Hurricane shelters still face staff shortage.

With Hurricane Dorian on a path likely to strike Florida, Broward County can only count on enough workers to open up half its shelters for residents seeking refuge from the storm.

County officials say that should be enough to weather the storm given current projections for Dorian’s strength.

But if it strengthens significantly or a stronger storm threatens later this year, the county will be hard-pressed to field a sufficient staff.

“If we have a huge one that you have to open up everything we’ve got, then we would have a problem,” County Administrator Bertha Henry said.

The county has been struggling for several years to field an adequate shelter staff to operate its 33 shelters after the American Red Cross cut back its local commitments because it was spreading itself too thin.

Hurricane Dorian is projected to be a Category 3 storm when it reaches the U.S. coast over Labor Day weekend, although it’s too early to tell where it will make landfall.

It’s also too early for the county to determine which, if any, shelters it will open for Dorian.

Over the past two years, the county has been meeting with cities and the school district looking for their assistance, but it still hasn’t been able to lock down an agreement for extra bodies. The county was fortunate last year not to have a hurricane.

Broward Emergency Management Director Tracy Jackson said the county’s goal is to have about 1,800 shelter workers trained and available, which would be the maximum staff needed to operate all the shelters at maximum capacity.

The number right now is closer to 700, mostly county and school district employees, he said. The county will also get additional help from the Red Cross, he said.

That should be enough to open about 16 shelters, if not more, Jackson said.

“I see very easily half of them being able to open, and that would include the biggest shelters,” Jackson said.

But the uncertainty is frustrating in the face of an oncoming storm, Commissioner Michael Udine said.

“To have conversations about hurricanes and emergency management using the word ‘hopefully’ and ‘we think we’ll get there’ and ‘we might get there’ and ‘we’re talking about’ comments, it just can’t be acceptable to us,” Udine said. “We need to come up with some kind of final answer.”

Jackson and Henry think the county would get additional city and school employees stepping up to volunteer if the county sounded the alarm that more hands were needed immediately.

“I’m comfortable if we see a really big one coming, they would recognize that we have no choice but to gear up,” Henry said.

Jackson said the shelters were stretched thin in September 2017 when Hurricane Irma brushed the area.

Prior to the 2017 hurricane season, counties had relied on the Red Cross to provide volunteers for their shelters, but then the organization cut back its commitment. The Red Cross still helps in the county’s special needs shelters and some additional shelters, but the county has had to pick up the bulk of the staffing, Jackson said.

During Irma, the county opened 27 shelters using only 431 workers and served close to 14,000 evacuees and hundreds of pets, officials said.

Officials recommend people look first to friends and family who live outside evacuation areas for a place to stay before going to a shelter to ride out a storm.

JIM RASSOL/SUN SENTINEL Broward County has struggled to have enough workers to staff its hurricane shelters.