LATE CALL TO FLEE - Tampa Bay Times, front page headline

[Native]

The county knew how long it would take to evacuate, but they decided to hold off an additional day to make that call. And now DeSatan and Kevin Guthrie, Lee County's Division of Emergency Management chief are defending that late call fuck up by saying essentially that residents should have known better anyway because they "had emphasized the uncertainty of the forecasts, as well as that storm surge and flooding were possible for Southwest Florida."

Our Top Guv adding, “People were made aware,” he said. “They were told about the dangers and some people just made the decision that they did not want to leave.”

Yeah, our guv and our emergency management officials fucked up, but residents should have known better than them and made the call on their own. What a piece of human garbage that man is!

Evacuation orders weren’t issued in time for many in Southwest Florida to escape the worst of Ian. Some heeded media “hyperbole” and sought safety.

...for Lee County to have successfully evacuated everyone would have taken 48 hours, but at that time, Hurricane Ian still was projected to hit well north of Tampa, closer to Gainesville.

Evacuations were mandated for Lee County’s most vulnerable zone 13 hours after Pinellas County issued its first order, and 17 hours after Hillsborough began its evacuations. While emergency management experts caution against comparing the evacuation times of different counties due to varying geography and population, the differences illustrate just how quickly Southwest Florida residents were told to respond.

...Southwest Florida is “the hardest place in the country to evacuate in a disaster,” because of the large population and limited road system.


Follow the link below to view the article.

LATE CALL TO FLEE
https://tampabaytimes-fl.newsmemory.com/?publink=2c14d9c05_134866e

[Timeflyer]

1. Compassion is not a virtue DeathSatan understands or values.

Hurricane was a series of free TV reelection campaign appearances for him.

[malaise]

4. The media caught on

They cut him off yesterday - it’s going to get really ugly for Bad Karma DeathSentence

[Delphinus]

5. From your lips ...

to the ears of a just universe.

[irisblue]

12. May it be so Amen

[paleotn]

7. Good....

But I must admit, from a purely political standpoint, part of me wanted him to royally fuck this up. A competent performance would have made a tougher row to hoe for Charlie Christ.

[Baitball Blogger]

20. I think I saw that!

He was talking and he got cut off. I wondered if it was a mistake.

[niyad]

2. May all involved receive everything they deserve.

[live love laugh]

3. Is this Katrina or Ian? They said the same thing in Katrina.

Fucking maggots. Literally.

[Roy Rolling]

6. I lived Katrina

The problem in Katrina was transportation. Those without cars decided to stay because they had to, not because they wanted to. One of my closest friends as a kid drowned in a wheelchair with 30 others in a nursing home. My wife’s godmother slipped climbing attic stairs and was drowned.

There was little blaming then because everyone was too busy living and dying. Almost 2,000 people were lost in Katrina, 47 in Ian. Ian is mostly property damage (and the human tragedy attached to that trauma), Katrina wiped out both property and lives.

The aftermath was a different thing. It took days for rescue, weeks for power or non-Army ration MREs—which were scrumptious.

Government and FEMA failed in Katrina, in a different way than Ian.

This time, the Republican governor of Florida immediately blamed the victims of the worst storm in Florida’s history. Bye bye, Ron. You aren’t recovering from this stupidity.

[live love laugh]

8. They also blamed Katrina's victims for not leaving when

many couldn’t.

We never got a count of all the casualties.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. Lived there shortly after, and you are exactly right!

[FakeNoose]

16. Well Katrina hit NOLA & Louisiana, but there are plenty of evil Repukes to go around

Just sayin'

[mcar]

9. Blame the victims

How Republican of them.

[Rebl2]

14. What they always do

Blame the victim. If they get in trouble, it’s everyone else’s fault.

[Warpy]

17. The NOAA model showed where that thing was going to hit

the night before, but most likely it was a case of "it's dark out, nobody's going to evacuate at night." You know, treating people like idiots whose cars don't have headlights.

Yes, they were pig ignorant and the call should have gone out the night before, enough would have evacuated that it wouldn't have been such a cluster fuck the next day. Waiting until morning was waiting too late.

