美国国家公共电台 NPR--Officials face questions over the late evacuation order in Florida's Lee County

Officials face questions over the late evacuation order in Florida's Lee County

Transcript¹

Questions have been raised about the decision by Lee County officials to delay mandatory² evacuation orders ahead of Hurricane Ian's landfall. Did that decision contribute to the rising death toll³?

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Officials in Lee County, Fla., issued mandatory evacuation orders only one day before Hurricane Ian hit land despite days of warnings beforehand.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

So did that decision contribute to the death toll? So far, we know at least 81 people died in Florida during the storm and its aftermath. And of those 42, more than half were in Lee County.

MART?NEZ: NPR's Brian Mann has been following the story.

Brian, so take us through the timeline. When did officials in Lee County start telling people that they had to go?

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE⁴: Yeah. So three days before this storm hit, the National Hurricane Center sent an advisory⁵ saying Ian could drive this devastating⁶ storm surge, up to seven feet of water, in this area around Lee County. Then two days before landfall - this is last Monday - the center issued an official warning. And it appears, A, that that warning should have triggered a mandatory evacuation order under Lee County's own emergency management plan. But that's not what happened. While at least one neighboring county did issue a mandatory evacuation order on Monday, Lee County officials held off. They delayed until the next day, Tuesday morning. The storm and the flood of seawater slammed ashore⁷ Wednesday, when a lot of people were still out on those remote barrier islands vulnerable.

MART?NEZ: So why didn't Lee County follow their own emergency management plan?

MANN: Yeah. The chair of Lee County's board of commissioners⁸, Cecil Pendergrass, was asked about this at a press conference yesterday. He said they believe the brunt of the storm would hit elsewhere along the coast.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CECIL PENDERGRASS: Those 72 hours before the storm, we still were not in the cone⁹. Lee County wasn't. So the emergency - state emergency director said that. We noticed that locally. We were working off of data.

MANN: But here's the thing, A. That forecast cone Pendergrass mentions there - that's only the center of the storm. Ian, of course, was a massive hurricane. Its deadly power and the surge of water were predicted by the National Hurricane Center to extend well beyond that path.

MART?NEZ: Now, what does Pendergrass think of this delay and the fact that they didn't follow their plan? Do they think that it may have contributed to any loss of life?

MANN: You know, Pendergrass didn't speak to that directly except to say he thinks responsibility lies with the residents who chose not to leave their homes.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PENDERGRASS: People get callous¹⁰ to that. And we have a lot of people that moved here in the last five years that's never been through a hurricane. And they just say, oh, it's no big deal. They forget about the force of water. So they didn't leave. I respect their choices. But I'm sure a lot of them regret it now.

MANN: But again, for some people who may have wanted to get out, it's possible there just wasn't enough time once that mandatory evacuation order was finally issued. Lee County's own emergency plan warns that it takes at least 20 hours for people on some of those remote islands to evacuate¹¹.

MART?NEZ: What has Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said about this?

MANN: Well, he's backing local officials. He told reporters that officials in Lee County made the best decision they could with the information available, and he, too, put responsibility on residents.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RON DESANTIS: Everybody had adequate opportunity to at least get to a shelter within the county. But, you know, a lot of the residents did not want to do that, I think for - probably for various reasons. Some people just don't want to leave their home, period. They're island people, whatever.

MANN: And this is actually something we're hearing from local people in Lee County, survivors¹² of the storm. Many of them told NPR they understood the risk and decided¹³ to stay.

Here's Louis Schley, who lives in Fort Myers.

LOUIS SCHLEY: The governor - he gave us fair warning and everything to evacuate and all. But the wife and I decided, no, we're just going to stay.

MANN: But there is a difference, of course, between a warning and a mandatory evacuation order. The question is whether more people would have gotten to safety if the county had issued that order a day sooner.

MART?NEZ: NPR's Brian Mann.

Brian, thanks.

MANN: Thank you.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

3 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

6 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

7 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

8 commissioners   

n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官

参考例句：

• The Commissioners of Inland Revenue control British national taxes. 国家税收委员管理英国全国的税收。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The SEC has five commissioners who are appointed by the president. 证券交易委员会有５名委员，是由总统任命的。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

9 cone   

n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果

参考例句：

• Saw-dust piled up in a great cone.锯屑堆积如山。
• The police have sectioned off part of the road with traffic cone.警察用锥形路标把部分路面分隔开来。

10 callous   

adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的

参考例句：

• He is callous about the safety of his workers.他对他工人的安全毫不关心。
• She was selfish,arrogant and often callous.她自私傲慢，而且往往冷酷无情。

11 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

12 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。