美国国家公共电台 NPR--Floridians in the hurricane's path don't need to go far to get to safety, mayors say

Floridians in the hurricane's path don't need to go far to get to safety, mayors say

As Hurricane Ian barrels toward Florida, officials there are activating¹ emergency plans and urging residents to evacuate² from vulnerable areas.

Ian weakened slightly after passing over Cuba but remains⁴ a "major" Category 3 storm, the National Hurricane Center said in a Tuesday morning advisory⁵. It's forecast to reach 130 mph at its peak and hit Florida's west coast on Wednesday, bringing with it heavy rains, inland flooding and life-threatening storm surge.

President Biden has approved an emergency declaration in 24 Florida counties, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken steps including mobilizing 5,000 Florida national guard troops. All told, an estimated 2.5 million Floridians are under evacuation orders as of Tuesday morning, according to DeSantis.

Along the Gulf⁶ Coast, the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg are preparing for what could be their first direct hit by a major hurricane since 1921.

"This is ... a storm that we hope would never come to St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, and we've been preparing for this as long as I can remember," St. Petersburg Mayor and lifelong resident Ken³ Welch told Morning Edition's Rachel Martin on Tuesday morning. "The good news is we do have the data and the science and the surge models that show us where the biggest impacts from the surge will occur."

The city began issuing evacuation orders Monday night, and by Tuesday morning was evacuating⁷ three out of the five possible evacuation zones. Officials are opening some two dozen emergency shelters in "high and dry" areas, and first responders and the public transit⁸ system have already started helping⁹ relocate people to them.

Welch says the priority right now is getting people in vulnerable areas to move to relative safety, which may not be as far away as they think.

"The whole purpose of our mandatory¹⁰ evacuations .... is to move those folks from those coastal¹¹ areas, the beach areas that are most susceptible¹² to flooding, and moving them to a safe location," he explains. "And it's not a matter of having to move 100 miles. [They] could in many cases move five, 10 miles and be in a safe, high zone right in St. Petersburg or in Pinellas County."

Officials are trying to spread the word about these preparations through press conferences and social media, but Welch says there's only so much the government can do. He's encouraging people to reach out to their friends and family members, especially older residents who may be vulnerable to high water and power outages caused by the storm.

Welch believes there's been a "pretty high degree of compliance¹³" with the evacuation orders, especially from people who have lived in Florida for a long time and seen the impact of other storms that have hit the state.

A similar scene is playing out in Tampa, where mayor Jane Castor told NPR's All Things Considered on Monday night that officials' top concern is evacuating people from the most vulnerable coastal areas.

While she's seen "storm evacuation-notice hesitancy" in the past, she says the severity of storms in recent years — and the historic nature of this one — seem to have more people paying attention. Castor, who served in law enforcement for some three decades, says she's heard unequivocally from people who stayed behind during previous hurricanes that "they would never do that again."

Castor urges people to heed¹⁴ the warnings and leave immediately if they live in an evacuation zone.

"You don't have to go hundreds of miles away. You can just go inland to a relative, to a friend's home," she adds. "We can hide from the wind, but we need to get away from that water in those storm surges."

Of course, there are many reasons why people might be reluctant to pack their bags — from uncertainty¹⁵ about the storm's path to fear of leaving behind pets and personal property, their personal risk calculus¹⁶ and the financial cost of a last-minute evacuation (the Red Cross has a searchable database of shelters here).

To Welch, one part of the problem is a lack of awareness¹⁷.

"The troubling issue is ... a lot of new people have come to Florida, particularly in the last decade, and we've had a lot of near-misses," he says. "So we're trying to just make folks understand how strong this storm is and how susceptible we are, particularly in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, to a storm that might just sit off our coast for a while."

This interview was produced by Vince Pearson and edited by Jan Johnson.

1 activating   

活动的，活性的

参考例句：

• "I didn't say we'd got to stop activating the masses! “我并没说就此不发动！ 来自子夜部分
• Presumably both the very small size and activating influence of fluorine atoms contribute to this exception. 这大概是由于氟原子半径小和活性高这两个原因的影响，氟原子对这种例外做出了贡献。

2 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。

3 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

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 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 evacuating   

撤离，疏散( evacuate的现在分词 )； 排空（胃肠），排泄（粪便）； （从危险的地方）撤出，搬出，撤空

参考例句：

• The solution is degassed by alternately freezing, evacuating and thawing. 通过交替的冻结、抽空和溶化来使溶液除气。
• Are we evacuating these potential targets? 能够在这些目标地域内进行疏散吗？

8 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 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。

11 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

12 susceptible   

adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的

参考例句：

• Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
• We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。

13 compliance   

n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从

参考例句：

• I was surprised by his compliance with these terms.我对他竟然依从了这些条件而感到吃惊。
• She gave up the idea in compliance with his desire.她顺从他的愿望而放弃自己的主意。

14 heed   

v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心

参考例句：

• You must take heed of what he has told.你要注意他所告诉的事。
• For the first time he had to pay heed to his appearance.这是他第一次非得注意自己的外表不可了。

15 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

16 calculus   

n.微积分；结石

参考例句：

• This is a problem where calculus won't help at all.对于这一题，微积分一点也用不上。
• After studying differential calculus you will be able to solve these mathematical problems.学了微积分之后，你们就能够解这些数学题了。

17 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。