Hurricane Helene and Milton response and recovery
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
It is a stretch of the recording that this archive identified as a separate matter — a call to order, a recess, or something taken up that the agenda does not list. There is no official title, no staff recommendation and no disposition, because the county never recorded one. Everything below is inferred.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Oct 22, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Oct 22, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 38m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 89% of 151 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Well it certainly is nice to see everyone in I don't know. Normal. Jeff assumed
Faven, uh we're with our ball caps on. We're we're in um you know to to echo uh your your comments there, Commissioner uh Oakley. Yeah, it it it and just to add on, uh this this was quite historic and and what an what an event and what a what a trying um um test of of our team um both you know at the board level and we we thank you for the leadership. I mean we we have been in touch daily for the past uh for the past several weeks on this matter.
So your your leadership in that uh with our our team of course both my executive team and our emergency management team pulling together various groups across this county to prepare for uh Um weather and and recover from two storms, you know, back to back, as well as our constitutional teams. We would not be anywhere if it weren't for the support too with with the sheriff, our first responders, as well as the school board, amongst a whole host of other other players as as we move through that. And let's not forget our not for profits and and our
engaged citizens too as they as they continue to help. And so I wanted to give a a brief um discussion here on on both of these hurricanes, both just so we could pull it all together. And
well just uh as an example, Mike, what you're talking about and what I was talking about. Is today we expected a lot of people from the public here. Yes, sir. And you'll see the room's got extra chairs everywhere you can see. And we reached out to staff to have members behind our ACAS to take care of those questions and answers and get people the right answer. We prepared to do that for this meeting. knowing that a lot of people have been through hard times. But That's some of the preparation you've seen over
the last three weeks that the staff and everyone's been doing also through the EOC. So it's just an example of What we do to reach out to our citizens and do the right thing. Yes sir. Yes sir.
Yeah. And we we will and there still is a lot to do, no doubt. Right. This is uh this this state is is kind of a new normal for for the short term, uh for sure. Uh but our team will continue to work tirelessly. So I want to just really recap a few things of the events and then just talk about a little bit about what we have done and if the board would like to have any other discussion on that, we can. It's it's not necessarily just to rehash the past, but a lot's happened in the past month. We actually canceled a board meeting uh in in the middle of this. And it all started with Hurricane Helane, which made landfall September 26th.
Uh I think that was a Wednesday or a Thursday in September. I I don't recall. It came right off the heels of us passing a budget. Um and uh came ashore as a category four near Perry. It was not a direct hit, but it was a large storm. And pushed an unprecedented amount of storm surge to our county. We saw instances of storm surge 12 to 15 feet in some areas, affecting mostly our communities west of US 19. In fact, actually closed US 19. But this was a national-level disaster, too, not just a Pasco County, state of Florida. This
storm pushed all the way up, and over 200 people lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Helene. Um actually just probably one of the one of the worst in in our history. We barely caught our breath and we had Hurricane Milton bearing down on us, making landfall just south of us near Siesta Key as a Cat 3. Was a extremely strong Cat five at one point in time, 185 miles per hour, if I remember seeing some of the some of the reports. Um very scary, scary storm. Um This we saw
your typical hurricane uh impacts. Wind. We saw hurricane forced winds in our county, uh in our in our entire region actually. Um you know, millions lost power as a result of this, but more more uh More attuned for Pasco County. uh unprecedented levels of rainfall. 15, 18 inches in in some areas. And that's a lot of rain in a very short period of time, which has led to prolonged riverine flooding. And you know, this just sets the stage. And I say unprecedented because this
is unprecedented. You know, we we often you hear us talk uh when we build infrastructure, the the hundred-year flood event, this and that and the other. And though that you know, a hundred-year flood event is only something that has, is a storm that only has a one percent chance of happening. That's what that is. Um and and it's kind of been the standard of the state. And you know, as we talk about resiliency and things in the future, there there may be conversations about about how we look at those types of things. But but until then, that is that has kind of been been the standard with that. And these hurricanes have basically turned that on its head. They've turned a lot of things on on their head,
