Presentation - Emergency Management - Coastal Tour - No Funding Required

1:07:33Aye. Okay. Could be a great project for our seniors. Great. And now we'll go to the regular agenda, starting with R forty. It's presentation only.

1:07:46Fairly fashion.

1:07:50Yeah, I

1:07:50mean eighty four.

1:07:51Good morning, Commissioner. It's Andy Fossa, EM Director for the County. Um couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking Commissioner Mariano and some county employees around the county. um showing in the impact of what hap what would have happened if Ian had impacted our coast. So basically what we did was we took in From Lee County, put it on the same course, same speed, same trajectory, and inlaid the surge that would have happened in Pasco County. Their results

1:08:22are astronomical and devastating. So I put together a slide presentation that I had presented to the commissioner. And since then I've tweaked it a little bit just to give some more realism to it. So Category 4 hurricane, north by northwest trajectory, speed of 10 miles an hour, landfall at peak high tide, center of the storm trike tru striking just near Gulf Harbors.

1:08:49Impact assumption, storm surge would be greater than 20 feet above ground level, not mean sea level, ground level. Extensive flooding west of Little Road, devastated flooding along US 19 Corridor, massive product property, damage loss, loss of life, damage to critical infrastructure, a significant loss of tax revenue, and serious environmental damage.

1:09:13So the hurricane storm surge, if you can click on that video.

1:09:17Remember that?

1:09:17Um, this is basically Fort Myers Beach when Ian came in, started to come in on the coast. This surge came in six hours prior to the eye coming across the st the county.

1:09:33This video was amazing.

1:09:34Yeah, I might have seen this. I want you to keep focus on the red house that's back in that left-hand corner.

1:09:58Now, the waves that are hitting that camera was a beach camera that was out there placed by Lee County for their safety and security. That camera was mounted a little over eight feet in the air, above the ground.

1:10:13And if you notice that house back there is now a floating house and leaving.

1:10:47So if you watch the palms, they'll start to turn here in a minute, which means the winds are now blowing offshore and taking that water back out.

1:11:00Yeah.

1:11:01Mm-hmm.

1:11:05And people stayed in their houses during this.

1:11:07Yes. I've met a a couple of folks that actually one stayed in a mobile home and weathered the storm out. And she had four and a half feet water in her mobile home. Her husband's a quadriplegic. and they didn't take the stor the storm that serious. So she physically had to hold him up above the water line until that water receded. And then they finally got some help in there for her.

1:11:33And would she stay again?

1:11:36Yes.

1:11:36She said she would stay if another storm came?

1:11:39Wow. It was very mixed emotions on this storm when you were down there interviewing the people and talking with them. So that's uh basically the Can you click on the slide again?

1:11:54All right, so the storm surge, uh flooding feet above ground level, represented by the white flags, uh massive coastal flooding along the UR US 19 quarter from Arapeka to Antlote. If you'll notice on there, there are some areas that reach 21 feet and st and wave and surge height. That's not including the wave action on top of the surge. So um the damage would be astronomical. Northwest Pasco from

1:12:25Arapeka to Bayonet Point. Flooding average about 14 feet, over 21 feet in some areas. Bayonet Point Hospital would be impacted by flooding of 17 feet. Bayonet Point Hospital is elevated about 15 feet above ground level, if you ever noticed the hospital. So they would have water on their first floor. They do have a plan that they don't evacuate out, they evacuate up. But with a storm like this and

1:12:55we have talk with them. that the recommendation would to be evacuate out because it's the sheer wind force that would be behind that storm. Marina Impacts. The picture on the left is a marina and Port Ritchie on Sunset Lane. The picture on the right is what's left of a marina and Lee County by Fort Myers Beach.

1:13:21Western Pasco County, Bayonet Point to Elfers, North Bay Hospital would have water through their first floor. So they would have to evacuate. Flooding average of fifteen feet and then in some areas of twenty one feet. And you can see the inlay, how far deep that water goes in, especially down by where that says Morton Plant, North Bay Hospital. that far in and have twenty one feet in certain areas.

1:13:50Waterway impacts. The picture on the left is Flormar Terrace. We were at when we went out there to look. The picture to the right is one of the canals down in Fort Myers Beach.

1:14:04Western Pasco to South County, Alfred's a county line, flooding on average of 18 feet, 21 feet in some areas, flooding from coast to Little Road. Six foot to eight foot of flooding around Little Road. And those are some pictures that we have locally south of Little Road that we on an average bad rain. We just get those street flooding. And that's some of the flooding concerns that we have.

1:14:31Homes and businesses. This is along Fort Myers going out. That was an intersection right there that we have set up some generators and comfort stations, bathrooms, showers, laundry facilities, but that's one of the newer homes on the left that was built the category to a hurricane straight storm. So you see the devastation that this can do.

