Flooding devastation, debris removal and FEMA assistance

1:34:24We saw today a level of devastation in our county that quite honestly I haven't seen in the 20 plus years that I've lived here. And when I look across even the Bay Area, you know, living here my entire life, uh a level of devastation that I have not seen. And while we could not have prevented the devastation itself, right, it is what it is. Uh what what was what was sad is is kind of watching people struggle, trying People that maybe wished that they had evacuated, but but didn't. I'm grateful that our first responders

1:34:54were there and ready to help folks get out. But I mean we saw fires that we could not respond to. We had people that were, you know, power is out, it's dark, water is coming into their house, and they couldn't get out. You know, the call from the 911 operator is we're gonna get to you when we can. At one point in the evening we had four, five hundred calls for service, and maybe we were lucky if we could have answered 20% of those at the time.

1:35:26But we eventually got into a good rhythm and and things started happening. And then by daylight and when the waters were receding, we certainly uh we were certainly hitting our full.

1:35:36When I went out there, the immediate effect that it had on me, this this happened in my county. While I was driving around last night looking at flooding conditions, I actually found myself helping residents out of the water. And it really takes you back. The humanity I also saw is heartbreaking and a little gut-wrenching because resident helping resident is what it's all about. And we saw people Well I saw people getting in boats, helping people out, getting people to the drop off points. And it's it's a good heartfelt

1:36:06feeling that

1:36:08When

1:36:08I see it

1:36:09i it it's humbling. If I put myself in the situation I've I've either lost everything or I've lost a you know, I've lost a home, I've lost a vehicle, um, I I've I've lost a connection with with family. I I would say that, you know, first and foremost, you know, folks uh just need to kinda just start. You know, uh sometimes they they just say if you start somewhere you can you can get going. We're working on putting some resources out there. for our citizens to help them. You know, from a Pasco County government perspective, one of the things that we're we're here to help

1:36:39with is is looking at debris removal.

1:36:41There's boats out of canals, there's boats in roadways, there's abandoned vehicles on sides of roads. So it gave me an instant flashback back when I went to Lee County for Ian. Residents have started throwing all their debris out in their front yard, on the roadside, And there's a special way to do it and it needs to be separated. Your white goods, which are your washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, deep freezers, your carpeting, and then your furniture. Um they need to be separated because they're picked up at different times.

1:37:13No, they're not alone.

1:37:14For those for those that are basically we we pulled out and have nowhere else to go living in shelters. We're looking to set up points of distribution, so pods as we call them, uh where we'll have uh food and and water there available for distribution. We're working with several not-for-profits as well, Red Cross and and other agencies to uh additionally provide other other other things of of comfort, aid and and support. We're keeping our our hurricane shelter, the Fasano shelter, open uh for as long as we need to in order to help help folks that are

1:37:44that have been displaced uh and really have nowhere else to go, uh at least have a place until we can kind of figure out what what it is that we're gonna do. We've talked even internally about uh trying to provide mental health resources as well for affected citizens because let's face it, this experience has been traumatic.

1:38:01To talk about a little bit about FEMA. So we have something called IA, which is individual assistance, which is meant for the needs of the family that are affected in disasters. FEMA will come in, they'll do an assessment, and if the county qualifies, it will open up residents to get grants to help establish uh fixing their residence, unmet needs in their household, and it's available to all

1:38:26Our first responder operations are nearing nearing a completion in terms of the initial crisis. So they will be kind of moving back to their normal, their normal mission posture of responding to your typical medical and and and fire related type calls. You know, our public works teams are gonna be working again to help help remove debris, but again, we have to we have to begin to start transitioning. And so we've sent out a lot of folks to uh assess county facilities and operations. But first we have to take care of those basic those basic basic needs. So

1:38:56our building inspectors have been out doing damage assessment, ensuring that it's safe to have the power turned back on, making sure that folks have those basic necessities. I'm working with the power companies right now to ensure that that we get power turned back on. Those are the first first things but then we we transition back to business as usual. Hopefully schools will be reopened again on Monday and we can try to relive a sense of normalcy despite having this this massive interruption. And then we'll we'll continue to work with those citizens and help them, help them recover in the best

1:39:26way that we can.

1:39:27Please visit mypasco.net or call our customer service line. They'll be able to connect you with the right folks.