Home › Hurricane 2006
Hurricane 2007: Prepared for the worst?
Area leaders say they're ready for storm season
More Hurricane 2006 
Share and Enjoy 
Bring it on, Barry.
Take your best shot, Sebastien.
Today marks the beginning of the 2007 hurricane season. And whether it’s going to be Hurricane Humberto or Tropical Storm Chantal, Collier County’s city and county governments, fire districts and law enforcement agencies are all hoping for the best this year but are prepared for the worst.
With as many as 17 named storms, 10 hurricanes and five major hurricanes, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration is again forecasting an above average hurricane season this year.
Local law enforcement agencies and fire districts keep an eye on those forecasts, but are always ready for the worst-case scenario, said Capt. Tom Storrar of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office’s Homeland Security Preparedness Division.
“If you did anything short of that, I don’t think it would be an efficient response,” Storrar said. “We can always scale down our response, but to scale it back up ... is very difficult.”
Since the end of the 2006 hurricane season, all local agencies have reviewed and updated their hurricane response plans at least once.
“We get hurricane season behind us, the holidays behind us,” said Tara Bishop, interim director of support services for East Naples fire. “Usually about the first of the year we go through the plan.”
Though last year’s hurricane season was quieter than expected, there are always improvements that can be made to a hurricane plan, officials said. This year Golden Gate fire had to incorporate its new headquarters on Collier Boulevard into its plan, said spokesman Victor Hill.
Likewise, Marco Island agencies are putting the finishing touches on a new emergency operations center on Bald Eagle Drive, and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office has just finished a new command center inside the Sheriff’s Office.
Still, hurricanes are nothing new to Southwest Florida, so most hurricane plans have already proven their worth.
“We’ve been preparing, or re-preparing, our emergency plan since the storms a couple years ago,” said Capt. Jim Slapp of the Naples police department.
“We’ve made a lot of adjustments and learned a lot from going through some of those storms.”
Collier County emergency management officials said their biggest issue at the moment is encouraging people to have a plan in place before hurricanes hit.
Jim von Rinteln, an emergency management coordinator for Collier County, said it is a constant battle getting people to understand the importance of planning ahead.
“Have enough supplies for at least 72 hours,” von Rinteln said. “It’s problematic for us to get assistance in the first three days. We’re really trying emphasize families and businesses preparing beforehand.”
Storm shutters and other supplies need to be purchased well before the storm hits, he said.
Residents also need to be prepared to leave if an evacuation is ordered, Bishop said.
“They are done for the residents’ well-being,” Bishop said of mandatory evacuations. “It’s not just to make everybody pick up and move and do the Chinese fire drill.”
Emergency Management has also adjusted its seminar schedule for preparing for hurricanes.
“We’ve adjusted the schedule so they’re mostly in June,” von Rinteln said. “We found people weren’t showing up in May.”
Collier has an influx of new residents every year but they usually don’t show up at the hurricane seminars, von Rinteln lamented.
“I’ve run into people who say, ‘Well we had Hurricane Wilma (in 2005) so we’re not going to have another one for a while,’” von Rinteln said. “It doesn’t work that way.”
In terms of getting stocked up for the hurricane season, von Rinteln said the county is in good shape because of the lack of storm activity in 2006.
“We’ve spent the winter months putting the logistics back in place,” he said. “Because of the slow season last year we didn’t have as much to put back together.”
Emergency Management will also have to deal with two more years of managing disasters in a cramped environment.
The Emergency Operations Center, on the first floor of building F at the county’s government complex, is the nerve center of the county when disaster strikes. County officials estimate the EOC, which has to house at least 40 people when a disaster threatens or strikes, is about 900 square feet with 16 work stations.
Work on building the new EOC on Lely Cultural Parkway recently began. It will be open for the 2009 hurricane season.
The Cities of Naples and Marco Island are preparing for hurricane season similarly by relying on their standard procedures with more fine-tuning than major policy shifts.
Marco City Manager Bill Moss said the city “dreads” hurricane season.
“We start off June 1 declaring there will be no hurricanes this season, but Mother Nature doesn’t always work like that,” he said.
Naples and Marco both use an automated “CodeRED” system to notify residents and business owners of evacuation orders, storm updates and other emergencies. The system calls those affected with messages as often as the city makes them available.
Sign ups for the CodeRED systems and revised hurricane guides are available for download on each city’s Web site: www.naplesgov.com and www.cityofmarcoisland.com.
Officials of both city governments said they had learned lessons since Hurricane Wilma struck Southwest Florida in 2005.
Since then, Marco has passed an ordinance requiring residents to secure their outdoor possessions, such as lawn chairs and potted plants, prior to the storm.
Naples has changed the way it requires construction sites to be secured before hurricanes with building officials inspecting the sites beforehand.
“There’s more teeth in it since Wilma,” Naples City Manager Bob Lee said.
Lee said Naples has 29,000 trees in public rights of way. That abundance of foliage led to 25,000 tons of yard waste that required cleanup in the two months following Wilma. Since Wilma, Naples has replanted more sturdy oak trees where ficus used to be.
Marco is continuing to supply car decals for residents to re-enter the city should access be restricted following an evacuation. The stickers are available at City Hall, the fire station, Mackle Park and through the Marco Island Civic Association. Marco business owners should give a list of their required employees to the Marco Island Police Department to allow for re-entry, Moss said.
Ultimately, residents need to remember that preparing for hurricane season is about being sure they can keep themselves safe, said Victor Hill of Golden Gate fire.
“Dealing with a hurricane is really, in a large part, being ready for it,” he said. “It’s about making sure you can provide for yourself and the people around you.”
- - -
Staff writer Ryan Mills can be reached at ramills@naplesnews.com, Larry Hannan can be reached at ljhannan@naplesnews.com, and Liam Dillon can be reached at ljdillon@naplesnews.com.
Comments
This site does not necessarily agree with comments posted below — responsibility lies with the relevant reader alone. Read our privacy policy & user agreement.
Post your comment
(Requires free registration.)