1:15:00Um go on can you go back on that picture? So I mean that that turquoise building It's still you know, why is it still standing pretty well? Cement.

1:15:12It's cement. So that building is cement that was a st uh A bunch of uh beach doors, beachfront stores, um, got blown out. They had water through the second level. Um but the the bottom floor was completely cleared out. I had a picture I wanted to put on there of a seven eleven because the only thing that's standing at the seven eleven is the four columns and the seven eleven sign. The entire walls and infrastructure had been blown out of the building.

1:15:39So on that on that house on the left is that bottom Floor wood. Yes, that is a wood construction house. And that's built a hurricane coat with the first floor wood? Yes

1:15:49y yes ma'am, it was. It had blowout walls.

1:15:54But then right behind it the sheer amount of wind this once that wind gets into the structure, it just destroys it and tears it apart. I have pictures of cement structures at a hurricane code that showed the same kind of devastation. Okay. And it was kind of unique because you could drive down the street and you have all these destroyed homes and you have this one home that has maybe a shingle off of it. And that was it. It just depends on the construction and who built the house. The quality of the contracting. Yes, ma'am. Critical assets, so

1:16:26pump stations, power plants, electric substations, water treatment plants, communication, emergency services. Anticipated impacts would be long-term disruption of service and loss of generated revenue. When I was in Lee County The barrier islands were the worst hit when it came to infrastructure. They lost sewage, they lost water, and they lost all communications. I was there three weeks. And when I was leaving there, they still did not have water, sewage, or communications.

1:16:57On Fort Myers Beach, It was the same way. The infrastructure was all torn out. They lost generators for pump stations and all sorts of assets.

1:17:09And if you would say never mind, you're on you on the right s we're go you're going right where we want to go. Go ahead.

1:17:13Electrical power plant, we have the Anclope Power Plant that's located down in Antlope. That would get about 20 feet of water into it. We spoke with them right across the street is a main electrical grid. That they have for distribution of power, for the holiday side, for elfers, and all that area in Independent County. If that plant was to be destroyed, we would that would be a major disruption of service for not weeks but probably months to get power up.

1:17:43So on that power plant, isn't that only used for bac mostly backup? Generate power generation? Mm-mm. That's a functioning power Well I know it's functioning, but I'm pretty sure it's just a backup. Is it

1:17:55a

1:17:55peaker or the peaker? It's a peaker.

1:17:57Yes. Yes.

1:17:59Yeah. No, and and just to talk to that for just a moment. Um there are opportunities I think there to raise up that structure. Talk talking with the manager.

1:18:09Huh?

1:18:10Talking with the manager of the plants, he com actually come out to speak to us. We looked at the grid system that's out there and They would love to get it raised up at some point. Um and I think if we talk about resiliency going down the road, it's something that we can go look at and try to work with them. Um I think we get the P Penellist delegation to go go with us to go fight to to make that plan safer.

1:18:28Yes, sir.

1:18:32electrical power distribution, power poles, Lee County, the islands, they were down for miles. But I will say I have never seen a group Of uh power workers, electrical workers. reconstruct a power pole line that was about ten miles long and they had it up and reconstructed it within three days.

1:18:54But

1:18:54they had no power to put to it, but they had it all up and ready to go for the infrastructure.

1:18:59So can I see a question on that? Um so my brother lived through Andrew, Hurricane Andrew. and a lot of my family and Miami Dade uh put the power poles underground. And most of the county, all these are underground now. So are they planning on doing that as well?

1:19:19I would hope so. I d I don't know what bothers me that we don't do that here. A lot of it I think um because you hit some areas like I I was on Pine Island. Um you had some areas areas on Pond Island that had the electric electrical gro underground and then you had stretches that were above ground. So it was a combination of both.

1:19:39That city that um Sid Kitson built in Babcock Ranch, I can't remember the name of it.

1:19:44Lakewood Ranch.

1:19:47Is that Bobcock Ranch? All their wires are underground and they have solar and they they didn't lose any power. Sample.

1:19:59Emergency services, that's fire station thirty one on Fort Myers Beach. That's what's left of it. There's another picture of another fire station that I have that the You pick you know how big a fire truck is and you know how much a fire truck weighs. I've never seen a fire truck picked up and floated into the back of a building with the w the way that surge came in. But impacts for us would be Station 10 in Hudson, uh Port Ritchie Station 1, Port Ritchie Police Department, Station

1:20:2911 in Port Ritchie, Station 19 in New Port Ritchie. Uh County about Newport Ritchie Station one, New Port Richey P D, and station twelve and holiday. So in essence we would lose all our fire stations on the west side of the county. along the US nineteen corridor. Of course they would evacuate and move, but the facilities would be damaged heavily.

