Storm-savvy South Floridians offer tips, solace from afar - Palm Beach Post
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
It would almost be comical if it weren't so dire: Floridians advising New Yorkers who face a mighty hurricane.
Irene might hit Chesapeake Bay and move inland. Or tear up Long Island and smack Boston, and keep going all the way to Nova Scotia.
Or it could do what frightens everyone the most: Come up New York Harbor and push some of the Atlantic Ocean right into the big city.
"How can I say this nicely? I really don't think they know what they're in for," said former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, who grew up in Long Island and spent Friday on the phone with friends and relatives across the New York area.
She described "a lack of gravity of the situation," blaming it on lack of experience. But after all, she noted, Palm Beach County had gone years without a big storm when the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes hit, and many were unprepared here as well.
Delray Beach resident Barbara Jane DeGolyer, who has family and friends throughout the Northeast, said she has been fielding calls from everyone since Monday.
Her advice to them: "You just have to calm yourself down."
Meanwhile, retired New York police Capt. Ralph Wugman, 87, of suburban West Palm Beach, said he's not giving any advice to his sister in New York or a son near Boston. While this will be their first hurricane, he said, he expects they'll faithfully follow instructions, including any to evacuate.
During Wilma's South Florida strike in 2005, Wugman said, when he heard advice to go to a safe room, "I sat in my bathroom on the toilet bowl."
Irene is projected to strike areas that are heavily populated, low-lying, already saturated from rainstorms earlier this summer - and with people completely at a loss about what to do.
Whatever they decide, they should do it quickly, officials said.
"The window for preparation is quickly closing," said Janet Napolitano, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The local response has been swift. The Greater Palm Beach Area chapter of the American Red Cross already has sent 10 volunteers and its regional executive, and could send more people.
Today, Florida Power & Light Co. is sending 100 of its South Florida employees and contractors to the Baltimore area "to support local recovery efforts."
Palm Beach County Emergency Management was making arrangements Friday to see whether it could send staff members to strike zones.
Everyone else will have to settle for dispensing advice.
Helen Giacoma, 52, of Highland Beach said she sent out about a half-dozen emails Friday to friends and family living in the north: "Think bottles of frozen water, cans of tuna, a full tank of gas and cash. Or plane tickets somewhere beyond Irene's reach. I always prefer the latter. Seriously, stay safe."
Giacoma's stepdaughter, cousin and grandchildren live just outside Hartford, Conn. She also has about 10 "really close friends" who live in Manhattan and have had to leave.
She recalled being in Manhattan in the 1980s when a hurricane threatened. People taped windows, but that was about it.
"That was, like, all Manhattan knows from hurricanes," she said. "So this should be interesting."
Some Floridians are giving advice in person.
Transplant Apryle Nunn grew up in West Palm Beach and still has relatives here. She now lives in Carney's Point, N.J. It's across from Wilmington, Del., and well inland, but it's at the head of Delaware Bay. By Sunday, Hurricane Irene might be pushing those waters right in.
Nunn has provided neighbors with suggestions that are common knowledge in South Florida: fill gasoline tanks; stock up on water, batteries, flashlights, food and money; charge cellphones; put cars in garages; store or tie up anything that can fly off.
One of the things she'll do - a grim symbol of the times - is remove the potential missiles that are the many "for sale" signs lining her street.
"My husband and stepchildren have never been in a hurricane before and the kids are a little nervous," Nunn said via email. "It's a little scary, since this area doesn't get storms like this."
That's an understatement.
Despite the high property values in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, of the 30 costliest storms since 1900, only two caused damage north of the Carolinas, according to a new study by the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The most notable one is the "Long Island Express," the Sept. 21, 1938, storm that sliced across New York's Long Island and slammed Connecticut. The storm struck with little warning, killing about 600 and causing $308 million in damage.
Staff writer Cynthia Roldan contributed to this story.
27 Aug, 2011--
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