Hurricanes

Hurricane Prep Exercise Held In Baltimore County

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) ― Hurricane season is about to begin and Baltimore County wants to be ready.

Kelly McPherson explains this emergency exercise.

If the Chesapeake Bay were hit with a sizable hurricane, it would take lots of coordination to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people.  Baltimore County and the state practiced with 100 volunteers Tuesday.

The devastation of the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina was only worsened by the government's slow response to evacuate survivors.  It was a similar tragedy in 2003 when Isabel forced the bay onto homes, cars and people's lives in the Dundalk area.

"This community was devastated with the storm surge.  A lot of residents were evacuated from here," said Pam Springs with State Dept. of Human Resources.

Tuesday, there was another evacuation.  This time is was for practice.

More than a dozen local, county and state agencies ran through setting up a shelter and taking care of evacuees.  Keeping people in order can be tough in a shelter.

"Making sure that we have a smooth tracking of the citizenry so that we can maintain an accurate process of who they are, where they are and where they go," said Lt. James Cromwell with Baltimore County Fire Department.

It's important to walk through emergency communication among many people, agencies and jobs.  This event also reminds volunteers about planning ahead for disasters.

"That they have their medication, their foods, their water supply for three days.  In a real-life event, it might take three days before a first responder can get to you," Springs said.

Each house should keep important documents and enough food, water and medications to last three days.  Those items should be stored in a waterproof container just in case.

Tuesday's hypothetical Hurricane Zoey would hit land Wednesday.  Although it isn't real, people remember when Isabel hit this area and flooded the neighborhood.

"The bay had come up almost to my street and so we would be better prepared for various kinds of emergencies, this is vital I be here today," said Mary Branch.

After Tuesday's all-day session, the agencies will look at what areas need tweaking in order to make the evacuation process work better.

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