Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 6-9-17

Features
Officials Urge Citizens To Prepare For Hurricane Season
MAYOR BOB BUCKHORN
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Last Thursday, June 1st, the 2017 Hurricane Season began and it will continue until November 30th. Offi- cials on a national, state, and local level are encouraging citizens to be prepared in the event that the Tampa Bay Area does experience a storm.
On a local level, Mayor Bob Buckhorn, Tampa Po- lice Chief Eric Ward, and Tampa Fire Chief Thomas Forward all stressed the need for early preparation.
Mayor Buckhorn said, “It’s especially important to know your evacuation route in this geographically vulner- able city. Tampa’s southern peninsula is shaped like a bowl, so it floods easily.
“If we take a direct hit from a category 3 storm
CHIEF ERIC WARD
coming up Hillsborough Bay, you can expect down- town Tampa to be 15-to-20 feet under water and basi- cally everything from Kennedy Boulevard to the Bay to be completely unin- habitable,” Mayor Buck- horn said.
He added that homes and businesses on Davis Islands and Harbour Island could also be flooded by a storm surge and excessive rain.
Chief Eric Ward
warned drivers about going around barricades. “It puts a huge strain on us when we have to come out and rescue people, especially individuals in smaller light vehicles. We see them floating down Bayshore. It's not safe for anyone. And when that vehi- cle is floating down Bayshore, it's out of control basically. They can cause damage to the seawall, resi-
CHIEF THOMAS FORWARD
dences, and everything else in the area.”
Chief Ward said it’s also dangerous to wade through flood waters because the water could contain toxins. Yet he acknowledged that it's a common occurrence to see people floating down Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard when it’s flooded, despite it being blocked off by police.
Fire Chief Thomas Forward wants all resi- dents to sign up for Alert Tampa. The system is set up to send out updates on hur- ricane threats to the area as well as road closings, evacu- ation and re-entry orders.
“It’s so very important that everybody gets Alert Tampa. You need to dial into that and set yourself up for that. You will get any notifi- cations of any impending storms.”
Women’s Business Centre Director Steps Down To Step Out
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
After three years of champi- oning Tampa Bay women en- trepreneurs at the helm of Women’s Business Centre, Stacey Banks- Houston is stepping down from her post.
Friday was Houston’s last day running one of the most popular programs at the Helen Gordon Davis Centre for Women, but the Ohio native said she will continue pushing women toward fulfilling their entrepreneurial dreams through her own consulting business.
Houston, who was re- cruited from Cleveland to be- come the center’s first director, said she’s also interested in re- turning to school to obtain her doctorate.
Now is the right time to pursue those goals, she said.
“This was my decision to continue growing my busi- ness,” Houston said. “It’s bit- tersweet for me.”
The Centre is part of a na- tional network of women’s business centers that assist women in starting small busi- nesses. Funded in part by the U. S. Small Business Associa- tion, the Centre is the only SBA-women’s business center on Florida’s west coast.
A new director will be named in the coming weeks, said Ann Madsen, Executive Director of the Centre for Women.
The Centre will continue to build on Houston’s founda- tion, she said.
“She did a great job for us in
STACEY BANKS-HOUSTON ...Stepping down as Director of Women’s Business Centre
building the program,” she said.
Under Houston, the Cen- tre expanded programming and counseled thousands of women business owners, from rookies to veteran entrepre- neurs.
The job was a personal mis- sion for Houston, who worked to position the Centre to be one of the top producers of women-owned businesses in the state.
Over the years, Houston worked to increase support and investment among women en- trepreneurs, especially among minority women.
Along the way, she devel- oped a closeness with many women business-owners.
That won’t change since Houston will remain in the Tampa area.
“I’ve had a personal rela- tionship with my clients and it was more than just helping them build their businesses,” she said. “It means a lot to me that I’ve had that impact.”
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