Attaboys, alarm bells and lessons learned from Hurricane Dorian | Editorial

As a dry run, Hurricane Dorian showed South Florida has made significant steps in preparing for the big one. With some exception, people in government, business and living rooms used sound judgment, remembering lessons from the past.

But you can’t come away from this storm without looking at the devastation in the Bahamas and thinking: “That could have been us.” For no amount of preparation can protect a community from a Category 5 that hangs around for two days. As we all know, we were enormously lucky that Dorian took that turn north.

Yet let us reflect on the week that was, when it appeared doomsday was knocking at our door.

First, some good news.

Remembering the lessons of Hurricane Irma two years ago, Fort Lauderdale inspectors visited construction sites to ensure no cranes would fall from on high. As in other cities, they checked to ensure assisted living facilities had a working generator or evacuation plan. Debris-collection crews were staged in strategic locations. The police department staffed up. Public Works crews tested generators and cleared storm drains. And an organized team of volunteers checked on vulnerable people.

Broward County, meanwhile, opened shelters for people with special needs, but held off calling for evacuations, given the uncertainty of where the slow-moving storm would hit. That’s a big difference from Irma, when many people -- including this editorial board -- criticized the county for evacuating too many folks too early and failing to first notify the leaders of its 31 cities.

Statewide about 6 million people left their homes in advance of Irma -- the largest evacuation in Florida history -- and it did not go so well. Many people evacuated to shelters ill-equipped to handle them. Many found themselves stuck in highway traffic jams, their gas gauges hovering near empty and gas stations out of gas. Too many evacuated into Irma’s unpredictable path, then frantically headed back.

Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry and her staff deserve kudos for not over- or under-reacting to Dorian, but demonstrating good judgment under stressful conditions.

Here’s how Broward Mayor Mark Bogen tells it: “The state was encouraging evacuation. ‘Let’s start the evacuations. Why aren’t you evacuating?’ It wasn’t necessary to evacuate. Bertha demonstrated patience and deliberateness. … Irma taught us a lesson. It was supposed to go up the East Coast, but it wound up devastating the Naples area. We did not take for granted it was going up north this time. Our message was: Don’t forget 2017, with Irma.”

FPL also appeared well-prepared, with pre-staged repair crews, upgraded communication tools and representatives more closely connected to local governments. And cellphone companies created dozens of new hotspots, which we hope would have worked better this time.

Gov. Ron DeSantis was on his game -- calm, informed, delegating where appropriate, unwilling to evacuate people “willy nilly and create a lot of chaos and panic.” Jared Moskowitz, the state director of emergency management and former lawmaker from Broward, also commanded confidence and deserves credit for speeding up reimbursements to cities and counties still holding the bills for Irma damage.

It’s risky to name names when offering attaboys because you’re sure to miss people who deserve recognition. So to all the unsung heroes of Dorian, on behalf of our community, let us simply say thank you.

Now to the lessons of Dorian, which include two issues of great importance.

Nursing homes: With Florida in Dorian’s sights, the state said 151 coastal nursing homes and assisted living facilities still didn’t have the temporary generators they were supposed to have by July 1 -- and 37 had no generators or emergency plans at all.

As it turned out, the list had some inaccuracies, which is both unfair to the maligned homes and alarming to citizens who expect the state to know its turf.

As for the bigger issue, enough is enough. Twelve nursing home residents died for lack of air conditioning after Irma knocked the power out in Hollywood. Yes, it’s expensive to install a generator that can power a big air conditioning system. But such is the cost of doing business.

Neither is an evacuation plan a sufficient long-term alternative. It can be deadly to move someone who’s elderly or infirm. That’s why good nursing homes do everything possible to shelter their residents safely in place.

Florida lawmakers and licensing officials should come down hard on the bad actors. How many more people have to die?

Insufficient shelters: When Irma headed our way two years ago, South Florida officials scrambled to staff enough shelters for people to take refuge. And when Dorian loomed our way last week, Broward County still had less than half the shelter staff it needed.

Broward Emergency Management Director Tracy Jackson said the county hoped to have 1,800 shelter staffers -- mostly county and school district employees -- but only 700 people were trained and available.

Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine said exactly what needed to be said: “To have conversations about hurricanes and emergency management using the word ‘hopefully’ and ‘we think we’ll get there’ and ‘we might get there' and ‘we’re talking about’ ” comments, it just can’t be acceptable to us.”

We understand that people want to be with their families when a storm approaches. But so do a lot of people -- like first responders, hospital workers, power company employees and journalists, too. Public service jobs are about serving the public. The county and school board must solve the staffing issue. No excuses.

Now, some other lessons from Dorian:

Forecasting models: As we’ve previously said, hurricane forecasting is complex. It depends in large part on how much we choose to spend on people, science and technology. And we choose not to spend very much. In fact, the Trump administration this year proposed “devasting cuts” to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which includes the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center. The proposal reduces NOAA’s budget by 18 percent. That’s nearly $1 billion.

The hurricane center needs a more robust forecast model and a clearer way of communicating uncertainty. Last Thursday evening, for example, its “cone of uncertainty” made it appear certain that Dorian would smash into Florida. The only question was where. Yet sophisticated HWind analytics available from private-sector modelers -- used by financial services institutions with huge exposure -- already showed a 30 percent chance the storm would turn north, toward Georgia and South Carolina. People in government, who make critical decisions that affect lives and livelihoods, deserve to know what the private sector’s best models are saying, too.

