This case study presents findings from an analysis of the emergency preparation and response for Hurricane Irma, the most recent hurricane impacting the Tampa Bay region. The Tampa Bay region, in particular, is considered one of the most vulnerable areas in the United States to hurricanes and severe tropical weather. A particular vulnerability stems from how all petroleum fuel comes to the area by marine transport through Port Tampa Bay, which can be (and has been in the past) impacted by hurricanes and tropical storms. The case study discussed in this paper covers previous fuel challenges, vulnerabilities, and lessons learned by key Tampa Bay public agency fleets during the past 10 years (mainly as a result of the most recent 2017 Hurricane Irma) to explore ways to improve the area’s resilience to natural disasters. Some of the strategies for fuel-supply resiliency include maintaining emergency fuel supply, prioritizing fuel use, strategically placing the assets around the region to help with recovery, investing in backup generators (including generators powered by alternative fuels), planning for redundancies in fuel supply networks, developing more efficient communication procedures between public fleets, hurricane preparedness-planning, and upgrading street drainage systems to reduce the threat of local flooding.

本案例研究展示了对飓风艾尔玛的应急准备和响应分析的结果，这是最近影响坦帕湾地区的飓风。坦帕湾地区尤其被认为是美国最易受飓风和恶劣热带天气影响的地区之一。一个特别的脆弱性源于所有石油燃料如何通过坦帕湾港的海上运输进入该地区，该地区可能（并且过去一直）受到飓风和热带风暴的影响。本文中讨论的案例研究涵盖了坦帕湾主要公共机构车队在过去 10 年（主要是最近的 2017 年飓风艾尔玛）过去的燃料挑战、脆弱性和经验教训，以探索提高该地区复原力的方法到自然灾害。