TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa city leaders say they’re prepared. Now they want Bay area residents to make sure they’re ready should a hurricane head our way.
City leaders went over lessons learned from last year during a news conference Wednesday morning presenting a list of changes now in place to keep residents safe.
“We lived through what could have been the most potentially devastating hurricane that had ever hit the Tampa Bay area,” said Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who praised city staff for their response to last year’s storm.
The mayor says the city is implementing minor updates in the layout of the Emergency Operations Center, looking at how the city gets fuel and working on better communication between the city and county to coordinate evacuations and shelter opening times.
And although Irma ended up a near miss, Buckhorn says there’s no escaping what one day WILL come.
“People have hurricane amnesia,” said Buckhorn. “We need to remind folks every year that they need to prepare themselves. Although we have avoided being hit for over 90 years, our day will come. We will take a direct hit at some point, it is inevitable.”
That means getting ready now, especially considering the month of June is especially active along the Gulf coast.
“June is a peak for the west coast of Florida for these early season storms,” said Brian LaMarre, meteorologist-in-charge for the Tampa Bay office of the National Weather Service. The agency’s National Hurricane Center will begin watches and warnings 12 hours earlier beginning this season.
“That allows people to get evacuation orders in place and to get to safer places,” said LaMarre
And while some criticized emergency officials for erroring on the side of safety when it came to evacuations, Buckhorn says people have to make decisions for themselves when it comes to their safety.
“I can’t legislate stupid,” said Buckhorn. “What we can do is tell the truth and tell them what we know and people then choose to make their own decisions.”
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