Commissioner Mariano report on storm cleanup

1:54:10All right. Thank you. Yes. Mr. Mariano. Thank

1:54:12you,

1:54:13Mr. Chairman. And I want to say at least I do appreciate your stepping in to fill that pocket for both Catherine and I and our districts where just just so much going on. So you're filling that in, you're doing a phenomenal job. So we greatly appreciate that. Uh without district going up and down. It's just we just kinda go from spot to spot. Uh I think all our our all our team members are doing a great job helping coordinate meals and whatever and Uh the community's just been f amazing.

1:54:36Our staff has worked so hard all the time.

1:54:42They just keep going. It's awesome. Uh I just want to show you a quick picture here. This is over on Beacon Woods. You can see it from five A go uh Hudson Avenue going across. I told you like some if I was worried about the trees that may fall in a storm event when they got really big. Well, at the bottom of the lakes right there with the water coming in, they're even falling now. So um I haven't talked with uh the president there, but I will and I'll talk with Fairway to him just go kind of take a close look at this because they still have time to talk to the developer about clearing those things out. But just so you could see this

1:55:12is the type of thing I was worried about. If those trees were a lot bigger, it'd be a lot more expensive to get rid of. So I'm just trying to protect them. But uh all in all I'd just like to say, you know Uh Kevin Pliska, new to the position. Uh What a phenomenal job he's been doing. John Batista, Tim Tressler in the EOC, uh getting stuff done, coordinating with everything that's going on, and this coordination is gonna keep on going. They are doing a phenomenal job, as is all the team. Kathy, I know you're slammed. JP, I know you're busy as heck, and uh

1:55:43just with with everybody doing everything they possibly can. I I'm gonna tell you I I'm sure you guys see it as well. The community just appreciates it. Uh everybody wants more and more, but I think we're we're really tracking the right way. So I'm proud of everybody here, everybody that w that works with us and again the community that we have coming together with an event like this is just Uh it's just so inspiring.

1:56:05Two events.

1:56:06Two events, yeah.

1:56:08Um Commissioner Oakley, I had two photos that I neglected to show. I sorry you can't see the video, but I sent it to all of you, to your phones. Yeah,

1:56:16we pulled over that we

1:56:17So uh five

1:56:18minutes, right?

1:56:20Five minutes. I've been helping feed uh the folks in a place in the sun and and we we are connecting with a Christian organization that will go in and help them clean up. Uh because their clubhouse they haven't even begun to remediate. There's mold. They had all these books that were getting moldy and In their bookshelves. They didn't touch anything and it it it was horrible. But that's their clubhouse. You can see the water line kind of on the side there. Um I really didn't want to spend a lot of time in there. I'd got them to eat their lunch outside of the building. But

1:56:51my son and I actually made them A curry. Uh and um chicken curry. and uh brought it over Sunday. Um And our staff was in there two days. Thank you, John I think John John has left but Um it was a private road, but it wasn't gated. And let me tell you the people were walking down the street on their walkers and the stuff was blown into the road. So I'm just so grateful they went in there and they got most of it, but some of the people like put the trash in their carport.

1:57:22And there was no way. No way for the arm to get in there. So we'll have to get community people to go in there and help them. But um Lisa, uh thank you for keeping an eye out on that community too. Yeah, so that's oh here it is. This is my This is my Aristida house. Um so you know, people, Thousand Oaks people, you got nothing on me. Um and that's filled with my stuff from my boathouse that I had to evacuate. So you can't tell that's my driveway. It

1:57:52got fourteen inches in my garage. But you know what? I'm not blaming the county that the river overflowed its banks.

1:57:59Did it get in your house?

1:58:01No. I built my house high. I went three foot I I did three courses of brick high to get out of the hundred year floodplain. So um you can see I i it covered my first step. And but but it did not get in the house. You know, I don't expect that. you to find an answer to hold back A river. I don't and um So I j I just wanted to show you.

1:58:29And then the storm surge show you you couldn't control that.

1:58:31Fifteen feet coming in. But I'm I'm gonna be building a new house out there and I'm gonna be building to the FEMA flood regulations and I'm not gonna have a heart attack and have to pack it up next time. I'm gonna build up and build safe. Um, you know, we're at 49%. Pinellas County is at went to FEMA CRS rating two. They're at thirty percent. So if your house received thirty percent Of damage, you're done. So

1:59:03imagine all those homes on the very islands, of which my son's house was one of them. So

1:59:09Oh uh did you find out what that foam was? Was that poisonous? That foam in Gulf Harbors that was coming out of that storm drain?

1:59:26Fire retardant coming off the golf course?

1:59:29In in the stormwater. We can't have him uh couple

1:59:31of.

1:59:33Okay, the people there need to know right away because it's blowing down the street if it's if it's toxic or not. For some reason they're saying it's toxic. Guys there's a there is a um I didn't send you a picture but Where they're draining the water off the golf course, uh Where it goes into a uh a storm drained pipe and it and it's supposed to flow under the street into the canal on the east side. Where the storm drain is across the street, it is foaming. Like a bubble

2:00:03bath and just blowing in down the street and in people's yards. I never see anything like it.

2:00:08Yeah. Uh for the record, Jason Mickel, public works director. Um, Commissioner Starkey, I received the um information this morning. Um we sent crews out this morning and I I I haven't heard back yet as to what what they found. Normally, I'm not saying that's this what it is, but in conditions like this you could see detergents that leak um into the community. that then can get agitated and foam. You could also see that with fire retardant solutions, like where if you have fires in a neighborhood, you put the fire out, the stuff gets coming from the golf course. Also,

2:00:39for lack of a better word, dead stuff when it decomposes can cause foam as well. Like fish and other things in the system. So we're looking into it. Um right now I don't know. I don't I don't have an answer for you, but I'll get I'll get it. But someone's checked

2:00:51it out today.

2:00:52We are. Yep. Crews are out there today.

2:00:53What do you do? Take the foam and then do a

2:00:56They'll probably work with our with our lab to try to get uh to try to get a sample.

2:01:00All right, thank you. Okay.

2:01:03All right, Mr. Kabbalah.