Robert Brent Toplin
Robert Brent Toplin
Announcements from the National Hurricane Center predicted a dangerous rise of sea water on Florida’s west coast from Hurricane Ian, but many residents in the Fort Myers/Cape Coral region did not leave their residences in low-lying, vulnerable areas. Local and state officials warned them of the danger, but those alerts were often scattered and confusing. Many people in Lee County, Florida remained in harm’s way when ocean waters approached them.
It was evident days before Hurricane Ian made landfall that the tempest posed a distinct threat. Previous hurricanes that struck Florida’s gulf coast, such as Charley in 2004, created damage primarily from wind and rain. Ian, a much larger hurricane, had greater potential to threaten life and property from a surge of ocean water.
Reporters with the Weather Channel accentuated that danger days before Ian hit the Florida coast in a graphic display of potential impact from a three, six, and nine-foot storm surge. It showed an individual waist-deep in water at three feet. At six feet, the human figure was submerged, cars floated, and houses broke apart. At nine feet, large buildings washed away.
Ian made landfall in Lee County in the afternoon of Wednesday, September 28, but the threat of a storm surge in that region was evident days before. On Monday, September 26, the National Hurricane Center reported some areas of Fort Myers Beach were more likely than not to have a six-foot storm surge. On that day, several counties in southwest Florida had issued evacuation orders for low-lying regions but not Lee County. On Tuesday the Center indicated Lee was vulnerable to a direct hit.
Local officials in Lee County hesitated. They gave a partial evacuation order on Tuesday morning but said “the areas being evacuated are small” in contrast to a previous hurricane evacuation. Only on Tuesday afternoon, about 24 hours before the hurricane made landfall, did the Lee County government send an unequivocal warning through Facebook. The announcement said, “The time to evacuate is now, and the window is closing.”
It certainly was closing. That message arrived much too late for the county’s endangered citizens. With a monstrous storm barreling toward them, there was inadequate time on Tuesday afternoon to gather belongings, secure escape routes to higher ground, and hunker down in a secure location. It is likely, too, that many county residents had not seen the official announcement on Facebook that afternoon.
It would have been helpful if a single authoritative figure delivered a strong message about the emergency. A call for evacuation could have been communicated prior to Tuesday afternoon, 24 hours before Ian’s landfall in the Fort Myers area. Instead, citizens received diverse and sometimes conflicting information from public figures, online sites, and speakers on radio and television. They needed someone in a major leadership position to gave citizens a clear message: Evacuate now.
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, played that authoritative role but only to an extent. He spoke on television numerous times as the storm approached, and his office posted daily summaries of the threat along with links to federal, state, and country agencies that could assist. Yet DeSantis appeared reluctant to give Lee County residents an unambiguous recommendation to leave the endangered areas. In an interview on Fox News’s Hannity on Tuesday, DeSantis explained that people do not like to be told what do about hurricanes. Even though the governor cited predictions that a ten-foot surge could hit southwest Florida, he pointed out that some people would try to ride out the storm. The next day (Wednesday), hours before landfall, DeSantis responded on television to a question about evacuations by acknowledging that compliance with official recommendations is not 100%. “Sometimes people want to go out and surf” during a hurricane, the governor noted. “You just have some people that do that.”
DeSantis served the public well by speaking often about threats from Ian, but he could have used his bully pulpit more effectively by acting like his hair was on fire. The life-threatening danger to thousands of Floridians in Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, Sanibel Island, and Pine Island was obvious. He had an opportunity to provide enthusiastic support for mandatory evacuation from endangered sections of Lee County. When local officials were tardy and inconclusive in their statements about evacuation, the governor’s office could have delivered a forceful message.
Throughout the growing crisis, DeSantis communicated clear warnings about the dangers but appeared reluctant to use his enormous influence with the public megaphone. DeSantis suggested leaders cannot do much if citizens are not inclined to accept their advice. He said, “People were made aware, they were told about the dangers and some people just made the decision that they did not want to leave.”
Now, after so much loss of life, it seems evident that many citizens were not fully aware of the risks they faced. They received information from numerous sources that was sometimes tentative and confusing. There are better ways to communicate. When future threats from hurricanes appear, it will be helpful if the public receives more centralized and authoritative messaging.
