So how many heads will roll?

[medic8ed]

I figured this would happen -- the storm took its right turn and the
county officials in Tampa & St. Pete are already having to hold press
conferences justifying their large-scale evacuations, or in other words,
desparately tring to keep their jobs after yet another hurricane-that-never-
happens.

Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota -- there should be plenty of public
policy positions up for grabs very soon. Start polishing up those resumes!

[GalvestonDuck]

Oh please! You must be kidding!

That would be like fussing about having to go outside when a fire alarm goes off after coming back in and hearing it was a drill.

I would much rather evacuate and have nothing happen than to stay put and get bombarded!

[jaysonx]

I figured this would happen -- the storm took its right turn and the
county officials in Tampa & St. Pete are already having to hold press
conferences justifying their large-scale evacuations, or in other words,
desparately tring to keep their jobs after yet another hurricane-that-never-
happens.

Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota -- there should be plenty of public
policy positions up for grabs very soon. Start polishing up those resumes!

Do you know how lucky these people are that they didnt get a direct hit? Everyone in the Tampa Bay area should be congradulating each other for a job well done in notifying the public, and greatful that the storm actually stayed to the south. I only wish the Ft. Myers area had taken the same precautions sooner.

[chadtm80]

NONE! They had NO choice. Would you rather them not evacuate and kill how many people?

[Storminole]

Well, this morning a landfall in Tampa Bay was the official forecast, so they can hardly be blamed. Maybe a better question is why the forecast missed the landfall point by 100 miles with just 8 hours to go. Yes, Fort Myers was "within the warning area." Well, if your strike zone is wide enough, you'll never throw a ball.

My guess is that the Tampa area for the most part will count their blessings rather than throw a blame game at local officials.

[msbee]

medic
are you serious? better evacuate and be wrong than not evacuate and be wrong

[Guest]

Nothing annoys me more than posts like this. The officials were working around UNPREDICTABLE mother nature. Geesh!
...Jennifer...

[simplykristi]

There was NO way to accurately predict where the hurricane was going to make landfall. I never dreamed that it would go to category 4.

Kristi

[KBBOCA]

I'm sure that once the foks in Tampa-St. Pete see the devastation in Ft. Myers, Sanibel, Captiva, ... they will be quite sobered at their VERY VERY close call with total disaster and quite thankful that their officials acted as strongly as they did.

Yes, Tampa dodged another bullet. But this one was so close and so serious that I think it will do a lot of good in terms of keeping people from being too complacent in the future.

Tampa has just basically executed a huge-scale hurricane drill that was sorely needed. I'm sure they will learn very valuable lessons from the experience.

I can only hope and pray that folks in Naples, Ft. Myers, etc. weren't too lulled into thinking they were safe because "Charley is going to hit Tampa".

From what I read beforehand, it seems like needed evacuations were ordered. I just pray they were heeded.

[Air Force Met]

I figured this would happen -- the storm took its right turn and the
county officials in Tampa & St. Pete are already having to hold press
conferences justifying their large-scale evacuations, or in other words,
desparately tring to keep their jobs after yet another hurricane-that-never-
happens.

Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota -- there should be plenty of public
policy positions up for grabs very soon. Start polishing up those resumes!

Oh really...you figured it? Where is your official forecast.

People like you are the ones who give us a bad headache. Maybe we should start a list and the next time a hurricane threatens...we should make sure those on the list do NOT get notified. You're so smart...you can figure it out on your own...you don't need our help.

[Nimbus]

If Charley had stayed out over water long enough to reach Tampa it would have made Andrew look like a tropical storm. Charley had a very long NNW wobble this morning at a critical time for making a forecast decision. When you have deadlines and time constraints for passing information around these things happen. Lets look forward we still have this thing making a second landfall.

[Miss Mary]

If anything I would think they'd be celebrating in Tampa/St. Pete when this is over, not pointing fingers. And then lending a helping hand to those neighbors caught in harm's way, just as easily as Tampa could have been.

I vote for evacuate than not to evacuate. It was a well run operation from my point of view. High fives all around, no jobs on the line, IMHO.

