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Paper
solution dangerous for Keys evacuation woes
A County Commission
proposal (Agenda Item T-3, April 20, Key West) would trade our
evacuation safety for developers' profits, and leave us less safe as a
result.
Last year, DCA Secretary
Cohen created the Hurricane Evacuation Work Group (HEWG) and tasked it
with reducing our hurricane evacuation clearance time. They should have
been tasked with improving the county's evacuation safety. The two
concepts are not related. While their proposal would reduce our
clearance time, it would not improve our safety!
The HEWG took the easy
out with the counterproductive "paper" solution of modifying the wording
of Comprehensive Plan Policy 216.1.8.
The foundation of the
2001 "Florida Keys Hurricane Evacuation Study" upon which Policy 216.1.8
is based is the assumption that it is possible for a strong hurricane to
threaten us with inadequate time to evacuate tourists early. At the same
time, however, when there is adequate time, we will continue to evacuate
the tourists early, as we have for years. The difference between these
two is our safety margin. This proposal would eliminate our safety
margin by artificially reducing our clearance time and converting it to
developers' profits. As you know, building permits are tied directly to
clearance time. The counterproductive and hypocritical elimination of
tourists from the equation means allowing 10,000 new dwelling units with
an increase in the evacuation population of 25,000, but does not reduce
the chances of being surprised by a strong hurricane, nor does it
provide the infrastructure needed to improve a real-world evacuation.
It is important to note
that none of the evacuating traffic from Miami-Dade County is included
in our clearance time calculation. As a result, our actual safety
decreases daily with each new home in Miami-Dade County, but the Monroe
County clearance time calculation remains unchanged. This is the real
threat.
The proposal to amend the
wording of Policy 216.1.8 is a dangerous idea.
Will our County
Commissioners favor developers' profits over our safety?
John Hammerstrom
Tavernier |