and we're seeing more and more of these storms. Um I want to shift to the response of these storms because you know when you you do a lot of work to prepare for a storm. Uh you know, you you you pump down in areas where you can, you ensure floodgates are are working the way that they're supposed to work, uh you ensure residents have access to sandbags perhaps and and the ability to uh protect their property as well as evacuation orders and things. So we as a county uh for these two storms issued two local states of emergency. In fact we have three local states of emergencies that that I sign every week right
now to maintain our our that. One for Debbie back in August and then one for Helene and one for Milton. And we we continue to do that because that makes us eligible so our taxpayers don't have to bear the brunt of these costs. Um we issued evacuation orders for both storms. And I will tell you the evacuation orders in the first storm in Helene Um it it's you know, we we should have had more heating of those evacuation orders. Fortunately we did see Um a tenfold increase in evacuations, at least in terms of our shelter populations, when
Milton came through. Um but again, as I as I mentioned before, the storms were were catastrophic and our emergency services teams were inundated uh with calls. I was in the UC on both both nights uh when when these hurricanes came through. I remember specifically Helene because the calls for service kept popping up and popping up, and as I'm sitting there in the 911 center watching the call. For service that our guys cannot reach to. And and same with with Milton, hundreds of calls that were backlogged. I think even up to eight hundred probably at one point in time, I think during Milton of just calls for service
that we could not get to. And so uh our first responders um ended up plucking approximately twelve provided twelve hundred rescues uh from both storms. So we rescued twelve hundred individuals uh from floodwaters. or or dangerous situations as a result of these as these storms. These storms also Uh forced road closures, whether they were through washouts, through extended rain periods, or just simply rain waters or floodwaters overtopping evacuation routes. US 19 was inundated and we had it had to be closed during Hurricane
Helene. We had portions of many roads, state roads out on the east side, too, that are that are closed as a result of the riverine flooding.
Little Road also. Yes,
and yeah, and and over overtop there. Just just south of uh Mitchell. Uh yes, and and and we witnessed that. And these are these are major routes. Thank goodness we have Ridge Road. You know, in a lot of cases. So again, these are these are ways that we do that. I wanna I wanna just if I if you could indulge me here for a second. I've got two short videos of just just to demonstrate some of the conditions that our first responders were working in uh to rescue people. Can you play? I don't know if I can do that here or not. Maybe I can.
So you can see there's an individual literally holding on to a stop sign as our as our protocols make it there. And you know how tall those stop signs are.
Where is this?
I
believe this is
Hudson. Yes.
Don't understand people not.
We need to replay this when the next warning comes to evacuate.
And then the next one here, uh similar similar instance.
Yeah, we're from that.
Um are these are dark areas. It's night. Um There's no electricity. People are scared. Well palm tree.
Is there someone holding on to the bottom of that tree?
Yeah, the first responder is kind of keeping the boat steady on the on the tree as they as they uh rescue. The folks out of the water.
It's amazing we didn't have anyone perish. Grab out of four five.
Look how
deep
that butter is.
Mike, how soon after Throw your legs up. The storm did folks did our team start going out there.
Our our first responders responded immediately, Commissioner, as long as the the wind situations and and I'm sure I've got reports of of folks probably bending the rules a little bit to preserve life and safety. Um they um we we we we will continue to operate as long as those those winds remain below I I think forty miles per hour is is that. And if you've ever been in twenty or thirty mile per hour winds, I can tell you the difference between thirty and forty, you really can't tell. Um but our first responders with the sheriff's office, our our s our dive our dive teams are
are are um Oh. Trench rescue, we had everybody out there and and they performed marvelously out there in those conditions. And in fact there were there was there were some conditions even too when you looked at the power loss of of Helene where where we had to make the decision to actually cut power in certain areas. Our first responders going in even in insulated suits, feeling tingling in the water, you know, and so having to make those make those decisions to to reduce reduce the power.