1:20:50I d I w do want to say Fire Station three over at Majestic. It looks like er Eric Eric and I were out there looking at it and Mike was there too. Um they've elevated that thing way up. I'm looking at the fill just from what we were when we were out there, the piles we saw. That's up probably up like six, seven feet from where I was.

1:21:08So hospitals that would be impacted, like I said, we would lose Bayonet, which is a very key hospital in Pasco County. It's a level two trauma center. It's a 320-bed facility. Like I said, they would have water through their first floor. North Bay, 141-bed facility, it's an acute care facility, they would have water up to their first floor and up and higher. But those facilities we would lose.

1:21:35Um tax revenue. So if we had flooding on the west side of US 19. Just in storm surge alone, with flooding, we would lose approximately $37.9 million annually in revenue loss. For the county. And that's broken down the gr general fund, fire millage, go bond, storm parcels. taxable values, and then our loss of revenue through the general fund, fire, go bonds, and stormwater. If the water was actually to go across to

1:22:05Little Road, which is project projected in areas the additional a hundred and nine million dollars a year and tax loss we and revenue loss we would have to the county. And as you see, it'd be taxable value, general fund, the fire millage, GO bonds, about 10 million, loss of revenue and the revenue funds about 78 million, fire 18 million, the GO bonds 2.8 million, and stormwater would be 8.96. So that would give you a total of about $139

1:22:36million in loss to what that would affect the county in our budgets.

1:22:42Environmental impact, when you're talking about cleaning up the coast. When I was down there in Lee County There was so much debris d the county Couldn't even fathom how they were gonna get all this debris out of the water. Not only the boats, but the cars that were in there. There were buildings in there, a part of houses in there, there was garbage in there. When I left there th after three weeks. They hadn't even thought about starting that process yet. When

1:23:13I left there today, I was the I was leaving, I was part of a task force for the derelict vessels and vehicles on the on the coastal way. um to get them figured out. But they never touched the garbage. They haven't even spoken about garbage yet. And then the effects that it has on the mangroves and the citizens and the fish and the environment.

1:23:32And and one of the things uh Colleen was at a seminar and she talked about uh was the fiberglass. Insulation that got blown out. into the mangroves. I mean that's gonna be brutal for the fish. So that's something That's something we can actually look at implementing ourselves for a code, not to allow blown insulation in. It's got to be packaged better.

1:23:55So my last picture is I just put this one in there because the picture on the left is the Sanabel Lighthouse missing its third leg, fourth leg, and then the picture to the right is our Anclote Lighthouse. So that could happen to our lighthouse too. That's also a historic structure.

1:24:15Same architect, maybe. That's interesting. Ours looks just like theirs. It

1:24:19is. It is. It's So with that, do I have any questions from anybody? Commissioner Bradford.

1:24:25Mr. Chairman M years passed, I was FEMA certified. Uh it's sold that the certificate is actually paper turning brown. So th I uh I took that out and said, okay, that's old technology. But the water's still the same. The storm surge is still the same. What has changed is the intensity of the chemicals that we use. the way we have constructed constructed our coastal communities, the

1:24:56way we have clustered uh Some appropriately, some not appropriately. How we've built our public safety infrastructure. Some of it was done before. We even got here. So my point is this. If something like this hit. And God forbid it never does. But if it did I have no doubt that everybody in this government will take off the suit and tie and Whatever and do what we have to do.

1:25:27Uh We saw that all over the state of Florida and all the different types of uh hurricanes. But more importantly, I did want to point out private industry, how those linemen, line ladies, line people You're right. They got it done. They got it done quick. Uh so what less do we learn there? apply to the public sector because I know the public sector will have bigger problems. More expensive problems, but I think

1:25:57uh I think there could be lessons learned there. And um Are we doing enough to educate the public, Mr. Chair, on something of this nature? Thank you.

1:26:10Thank you. Well Andy, I I tell you it was it was an awesome presentation you you put beforeward from just a conversation about getting Uh uh talk about what would happen to our key infrastructure pieces. Um R I think it's super informative and and important for us to know what those effects would have been. Something we didn't ha we talked a little bit in our meeting um was as far as the effect of uh wells and septic systems in the Lee County area. Matter of fact, Manatee County too. With the All that water that

1:26:40went in there, it polluted wells. Hur hurt septic systems for from for weeks I guess, uh for people not being able to get in. it's something we need to go look at. And I think we all would say that after meeting with Commissioner Oakley or Simpson, that there's a lot of septic to sewer money that's out there. Uh there's federal help as well as the state help that's out there, and it's something that Mike was we put on a uh a grants administrator. Uh this should be probably priority one to get forward. Uh if there's opportunities to help the power plant down the

1:27:10street. No, we definitely want to do that. And I think we should probably take a closer look to see if there's any legislation still out there. About when someone takes a house And raises it up to base flight elevation numbers. that there's a there was a bill last year for that extra value of that property was not gonna be taxed.

