biggest storm should be a great learning lesson for officials in states along the Atlantic Coast. By AMANDA RIDDLE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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MIAMI - As Hurricane Floyd bore down on the Atlantic coast last September, the Vitkauskas family spent two hours stuck in gridlock on Interstate 75, trying to flee inland. Shelters overflowed and traffic backed up 30 miles. In the biggest peacetime evacuation in history, more than three million people evacuated coastal areas in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Floyd skirted Florida's coast before striking North Carolina on Sept. 16 with winds of 110 mph and 20 inches of rain. It took the Vitkauskas family 13 hours to drive from Edgewater in northeast Florida to south Georgia, a trip that usually takes four hours. The family of six traveled in a caravan of five cars with two cats, four dogs, family friends and two boats. The group spent the night in a mobile home on some farm land outside Barney, Ga., after their van broke down and area hotels had filled up. ''The pressure came when we didn't know where we were going to spend the night,'' said Mary Ann Vitkauskas. An evacuation ''is going to have to be real mandatory for us to do what we did again.'' Forecasters predict that the era of more intense hurricanes will continue during the 2000 Atlantic hurricane season that begins June 1. Officials across the Southeast say they've made changes to try to prevent a repeat of the chaotic evacuation during Floyd. If a Category 4 or 5 hurricane threatens Florida, South Carolina or Georgia, officials plan to open both sides of major highways in one direction. Many hurricane-prone states also have improved communication with coastal residents. A recent survey of about 7,000 people who evacuated during Floyd showed that many were not ordered to evacuate and many drove further inland than they needed in order to be safe, said Earl J. Baker, a Florida State University geography professor who helped prepare the study for the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. ''People still visibly remembered the damage that Hurricane Andrew caused,'' said David Bishop, spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management. ''They saw this hurricane that was twice the size of the state and they got scared and left even though they weren't ordered to leave.'' As Floyd surged toward shore, authorities urged about 1.3 million people along Florida's Atlantic coast - and another 1.3 million from coastal Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina - to clear out of its path. Many of those who weren't advised to leave, but did so anyway, were safer staying home. Florida will try to better reinforce to residents that they should have an evacuation plan in advance, including knowing whether they live in an area that could flood, Bishop said. Other efforts to communicate with residents include:
More public shelter spaces also will be made available. The Florida Legislature has approved $18 million to upgrade schools and other public buildings to use as shelter space. Georgia has identified 200 more shelter spaces and trained 300 extra shelter managers. Forecasters are predicting that the era of more intense hurricanes will continue this season. That trend began about five years and should last another 20 years. The last such period occurred from the 1940s through the 1960s, when 18 major hurricanes struck the United States. In comparison, only 10 major hurricanes, those with winds above 110 mph, made landfall from 1981 through 1999. While the six-month hurricane season is expected to see slightly above average activity, La Nina - the weather phenomenon that turns Pacific Ocean waters colder than usual - is diminishing in strength. That could result in less active seasons than 1995, 1996, 1998 and 1999. Bill Gray, the Colorado State professor noted for his accuracy in hurricane forecasting, predicts there will be 11 named storms this season. Of those, seven will be hurricanes and three will be major. In 1999, there were 12 named storms and eight hurricanes, five of them major. Storms must generate winds of at least 74 mph before they are classified as hurricanes. Hurricane Floyd was a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which ranks storms for intensity from 1 to 5. Its satellite image was twice the size of Florida and four times larger than Hurricane Andrew. Floyd caused 70 deaths and $6 billion in damage. North Carolina is still recovering from flooding in inland counties. A month after Floyd, Hurricane Irene flooded much of the resort city of Key West and parts of South Florida Oct. 14-19 with up to 10 inches of rain, but caused little damage. Emergency management officials in the Florida Keys are ready this hurricane season, unlike last year when residents were still replacing or repairing homes damaged by Hurricane Georges in 1998. National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said residents should prepare now for the upcoming season.
''The bottom line is really to ensure that every individual, every family, every business and every community have a hurricane plan,'' he said. ''You can't wait for a hurricane to come knocking at your door before you take a stance.
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