Yeah. Yes. You know, I got I got two slight stories. I had two gentle two two families that were getting ready to go. They were packed up, did the stuff, they were getting ready to go. and one gentleman was so tired doing is the elderly senior citizen Donna J Mayer, He fell asleep after it got done and got trapped. Uh another another former deputy with his with his son. They were getting ready to go out of Seapines and they got stuck because it came in so fast. So for us to be able to take of these people that maybe were gonna get ready, didn't
get ready, they were probably probably doing the right thing, it was just a fast moving storm that all of a sudden, bam, you were trapped.
It is
you
know
and that's
it.
That was a great move going on. I know we said we're not gonna be able to go get you, but that was phenomenal work for the whole team to go out there and just save lives. That was awesome.
And your your point's well made. Sometimes it comes fast. And these these evacuation orders, we issue. Issue them days in advance, or as far in advance as we can. And we and it's a balancing act because you know Pinellas evacuates through Pasco. Pasco evacu, you know, so there is a little bit of orchestration when we when we time our evacuation orders too. So sometimes if you do wait to the last minute, you you may not get out. But our but our teams perform marvelously. And and I forgot to mention, too, we we had support too of not only our our Pasco County Sheriff's Offices. had mentioned in our first responders here, but we
had folks from Ohio, Louisiana, Texas that came and supported us too with with both during the rescue piece and urban search and rescue post-storm as waters were receding through both storms. So just a fantastic showing as as a country out here. Do you want to add something, Commissioner Weightman?
A a as I've done for the last three hurricanes, but this one much more, for two and a half t for well, almost three days until Thursday at two or three o'clock where I just couldn't do it anymore. I packed up my Gulf Harbor's house and moved it pretty much myself. To my Hita House. um into a storage. But I was the only person that I saw in Gulf Harbors doing that and Even my husband no it's not coming, we'll be fine. And um you know, and all the other ones the water went out. But uh I
I think it'll be different in the future. Um I have a question on these two and this this amazing rescue. How did you how did you know they were there? How did we know they were there? Because they're not calling from holding on to the tree, so Um and then thank you. I'm just so grateful to our first responders but I I hope so much that our our folks evacuate next time. But
I think Chief Gwynne can
shed some color on that. Go ahead. Hi Commissioner Oakley Ron Gwynn uh Interim Fire Chief, Pasco Fire Rescue. This actually was uh spawned from a a 911 call that came in, and both of these rescues were actually found as they were still searching for the individual that made the 911 call. So it's kind of, you know, by happenstance that these two individuals are even picked up to begin with. And as you can see it's very dark. There's no power anywhere in the neighborhoods. To be able to recognize these people, to just be able to hear screams in the background is, you know, uh you know, an act of God
that we've that we made these rescues. So
is it raining in this photo? I think I saw pounding rain coming by. You could you can't always tell. And uh she's holding on to something. Oh my I wonder how long she was holding on to that sign.
Probably for quite a while.
Ah, breaks my heart. What a nightmare.
Yeah. And again, you know, the the investments that the board has made uh in in these uh in these operations and quite honestly we've identified areas where Uh we were short of equipment and maybe we need to invest in some different different types of things. We're able to save life and property as a result of that. So just thank you. Uh thank you for that. I want to switch now a little bit to um the riverine flooding aspect. This is a video that was put out by the uh Southwest Water Management District to talk a little bit about it. So we haven't really covered uh a lot, but listen, the
Enclote River flooded uh on this side. And uh, you know, as the public comment talked about thousand oaks, uh again it's that all drains into the enclode basin. And the enclave basin, which is tidally influenced as well. you know, pushed back and then also a lot of the uh a lot of the tributaries flooded in and again uh unprecedented amounts of rainfall that that we saw through through those areas. So I just want to show you this uh quick video, just again perspective on the flooding and what we are currently even experiencing now. The Withlicoochie River It's still at major flood stage
and will be for a long time, uh weeks, we believe. But uh go ahead and hit play, please.
