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Facing a Dire Storm Forecast in Florida, Officials Delayed Evacuation

TravelTime

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As Hurricane Ian charged toward the western coast of Florida this week, the warnings from forecasters were growing more urgent. Life-threatening storm surge threatened to deluge the region from Tampa all the way to Fort Myers.

But while officials along much of that coastline responded with orders to evacuate on Monday, emergency managers in Lee County held off, pondering during the day whether to tell people to flee, but then deciding to see how the forecast evolved overnight.

The delay, an apparent violation of the meticulous evacuation strategy the county had crafted for just such an emergency, may have contributed to catastrophic consequences that are still coming into focus as the death toll continues to climb.

At least 16 storm-related deaths have been identified in Lee County, the highest toll anywhere in the state…

…Lee County, which includes the hard-hit seaside community of Fort Myers Beach, as well as the towns of Fort Myers, Sanibel and Cape Coral, did not issue a mandatory evacuation order for the areas likely to be hardest hit until Tuesday morning, a day after several neighboring counties had ordered their most vulnerable residents to flee.…

…local schools had been designed to be shelters and that the school board had made the decision to keep them open on Monday….

…“The county could have been more proactive and could have given us more time to evacuate,” she said. On the road toward the east side of the state, she said, she was driving through torrents of rain, with tornadoes nearby….

…Lee County is now an epicenter of devastation, with mass destruction at Fort Myers Beach, the partial collapse of the Sanibel Causeway and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. With water mains broken, the county utilities agency has advised residents to boil their water.

President Biden said on Friday that the destruction from the storm was likely to be among the worst in U.S. history.

“It’s going to take months, years to rebuild,” he said.



On Florida’s Islands, Scenes of Paradise Lost, Maybe for Good

…In places like Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel Island and Pine Island, just west of Fort Myers, an easygoing existence that once revolved around seashell hunts, shrimping, turtle-watching, taking in sunsets over the Gulf, and the ebb and flow of a seasonal tourist economy had been obliterated….

…“It looks like a bomb went off,” said Dana Gosford, a managing partner of Shucker’s, a century-old seafood restaurant and bar in Fort Myers Beach that was flattened by the storm. “We’re just — I don’t know if we’re going to be rebuilding at this point. We’re just still in shock.”…

…“It’s a war zone,” Mr. Hanson said. “It couldn’t really be any worse.”…
 
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Patri

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Hindsight always works. People still had two days, and should always go regardless of what the government says, if you think you could be in danger.
 

tombanjo

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Evan with mandatory evacuations, people do not want to go, but at least with a mandatory evacuation order there is going to be more people who take it seriously, than if they see their leaders NOT taking it seriously.

What's done is done, and cannot be undone.

Having been through Andrew and various other and sundry hurricanes, I know that things are irrevocably changed, and no amount of moaning, suing, anger, etc, will change the past, but at least people will, for a short time at least, recognize the power of nature and respect it.
 

DrQ

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rapmarks

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Hindsight always works. People still had two days, and should always go regardless of what the government says, if you think you could be in danger.
Not two days, one day, people were sheltered the next day, all day. My neighborhood was in the mandatory evacuation zone, but we didn’t have flooding. We lost trees, pool cages, and some roofs. My friends husband is 93 and she couldn’t move him. Most of my neighbors stayed home but everyone of them said it was really scary.

that doesn’t compare to going on a vacation, hearing about mandatory evacuation, and staying in a hotel room and thinking 811 was going to come when it starts flooding.
the entire day Tuesday I was receiving automated calls, texts and emails, one right after the other about evacuation
 

Talent312

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We happened to be in Vegas once when a 'cane came thru.
At the time, my (adult) stepsons huddled in our brick house.

This time, one stepson came up from Tampa to get away.
I told him that he should have gone to Vegas, instead.

.
 

MdRef

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Florida sheriff issues warning to looters: You will be 'carried out'.

 

DrQ

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Cone of confusion: Why some say iconic hurricane map misled Floridians

Its image is ubiquitous ahead of any hurricane, fundamental to decisions coastal residents, first responders and politicians make to prepare for storms and to evacuate: the forecast cone.

But amid finger-pointing over what mistakes may have contributed to dozens of deaths during Hurricane Ian, the concept of the cone is being questioned.

The National Hurricane Center graphic is perhaps misunderstood as widely as it is broadcast. It simply shows the likely future locations of a storm’s center — that is, the path weather-forecasting models suggest its eye will take over the next three to five days.

But many view the cone as indicating that danger is limited to areas within a shaded wedge of the map.

 

JudyH

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I live here. They made such a big deal of it hitting St Pete and Tampa Bay. They downplayed the southern drift until it was to late to anything. People who evacuated Irma and regretted it did not leave with Ian. Most of my neighbors stayed. Most of my neighbors had flooding up to their garages. The ones that didn’t have this kind of flooding lost power for days and cell service for days. No gas. Stores not open. People were sure they could tough it out and have a good story. I didn’t stay and I won’t stay ever.
 
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