Patrick Fuller, emergency management director of Charlotte County, FL, said on CNN Wednesday that while he hopes people listened to advice and evacuated, now is the time for those that didn’t to “hunker down.”
“We’ve had those evacuation orders in place now for almost two days,” Fuller said. “That provided time for our residents to take heed and to leave the area that are most likely to be impacted by storm surge. So, our hope is that our residents listened and took the lesson of Hurricane Charley from 2004.”
“We hope that our residents did evacuate. We have shelters available, but now’s not the time to be on the roadways,” he said. “We’re beginning to experience these tropical storm-force winds and it’s only going to get stronger going forward.”
Fuller said that the influx of new residents in the last couple of years is a concern. Prior to and during hurricane season, outreach has been targeted toward them, “really trying to hammer home that if you’ve never been through a hurricane season, here’s what you should expect,” and trying to explain terms like storm surge and the vulnerability of the area.
He also noted that most emergency response agencies have stopped service at this point due to the winds. If a person calls 911 during the height of the storm, “we cannot come out and provide assistance,” he said, adding that they will talk people through their situations, but won’t immediately send help.
“Now’s the time to go head and hunker down,” he said. “And, unfortunately, with hazardous conditions, it’s not safe for anyone, emergency responder or not, to be on the roadways.”
Charlotte County is just north of Fort Myers and is the home of Punta Gorda, the Rotonda community and Port Charlotte.
Source: www.cnn.com