Public Polocy Advocary Paper

Port Charlotte:

Severe Weather Relief Storage Proposal

By: Angela Zitek

Purdue University Calumet

Abstract

Each year Hurricanes hit South Florida with devastating force. Even though Charlotte County has some policies in place to help deal with the devastation that comes with these disasters, I feel that there is a way that their preparations/reactions to these storms can be improved.

If a severe weather storage facility was built to house things such as nonperishable food items, water and other practical necessities the village of Port Charlotte would be able to cope and recover a lot quicker.

In order to save the community time and money during the recovering period year after year further action needs to be taken to get this facility built. It may be costly to build and stock, but in the long run the community will realize how beneficial something like this can be. The facility can work hand in hand with the facilities that the Red Cross already has set up to make Charlotte County a safer place during and after severe storms.

Florida may be known for its tropical beaches and its nearly year-round Sunshine, but people who have lived there for at least one summer will tell you that hurricanes have become a fact of life. South Florida has been known for its severe weather, especially hurricanes and tropical depressions for many years. One town that is affected greatly by these storms is Port Charlotte of Charlotte County Florida. Port Charlotte is located on the Southwest side of the state and is consistently battered by violent storms. Charlotte County has several programs promoting hurricane awareness but as far as actual facilities they are few and far between. That is why the town Port Charlotte should build an emergency site for severe weather relief storage.

Port Charlotte is brushed or hit by a tropical system approximately one time every 3.1 years. Hurricanes hit Florida more than any other state and South Florida is particularly vulnerable due to the fact that it is so close to the ocean. Port Charlotte specifically, is directly hit by a hurricane every 12 years or so. It has gotten to the point that any time a hurricane begins to form in the ocean, regardless of how far away it is, the residents of Port Charlotte watch the weather reports carefully in anticipation that at any moment the deadly storm could turn in their direction. In fact, during the peak of the 2004 hurricane season, four hurricanes devastated the coasts of Florida, with three of them striking the southwest portion of the state within a matter of 6 weeks. Just how devastating can these hurricanes be? Take for instance hurricane Charley which struck Charlotte County in 2004. While it was a rather small but powerful hurricane with a 6-10 mile eye, it killed 33 people and caused over $14 billion worth of damage. In fact, 5 months after the hurricane hit, 1/3 of all hotels on the coast are still not rentable due to damage from the storm.

So how do Floridians cope with these disasters? Right now the Red Cross offers a variety of services during an emergency. The Red Cross offers "mass care", which is the most well known disaster relief activity employed which includes providing shelter for those seeking refuge from a hurricane as well offering food and clothing. They also provide "emergency assistance." This assistance is geared toward meeting immediate emergency needs. The majority of the public's financial contributions go to help provide emergency assistance. The Red Cross helps victims of these disasters in their attempts to return to their every day lives. They do this by helping them with the financial burdens they ran into such as providing money for things like groceries, clothing, medicines and emergency home repair.

But the Red Cross can't be expected to provide all of the relief. The American Red Cross not only works in the Southwest Florida region every single day of the year, they are also responding to floods, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, fires and other disasters all over the world. In fact, they respond to more than 55,000 incidents each and every year. This is where my proposal will help the people of Charlotte County cope with these disasters.

If there were additional storage sites, even just one additional facility, I feel that Port Charlotte would not be so chaotic during these severe times. Did you know that following Hurricane Andrew, some people went without food for as many as three days? The lines just to receive, food, water, and ice were as many as 5,000 people long. The wait for food and water could be drastically reduced if Port Charlotte built a storage site with non-perishable foods and water for use during a disaster.

That is why I propose that Port Charlotte builds a facility that will hold enough water and nonperishable food to last a week for the entire county. The storage facility won't