Lee County holding hurricane preparation seminars

Lee County Emergency Management officials hope the area’s recent brush with Tropical Storm Alberto leads more people to attend its hurricane seminars in the coming month.

“Unfortunately, we have gained a lot of experience with hurricanes in the past few years, and close calls aren’t as impressive for people as they used to be,” said Gerald Campbell, emergency management chief of planning. “More people will come, but not as many as we’d like to see.”

The county is conducting 22 one-hour seminars to prepare people for the hazards of hurricanes. Two are in south Lee; one at 2 p.m. Thursday at the First Presbyterian Church in Bonita Springs, and the other at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 11, at the South Lee County Library in Estero.

“People should attend. I would be attending even if it wasn’t work-related,” Bonita Springs City Manager Gary Price said. “These (storms) are nothing to be afraid of, but you should know about them and how to be prepared for them.”

At the seminar in Bonita Springs, Lee County Red Cross workers will talk about kits and shelters and emergency managers will show how hurricanes form and the dangers they pose.

“We try to educate people on the hazards created by hurricanes,” Campbell said.

For preparedness, emergency management officials will highlight precautions, what evacuation procedures should be taken and the proper make-up of hurricane kits. The overall message is to be prepared to be on your own for several days, he said.

Having worked in Southwest Florida government for nearly 30 years, Price said, the usual difficulty with preparedness seminars is the people who aren’t there.

“The problem is, previous times we’ve had woeful attendance,” he said.

The Emergency Management department already has conducted 39 of 87 planned public and private hurricane preparation events so far this year, and the average attendance is around 50 people.

Since Tropical Storm Alberto formed, more people have been taking copies of the Lee County All Hazards Guide, Campbell said, but he isn’t expecting an unusually large audience for the Bonita Springs and Estero seminars.

“We don’t base our response (to requests for seminars) on the size of the crowd,” he said.

If you go

The two Lee County Emergency Management hurricane seminars in south Lee:

Bonita Springs

Thursday, June 15, at 2 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church

9751 Bonita Beach Road

Estero

Tuesday, July 11, at 7 p.m.

South Lee County Library

21100 Three Oaks Parkway