State emergency director cautions public
Delaware Emergency Management Agency Director Jamie Turner, a former first responder in Kent County, knows firsthand what can happen when people don't heed evacuation orders from the state. “At one of our small beach communities – one road in – people were told to evacuate ahead of a northeaster. One of the people who didn't heed the warning had a heart attack. Because of flooding, there was nothing we could do for him. He died.”
Turner also remembers a situation where a family in a mobile home refusing to evacuate had to be forcibly removed. Again, it was in one of the small bayfront communities vulnerable to storm flooding.
“The water was up to the base of the windows and the propane tank broke loose and floated out into the river. It was a couple in their 40s with two teenage children. We had to make them leave. The water in there eventually made it up to shoulder level. I'd rather pull them out of there as a first responder, ahead of time, than go out there afterwards, do a body recovery and then deal with the grief from the survivors. There are certain times during severe storms when even the medivac helicopters can't get out. Those situations put incident commanders in a bad position – having to decide whether it's safe enough to send eight or ten people out in two boats to save two or three people.”
On Wednesday this week, Turner was watching a weather system 750 miles off Bermuda that had a 50 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression and then possibly a hurricane. It's that time of the year. Turner said the last week of August through the first week of October is when Delaware has seen its most serious storms. Last year about this time, Gov. Markell ordered an evacuation along the coast in the face of Hurricane Irene. The hurricane didn't hit but did spawn a tornado and could have been worse.
This year, Turner said technology is enabling forecasters to be more accurate than last year. Bottom line: if there's an evacuation order, pay close attention. Your life could depend on it.
