Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991 TAG: 9103280425
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The message: Be prepared for all kinds of emergency . . . even hurricanes . . . even if you're several hundred miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
Dickerson said he learned that lesson when Hugo slammed into South Carolina coast in 1989 and cut a path of destruction through South and North Carolina more than 250 miles inland.
Dickerson is director of emergency management in Iredell County, N.C., near Charlotte, where the hurricane caused $35 million in damage.
He never had read a hurricane disaster plan before Hugo because he did not suspect his county would have to deal with one.
"We weren't supposed to have hurricanes. We are 250 miles inland. Maybe tornadoes, but not hurricanes," he said Wednesday at a workshop in Roanoke on emergency management.
The storm easily could have hit Roanoke, he said.
If Hugo had come ashore farther north, Roanoke likely would have been in its path. "Only because Hugo made a slightly different turn and blew out were you spared," he told nearly 100 people from the city staff, community agencies, utility companies and businesses involved in emergency services planning.
Dickerson was one of about a dozen emergency services officials from localities in Virginia and other states who are participating in the two-day workshop.
Wanda Reed, Roanoke's coordinator of emergency services, said the training session was designed to improve the city's emergency preparedness.
Dickerson recounted problems in dealing with the storm, which destroyed or heavily damaged 1,000 houses and businesses in Iredell County. Sixty-five percent of the county's residents were without electricity for five days. In some areas, power was not restored for a month.
In planning for a hurricane, he said, emergency services officials need to make sure that evacuation shelters are opened early and enough workers are available in communication centers. They also should make contingency plans for disseminating public information when radio and television stations are knocked off the air and newspapers can't publish because of a lack of electric power, he said.
Roanoke City Manager Robert Herbert told the group that emergency management planning is important because citizens expect local governments to be in control during disasters and emergencies.
"The more prepared we are prior to an emergency, the greater the chance for the community to survive," he said, citing the city's record flood in 1985.
During the flood, the city's emergency services plan operated well, Herbert said, but it needs to be updated and kept current.
Lynchburg Police Chief Joseph Seiffert, another speaker, said a regional approach can be beneficial in dealing with emergencies, particularly for law enforcement agencies. Disasters can tax the police manpower of localities, and mutual aid agreements can enable nearby localities to provide backup support.
by CNB