State backs OC’s actions during Irene

Source: Delmarvanow.

OCEAN CITY — Richard Muth, Maryland’s director of emergency management, said he backs the timing and the reasoning of Ocean City officials who evacuated the resort in anticipation of Hurricane Irene.

Muth visited a Town Council work session where officials from the Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association voiced questions and concerns they had about the way the evacuation was executed.

Muth said numerous factors — including the necessity to close the Chesapeake Bay Bridge when winds hit a certain speed, and the evacuation of multiple low-lying areas in Delmarva and the immediate area — made the decision to evacuate in the days before the storm hit a prudent one.

“It was the right decision made based on the information they had at the time,” Muth said of the Aug. 26 evacuation date, echoing a comment Mayor Rick Meehan has made about the decisions. The brunt of the storm came about a day later.

Fishtales owner and HMRA member Shawn Harman pointed out during the discussion that Ocean City had been evacuated before places like Cape Hatteras, N.C., an area that was hit by the storm hours before Ocean City.

Muth said it didn’t matter to his staff which other states and towns had handed down evacuation orders when Ocean City did, adding that in that situation, municipalities often look for a town elsewhere to make the initial move before following suit.

By leaving Ocean City early, people were able to get away from the Eastern Shore without some of the traffic congestion some areas of Delaware encountered when they evacuated later, Muth said.

“If the Bay Bridge had been closed when people were trying to leave, that would have taken away a very important route,” he said.

Councilman Joe Hall said the storm was a real threat, and that town officials took it as one.

If Ocean City had felt the force of the storm that some areas north and south of the resort had, there wouldn’t be a discussion about the evacuation, he said. Instead, there would be one about rebuilding the town.

“We did the right thing for the town of Ocean City,” Hall said.

HMRA Executive Director Susan Jones said the association did not wish to question the decision to evacuate, but wanted to speak with the council in an effort to make practical improvements in the event another natural disaster looms on the town’s horizon.

Ocean City’s official press release on the evacuation was confusing, and calls to a hotline listed on the release gave HMRA members conflicting reports on what they were to do, Jones said.

Meehan and the council acknowledged that improvements can certainly be made.

Ocean City spokeswoman Donna Abbott recommended the town make plans to establish a joint information committee that can be assembled in the event of another impending disaster. The group could form a comprehensive communication plan, and training for facets of the group could be provided by the town. Muth pledged the state’s help with training if necessary.

Councilwoman Margaret Pillas commended the community on its actions in the time leading up to the hurricane.

“You have criticisms, but you still followed through and complied,” Pillas said.

The Ocean City Fire Department has already been analyzing its actions before and during the storm as part of an effort to create a department plan that will allow the department to begin planning for a storm up to 96 hours before it hits, Chief Chris Larmore said later in the meeting. The day after the storm, Larmore appointed two full-time workers to handle that review.

The department’s storm preparedness plan will be “shelf-ready” in the event of another storm, and will include everything the department can think of for storm planning and logistics, Larmore said.