Hurricane Helene Milton recovery and damage assessment
What the county recorded
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The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Dec 16, 2024
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Dec 16, 2024
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What was said
Machine transcription of 13m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 92% of 51 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Sure. Uh thank you. Thank you, uh Chairman Starkey. So Yeah, what uh what a month the end of September through through October was for the county. And I see a lot of our our directors and our team members that that were here. Um we uh uh it's it's it's no surprise here that we we went through we went through a lot. Um I would say that uh during the initial response of just between both uh Helene which came through first and I think Helene actually um uh
sent a lot of warnings to to citizens in terms of the dangers of storm surge and and actually uh we had very few evacuees during during that during that first storm uh unfortunately it really put our our first responders uh in into the thick of it. Uh between the two storms actually over twelve hundred uh water rescues uh we we made uh during during that period of time and actually you'll see some of our appropriations requests I think will will support some of that some of that response. But uh during the second storm when Milton came through,
barreling down as a strong cat four, even as a cat five at one point in time, um folks heeded the warnings and and we had a tenfold increase in those those folks that that investigated and went went through uh went to our shelters. And so having places to shelter folks as well is was was important. We were actually concerned even operating out of our emergency operations center at one point that we were going to have to relocate inland. You know, and that's just how dangerous these storms were plus just and again we'll we'll talk a little bit more about some of the infrastructure
things that that I think we we we need to update as as a result of this. Since I've Administrator, I can tell you this is again um third third go-around uh in terms of a full-on activation with with realistic threats. So unfortunately, I think it's going to become the norm uh rather rather than uh just uh just an outlier. But uh we we continued uh after the storms to to set up um in I'll call it an encampment, but really um uh an area for those. that were displaced to live.
Uh we we call it Pasco Hope. Uh actually uh used uh used an opportunity to to get pallet homes uh installed as well as trailers from the state. The partnership with the state during the during the response was was absolutely fantastic. We When we asked for things, we we got things. Um and uh and folks uh really really pulled together on that. So uh I think uh we're probably I don't I don't know if Kathy's here, but I want to say we're probably about sixty-seventy percent full on that. This is temporary, these are temporary housing for folks that
literally lost housing. And we're seeing more of that as we come through doing uh doing the recovery, which is the substantial damage um uh issues because As you know, FEMA, in order for us to maintain, you know, certain certain levels here, reimbursements and things, you gotta kinda play by the rule book a little bit. And while our federal delegation has been uh um um happy uh I'm sorry, you know, working with us to to help help uh help move things along. Uh we still there's still sometimes uh the the federal rules are are are tough.
And so it's it's coming to areas where you know we're having to make decisions, folks are having to make decisions on you know, where do we where do we go from from our housing here and there? And so we're we're we're seeing more and more folks kind of saying, you know what, I think I think we're leaving. And so they're coming to these coming to these areas. But then again we're also helping folks uh uh get get through things and and rebuild. On the on the debris front, um I'm happy to say that uh we're probably uh three quarters of the way through. Uh the state uh gave a uh or sorry, the
federal government gave a and the state and the federal government gave us a um Extension, right? They had mentioned December. I think that that deadline's gone all the way into February in terms of debris pickup. We've completed our first pass in the county. And so we again, Pasco County started ahead of everyone else.
We did.
We started
like two days after.
And we have we have continued to lead. So out of 1.4 million uh cubic yards of debris, uh we're we're definitely over a million at this point. Uh continue to to to clock in and and and pick up uh pick up debris. We estimate probably about fifty to sixty million and fortunately uh we did receive our first check from the federal government uh in terms of helping our cash flow on that of about twenty four million that actually made it into into our accounts and so we'll we'll continue we'll continue to roll there. So
uh I don't know, Kathryn I've tapped danced long enough. Uh Yeah.
Well but and Brad's not coming. Uh
we just got word, but
did you mention how many homes were
substantially damaged so we had JP's here, he's probably got the exact numbers. JP thirteen
last count was
twenty two hundred and eighty substantially damaged homes. That's over the reason.
So that's twenty two hundred that were s what are considered substantially damaged, right? So that is over fifty percent of the structure was was inundated. So usually usually that's water, usually above three feet. Um but uh those
were team members also.
Yes, yeah, and and uh some of our some of our own folks here within the county, and it amazed me at how well our employees pulled together uh to help to help our our to help our you know our own on that but we have a lot of citizens again that are that are gonna have to deal with this and so we're working hard to try to help them uh figure out you know how to how to best uh how to best navigate that Um but it's it's tough. I think we had over thirteen thousand structures county wide that were that were damaged. And that's not
just Helene. We had riverine flooding, as you know, well inland. And uh that was kind of the kind of the double whammy. So this is really a storm that has affected everyone. And as of this morning, that number's gone down four. Uh oh the substantial damage. Yes. Well and and and what the commissioner's referring to is is we do a first we did a first pass. So with the help of the state we had a we had a contractor come in and they basically touched every single house. And by doing that and they they have some formulas and it's not perfect,
right? And and they kind of estimate what the damage is supposed what the damage should be of a house based on certain values of of what a home and and and percentages and things like that. And then they base it off of what the property appraiser's website says the value of the home. So they do that math. But If if a homeowner you know kind of looks at that and says, Well, hey now, I wasn't maybe as damaged this or hey my home is actually worth more, there's an avenue and there's a pathway uh for them to to challenge that if you will, or at least bring more information to
the table so our team members can make a a more appropriate substantial damage uh assessment of that. So that's part of the process. You know, we can't do it all right from a desktop, so sometimes So folks know their properties best.
