Summary
"I've never seen it like this before," she said. "The media is making us paranoid -- it became entertainment -- and then the hurricane never hit," said [Jessica Martine], who has been working in the food industry in the Keys for 23 years and has never evacuated until this year. She left for Georges, but that was just an excuse for a vacation, she said.
It is estimated that at least 50 percent of the residents ignored Hurricane [Ivan] evacuation orders. Long-time developer and resident Ed Swift believes evacuations are a recipe for chaos and panic. He says city shelters, the Glynn Archer Elementary School and the Harvey Government Center, which only open for Category 1 and 2 hurricanes, should be open during evacuations. "We have good buildings and we should use them," he said. "It's impossible to evacuate 100 percent of the population. People are not going to go."County officials last week discussed the transportations needs of Key West residents, said Irene Toner, director of the Monroe County Emergency Management office. She said they want Key West city buses and drivers to take residents to the mainland during an evacuation. "Key West has the buses and the population -- we want to work out a protocol with Key West," said Toner. The down side is the county can't foot the bill. "Our office doesn't have the funding for that," said Toner, who wants to met with city officials to discuss federal funding to offset costs. "We want to address this issue and we will have to sit around the table and discuss it."See the full content of this document
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Evacuations Still Have Some Kinks
Jessica Martine, 43, of Key West, doesn't want to sound flippant about the recent hurricane evacuation that sent her and fellow workers at Mangoes Restaurant scrambling for cover -- but in retrospect it was all a lot of media hype for a hurricane t...
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