Hello everyone out there, I too have been an avid but anonymous reader of the forums here for about a year or so..I linked from another site and found this site VERY informative and interesting...as a camper and hunter,I thought I could handle most situations, but after lurking around ETS, I thank God I've never been in any serious spots...At least now I might realize WHEN I was in trouble and know to engage my brain B4 losing my mind!!! Anyway, just wanted to say "HI" and thank y'all for the great info! p.s.-I only occasionally return to the other site.ETS just keeps gettin Better! Thanks/ Tony

Glad to see you here Sundance!

Welcome to ETS, gald to have you here!

Welcome aboard Sundance!

Thanks gang..I hope to be able to contribute to the posts, and ask reasonably intelligent questions. After 9-11, I started thinking about "what if..?" scenarios and realized my preparedness was seriously lacking, and now since moving from NY to Florida w/ hurricane seaon approaching we'll be prepared to hunker down and not too proud to bail out if it gets ugly!

Welcome, Sundance
What part of Fl. are you calling home?

We're on that nice little peninsula on the Gulf side..Pinellas County..y'know, the one where all north-bound roads will be gridlocked if evac is necessary...or we could try going over the miles of bridges to get to non-flood areas...only kidding-love it here!!!

Hi, Sundance, welcome aboard.

*looks around*

Where's Butch? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Welcome.

Welcome! I also pride myself on avoiding serious trouble. More luck than skill on my part. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> What other site are you referring to?

Living in the Keys, I can relate. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I grew up in Pinellas County, and am a little biased when I say that you are propbably living with one of the nation's premier emergency services and emergency management system. Twenty-five years ago they decided they should do some things like consolidated dispatching, common radio system (except for Clearwater), using the Incident Command System (a buzzword today, but in use for the last 25 years there), automatic mutual aid, and a county "grid" system that divides the county into 1.5 x 1 mile rectangles. Used for EVERYTHING dealing with the county. All stuff transparent to most citizens, but is enourmous in its benefits to command and control. (The whole idea of "interoperability"). There are still turf battles, but when you're dealing with 25 independent municipalities in an area the size of Pinellas County, you will have problems. You don't say how long you've lived there, but if you're new, make sure you understand your evacuation zone, evacuation roots, and if the shelter you would plan to go will be closed in evacuation level "D" and "E".

If you have an questions, don't forget to search the archives here too. Sometimes the questions have been answered a few times.