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| Florida: Citrus County works on storm update system |
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Scroll down to learn how local radio helped to simulcast emergency storm information during hurricanes, how rural areas were ignored by broadcast media during storms, and how County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy worked to build a low power FM station, only to be stymied by the Congressionally-mandated lack of licenses. St. Petersburg Times (Florida) January 22, 2005 Saturday SECTION: CITRUS TIMES; Pg. 1 LENGTH: 437 words HEADLINE: County works on storm update system BYLINE: RAGHURAM VADAREVU DATELINE: LECANTO BODY: With less than six months before the start of the 2005 hurricane season, Citrus County emergency officials are working with area radio and television broadcasters to develop a hurricane update for residents. The system would be similar to the Tampa Bay area cable news channel Bay News 9 weather broadcasts. On the station, weather information airs every 10 minutes. "We would spell it (the time schedule) out in advance," said Citrus County sheriff's Capt. Joseph Eckstein, who is also the county's emergency management director, during a meeting Friday with media representatives. The idea comes after a hurricane season in which county officials had difficulty communicating with residents over the various electronic media outlets. When Frances cut power to about 50,000 residents during the Labor Day weekend, officials could not quickly get out information on shelters, contaminated-water threats, school closings and storm conditions. At the time, local radio stations lost power and went off the air. Bay area television and radio stations, meanwhile, appeared to ignore Citrus County news and focused on more populous counties to the south. Sheriff Jeff Dawsy briefly explored the idea of pursuing a Federal Communications Commission license to run a low-power radio station for hurricane information but abandoned the idea after leaders of local radio stations doubted that the county could navigate the complex permitting process. When Jeanne struck later that month, radio and TV stations and the county were prepared with generators; access to bay area stations improved, and only about 20,000 people lost power. During the storm, WYKE-Ch.49 arranged with WLMS-FM 88.3 to simulcast storm information on the small Christian radio station. Eckstein said Friday that the county hopes to enlist local radio stations as the primary source to disseminate hurricane information. He reasoned that residents could still use battery-powered radios even when a storm knocks out power and renders televisions useless. "That's the quickest way to get our information" out to residents, he said. "Our biggest push will be radio." Eckstein said that a fiber optic line running to the bunkerlike Emergency Operations Center, off County Road 491, was installed this past week. Television stations could potentially use that line to get live feeds from the operations center, he said. To accommodate other media, including newspapers, in the cramped operations center, he said that he has the county's permission to convert a closet into a media room. It will have telephone lines and electrical outlets. GRAPHIC: PHOTO; Jeff Dawsy LOAD-DATE: January 22, 2005 |