Many rivers in the Tampa Bay region have been severely impacted by flooding from Hurricane Milton. The only floods of record higher than what we're experiencing now, you'd have to go back to 1933 and 1934. I'm Dr. Mark Fulkerson and I'm a chief professional engineer with the Southwest Florida Water Management District. I'm pretty sure we probably got trillions of gallons of water that hit the earth's surface. That water's gotta go somewhere. A portion of it evaporates. A por
Portion of it tries to soak in the ground for. Where we stand, near the town of Trilby, the Witlacoochie River is crested above what the 1960 peak was. Because we had Hurricane Melton in early October, which is right at the end of the wet season, all of our creeks, lakes, rivers, wetlands, swamps, everything's full or aquifer, our groundwater levels are full. So that just causes that rain to not really have anywhere to go, really, soak in the ground and it's gonna run off the surface a lot more. The Withlacoochie River is 160 miles long and its watershed or the area of land that collects
that rain and runs it into the river is over 2,000 square miles. It's all or part of eight different Florida counties. We get a lot of rain across the whole thing. It takes time for that rain to hit the land surface and to make its way to the river. When we get flooding like this, we send crews of folks out into those affected areas. We're doing inspections and assessments of the flooding. looking for debris, making sure a lot of the rivers are flowing, there's not down trees that are maybe holding those flood waters back on someone worse. We're also out there trying to document the flooding and to gather elevations from those peak flood levels
so that we can better understand how a rainfall like this has affected each of these watersheds so that we can then share that with the public and help everyone make better decisions.
Yeah.
And so, of course, we continue to experience that flooding. But uh early on from both storms, uh, I'm I'm very, very proud of our team. We were able to deploy immediately and begin damage assessments, and in fact, including aerial assessments, which uh which are kind of a new product for us, which which will bolster our capability to both understand what happened from a flood perspective and calibrate models, but also uh to help us help us continue to assess damage. Uh we estimate over four. 400 structures were destroyed as a matter of Hurricane Helene, those basically become uninhabitable. But over 5,000 structures
considered to have with major damage that will require repairs. You know, and as Milton continues to wreck wreak havoc with not only riverine flooding, but closed basins. We have closed basins that are popping off into other closed basins. Just because the water has nowhere else to go, that will take time as well because we cannot pump those closed basins out until there is a place to pump that water to. And it does have to percolate naturally. But but over close to thirty structures destroyed right now that we know of, we we still we still continue to to assess. Sixteen
hundred structures with with major damage. And of course, you know, the the big chain, the big difference is Hurricane Milton provided widespread power outage, unlike uh Helene, where that power outages were were contained mostly to the west side of US nineteen. We're estimating uh probably, and this number will probably go higher, a billion dollars worth of worth of damage just in this county alone. And again, we talk about power restoration. That obviously is kind of the first step to help our citizens feel normal again, right? Uh hot shower, or uh lights on at night, uh air conditioning, right? These
are these are things that that come through. And as I mentioned, you know, during Hurricane Helene, we we had two two stories of two very different types of power outages. When Hurricane Helene, we were hampered a little bit because of the um salt water intrusion into electrical into electrical components. Actually this is a picture of an actual fire that that started um in one of the in one of the neighborhoods, I think over in in Sea Ranch area actually. You know power power was restored, breaker was clicked, snap, spot, fire. And so we we were able to uh
use best practices and and while it may have taken an extra day or two to help folks get their power back on, uh I th I feel like we did a very good job of educating the public and making sure that we got power back on the right way. And of course Milton with the widespread regional damage, our our power companies were were out there working tirelessly. W R. E. C. Rick uh did a Phenomenal job. I think they were they were first done and then offering to help both uh especially with Tico, who Tico had widespread damage throughout their entire service area, uh both Hillsborough Polk and and Pasco County. And and Duke Energy
again uh did did did what it needed to do. So I'm very happy to report that the any power outages now at this point are are strictly related to to property damage. Um On the recovery side, again, we provided early resources during both storms. And this was hampered, right? We we uh this was kind of a start and stop. We we just when we finished with with Hurricane Helene, we had points of distribution that were established. And a point of distribution, or a pod, as it's called, is a place where we can hand out water, where we can hand out food uh to those who
need it. Um We try to co-locate um comfort stations with those pods where we can. And those comfort stations include trailers, modular trailers that have clean restrooms, showers. The biggest draw is laundry facilities, right? And so making those for those that are displaced or have their homes damaged is great. But we also recognize, too, that this is also straining on folks mentally. And so we made available immediately, and thanks to our partnership with with Bay Care, a mental health
resources uh hotline, which is still available to folks, and we made it available, of course, to our employees because getting through a crisis. crisis like this, for some people it it could be the last straw for a lot of for a lot of folks. So it's it's very difficult to deal with this. Our human services folks took in over thirteen hundred requests for service. And so these are folks that that may or may not need case management, but these are folks That are desperately in need of things, whatever they may be. That could be housing, that could be meals, that could be a whole host of human services activities. And of
course, we started early with debris management. And again, I know debris management can be a touchy issue depending on where you're at in the county and the timing. But I will say that Pasco County was first out of the gate.
