Illustration by Timothy Howard 



Pamlico County's evacuation plan based on longitude and latitude 



departments, police departments, city 

 mayors, county commissioners, the 

 Red Cross and others are notified. 

 Shelter preparations begin. 



"Condition two" begins 24 hours in 

 advance of hurricane landfall. Shelters 

 are opened. Emergency equipment and 

 vehicles are readied. Public advisories 

 are issued. 



Twelve hours from landfall "condi- 

 tion one" is established. The order to 

 evacuate beachfront and flood-prone 

 areas is given during condition one. 

 The decision to evacuate may be made 

 by the emergency management coor- 

 dinator, as is the case in Pamlico 

 County, or by an emergency commit- 

 tee of county mayors and county com- 

 missioners, as in New Hanover 

 County. The decision is made at the 

 county level, not the state level. 



During this condition one phase, a 

 central emergency headquarters is es- 

 tablished. Orders go out from the 

 headquarters to police, the sheriff's 

 department and the fire department 

 for the evacuation. Evacuation 

 shelters are in full operation. The Red 

 Cross, county social services and 

 health departments provide evacuees 

 with shelter, food and medical care if 

 needed. Other county departments 

 also assist during the evacuation 

 phase. 



In the aftermath of the hurricane, 

 the county provides protection from 

 looting, damage-assessment estimates 

 and continued operation of the shelters 

 as needed. 



Dick Simmons, emergency- 

 management coordinator for Pamlico 

 County, says his county's evacuation 



plan is slightly different from others. 

 The plan is based on the longitude and 

 latitude of an approaching hurricane. 

 Simmons says he would call for the 

 evacuation of Goose Creek Island, the 

 county's most vulnerable area, when a 

 hurricane was at 31 degrees 15 minutes 

 north latitude and between 70 and 85 

 degrees west longitude (about 15 hours 

 prior to landfall). 



"When I call for evacuation I want 

 to be pretty confident Pamlico County 

 is going to be clobbered or close enough 

 to being clobbered that we're in con- 

 siderable danger," he says. "The 

 hurricane can always turn out not to 

 be as bad as we predicted and we may 

 over-evacuate people. But in my book 

 an ounce of prevention is worth a 

 pound of cure." 



—Kathy Hart 