Infrastructure: After Irma, Pembroke Pines Vice Mayor Jay Schwartz told us the city “invested significant dollars into back-up generators for our water plant and facilities serving the public.” But in Fort Lauderdale, recall that Mayor Dean Trantalis has described the Fiveash Water Treatment Plant as being “kept together by spit and chewing gum.” If the plant were hit by even a minor hurricane, a great many people -- including in neighboring communities -- would likely lose drinking water.

“So, my takeaway is that Fort Lauderdale must aggressively move forward with improvements to critical infrastructure -- our water, sewer and stormwater systems,” Trantalis told us. “In doing so, we will be better prepared for major storms and avoid the frequent problems that come with aging plants and pipes. The federal, state and local governments need to come together to discuss these sort of infrastructure needs and how to pay for them.”

A lesson of Dorian is that information about critical infrastructure should be more broadly shared. As a community, we need to know about the cracks in our foundation and what’s needed to fix them. Cities and counties are currently in budget discussions. What big-ticket infrastructure projects are on the agenda?

Gas stations: Only gas stations built or refurbished after a certain date are required to have generators that would let them stay open if the lights go out. And no one really knows which gas stations those are. Florida should require all gas stations to have generators that can power the pumps after a bad storm. The industry has had plenty of transition time.

As it is, the lack of confidence in post-storm gas supplies causes pre-storm panic that can consume significant police resources, Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan told us. He encourages a real-time system that lets people know which stations have gas or when re-supplies are due. It’s a customer-friendly idea worth acting on now, to prevent panic if a big one hits.

311: As the storm advanced on Friday, the county’s information hotline faced a 45-minute wait. Given that 311 is where people are directed to go for information, especially people with special needs, Broward’s emergency checklist should include staffing up its call center.

Communications: Communications were much improved between the state, counties and cities on matters such as evacuation considerations, shelter decisions, water management and fuel supplies. DeSantis and Moskowitz convened daily conference calls. In Broward, Henry held twice-daily calls with city managers and Bogen held twice-daily briefings.

"We were able to collect information in real-time and adjust our messaging to the public and our employees as needed,” Tamarac Mayor Michelle Gomez told us. Weston Commissioner Margaret Brown, who is president of the state Deaf Service Centers Association, would like to remind media outlets to keep the interpreter in view.

Social media: While governments are using their websites and social media accounts to better share information, misinformation still spread. “As a city official I can tell you that there is enormous value in using social media to alert citizens of evacuation orders, debris pickup, shelter information, schedules for first responders, availability of food, fuel and essentials during the preparation,” Earl Maucker, a Lighthouse Point commissioner, told us. “However, there is a negative side. Local neighborhood sites and unregulated social media often provide incorrect or misleading unverified information.”

Now is a good time to remind you to get your information from respected media sites or government websites. During a crisis, you deserve the facts and expert analysis, not speculation and fear-mongering.

Trees and debris: As Dorian approached, people began trimming trees and placing piles of trash by the road. But that’s too late, folks. Cities suspend bulk-waste pick-up in deteriorating weather conditions. And curbside coconuts can become projectiles in a storm.

“For future events, the Town needs to work on educating the community about suspending tree trimming and not putting bulk waste debris at the curb prior to a storm,” Philip Holste, assistant administrator of Davie, told us.

“The concern of our residents, hence our opportunity to improve, involved shutting down trash, recycling and bulk collections and then re-starting,” said Andy Berns, town administrator in Southwest Ranches. “Given the size of the properties in Southwest Ranches, bulk collection of vegetative materials is substantial. We had to stop it in time for our hauler to be safe, and we wanted to restart as quickly as possible. The catch is, if there was a lot of green debris and property damage, an emergency declaration by FEMA triggers a different response involving different vendors. While we want to resume normal services as quickly as possible, we don’t know what that will be until the storm passes.”

Pembroke Pines officials also told us that the early closure of the Reuters Recycling Composting and Transfer Station caught them by surprise and interrupted pre-storm trash pick-up.

Sandbags: A better system is needed to get sandbags to people whose homes are at risk of flooding. The county doesn’t offer sandbags. Some cities do, some don’t. Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan says: “No single municipality can carry this burden of supply and staffing a sandbag operation.” Dania Beach Commissioner Chickie Brandimarte agrees more locations are needed. Given the ever-increasing flood risk that faces South Florida because of sea-level rise, emergency managers should better address their customers’ needs.

Personal responsibility: Not every resident did his or her part. Some remained complacent, despite Dorian’s menacing presence. We understand why people might delay a decision about shutters. Given the storm’s crawling speed, there would be time to install or close them. But why wait until the last minute to see if the flashlight works? Being prepared can reduce pre-storm stress.

“Try as we might to encourage homes to supply themselves early in the year for storm season, avoiding that last-minute shopping crunch has been an elusive goal,” said Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo. “It seems to happen over and over again. Water, which oddly we can get out of our taps, was in great demand and short supply. Propane tanks for BBQs was hard to find. And there were long lines at gas pumps that did erupt at times into personal confrontations. Police handled most of those. I visited many seniors at their doors in Century Village … and they were remarkably calm and very much prepared. The single-family community was not as well-prepared and suffered greater anxiety as a result.”

Vulnerable people: Hallandale Beach Commissioner Annabelle Lima-Taub says more needs to be done for low-income people, particularly those in mobile homes and those without transportation. “I am very concerned that Hallandale Beach and the county does not have an adequate support system for them.” Lima-Taub is right to shine a spotlight on the challenges facing those whose voices aren’t often heard. What are they supposed to do?

Every hurricane is different, but learning the lessons of Dorian will better prepare us for what’s ahead. Even as we write this, more tropical disturbances are brewing in the Atlantic.

“I’m telling people, leave your shutters up,” says Bogen, with a laugh. “My shutters are staying up.”

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Sergio Bustos, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.

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