See how transportation departments evacuated residents — both people and pets — and prepared their buses to endure the massive storm.
PHOTOS: Florida School Bus Teams Take Action for Hurricane Irma
Before the arrival of Hurricane Irma, Orange County Public Schools in Orlando positioned and prepared about 1,000 school buses. The prep work included refueling the buses, parking them close together, securing passenger doors with bungee cords, and fastening stop arms with zip ties.
Bill Wen, senior director of transportation services for Orange County Public Schools, said that buses were also parked around buildings to protect them. The district has six bus depots.
After the hurricane, all of Orange County’s school bus locations had lost power, but there was minimal damage to the facilities and buses. Wen said that a few roof hatches had blown open, and a handful of stop arms were bent. One bus (seen here) sustained a broken window from a lamp shade that fell from a parking lot light.
Here, a transportation team member at Tampa-based Hillsborough County Public Schools refuels a bus before Hurricane Irma.
A Hillsborough school bus driver helps a resident board a bus to evacuate before Hurricane Irma.
Hurricane Irma flooded St. Lucie Public Schools’ central office (seen in the background), which is expected to be uninhabitable for months.
The wheelchair lift was used to bring pets in kennels aboard the “yellow ark,” as St. Lucie Director of Transportation Don Carter described it.
About 50 of Hillsborough’s buses and drivers evacuated special-needs residents ahead of the storm.
The view through the passenger doorway of a Hillsborough school bus shows flooding from the storm. As Operations Manager Pam Coleman put it, “The best revenge to the massive storm Irma was the joy it gave our department in transporting our community to safety.”
St. Lucie Public Schools’ buses transported people as well as pets (seen here in kennels) to storm shelters.
A four-legged passenger is ready to ride to a pet-friendly storm shelter on a St. Lucie school bus.
Brevard Public Schools' transportation team quickly secured 500 school buses to brace for the forecast 100 mph winds of Hurricane Irma. Transportation Director Arby Creach said that the buses made it through with no apparent damage.