美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Everyone Would Have Left': Putting Lessons From Hurricane Michael To Work

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Atlantic hurricane season has started. You may remember what happened last year - Hurricane Michael, the most powerful hurricane ever to hit Florida's Panhandle. It ripped through with winds of 160 miles per hour. Emergency managers definitely have Hurricane Michael top of mind, especially when it comes to the question of evacuations. Here's NPR's Greg Allen.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE¹: The night before Michael made landfall, Lynn Haven² Mayor Margo Anderson was in the city's administrative³ building preparing to ride out the storm. The National Hurricane Center warned Michael was strengthening and was now likely to come ashore⁴ as a Category 4 storm with winds over 150 miles per hour. She went on Facebook Live with a message for the town's 20,000 residents.

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MARGO ANDERSON: If you are in a house that you don't think will take sustained winds of 100 miles per hour for several hours tomorrow, you still have time to go to a shelter.

ALLEN: As it turned out, Anderson and the other officials in the city's administrative building should have followed that advice.

ANDERSON: This is the hallway where myself and the 40 members of the police department - this is where we ended up at the end of the storm.

ALLEN: She shows me a picture on her cellphone. The roof of the building where they sheltered is gone. Debris⁵ is everywhere. Insulation⁶ and wires hang down from the ceiling.

ANDERSON: Yeah, solid concrete building. It ripped it away around us. We survived in the last standing⁷ hallway. This is what the building looked like when we walked outside.

ALLEN: The brick and concrete building, built in 1928, was now reduced mostly to rubble⁸. Nearly every building in Lynn Haven suffered severe damage. More than 250 homes were completely destroyed. Now, eight months later, Mayor Anderson says, with better information and a bit more time, she would have done things differently.

ANDERSON: Had we known it was going to be a Category 4 before we did, that everyone would have left. If I had known that it would strengthen and we had had that kind of forecast as it came ashore, I would have had my police and fire evacuate⁹ as well.

ALLEN: For emergency managers in charge of evacuations, there's a well-worn adage¹⁰ - hide from wind, run from water. That's because the vast majority of deaths in hurricanes are people who drown in flooding, including storm surge. Because of that, as Michael approached the Panama City area, Joby Smith, the chief of emergency management in Bay County, says evacuations were ordered mostly for areas near the water.

JOBY SMITH: Storm surge is what most evacuation models are based on. And we also take into consideration, though, within our walls here, you know, what do the winds look like?

ALLEN: Because of last-minute warnings that Michael might intensify¹¹, Bay County increase the areas under mandatory¹² evacuation. A traffic assessment¹³ done after the storm suggested just a fifth of the county residents ordered to evacuate actually did so. In Mexico Beach, the community where Michael made landfall, the percentage of those who evacuated¹⁴ was much higher. Only 50 people were known to have been there at landfall. Jay Baker¹⁵, a researcher and retired¹⁶ Florida State University professor who studies hurricane evacuations, says there's a reason for that.

JAY BAKER: Police went door to door in Mexico Beach. Now, it's a small community. But that is by far the most effective way of disseminating¹⁷ evacuation notices.

ALLEN: Unfortunately, three of those who remained in Mexico Beach died in the storm surge. Elsewhere, several people died after being hit by falling trees or debris. Baker says that's one of Michael's reminders¹⁸ - high winds also kill.

BAKER: I do think that there are a lot of people sort of reassessing whether or not it's advisable to stay behind if you're going to have winds like this. You know, a lot of the damage that was done wasn't to wind just blowing houses away. It was blowing big trees down onto houses.

ALLEN: Two people died during the storm in Jackson County, a rural area more than 40 miles from the coast with just 50,000 residents. Mandatory evacuation was ordered for people who live in mobile homes, which is almost a third of the county. But the director of emergency management in Jackson County, Rodney Andreasen, says even those who lived in permanent wood or stone structures weren't safe.

RODNEY ANDREASEN: We saw a lot of the older buildings, brick buildings in town, that collapsed¹⁹ and were destroyed. Some others were heavily damaged just from the wind collapsing²⁰. The building next to us, it just came apart. And it impacted our building. It punched holes in some of our metal siding.

ALLEN: The fact is, Andreasen says, buildings on Florida's Panhandle simply aren't designed for winds like those seen in Hurricane Michael.

ANDREASEN: I think it's woke up a lot of people to that fact. And we're going to start seeing a lot of things change because of that.

ALLEN: Among those likely changes - how people prepare for storms, how many evacuate and how strong new construction on Florida's Panhandle will need to be to survive hurricanes like Michael. Greg Allen, NPR News, Lynn Haven, Fla.

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1 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。

2 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

3 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

4 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。

5 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

6 insulation   

n.隔离；绝缘；隔热

参考例句：

• Please examine the insulation of the electric wires in my house.请检查一下我屋子里电线的绝缘情况。
• It is always difficult to assure good insulation between the electric leads.要保证两个电触头之间有良好的绝缘总是很困难的。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

9 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。

10 adage   

n.格言，古训

参考例句：

• But the old adage that men grow into office has not proved true in my experience.但是，根据我的经验，人们所谓的工作岗位造就人材这句古话并不正确。
• Her experience lends credence to the adage " We live and learn!"她的经验印证了一句格言: 活到老，学到老！

11 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。

12 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。

13 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

14 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

15 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

16 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

17 disseminating   

散布，传播( disseminate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Our comrades in propaganda work have the task of disseminating Marxism. 我们作宣传工作的同志有一个宣传马克思主义的任务。
• Disseminating indecent photographs on the internet a distasteful act. 在因特网上发布不雅照片是卑劣的行径。

18 reminders   

n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• The strike has delayed the mailing of tax reminders. 罢工耽搁了催税单的投寄。

19 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

20 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。