(WSVN) - When Hurricane Irma came barreling down on South Florida, those who were told to evacuate headed to storm shelters; but instead of comfort, many found challenges.
In Broward County, families stood in long lines in the sweltering heat waiting for shelter, only to be told there was no room when they go to the door.
“I mean it’s just complete disarray,” said one man.
“311 tells me to come here and when I get here they’re closed,” said another man.
In Miami-Dade things were no different – some were bussed in and then turned away.
“We had about 4-5 stops we had to make,” said one woman about all the shelters she tried to seek refuge in.
One year later and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez says Irma taught South Florida some hard lessons. “Every hurricane is going to give you a curve-ball that you hadn’t thought about,” he said. “The problems were that we normally have a capacity for about 30,000 in our shelters, and then there’s a staging on how these shelters open.”
With mandatory evacuations county officials realized they needed to open more shelters; enough to hold 100,000 people.
“The problem that we had is that some of the new shelters, the names got out and people started arriving before we actually had it open,” said Gimenez.
According to Mayor Gimenez, communications about shelter openings in Miami-Dade are being fine tuned.
In Broward, procedures for shelter openings will also change. When a hurricane approaches, instead of starting small the county will consider opening all 33 Broward shelters.
“We now have the whole approach of let’s look at the full 33 and back off verses the tiered approach with the 14, and then open additional as we move forward,” said Lori Vun Kannon with the Broward Emergency Management.
County and school employees from Broward and Miami-Dade will now be managing and staffing hurricane shelters with training and support from the Red Cross.
“This year, we trained almost 3,000 Miami-Dade County employees with Red Cross procedures,” said Grace Meinhofer with the Red Cross.
More pet friendly shelters will also be added in both Broward and Miami-Dade counties. “I think we had two, now we’re going to have up to six,” said Gimenez.
Another big issue during Irma – many people in need of medical support did not register ahead of time so they were not placed in shelters that could offer the care they needed. Officials say it’s important to register before a hurricane approaches.
“If you don’t register and you call us at the last minute, then things are happening and it makes it a little bit chaotic,” said Gimenez.
Lessons learned and changes made that will help all of us safely ride out the next hurricane that comes our way.
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