Commissioner Burt Aaronson recently invited community leaders in unincorporated South County to a meeting with the county’s Emergency Management team to talk about preparedness for the 2009 hurricane season.

The meeting took place in the command center of Emergency Management, a bunker-like windowless building in West Palm Beach called the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), built to withstand 200 mile-per-hour winds.  We met in what the staff calls the “War Room”, a high tech and high tier auditorium with computers, special phones and mikes in front of every seat facing huge flat panel monitors on the wall in front.  It felt like Jack Bauer was going to burst into the facility at any moment to shout about the latest challenge to civilization as we know it.

The EOC is prepared to host the team for up to a month if necessary, but it’s no 5-star resort.  Most everyone has to sleep on the floor or in a chair.  In a state of emergency, they work 12-hour shifts with no days off.  Services are provided 24/7 until the emergency is over.

Emergency Management divides the county into six zones (South County is Zone 6), each managed by a senior county manager with a team sourced from the Red Cross, United Way and various municipal organizations that’s ready to swing into action on very short notice.

What’s new since the hurricanes of 2005?

The number of emergency generators has increased nearly 10-fold since 2004 to 272 total.  Over half of these are used to power about 180 major intersections throughout the county, at many of which the traffic signal equipment has been upgraded to better withstand the force of a hurricane.  Others are deployed to keep the lift stations for sewage operating.

Commissioner Aaronson noted that 13 Publix stores in his district now have generators so they can open as soon as a hurricane leaves the area.  They will be stocked with ice, water and food, so it will probably no longer be necessary to truck in emergency supplies from far away locations as happened in 2004 and 2005.

Many of the facilities we count on during emergencies have undergone hurricane hardening since Wilma.

Other noteworthy items

We were told there was a special needs center at the Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach.  Admission is by pre-registration, which can be accomplished by calling 561-712-6400.

There is one emergency pet shelter in the county, located in West Boynton, the use of which requires arrangements made in advance with Animal Control.

Emergency Management has the authority to declare curfews to limit looting and theft.

The county was able to maintain potable water in unincorporated areas like West Boca in 2004 and 2005, and is even better prepared to do so now.  During past hurricanes, residents of “Boca Raton” were advised by the media to boil their tap water.  But this message was actually intended only for residents within the city of Boca Raton, which maintains its own water supply operation.

Ambulance service will not be available once sustained winds exceed 40 miles per hour.  Nor will hospitals be able to receive patients during a hurricane.

Old portable TVs with rabbit ears became obsolete as of June 12 as part of the digital conversion. However, you can now buy a portable digital TV for about $125 that will operate on batteries for two hours or so.

EOC Tour

Following the meeting in the War Room, some of us toured the rest of the EOC, including such facilities as the high tech 911 call center, an impregnable conference room, and a TV studio that would be used to broadcast emergency updates when all other modes of communication became disabled.

But far and away the highlight of the tour was seeing and hearing about Election 2000.  That’s where the recounting of the ballots took place for about three weeks prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 decision to shut down any further ballot inspection.  The animated tour guide described the drama in gripping and sometimes amusing detail, as if it had all happened yesterday.

Mary Lou Berger, the Senior Administrative Assistant to Commissioner Burt Aaronson, took a leave of absence to be one of the 100 counters who worked in the War Room 16 hours a day for weeks on end.  She still marvels at the incredibly tight security, the media circus working out of tents amid a maze of telecommunication wires, the army of lawyers representing both parties, and working under the scrutiny of hundreds of official observers who stood ready to challenge the slightest hint of perceived impropriety.

“It was the most amazing thing I ever lived through in my life”, Berger said.  “It was an honor just to be in the room where such important history was taking place every day.”

For further information about how to prepare for the worst, here’s the link to a terrific website: http://www.pbc.com/publicsafety/emergencymanagement/

Alan Kellock