But, being Republican, they don't really care. It's not their family, you know, so what's the big deal?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. Interesting that the paper is saying that landfall was predicted

to be way above Tampa. I watched it pretty closely and I don't remember that ever being the case. Maybe the very first call was Tampa Bay, but then each hour after that it moved a little more south. Of course it never that far south was the point, but still..

[SYFROYH]

15. It was initially predicted to hit further north.

For example on 9.25.22
?w=1200&ssl=1


It is fascinating that even that far out (Sunday) the predictive cone included (barely) where it made landfall.

[Baitball Blogger]

19. The European model was more reliable.

[Hortensis]

21. Yes, once Ian got close enough for predictions to start "zeroing in,"

they were looking farther south at the Tampa Bay area. We used to live on the water at the south end of the bay and have friends there, so we were watching. Earlier, Floridians knew all of FL was possible and to wait for better info. This is now two giant storms that covered the entire peninsula, though.

Btw, our mobile home and park on the water just off Tampa Bay, predicted to take possibly major storm surge? We really thought this might be it for the sweet old thing, but just as unscathed by Ian as by Irma. Damage to a couple carports and whatever.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. I didn't know you used to live there. We've had

A timeshare for 37 yrs in Sarasota. Small world.

Your title is so apt... " Close enough for predictions to start zeroing in". When I started watching closely. Since we're scheduled to go there next Sat. Suncoast fortunate for sure. Not like Lee County.

.

[Hortensis]

44. Yes, very fortunate. I really like Sarasota.

One set of kids is headed for Orlando with kids and friends this week, but not the flooded part.

Our ex- park is across the water from the Bradenton Riverwalk, walk and bike to almost everything we need including a little adjacent wildlife refuge with walking paths, and we backed to a canal with our own boat dock. Near perfect in a lot of ways, but the wind blew my fishing fool off the water too often, and keeping him out and about fishing is the big reason we winter down there. He just turned 82. He's going kayaking with a group tomorrow to count and tag fish in a GA river.

Have a nice time.

[mcar]

22. Early tracks had it making landfall north of Tampa

then it veered west toward the panhandle, then started moving south/southeast.

It was a difficult one to track, but it did seem like it was steadily moving south. Given that it's so difficult to evacuate from SW FL, the call should have gone out as a precaution.

I fear the death toll will rise greatly.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

42. Maybe a bullet train running right up the peninsula would help.

[mcar]

48. Would have

if thenGov Voldemort didn't kill the funding.

[Warpy]

24. It was, but that's even before it hit Cuba

Projections kept moving farther east, which meant farther south on the peninsula and that meant the storm wouldn't have a chance to weaken. I seem to remember the 8 PM model the night before had it hitting south of Tampa and the 11 PM model had it hitting around Ft. Meyers. They lost about 10 hours of evacuation time because they didn't send out the alert to evacuate those barrier islands. until morning.

They also underestimated the storm surge, although what they did estimate is enough to take most buildings down.

My parents lived on a barrier island off the east coast of Florida. There was one causeway to get to the mainland. There were two others, but they were 15 miles away. Nobody seems to think about that stuff when they've got stars in their eyes about being close to water and year round summer fun.

[lostnfound]

28. Forecast all day Sunday: track headed for the panhandle

Halfway down this npr record is a rolling record of forecast tracks

8 pm Sunday
Pretty much all day Sunday the panhandle was the forecast.

But on Saturday very early morning it was tracking toward Sarasota. Then St Pete Saturday night, then the Sunday panhandle forecasts. On the weekend if people were watching the impression would be that it was moving away from Tampa bay.
Monday night it was looking like Tampa bay like a bowling ball in a pocket.
Tuesday morning forecast shifted south to Sarasota, Tuesday night the Sarasota airport closed and on Wednesday morning not safe on the roads.

At 7 pm on Monday Lee county announced evacuation orders for zone A and B. “Parts of zone C” were added sometime at 4:41 pm Tuesday

[Laura PourMeADrink]

37. Thanks for that fact based account! So much better

than what time when I tuned in. Lol which must have been Saturday. Just never heard north of Tampa into Gainesville.

I think this is the first time I really paid attention. It's really interesting to see models and how they change & how they converge over time. Perhaps not always but by the time they knew Ft Myers I remember them making the point that US and European models were almost the same.