Mary

[wx247]

Oh my... I hope people don't blame the public officials. If anyone is to blame, it is Mother Nature.

[Rainband]

I figured this would happen -- the storm took its right turn and the
county officials in Tampa & St. Pete are already having to hold press
conferences justifying their large-scale evacuations, or in other words,
desparately tring to keep their jobs after yet another hurricane-that-never-
happens.

Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota -- there should be plenty of public
policy positions up for grabs very soon. Start polishing up those resumes!

They were in the forecast cone!!! Your lucky I am a staff member here or I wouldn't be so nice. Get a clue. You need to respect those people who worked 24/7 to insure our safety. I agree Jenn..annoying

[The_Cycloman_PR]

I figured this would happen -- the storm took its right turn and the
county officials in Tampa & St. Pete are already having to hold press
conferences justifying their large-scale evacuations, or in other words,
desparately tring to keep their jobs after yet another hurricane-that-never-
happens.

Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota -- there should be plenty of public
policy positions up for grabs very soon. Start polishing up those resumes!

This is one of the most irresponsible post I've ever seen!!
BTW that's exactly their job, to look for the safety of everyone and they were oustanding!!

[AL Chili Pepper]

Personally, I think the NHC did a tremendous job. Overall, they did a very good job with their 5-day forecast, and they just keep getting better. Nobody can predict when and if a hurricane will make a slight deviation as Charley did. The timing of the deviation, position, and trajectory of the storm couldn't have been worse, and only because of that were they off so far on their predicted landfall. Still, my hat's off.

[ncbird]

Since I am too lady like to say what I would like too... All I want to know is are you on crack or something. They had a dangeous storm heading their way, and not to evacuate would have been utterly rediculous. The officials did a great job of getting a huge number of people out of an area that if hit by this storm would have been disasterous. I think the only who should be having to justify anything is you with this rediculous statement.

[Janie34]

I agree, that post was completely inappropriate. No "heads" will roll because of the evacuations.....those folks were doing their jobs and doing them well. They got hundreds of thousands of people out of a Cat 4 storm's way and deserve accolades and appreciation. The people of Tampa - St Petersburg should be happy to have such professionalism and ability on their side in a time of crisis. Evacuating that many people and doing so in an orderly fashion is an astounding feat. They deserve medals.

Do you have any idea of just how difficult forecasting can be? Especially tropical cyclones? Knowing that people are depending on you for information that just might save their lives?? NHC and all the mets did fine in my book. It sure is easy to be a "Monday morning quarterback", eh?

[donsutherland1]

Medic8ed,

Forecasting is not something that has achieved perfection. There can be surprises. Indeed, CNN reported this evening:

Hurricane Charley suddenly turned toward the Fort Myers-Port Charlotte area Friday afternoon. The storm was originally forecast to make landfall around 8 p.m. ET in Tampa Bay where preparations were focused.

Now, let's say local officials would not order evacuations until it was almost certain that an area would be impacted. Could 500,000 to 1,000,000 people be safely evacuated in just a handful of hours?

If not, then it's highly unreasonable to take chances with the lives of so many people.

Therefore, rather than seeking perfection as the standard for evacuating people, a more reasonable risk threshold should be applied. I believe the officials who recommended the evacuations did a good job and highly doubt that they have anything to fear about losing their jobs.

It's far better to evacuate unnecessarily than to stay due to a lack of certainty concerning a storm's track and then be hammered by a Category 4 hurricane. Evacuations when a storm doesn't pan out only risk inconvenience. Failure to evacuate and the loss of life as a result of that failure causes irreversible and, I might add, needless human loss.

In my view, that's too high a price to pay in making the impossible demand for tying such decisions to perfect forecasts. I commend those who led the evacuation decision and efforts. I am sure that my friends in the Tampa area feel exactly the same way and will check with them about this.

Moreover, it is great that the storm spared Tampa, as the damage estimates would have been catastrophic. Of course, this storm might already rank in the top ten costliest U.S. hurricanes even though it largely bypassed Tampa.

[Stephanie]

medic -

You may as well have said that the terror alerts weren't necessary because nothing happened!

Everyone up and down the west coast of Florida did their jobs. I applaud them for a job well done!