public works and solid waste teams were out there working within twenty four to thirty six hours of both storms uh trying to clean up and as we as we waited for our larger contracts uh to get into place. And I'll I'll go
can I say one thing yes ma'am before we get it really too deep into debris is just that So many people of our own employees had flooding and had damage and didn't they weren't even touching their own homes to be able to serve the public and work tirelessly to do that. So I think that needs to be said and just a huge thank you to them because
They were they put the county and the citizens before their own needs.
I think Director Fossa just started taking his shutters down this weekend.
Um I st I still I can't even move in my house.
Correct, yes. And and there's there's a lot of that. Uh and thank you for that for that comment. Um As I mentioned before, we had more folks take advantage of our sheltering opportunities during Hurricane Milton, tenfold as you can see. Roughly 485 in during Halene, over 5800 during Hurricane Milton. And look at those pets. Um you know it it's we we have a chuckle about it with the number of pets, but pets are like family to people. And so our animal services team really stepped up to not only handle the dogs and cats Tortoises and the flying squirrel, I'm even told, were we in there. So
but but nevertheless, right. There are people that will not evacuate because they don't want to leave their pets behind. So it's important. And again, so we have numerous uh numerous federal, state, county volunteer organizations uh working together again to help to help recover. Senior services providing uh shelf stable meals to folks, uh and again, our our team members in community development are getting folks and hotels were case managing throughout the storm. Our public transportation teams offering free rides, trying to get people to comfort stations or to shelters back and forth uh did did
uh Yulman's work. And again, we're now looking at temporary housing. This is the next step, right? And so you can see we've got a number of of of shelter of people that are still in shelters, folks that require case management. And uh we have we have set up something we're calling Pasco Hope. So you remember a couple of board meetings ago, we we purchased a property Property on Grand Boulevard. Um, and uh we are we are adding what are referred to as pallet homes as well as um Uh trailers, our public works uh teams, utilities teams, uh facilities
teams went out and and prepared the site in an expedient manner. I and I think that by Monday we will be able to begin uh temporary uh sheltering housing, temporary housing for for residents displaced uh by by this storm. So we already have a hundred candidates, uh potential candidates that that meet certain qualifications. Already identified. And this this again is to help people get back up on their feet. So, you know, I just a lot of team effort, you know, Kathy, Eric, I Jason, you know, from you know, JP, the the whole
the whole team here really pulled together to uh to make make this happen. It's one of a kind. And I think on Thursday we will be doing a little more of a of a public uh outing on this because it it is it is something that we should be proud of as something that we're doing. That we have provided to our citizens. Even when Kevin Guthrie from the state was here on Sunday, he was impressed, blown away at how Well this this county is responding to this disaster. And you mentioned our emo our employees. Well we also had employees hit and hurt by the storm as well. And so we s we had to decide that there has to be something that we can do for them.
And so as a county, uh we we do have a disaster leave leave pool. So we have a pool of hours that have been donated over time, and so we're allowing folks to draw off of those hours. Uh we also, you know, we we we usually do a buyback, uh so we allow folks to to sell some of their PTO time, but recognizing that if you've got bills to pay, if you've got uh things that you need to get done to repair and recover your life from a storm, because I need these employees to work for us, right? As as commissioner points out, they're trying to get their li so they're kinda stuck stuck between Two competing priorities, right?
