East Lake Residents Vulnerable to Dangerous Storm Surge, County Officials Say

No doubt, we hear a lot about preparing for hurricanes. But, we don't hear as much about what life would be like after a major storm hit our area.

"Truthfully, we've never experienced even a category one hurricane, unless you lived here in 1921," said Pinellas County Emergency Management Director Sally Bishop during a community forum Monday evening in East Lake.

"I always try to keep that in perspective for folks," she added.

Bishop and Pinellas County Planning Manager David Walker gave East Lake residents a dose of reality about how they could be impacted by a hurricane.

"It's not just that the power's going to go off for an hour or two and you're going to be inconvenienced, the water's not going to work well and will need to be boiled for a couple hours, or that the lift stations aren't going to work and your sewage isn't going to go anywhere. We're not talking about hours. We're talking about days and possibly weeks," she warned.

Bishop emphasized that even though East Lake is in north Pinellas County, there are all five evacuation areas in the community.

She also pointed out that storm surge from Hurricane Katrina went 10 miles inward in Mississippi. East Lake is only about eight miles from the bay. 

Bishop said East Lake residents could wind up seeing floating cars, houses and other debris during a storm surge situation.

"Most people, unless you've experienced it, have a really hard time getting their head around that," said Bishop.

Bishop and Walker also showed an unsettling 12-minute video called "Hurricane Phoenix: The 1921 Hurricane Hitting NOW". The video illustrated what could happen to Pinellas County if a  hurricane were to hit. It included simulated news reports and local meteorologists tracking the storm along with video of what the storm might look like when it hit. But, the most disturbing part was video that showed the possible aftermath of the storm, with much of the county in a devastated state.

"It's the kind of thing that I don't watch regularly because it bothers me," said Bishop about the video.

She says the best thing that residents can do to protect themselves is to realize their risk and then develop a plan and prepare, long before a hurricane is near.

"We've gotten brushed by a lot of things thankfully, but we've never seen what the real event is going to be like. I hope it stays that way, but we have to prepare for it anyway."

Related-

• Watch "Hurricane Phoenix: The 1921 Hurricane Hitting NOW"

• Learn how to prepare your family and home for a hurricane 

• Learn more about the Tampa Bay Catastrophic Plan 

• Learn more about the Pinellas Post Disaster Plan