And and one of the interesting things that we learned is every county and every municipality has a different ordinance as far as the cumulative um repair costs. Yes. And we are White. Um So we're quite fair. I mean we're one year accumulative
Yeah and what what the commission is referring to is is that uh if you live in a home, there's uh basically if you're if you're in a flood zone you're not elevated, for example. Let's just say that you're you're uh you're not y it doesn't doesn't qualify like that. If you do over forty nine percent worth of remodeling or there's other things, uh that tracks. And so if you come in and you get storm damaged, whatever is accumulated in the past three hundred and sixty-five days Counts against you, I guess, if you will. There's other places that that run that cumulative average for
three years, for example. New
Port Richey five years. So you know, and I guess there's good and bad to that. Uh you know, in one year cumulative you can keep you kinda can keep repairing your house. um much more than someone who's five year cumulative and so then your your the federal bill stays high I guess 'cause you're not getting people out of the flood ways. But
but it balances into your
Community rating system.
So your community rating system. That's one of the things they look at is is your ordinance and how many years and
we're five or four? Right, we're we're five. I think from paperwork we can go to a four. And that's kind of a sweet spot I think for us right now. It kinda gives us the right amount of discounts for our citizens without having to overly um be burdensome in terms of of of what the construction should look like.
I'm curious, do you know what Date City does anyone here know what Date City or Zephyrhills is as far as their C R S
I do not know off the hands.
I I don't know if um we know New Port Richey is five years, so it caught a lot of people who had done repairs from the last storm. They weren't able to rebuild. They are not able to rebuild. And the reason why we have to be very strict on this is because We don't want to lose the ability to participate in the in the FEMA flood insurance plan. if if we did l if we did lose it like Lee County and City of Tarpon Springs did, we would have to pay for all that debris to pick up
ourselves.
Mike, I think we need to I'm not completely sold on that statement. I think we need to fully understand what the cost is to our property owners to be in that program. It might be worth it for the county, but it may not necessarily be advantageous for the property owner. in that program and that's something that I want to vet and understand. Fully. To make sure that that program
is of overall benefit. to not just this county but more importantly to the side of the property owners of Pasco.
One hundred percent and and as part of uh you know as we get into February and we're we're gonna do a comprehensive stormwater and and flooding workshop. I think a a refresher on that for the board and the public to understand why we do the things that we do uh and and what the advantages of that are. It's it's beyond flood insurance. There are there are other elements to consider. But I think I think it's a fair thing that we should always look at those things and make sure the juice is worth the squeeze, right?
Yeah, that's why we didn't want to go down below a well five or a four or whatever.
You know, I've I've seen the number how great it was at at the point, but you look at the number how they raised the rates, raised the rates, the raise the rates, what are you really saving? When I look at the money they've blown uh on the things we could have done better. I mean I don't want to take a trailer. And raise it up thirteen feet. it would be unsafe to live there. If you get a wind storm coming in and you're living up there and that roof can come off like we've seen. Like Ian, storms get ripped everywhere on l on low level. So that's the answer? I don't think so. I think if if you took every one of those trailers that say on
our areas and raised were able to raise them up five feet he would have had probably zero damage. across the whole county. FEMA would have saved a whole bunch of money, but they don't let you do that. So I will tell you I plan to go to DC and fight what they're doing 'cause they're not treating the people right and you got people they can't afford to raise up. And think about it, you raise a trailer up fifty thirteen feet, you're gonna put an elevator there too. I mean it doesn't make sense to what they're doing. They're hurting themselves, hurting our people, and I want people to stay in their homes and I want to try to work with them as best we can. JP by the way, your team up
there is doing phenomenal. Yeah. The four people I mentioned today, they listened to 'em, they went through. The title based in numbers, we had one lady. Four feet elevated up. They wrote her at substantially damaged, all she had was outside electrical down. So believe me this whole program needs to get looked at and I appreciate you saying it too.
Alright, so we will we will workshop that.
Um
we did just a little bit when we were looking at the C R S system um but not in not it not enough. So thanks for bringing that up. All right, um, and let me recognize that Commissioner Yeager is here. And we're sorry, Brad's not making it. He had a doctor's he had to get into the doctor this morning. Okay. Yeah. Um, yeah my daughter came down with COVID yesterday. I believe that's still going around. Alright, so Michelle. That's right from me. She doesn't live with me. She's in safety.
All right, um now I'll turn it over to you, Carvalho, to
thank you, ma'am
to uh op to introduce Ralph and get the show on the road.
Yes, so we'll get the show on the road. So uh I'm I'm gonna have Ralph here talk in just a second, but again I would like to thank members of the delegation and the board for being here as well as members of the public. Uh we have before you really two parts to this exercise. One are policy proposals, the others are appropriations, and this is Grassroots effort, right? Starting from our from our team members here, many of which are in the audience here able to speak if there are questions on on any of these items. But also we have met twice with our board, once at a workshop and once at a regular session, to really