Um we could at least provide them with a little liquidity and allow them to sell back some of their PTO time. And of course we we have offered offered uh you know the ability for our constitutional officers to do similar programs because these public servants You know, we we we need them now and and we need to give them the peace of mind that their homes and families are going to be taken care of. We also offered uh free again the the mental health through Bay Care and an employee resource center. This is uh Pasco County um employees helping Pasco County employees through through donations. Um and and thank you
to Paul Paul at Baraclado who has really kind of led the effort uh from our public services branch in setting this up for our employees.
Debris. So debris is something that um will be with us for a very, very long time. Um you know we we did some things um During the Halene Milton transition, as I'll call it, because we were extremely concerned about the debris from from Halene becoming missiles or uh underwater hazards to our first responders going in to do to do rescues and things like that. And so uh we moved very expeditiously with some expedient,
uh very expedient contracting uh to try to get as much of that up as we could within the span of let's Um, yeah. We we did very well. Um I'm very proud to say that that it worked. Uh we we had very little of that debris move around which is which is fantastic. Um So debris pickup is going to be a combination of forces. It's going to be a combination of our county forces and then augmented by our larger contractor resources. And I'll get into that in a little bit, but there are significant challenges when
it comes to debris removal. 1.4 million cubic yards of debris. The scale of this event is like none that we have ever seen. That that is ten times larger than what we experienced under Hurricane Irma in terms of just total amount of debris. And quite honestly, I think that number's probably higher. You just you you know you're you these are estimates at at this point. But uh the scale, just that alone is enough to litter seven hundred football fields, right? Of of just you know one yard deep worth of worth of garbage across across. So
the scale is high. But maximizing FEMA reimbursement rates, because the cost of that cleanup will be in the tens of millions of dollars. And so the federal government through FEMA is stepping in, providing some additional reimbursement opportunities for us, which we need to take advantage of. I think the governor made that very, very clear in a statement that he made here in Pasco County. And I think we're up to the challenge. But we want to maximize FEMA reimbursement. Otherwise, those costs will just be borne by our citizens at the end of the day and come come from reserves and uh
then we'll we'll have to make make budgetary decisions. Uh resources, again, this is a regional event. So post-Milton, post-Helene is now a regional event, and the competition for resources is high. Uh Sarasota County, Spanate County, Hillsborough, Pinellas, we're all competing for the For the same for the same folks. And then, of course, the expectations of the public. And the public has a right to want to re-re recover, relive their lives. And so we want to make sure that we do that as expeditiously
as possible. But but understanding that, golly, man, my trash can be picked up every week. Why can't I be on your street? And and it's just again, it's the scale of an event. But we are trying. We are working very, very hard to s to stay on top of this. collected 143,000 cubic yards of debris. That was as of Sunday. I'm sure those numbers are higher now. We continue to make gains in efficiencies as we learn more and how to operate as as we kind of move into the tenth day of of debris re removal. So a little more on debris removal. Uh we waive
tipping fees. So if you're a resident and you have storm-related debris, you can come across the scales. No problem whatsoever. We are not charging for that. Um we have a GIS tool that's coming out for debris reporting. So if there's areas that that you know you think maybe we don't know about There's there's a tool that's out there that that's that's coming, that's forthcoming. We're also gonna have a GIS tool come uh forthcoming in the next day or two. They tell me today, but I'll temper expectations, say maybe tomorrow. Um that that will kinda try to set expectations on where we're where we are operating
and where we are going to be within the next seventy two hours. Uh so that is coming. And so We we we do have a plan. We had a plan when we came up with Helene. Um that got turned on its head with Milton. Um so but we we continue to figure out prioritization, pickup, scheduling, and and duration of of this for debris pickup countywide, recognizing that some areas of the county aren't even in recovery yet. They are still weathering the disaster. And so we know that there will be more as a result when those floodwaters received.
Yes, ma'am. Sure. Um uh how long do we know how long we're gonna keep those tipping fees waived?
Uh
is it a ninety day thing?
