Many on west coast worried, but stayed home

LAKELAND — Hurricane Georges had already pounded the Caribbean, killing hundreds, and was threatening the Florida Keys when hurricane watches were posted along Florida’s west coast. Yet despite mandatory evacuation orders many residents in the Tampa–St. Petersburg area decided to stay home.

“The weather people were bordering on hysterical…to pump people up to get prepared,” said the Rev. Neil McMullen, pastor of Sylvan Abbey United Methodist Church in Clearwater. Members of his congregation who live in mobile homes were ordered to evacuate Sept. 24.

The Rev. Robert Hutchinson Jr., pastor of First United Methodist Church, Gulfport, said about half his members were under the evacuation order, but many “just stayed home because they felt like they didn’t need to evacuate.”

“On Thursday, a lot of people were worried…,” he said. “Friday morning, when they saw it wasn’t coming, everybody said, ‘Oh, well’”

McMullen agreed. “Hurricane Georges was the hurricane that wasn’t,” he said.

Barbara Theriault was one Gulfport church member who decided not to evacuate. Despite having worked in the Hurricane Andrew relief effort, Theriault said it was the memory of an uncomfortable shelter at a local junior college that made up her mind. She also has large dogs, which are not accepted at most shelters.

Gulfport’s Doris Brown said she would have stayed home, but needed to get her handicapped mother, who lives in a low-lying area that is subject to flooding, and a friend to safety.

“She’s 87, she lives alone, and she was just terrified,” Brown said. “If the water came in, she was going to be in bad shape.”

Brown said the three of them did not leave St. Petersburg, but stayed in a motel a friend manages.

Theriault said she fears Hurricane Georges’ near-miss experience in her community may make people jaded about future evacuation orders. “It was just unreal,” she said. “We thought all this was going to happen, and we hardly had any rain.”

Brown echoed the sentiment: “I’m afraid people aren’t going to leave next time, because they feel they don’t have to. One day we’re going to get it — and God help us all.”