PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Should I stay or should I go? It’s a question many of us ask ourselves as a hurricane approaches, especially those who live in a flooding evacuation zone.
What You Need To Know
- Pasco County Board of Commissioners are reviewing their options when it comes to safely evacuating residents during a hurricane
- One idea— presented by Commissioner Jack Mariano— is shutting off water and electricity in evacuation zone ‘A’ before a storm approaches
- The thought behind it is to encourage residents to leave those areas as well as protect first responders going to those areas to perform rescues
- But for some homeowners, the decision to leave isn’t always an easy one— even if it makes sense to do
Pasco County Commissioners are weighing their options when it comes to getting more people to leave, safely.
One idea — presented by Commissioner Jack Mariano — is shutting off water and electricity in evacuation zone ‘A’ before a storm approaches. Doing so, he believes, would encourage residents to leave those areas as well as protect first responders going to those areas to perform rescues.
“Instead of having our first responders go out there wading in waters that could be dangerous, where you never know what’s going to happen, and trying to save lives, we get people to clear out and give them a great alternative to go and keep our first responders safe, too, rather than having to go through those dangerous motions that are trying to protect lives,” Mariano said.
During Hurricane Idalia, the county recorded 85 rescue missions carried out by Pasco County Fire Rescue. The county says about 150 people were saved from floodwaters.
This idea would have to be presented before council that would then, in turn, vote on the issue.
But the discussion has some residents talking about the idea of staying or evacuating — a decision that isn’t always an easy one, even if it makes sense to do.
“This was more work than I’ve ever done in my whole life,” Carolyn Poulsen said.
Poulsen is hard at work. Her kitchen table now serving as her temporary office. But the work the Port Richey homeowner is describing isn’t what you might think.
“We were up at 6 o’clock in the morning and we were back over here,” Poulsen said. “I had five people here for the next five to six days, just pulling things out, rinsing things off, just trying to save what we could save.”
It’s the work that came after Hurricane Idalia. With impressions of the storm still visible outside on her home. On the inside, walls have been stripped.
“The outsides are blocked walls so we’re just removing the surface plaster from those, making sure nothing is growing behind it,” she said.
As Poulsen reflects on the damage Idalia left behind on her home, the decision to evacuate is still a difficult one to bear in mind.
“We’re all very hesitant to leave our houses even though we know there’s danger involved,” she said. “I went down to Fort Myers Beach just after the storm so I’ve seen the devastation and I was still very hesitant to leave my house.”
Even as county commissioners discuss the possibility of shutting off utilities in evacuation zones during storms, Poulsen says some residents will still likely stay.
“It’s they want to be a part of it, I think,” she said. “But I think if you’ve seen the aftermath of some of these storms, you would think twice.”
And as she continues to recover her own home.
“From what this house looked like two weeks ago to now— a huge improvement,” she said. “I never thought that it would actually be this OK with the amount of water that was in this house. It’s surprising.”
Poulsen just looks forward to the day it is whole again.
“I just long for it to be put back together,” she said. “It’s been a long couple of two weeks but, again, I’m extremely grateful for my life. No one died- we’re good.”
She’s grateful to still call it home.
The next Pasco Board of County of Commissioners meeting is Tuesday at 10 a.m.