I
mean
probably.
We monitor everything and when things seem to decline, then we'll we'll look at it. But right now it's waived as a part of the the local state of emergency. So as long as we're still under the state of emergency, I I I intend to keep those fees waived for residential, right? So if you bring it bring it across. So yeah.
Mr. Chairman Mariano.
Yes.
I like I like to say because I think it's been such a great thing that we did w pre Milton by hiring those people to go out there. They did a phenomenal job. They were like all people in the neighborhood used to live there, wanted to help out, so the passion was there to do a great job and they cleaned up in a phenomenal way. And it was like across the board. What I've also seen this past week or so past few weeks, when they go out and take care of their trash if they can. That frees up the other stuff to keep things progressing. So we'll go
down the street, they're not having to hit every single house. So I I I saw so many trucks out the past week. So by making that free for them is is a critical thing.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So we're we're gonna we we recognize that. That that needs to happen. And and we are working to augment our contractor forces. Unfortunately, uh we had one, we we have two debris contractors. So I'm not gonna name names. Uh one of those debris contractors, unfortunately, um I'll just say kind of let us down. And so we we need to augment, and that that was really affecting more the northwest portion of the county, which was the area that that we we provided to them. And um we're we we have an RFP out currently on the street and uh Uh and uh that closes close the business
on on Thursday. So uh we intend to move very quickly to try to augment and bolster these contractor forces. And I know the state has been very receptive too in trying to see if we can find a solution for more small and medium uh haulers to be able to to to work and augment within within the system. There there's efficiencies in management that that come. With with Milton bearing down on us, I think we all had a very singular point. to focus of a of a pending disaster with a certain timeline. We're now in a in a in a different in a different stage. Mr. Chairman Mariano.
Um I saw that. Yeah, I talked to you about it. Um glass and everything in the street. And how how are we gonna deal with that? I literally saw a lady yesterday With the shop vac on her yard. Because there's glass all in that grass and nails and stuff. So I'm concerned we're gonna see effects from this. For a long time.
Yeah. I mean you would basically turn the whole county into a giant construction site.
Yeah.
I just wanted to also just give a shout out to Brantford and his team uh for his pilot program. If you want to go into that for for a minute, I I think that uh
certainly thank you. Thank you, Commissioner, for bringing that up. I I don't know did I have a picture of that operation? Yeah, that was actually if you go here That first picture is is some of that operation. So what it is is we we took our public works and solid waste crews and now we actually have some augmentees from the state to basically work at night. One of the one of the hardest things that we were figuring out is we have these Uh large grapple trucks and there's reasons why we do that for FEMA reimbursement purposes. There's compaction and there's there's efficiencies
that are that are gained by that, but at the same time they can't operate everywhere. And folks wanna we we had some neighborhoods with one way in, one way out traffic, so we just said, hey, look, if we if we work after hours. uh and we can close roads and we can get heavy equipment onto roads and load things differently. Uh I think we can put a dent in this. And so the first the first we we we tried it over a series of three or four nights and now I think we're doing it on a regular basis. Um we captured about ninety four tons of of garbage. Uh the next
night it was about a hundred and ten. The next night we're we we did we did two hundred. Uh on Sunday night with with with this with this and so kudos to our team uh for really making that work and kudos to to to the leadership of that team for coming up with these ideas uh that are that are leading the way and so our landfill operates 24 hours for that for that side in order for us to continue to make those make those things efficient. So yes, thank you for bringing that up.
Also I'd like the community to know that the whole Florida delegation worked together to try and get this garbage reimbursed by FEMA. Yes. That it took the entire all of the everybody to
there's a lot of behind the scenes work. I know you all were instrumental in that, as well as our our delegation at the state level and the federal level to really kind of say, hey, We've got back-to-back disasters here. We need to think about things a little differently. And can we free up some of this administrative bureaucracy stuff that'll help us get things done? And so uh I just appreciate all of that help and support because it is making our jobs uh easier out there.
Mr.
Chairman Mariano.
Yeah, and don't forget to look this way. You need a little buzzer.
