Is Gulfport Hurricane Ready?
Evacuation shelters, by design, offer only a roof and floor space during a hurricane. Within 72 hours. they are supposed to transform into emergency shelters, providing water, food and cots. The Red Cross decides where supplies are needed and sends them by truck. The Tampa Bay Planning Council study, The Phoenix Project, predicts that during a Category 3 [or greater] storm, southern Pinellas will be an island. After the storm passes, all evacuation and supply routes will be blocked or destroyed and no Red Cross trucks will get through. How long will this last? There is no public information on how the county or Red Cross plan to deal with this. The residents of Gulfport need the City of Gulfport to be proactive in addressing this life or death situation. (P.S.: Look at the Pinellas County flood zone map and notice the red line running from the St. Pete airport to Bay Pines hospital. This will be the path of northern Tampa Bay storm surge runoff after a hurricane. I am looking for any information on plans to deal with this. –David O’Brien, Gulfport