1:27:30That's still in legislation. In fact still

1:27:32going?

1:27:33Yeah. My group uh my team is the one that we do uh acquisition elevations, we do acquisition and d demolition for repetitive flood loss. We have one going right now on Didra Circle that we've elevated the house, I believe it was fifteen feet. So they're in the middle of doing that. And it's a grant program State pays state and FEMA pay 75%. The homeowner's got to come up with the matching 25%, but it's well, well worth it.

1:28:00Mr. Chairman because our DEL keeps twenty five percent, unlike other states.

1:28:06Uh

1:28:08Sub If we could ever get that changed, we could give a hundred percent to the homeowner.

1:28:13That might be set up for that too. Commissioner Bradford.

1:28:16Are we uh part of that lobbying process to get those bills through?

1:28:20Yes sir. We have the Florida Emergency Emergency Preparedness Association, FIPA, has a very strong voice within state government. And they do a lot of lobbying on behalf. of of the counties. And then we also turn around, we present letters to our senators, to our congressmen in order to push these bills through. Um and then we have certain bills that of course we do not want to push through that's gonna be more harm than good. But yeah, there's a very big voice up at the state

1:28:51level.

1:28:53And do you need a letter from us in support or do you feel like that?

1:28:57So I would actually work with Ralph Lair on that. So running through him. I don't know if he's here or not. He is.

1:29:08Well just with legislature in session right now, if it's out there floating, if I'm gonna do it, we want to probably do it quickly.

1:29:16Would you recommend that we write a letter supporting

1:29:20Mm. At this point in time, no, it's not necessary. Maybe after session because there's nothing working right now.

1:29:25Nothing working now. Okay.

1:29:29Very good. Well again, Andy, thank you for uh your great work you've done, the great team you've got doing the research. Oh I've got one more

1:29:35quick

1:29:36Commissioner

1:29:37Oakley. I think this just shows again why the wastewater treatment facility on the water North of Gulf Harbors needs to move. No it needs to be off the water. And more Enmond. So

1:29:55We are working to that, but I think we I'm I'm glad we're having the conversation right here because I think we definitely need to do that. Um location's bad and they've got some issues that we're dealing with and

1:30:10There's a lot of money out there to move plates like that. Uh up up in uh what it takes. Up in DC it's exactly but they they have put that money out there and the money's been allocated already. So I'd say number two, if not number one. That that plan too should be something we work with the

1:30:25joint

1:30:26administration.

1:30:26It's not on here as a little start.

1:30:28If I could add to the conversation, you know, we are undergoing a I'm sorry, undertaking a vulnerability assessment currently. And so that involves the cities, it involves the counties, and looking at those critical pieces of infrastructure that that are vulnerable. That kind of helps set the stage for us to to help chase after larger dollars. Obviously, there's there's things already in place that were that. We're taking, you know, taking into consideration. I mean, at the at the end of the day, uh, you know, Annie and I, you know, we we we talk about this. I mean, protection of your critical infrastructure is probably super important because we can have great building codes, but

1:30:58Mother Nature can always outdesign us on any kind of storm. And so it turns into a recovery operation and how quickly the the uh the the county can bounce back, hence resiliency and why you're seeing a lot of a lot more focus and importance on that. especially with regards to infrastructure and we're we're we're moving you know as as a county government with with grants and and resiliency we are we are forging ahead in this in this area because it's important. Okay Commissioner Starkey?

1:31:24Um so uh Tampa General Has This wall that comes up. That surrounds it. And I wonder if that's not something that Bayonet Point That might be good for Bayonet Point.

1:31:38Bayonet Point's not as bad as as North Bay. Okay, well one of 'em. Yeah. So North Bay if anybody, 'cause Morth Bay number one is right on the river, it's right by the river. Number two, um, it's it's ground level, it's not elevated whatsoever. So if you're

1:31:52Actually it's not a wall that comes up, it's a wall they put in place that

1:31:55locks

1:31:55together.

1:31:56Yes, it's a flood wall. Exactly what you're talking about. And keeps her

1:31:59flood in the

1:31:59building? Yes. It's very i it's it's new technology. I didn't believe it until I actually saw it. How how long has it been in? Um it's uh I think it's been around probably within the last three to five years they have had this product. But um it actually does a very good job. Yeah. Sounds good. Okay.

1:32:21Commissioner Weightman?

1:32:27No comments, just appreciate the report. Okay.

1:32:30Right. Again, Andy, thank you very much. Greatly appreciate it.

1:32:34Not a problem, sir. Thank you. You all have a great day.

1:32:35Thank you.

1:32:41That's a pretty nice backyard.

1:32:46So uh is that the one I'm going to use?