THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, March 23, 1995               TAG: 9503230553
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                            LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

APATHY ABOUT HURRICANES IS CALLED DISASTER WAITING TO OCCUR

Someday, the sky will fall.

Emergency planners in Hampton Roads have been trying to hammer that message home for decades as each hurricane season approaches. Despite multiple close calls, many residents believe the region is immune to tropical storms.

That makes Hampton Roads ``a disaster waiting to happen,'' Doug Matthews, city manager of Galveston, Texas, warned local officials Wednesday during the Virginia Hurricane Summit.

Matthews' assessment is based on personal experience. ``We had a 30-year period where there were no hurricanes,'' Matthews said. ``That set us up for a major disaster.''

Much like Hampton Roads, the city went for decades without being hit. Then, in 1983, Alicia hit.

Local government was so ill-prepared that City Hall lacked even flashlights or a transistor radio.

Most residents rode out the hurricane in their homes because, by the time authorities realized they should evacuate, it was too late. Winds were gusting to 90 mph.

The storm caused $2.4 billion in damage and claimed 18 lives.

``The question you have to be asking yourselves is not if, but when, because the law of averages is not in your favor,'' Matthews said. While praising the planning done by localities and the state, he worries that when push comes to shove, officials will hesitate too long.

Bob Sheets, the director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, warned that more and bigger hurricanes may be coming.

Citing recent changes in global climatology, Sheets told those attending the conference at the Omni International Hotel that he has no reason to doubt forecasts calling for eight hurricanes, three of them intense, this season.

That could raise the level of threat to coastal Virginia and North Carolina, where homes, condominiums and hotels have proliferated.

The last big hurricane to make landfall locally was Aug. 23, 1933. It inundated much of the area.

``We've been lucky,'' said Jim Talbot, deputy coordinator of Emergency Services in Norfolk. ``I don't know why, but we've been very, very lucky.'' by CNB