Disaster Lessons

If ever there is a lesson to be learned by Zephyrhills it’s right now, and the place to learn it is the town of Wiggins, Mississippi.

For all intents and purposes what happened to Wiggins during Katrina is a blueprint for what can happen to Zephyrhills should a major storm come ashore on the Pasco coast.

This is not fiction. Wiggins sits almost exactly as far inland in Mississippi as Zephyrhills sits in Florida. The topography is much the same – flat. The town demographics are different, Wiggins is smaller, but the things that make up a town are the same – roads, churches, sewers, water systems, electrical power systems and, of course, people.

What you are about to read has been culled from news reports from and about Wiggins. All you have to do is put ‘Zephyrhills’ every place you see ‘Wiggins’ and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what’s in store.

First, a bare fact: Winds in Wiggins, just east of where the eye of Katrina passed through, approached speeds of 130 miles per hour while Katrina pounded the county for about eight hours.

“There isn’t a power line in this city that is not on the ground. I remember Camille in 1969, but this is the worst I’ve ever seen. You take everything for granted until it’s not here,” said a survivor.

Brick walls were ripped from storefronts in downtown Wiggins, windows are blown out and metal traffic signs are bent over on sidewalks like plastic straws. The storm shaved off roofs, sliced mobile homes in half, turned barns into splinters and snapped the steeples from churches.

There were deaths, but the storm itself is just the tip of the iceberg. The really nasty stuff comes after the winds die down and the rains stop. Usually, the weather is quite nice after a hurricane, but the peace and tranquility is deceiving. Storms bring human misery almost beyond endurance.

Wiggins resident Cassandra McDonald said she lost all her possessions and the home she rented five days ago, as Hurricane Katrina ripped through her life. An insulin-dependent diabetic, she and her two daughters, ages 3 and 16, now have no place to call home.

If it weren’t for the food and water available at the Stone County fairgrounds Saturday, “we would die,” McDonald said.
“It’s hard and it’s sad,” said McDonald, crying. “We have no water, no lights, no phone. We don’t have nowhere to go.”

Sitting at a makeshift table in front of the drug store in Wiggins she owns with her husband, Vickie Parker doled out blood-pressure medication and anti-seizure pills to some of her regular customers Saturday.

Parker, 58, issued hand-written receipts while her husband, Wes, filled prescriptions inside the darkened store with a flashlight. But while the Parkers were able to provide dozens of people with a 10-day supply of crucial medications, they said they weren't able to address what they said is one of the most pressing problems across Stone County in the wake of Hurricane Katrina: sick people in rural areas who need oxygen tanks to breathe.

"They're running out and asking us what to do," Parker said, adding that "hundreds" of people have come to her store, County Discount Drug, seeking oxygen.

Several dozen hurricane victims were eating fried chicken and corn Saturday afternoon at an emergency shelter at Stone High School.
Dianne Massey, who runs the shelter, said she has been staying there since last Sunday.

Her Ford Taurus was parked outside the school gym, crushed under a pile of bricks that flew off the building during the storm.

Massey, who lives in Wiggins, said the city normally has no homeless shelter. Some of the residents at the makeshift shelter were there simply because they couldn't find gas, she said.

Some were from Louisiana, while others came from Gulfport or Bay St. Louis.

In Wiggins, the county seat and home to about a third of the county's estimated 14,000 residents, Mayor Jerry Alexander said the first outside help didn't arrive until Wednesday.

Several dozen hurricane victims were eating fried chicken and corn Saturday afternoon at an emergency shelter at Stone High School.

The stories go on and on, but by now you’re probably depressed enough.

In the emergency management business there’s a saying, “The best disaster is the one you don’t have, second best is the one you’ve planned for.

Does Zephyrhills have a plan?
Arjay
Copyright © 2005, Arjay Morgan, All rights reserved.