PS. They say a perfect barometer ( no pun intended) is where Jim Cantore goes. And he started in Clearwater

[Hortensis]

46. Good summary, Lostnfound. Lee County, farther south, was the late caller,

other counties around preceding it.

I wouldn't have bet more than a dollar that Tampa's record would hold true now that climate change catastrophes are common, but Tampa's so far never taken a direct hit by an eye, always swinging around, regardless of which direction they came from.

But if we were there, we'd have prepared seriously, watching and ready to evacuate or head to a shelter anyway. Heck, we prepared here in No. GA more than some people in FL seemed to. Irma dropped trees by the thousands up here and blocked roads and took out power to hundreds of thousands for over 2 weeks.

[lostnfound]

13. Evacuation would be easier if Florida had high speed rail that GOP opposes

Up to 125 mph to move people from one coast to another would be pretty handy

[Hermit-The-Prog]

43. Didn't read yours before posting above. Should be a bullet train full length of the peninsula.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. so Fucking Typical REPUBLICAN! Blame the victim. And turn attention away

from bad Republican lead government decisions.

This should be a mark against De Santis. Two marks. One for his incompetence, and the other for refusing to take blame.

That is such a typical response from bad leadership. And i see it too often. Like the lady whose husband served on our HOA board even though it was his full intention to take over HOA common grounds along their house. Her group arrived to the meeting already prepared to file a motion to take over the common grounds and wanted to vote on the issue in THAT meeting! She had to reluctantly accept a delay that we required (in a panic, I might add. I hadn't realized what these co-conspirators had spent months planning)

Her conclusion: In that time before the vote, she assumed people would have to figure it out on their own. "It's on you." I HATE that term because I heard it for the first time in that meeting. Meaning it was the responsibility of each homeowner to educate themselvers over the full rights that they had when they moved in.

No. It was not on every homeowner to figure it out for themselves. They had lived in a community full of crooked people that withheld information from them from the time they moved in. I was on the board at that time and I knew it was wrong, so I took it upon myself to scan in the plats so people knew where those common grounds were located AND also took pictures of the property.

Well I got my ass handed to me by the president of the HOA,. (Her husband.) He said I had abused my power.

Fucking crooked people. And that's all there is in this community, and apparently a common trait with the governor.

[usaf-vet]

23. Don't you just luv the way the GQP shift responsibity from Federal to State to individual......

...... as needed.

They take away a woman's right to choose what is right for her and her family regarding pregnancies.

Then the GQP puts the responsibility for the lives of entire families back on the individual when it serves their political needs.

Whatever leaves the GQP without blame is their standard modus operandi. Hypocrites one and all.

[The Blue Flower]

25. I was waiting for him to call Ian a hoax

"You know, it'll just go away if you drink some clorox."

[BlackSkimmer]

26. Thanks for posting.

[Native]

33. 👋

[Demovictory9]

34. Kick 🦵

[AmBlue]

27. I'm in Pinellas

Last edited Sun Oct 2, 2022, 12:23 PM - Edit history (1)

...and have lived in Florida all my life. I was in an area with evacuation orders. I started trying to book a hotel two days BEFORE those orders were issued and every hotel on high ground that would accept pets within 30 miles of me had no availability. We also were boarding up our house. By the time we prepped our house and packed-- and this is with 3 people working-- we were getting rain from the outer bands of Ian.

If we had tried to drive out of the state, which would have been two cars caravaning, we would likely have been caught in miles and miles of stop n go traffic with the hurricane buffeting us on the road. I know, because I've done this before. Five or six hours to go 120 miles, and you never want to be on the road when the eye hits. There is never an easy solution in these scenarios, but one thing is critical. Adequate warning and sufficient TIME to prepare, pack up and go.

DeSantis was early and all over the local news in the Tampa Bay area, making sure he had just the right camera angle even when the experts were speaking, trying to use this hurricane to make himself look good. He even brought his wife along for camera exposure. I would be willing to bet this was not the case down south of us. (If someone in Ft Myers area can comment, please do.) I think DeSantis made the rookie mistake of thinking that Ian would come straight up the cone of uncertainty. Exactly what the experts say NOT to do.

Bottom line is DeSantis and the local officials in Lee and Charlotte Counties should have warned and evacuated people sooner. People lost their lives as a result.

