Going a decade without a hurricane leaves emergency management officials worried that local residents have storm-prep amnesia.
Hurricane Wilma, which damaged roofs and knocked out power for millions when it swept across Florida in 2005, was the last one to hit the state.
But at the start of new hurricane season, Palm Beach County officials say the risk of facing another storm is as high as ever. And it doesn’t take a direct hit to cause deadly flooding or dangerous winds.
For too many residents, getting ready for a storm “isn’t even on their radar screen,” lamented Bill Johnson, the county’s director of emergency management.
“I am very concerned that we have a disaster-preparedness problem,” Johnson said.
First responders, meteorologists and other officials gathered in West Palm Beach Tuesday to try to raise awareness about the need to get ready for hurricane season.
People should be buying food and water to ride out flooding and power outages that could linger for a week or more, officials said.
They warned that flashlights, batteries, cell phone rechargers, prescription refills, cash and storm shutters should be at the ready, long before the first storm watches are issued.
And residents who live in flood-prone evacuation zones should plan ahead to find inland destinations to ride out a storm.
This hurricane season, which stretches from June through November, is forecast to have fewer storms than usual. Just seven named storms including three hurricanes were projected in April by Phil Klotzbach and William Gray of Colorado State University.
But it only takes one storm to wreak havoc, as evidenced by Hurricane Andrew leveling neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County and killing 26 people in 1992. Andrew was the one major storm that year.
Even tropical storms that don’t reach hurricane-level wind speeds can pose a serious risk.
Tropical Storm Isaac in 2012 flooded much of Loxahatchee, Wellington and neighborhoods west of Boynton Beach even though the storm stayed centered in the Gulf of Mexico.
“It’s early and we have a long way to go,” Richard Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center, said about hurricane season. “It doesn’t take a hurricane and it doesn’t take a direct impact.”
Staff writer Ken Kaye contributed to this report. abreid@sunsentinel.com, 561-228-5504 or Twitter@abreidnews