I have a time certain at eleven o'clock. However, the chair would like I can
continue. How many more slides do you have? I know we interrupted you. I tell
you what, I'm not trying to cut you short. Let me finish with debris and then and then we'll talk about kind of the next phase, which is building building back better. I I think it would be a logical stopping point if you're talking about the question.
Yes, ma'am. Um driving around yesterday I I drove all the way down Through Bailey's Bluff and everywhere. And I noticed that some people put the debris way up close to their door where that claw is not gonna reach. So um they may have cleaned a whole street, but that house that put all their stuff way up by their door in in front of their garage or wherever How legally can we go get that? Without driving on their yard and just destroying it.
The answer
is
we can't. We
can't and we
won't. And you won't get reimbursed if you do.
Yeah. Okay, so we need to get that message out there because I saw quite a few houses that I saw they got left behind and I'm sure that's the reason. Yeah,
there there there is information that's out there, and again, of course we we we continue to beat the drum on that.
Mr
Mary
I just wanna say Mike, you have been so phenomenal in this whole thing. Uh and I know from the past week with me and the calls we've had between FEMA and Uh Congressman Belarakis who did a phenomenal job getting the letter, Senator Scott pushing pressure. And I I know I bombarded with you guys just forwarding on emails that I got and texts that we're going on about what was going on up in my district. But I gotta tell you when I walked into the in the meeting yesterday where the board would meet to go talk about this as calm as you were, I thought I was gonna get a glaring look. But
he was so professional every step of the way. And we got all the discussion and your actions that you made to like get the RP out already coming up on Thursday. I'm just gonna say You're a tremendous leader and what you've done through this is phenomenal. We've got a ton more work to do, but I just want to give you some kudos because you're not getting enough of them. What you've been doing through this whole thing has been absolutely
phenomenal. So thank you for that. And it's it
is
a team effort. We are backed, you know, that we can't we can't do this alone. And uh I just appreciate everything that this group has done uh to support uh me and my team so we can go out there and do the things that they do. They make it happen at the end of the day. So As
long as you've
got
to do it.
And you know what? I forgot. I need to interrupt
and un uninterrupted.
He'll be fine.
And you know, I gotta give a shout out to Jeff as well. Jeff's team has been phenomenal through this. Uh we've we've actually I feel like we have we've we've we've we've got uh we've got a different model working and and things have been phenomenal. So the support that we have gotten from the County Attorney's Office, Jeff, I would just say thank you uh to you and your team as well for that.
And and did this not s show, and maybe to all our federal supporters out there. Yeah. How much we need our new E O C
Yes.
And hopefully we're you know, that's gotta be our gift to all our first responders who worked so hard. Now that we've seen what other counties have and what we're dealing with, you know, we we've really gotta um lift that up and get get going on our new ELC. Yeah.
So just the last couple of things here with debris removal and then I'll I'll pause the presentation. Mr. Chair will allow Doctor Who to come up. Interlocal agreements. We've entered into interlocals or are in the process of entering into interlocals, Zephyrhills City and in San Antonio, where we would assist them with debris removal. I believe the West Side cities have piggybacked on our agreements. So they're kind of handling their debris. And again, we continue to evaluate it. additional sites because we know we're gonna need them and and looking at ways. And then this is just a map you you know the kind of showing
that we've we've broken the county down into zones and this is the type of interactive thing that you will see online here where it kind of shows which zones we're working in and then there will be sort of a 72 hour look ahead so you'll know when we'll be in your neighborhood. But If just because we're in your neighborhood may not mean we hit your house, because as quick as we get stuff cleaned up, I'm seeing stuff get pushed more stuff coming right back out. So this is a process.
Thank you, Mike, and the team for contracting John Power to come back to help in that cleanup because He's in his past, he's not a good thing. been there doing that and knows how to do it. So I think it'll make things move. He's on the contract, so but he's uh gonna help with that removal of that debris and he went through it w right after I first got elected. So Thank you, sir. Yeah. Thank you I'll step aside.
I'll I'll pause. I only have a few more slides left, but let's do the time circuit.
Okay.