By Jeff Mitchell
Staff Reporter

Decades have come and gone since residents of the Delmarva Peninsula, specifically Sussex County, have been directly affected by a hurricane.

Due to its location, further west than the Carolinas and far enough north that major storms oftentimes have trouble staying organized due to wind sheer, Sussex County has been spared the brunt of a hurricane for longer than several area residents have been alive.

Although that is a good thing, it can also have several harmful side effects, namely complacency by local residents in the event of the area being in the path of a destructive storm.

“Complacency is a big issue because this area hasn’t been hit in a while and a lot of times people think they can survive anything,” Mount Holly, N.J., National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Miketta said. “We are entering a 20- to 30-year period of increased tropical activity, and it’s really not a matter of if the peninsula is going to be hit by a hurricane, it’s when.”

When a hurricane does hit, according to Miketta, it is not just the costal areas that will be affected, as tornados, heavy rain and winds often accompany the surge produced by a major storm.

Flooding, which has devastated some western Sussex areas in recent months, is also a major byproduct of a hurricane.

With all that in mind, the Delmarva Emergency Task Force (DETF) along with several other participants – including local National Guard members, emergency medical personnel, meteorologists and state and local police officers – converged upon the Sussex CHEER Center last Wednesday to discuss how prepared officials really will be in the event of an emergency.

The exercise, which attracted more than 100 participants and observers, “simulated an impact on all the counties on the Delmarva Peninsula, almost simultaneously, in order to test the emergency plans already in place,” according to a DETF press release.

Following the daylong event, which addressed the jurisdictional and agency roles and responsibilities in the event of a major storm hitting the area, DETF’s communications spokesperson Rosanne Pack was happy with the results.

“Events like this are a good way of getting everybody together and on the same page, and I think we accomplished a lot of that [Wednesday].” Pack explained. “There is an old saying that you do not want the first time you meet the people you will be working with in the event of an emergency to be during an emergency.”

Pack, however, added that DETF can only do so much for residents during a major storm, and said that Delmarva citizens owe it to themselves to be as informed on the topic as possible.

“It’s imperative that the public is aware of and prepared for the possibility of a hurricane striking the area,” she said. “Not only that, residents should have an escape route planned and the necessary supplies ready incase an evacuation is necessary.”

Although the possibility of a necessary full-scale evacuation of Sussex Countians and the tourists visiting local areas is not highly probably, Pack said, there are plans in place if it happens.

Residents, however, will likely not be forced several miles inland even if a strong storm approaches, as evacuations in more hurricane common areas like Florida suggest that people may just need to move a county or two north to be safe.

“A lot of people think that an evacuation means they are going to have to keep going west, but sometimes not even that is necessary,” Pack said. “After thinking it through and planning out an evacuation route, a lot of people realize they have family in Pittsburgh, or Western Maryland or another nearby area that they can stay with until it’s safe to return home.”

DETF organizes several different stages of exercises, ranging from full-scale onsite events to simple assemblies and speakers at group meetings.

Any local person or group interested in learning more about preparedness during an emergency should call April Willey at the DETF RSVP office at 856-5815.