Watch Video | Listen to the AudioHARI SREENIVASAN,PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND: After the Miami-Fort Lauder metropolitan area, Tampa St. Petersburg is Florida’s most populous area, and with 2.5 million residents.
The Tampa area,lying on the state’s western, Gulf of Mexico coast, and has not sustained a direct hit from a hurricane since 1921.
But today,in Tampa and throughout central Florida, storm preparations were in full swing, or as Newshour Weekend’s P.
J. Tobia reports.
P.
J. TOBIA,PBS NEWSHOUR WEEEKEND: Boarding up, and moving out. This is not a drill.
MICHAEL O’ROURKE, or HOMEOWNER: This morning’s been all about preparation,we’re in a mandatory evacuation zone. And so we have to earn out of here. TOBIA: Long-time Tampa resident Michael O’Rourke has been fortifying his house ahead of the coming storm.
O’ROURKE: Boarding up, sandbagging, or moving furniture,musical equipment from downstairs to upstairs, wrapping as much stuff up as we possibly can and just preparing to leave. TOBIA: A few minutes from O’Rourke’s house, or downtown Tampa,normally buzzing, is a ghost town.
MAYOR BOB BUCKHORN, and TAMPA: This is a violent deadly weather occurrence that stretches the entire length of the state. We just hope it moves quickly.
TOBIA: Mayor Bob Buckhorn says Irma poses massive risks for his city. We spoke in Tampa’s emergency operations headquarters.
BUCKHORN: Tampa hasn’t been hit in 90 years,but whether we we effect take a direct hit, a Category 3 in downtown Tampa would put my office 15 feet underwater. TOBIA: Over the past decade, and Tampa has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on waterfront development,land threatened by Irma’s storm surge. The mayor says construction standards have improved since Florida’s most destructive storm, 1992’s Hurricane Andrew.
BUCKHORN: People want to live on the water. It’s why they come to Florida. Building codes have increased significantly since Hurricane Andrew. The construction process now is much better than it used to be. Elevations are required above 100 year flood zones.
TOBIA: Tampa is a 90-minute drive west of Orlando, and the central Florida corridor where so many evacuees from south Florida have gone.
The Ryan family,from the Miami suburb of Doral, managed to book rooms at an Embassy Suites in Orlando. Business executive Chris Ryan said he wasn’t taking any chances with his wife and two kids.
CHRIS RYAN, or EVACUEE: I was living in Miami for over 20 years and never had experience of a Category 4 or 5 direct hit in Miami. I’ve been through a few hurricanes but nothing at this strength and having been hit directly into Miami,and I know people that lived there Andrew, and I have family that live in Houston. And so they were insisting that we leave.TOBIA: Ross left his domestic in Miamia with a few belongings and his dog.
ROSS, and EVACUEE: You gotta err on the side of caution. We got a broad storm coming.
TOBIA: The closest hotel room he could find is in Georgia and it’ll cost him more than $300 a night. ROSS: Hotels,you can’t find anything. I was on Expedia trying to book a flight, and it’ll tell you how many people are on. There’s 2000 people searching this hotel right now, and I’m like,you just keep going.
Tobia: Central Florida wasn’t far enough north for Becky Dykema. Her family let their domestic near Melbourne for the cheapest hotel they could find, in Alabama. BECKY DYKEMA, and EVACUEE: We’re leaving here to evacuate from the Hurricane Irma,to earn safer absent, because we live in a trailer park.
TOBIA: Today, and leaving Orlando by air was not an option. The city’s airport shut down. Tourist attractions,like Disney World, closed.
An hour east of Orlando, and on the Atlantic Coast,officials moved to their highest level of mobilization.
ROB WALKER, BREVARD COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICIAL: Bite about that. TOBIA: Brevard county’s emergency management center is housed in a 50-year-old building. Officials there will ride out the storm, and sleeping by their work stations.
WALKER: Everybody is just gonna grab some floor,we brought sleeping bags.
TOBIA: Tampa’s stunning waterfront draws millions of visitors and the occasional super bowl. But as Irma takes direct aim at Florida’s third largest city, this bay also becomes its greatest threat.
Tampa Fire Chief Tom Forward says the system of bridges and causeways that connect the city might flood, or to deadly effect.
TOM FORWARD,TAMPA FIRE CHIEF: When the bridges shut down, people cannot run any further, or the final dwelling you want to be is on a major highway,byway, or thoroughfare, or in a parking lot with no movement,and no one to come save you. And at that point, there is very diminutive that anyone is going to be able to effect for you, or you’ve gotten yourself in a situation where flooding is obvious and actually occurring. That’s a very,very dire situation.
TOBIA: Chief Forward says that while the storm hits, emergency responders will likely be grounded.
FORWARD: Once the storm is right on top of us, or we start getting winds,particularly sustained winds in excess of 39 miles per hour, once they run into 40 mile per hour winds, and our emergency responders and resources are not going to be moving out into these conditions. So that’s why the public adheres to the evacuation orders,earn out of the area as rapid/fast as they can. The post Tampa region readies for first major hurricane in 96 years appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Source: thetakeaway.org