[lostnfound]

29. Thanks for posting. Florida has unique challenges

Pinellas county becomes a few hundred thousand sitting ducks, with too few ways to evacuate and too little time. Fortunately it rarely gets hit. Though that could be changing.

[Native]

31. DeSantis thinks he's an expert in all things. He did the same thing with Covid.

Walked around carrying a binder of data; our Supreme Interpreter. Fuck the CDC. Fuck Fauci. I, DeSatan, am saying that the world is overreacting. Oh, and you stupid high-schoolers, take off those damn masks. I, DeSatan, hereby declare they are useless, and wearing them is an affront to me.

I'm sure he did the same damn thing with this. He thought his interpretation was the right one.

People died because of his arrogance during Covid, and Floridians are paying for his arrogance once again.

[AmBlue]

32. Exactly.

He's a man with no humility and will never admit his errors or take responsibility. He's a dictator wannabe. All the reasons he should have never been Governor.

[onethatcares]

35. we left Pinellas on Tuesday at 1100 a.m.

heading to Palm Bay to stay with my son. It took 5.5 hours to get from 54th Ave N and I275 to Americana Blvd (?).

It looked like the eye took an extra bounce off the Ft Myers coast before coming ashore. The media coverage on the east coast was lacking to say the least. Just re-runs of the same scenes, nothing about Orlando or the center of the state.

I'm glad we left when we did even though we had low tropical storm winds in Palm Bay.

We returned to Pinellas on Friday afternoon after taking 192 across the state. No traffic heading west at all until getting to Celebration where part of the interstate was closed and you had to second guess where to go if you wanted to keep heading into Tampa and on to St Pete. We made it home in 2.75 hours end to end and were surprised to find a minimum amount of damage to one tree in our yard.

We got lucky, very much so.

BTW: Who the hell is going to live in all those houses being built in Harmony Florida?

[AmBlue]

45. Hi neighbor 👋

We live off of 38th Ave N, and left on Tuesday as well. Our hotel lost power Wednesday around noon so, since we could see the storm was turning in south of us and our power was still on at home, we rapidly packed (pets and all) and shot back home between scary wind gusts from the outer bands.

Of course we lost power at home about 10 minutes after we got back! The wind was frightening Wednesday night for at least 8 hours, so I can only imagine the terror of our poor friends and neighbors to the south. Our power was restored around noon yesterday. Still, we know very well how fortunate we are.

A friend in Cape Coral had her house flooded, and a family member of ours in Ft Myers Beach had too little time to evacuate (she was alone), and took shelter in the 2nd story of a neighbor's house. She's lucky to be alive and was rescued only yesterday. Her house didn't make it.

[Skittles]

40. thank you for this account

I agree with you, DeSantis is derelict in his duty and truly only thinks of himself.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

41. Last conference I saw with Trump II, he said do not drive north. BTW

if it ever happens again, my advise as a rule breaker, don't tell them you have pets . Although I guess it was easier to sneak pets in in the days when we had pull up in front of your room motels. Be a lot harder to sneak pets into a big box hotel

[Hortensis]

47. Lee County decided to order evacuations a day after surrounding counties.

I believe DeSantis is dangerous and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near power, and I hope this disaster helps cause him to lose reelection, and the presidency!

But let's be honest with ourselves for our own sakes even if opportunistically spitting at him in public: Lee County ordered evacuations a day late. DeSantis did not make that call, and he is not defending it, but those who did. That's SOP for governors and county governments.

Btw, just looked and Florida has 67 counties. Each of those 67 county governments has its own geography and planning and complex factors of many types to consider as they make these decisions.

[KentuckyWoman]

30. Blame them for not leaving early. Fire them for leaving early.

Many businesses tell their people they are expected at work until the mandatory evac orders are given.

[Native]

36. This is such a good point. That's supposed to be part of the equation.

I remember in past storms wondering why evacs were called so early on, and I'd completely forgotten about this. An old boss of mine said it had to be called early enough so employers will take it seriously and allow their workers to take the time they need to prepare without having to worry about getting fired. I guess that isn't part of the equation in Florida any longer.

[Cha]

38. De Satan works.. I call him

De Sadist.. MF Fascist Weasel Maggat!