Cape braces for a hurricane -- drill

May 14, 2008 12:28 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff/file 1991)

Hurricane Bob was the last major cyclone to hit Cape Cod, sloshing ashore on Buzzards Bay on Aug. 20, 1991.

By Globe Staff

No part of Massachusetts is more susceptible to a hurricane than Cape Cod, a 65-mile elbow of sand where any mass evacuation to the mainland must be squeezed over two narrow bridges. On a peak summer weekend, the shores swell with more than a million vacationers, a scenario that could create a traffic catastrophe if even a weak hurricane took aim.

With a new hurricane season two weeks away, some 300 federal, state, and local authorities today are practicing a revamped plan to move people off the Cape. The annual drill at Otis Air National Guard Base will simulate a Category 3 hurricane barreling toward Massachusetts. The mock command center will track the storm from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Massachusetts Maritime Academy cadets will pose as desperate evacuees seeking shelter and medical attention.

The key to disaster planning is preparation and heeding the danger of a potential storm when it is still several days away, said State Police Sergeant Barry Domingos.

“When it is hitting Bermuda, we are already in the planning stages,” Domingos said this morning in a telephone interview. “We are not waiting until it is off the coast of New Jersey.”

The revamped emergency plan includes adjustments for a population increase, new developments, and changes to key roadways, such as the elimination of the Sagamore Rotary on Route 6 in Bourne. Even on a peak summer weekend, an evacuation would involve a maximum of 350,000 people, with the rest taking shelter in well-built homes and shelters on the Cape, Domingos said. Authorities would focus on people living in low-lying areas and those in less sturdy mobile homes and summer cottages that might not withstand a strong storm.

To facilitate a mass exodus, authorities would close certain ramps onto Route 6, such as Exit 1 near the Christmas Tree Shops. This would give motorists a straight shot across the Sagamore Bridge without having to fight merging traffic, Domingos said.

The last major hurricane to batter Cape Cod was in August 1991 when Hurricane Bob hit Block Island as a Category 2 storm and surged up the coast. Peak wind gusts of 125 miles per hour were recorded in Brewster and North Truro and a 10- to 15-foot storm surge hit Buzzards Bay, according to the National Weather Service.