Lessons unlearned

Florida not so well-prepared for hurricanes

After the Katrina debacle last summer, most Floridians and their emergency management officials, including Gov. Jeb Bush, were feeling fairly cocky about their hurricane savviness.

Hey, we're pros at this preparedness business, what with the lessons of Andrew, Charley, Jeanne, Ivan and Frances fresh in our brains, everyone in Florida thought or said with a touch of snobbish pity for the amateurs in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Oh, yeah? Then why does the South Florida Water Management District fear for the lives of 40,000 residents below Lake Okeechobee because the huge lake's dike bears "a striking resemblance to Swiss cheese?"

Why can't civil law enforcement officers communicate by phone or radio with emergency management officials who are monitoring weather conditions, evacuation efforts and damage reports?

Why do state and local authorities permit people to rebuild in hazardous coastal areas that have previously been destroyed and from which all will have to be evacuated in event of another hurricane.

And why are there vastly insufficient spaces to shelter the threatened population in most Florida counties?

Oh, and for a state where wind damage is one of the biggest threats to structures, why does Florida not have a comprehensive hurricane insurance plan that would help folks to rebuild if their homes or businesses are damaged or destroyed by a hurricane?

Disaster waiting to happen

Despite the lessons that should have been learned as far back as Andrew in 1992, Florida really isn't all that well prepared for the onslaught that hurricane experts predict is coming this season. Even as state emergency management officials warn residents to stockpile enough food, water and other necessities to get by for seven days, policy-makers at the highest levels do not do everything they should do to protect their constituents.

Indeed, Manatee County's own Emergency Management Center is housed in a building rated capable of withstanding only a Category 2 hurricane. The staff would have to evacuate if winds of 111 or more m.p.h. were expected. At least Manatee County Commissioners are making sure this is the last season that oversight will be tolerated; a new Emergency Management headquarters will be built in time for the 2007 season on U.S. 301 far from the flood zone, to Category 5 standards.

Statewide, the Lake Okeechobee dike's stability is the most worrisome oversight. The lack of urgency in making repairs or even studying what needs to be done is eerily reminiscent of New Orleans' lassez faire attitude about its levees before Katrina struck. Everyone knew the levees were not designed to withstand a storm of Katrina's intensity, and everyone simply assumed no storm that massive would hit. There was no basis for that assumption; naive wishing and inertia were the policy drivers. Despite the knowledge that almost 3,000 died when a 1928 hurricane breached the lake's levee, the Corps of Engineers has no plan to beef up the Okeechobee levee.

Cross-agency communication

After the slaughter of rescue workers in the 9/11 disaster blamed partly on the inability of different agencies to communicate with one another, there is no excuse for incompatible radio and phone systems between police, fire and emergency management staffers. But it exists, hindering the ability to exchange information rapidly to protect life and property. Eliminating that communication bottleneck should be the first use of a $100 million grant awarded Florida last week by the Department of Homeland Security for emergency preparedness.

Leadership is lacking at the state and national level on the insurance front. The Florida Legislature failed to pass the comprehensive insurance bill the state needs in its session ended May 5. But what's really needed is a national catastrophic fund that would spread the burden of catastrophic losses across all 50 states. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, joined by Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, last week filed legislation to create a commission to come up with recommendations to Congress for a national disaster fund. Natural disasters are not Florida's problem alone; almost every state at some time will need federal assistance to recover from a disaster. It makes sense to set up a national fund to which all states contribute in order to avoid the kind of insurance crisis Florida now faces.

As for rebuilding in vulnerable areas, it appears no state is willing to bite the bullet to stop coastal development that puts more people in harm's way each year. Property rights are considered too sacred, and the economic disruption such a prohibition would bring to most areas make that a politically unpalatable proposition. Yet the reality of repeated coastal destruction some day may at least force government to stop subsidizing the rebuilding. If that happens, true market forces will dictate whether destroyed beachfront property is rebuilt.

Individual property owners must take the steps recommended to be self-sufficient for up to one week after a hurricane hits. But all look to local, state and national officials to provide the Big Picture protection that's needed. As Katrina and other recent storms have proven, in too many cases it's missing.

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/opinion/14734969.htm