county administrator hurricane recovery and demolition order

1:38:23County

1:38:24Administrator. Actually, if you'll indulge me for just a couple minutes, I did want to talk a little bit about the uh hurricane um uh that we just went through. Uh I just want to thank the team and our constitutional partners. Um we've got some photos here of some of the some of the response that that went on, but uh things uh things went very well. Um I think even uh uh Andy Fawcett had mentioned that this was probably uh one of the smoothest Just operations that that we did have. I also want to thank uh a lot of our legislators at the state, local, and and federal level uh that that came

1:38:54down both to tour um uh both prior and after, uh and also to help support uh PASCO's um declaration at the federal level. Uh we were we were declared, we had CAD A and the individual assistance, so that's that's big for us in terms of our our citizens being able to. get compensation for damage as well as the public assistance side to make sure that our our general fund and our our budgets are are unaffected by that. So well well done well done on that. Uh FEMA is deployed now and they are setting up uh setting

1:39:24up support uh throughout the county to support our citizens. As far as the recovery goes, that's ongoing. I did extend the local state of emergency and we'll probably continue to do that on a weekly basis until we're Done expending funds. It's a necessary necessary item in order to seek reimbursement. To date, our solid waste and public works teams were out, collected over 400 tons of storm-related debris thus far. We have wave tipping fees, I think I've I've mentioned that before, through September 11th to help our

1:39:54citizens that are cleaning their things out and trying to bring bring stuff in. management team is deployed. They're they're up in um up in Suwanee County. So they were actually requested by by that local government in in order to in order to support them and we're we're proud of them for answering the call. And then finally I just like the our our building construction services, right? We folks need to rebuild. So we have uh we're we're looking into actually we're waiving fees for certain types of of damage and and getting

1:40:24folks back on their feet quicker. We've extended our service hours and actually have some exclusive hours both at the end of the working day and over the weekends for those specifically impacted by the storm so we can help get their questions answered and get them on their way. And actually, even looking so far as to having team members at home improvement stores on weekends too to be able to answer questions. So our BCS team is reaching out trying to make recovery as simple as possible. possible. And uh that's that's really all I have. Just wanted to update the board on those things. Mr.

1:40:55Starkey.

1:40:56I'm concerned about the amount of people that did not evacuate.

1:41:00Yes,

1:41:01ma'am. Um, you know, we were lucky that we didn't have loss of light. If this had if this had turned just a little bit, um

1:41:12it could have been far more serious and once again we have people that don't evacuate and then our first responders have to go out and it's dangerous for them. Look at the houses that um were burned. Um They should have had their power turned off. I w I I just wonder if we can you know just keep work on on keep working on messaging.

1:41:38Yeah, we we continue to message, you know. Um we we continue to push out through through the various platforms. I I don't think what you saw here in Pasco was necessarily an anomaly to to anywhere else in the state of Florida. Um people tend to think that it won't happen. And uh I think when you saw a lot of the water rescues that were going on, you know, in the in the early morning hours after the storm had passed to the north, uh, I think when that water started coming in, you you had a lot of scared people. I think uh Chief Perez told me the number was upwards of over a hundred

1:42:08and fifty folks that decided that was the time they needed to evacuate. And I'm glad we got 'em out and got got them to safety. But to to your point, had that storm Wobbled. Like we see a lot of storms wobble, you know, to that right, uh, that it could have been, you know, collecting fatalities which are.

1:42:25And I don't think it was that high tide like we thought it was going to.

1:42:28Correct.

1:42:28And what's really disturbing to me when I look at all the pictures here and online is it's a lot of our elderly population we wouldn't have had a prayer to be able to swim out or you know So I just would love to see if there's you know, come up with a plan something more we can do. And I have no doubt I don't know if those were mobile homes or not, but but salt water and a mobile home. That's not gonna that's not gonna be rebuildable.

1:42:59And so a lot of people probably lost their housing in a time when how you gonna find more housing? That just puts more responsibility on us to get some some housing up there that's we'll be affordable. How did Arapeka do? I didn't even hear anything on Arapica.

1:43:17Mm-hmm.

1:43:17I don't have I mean pretty much a lot of the damage that we saw was up in that the Hudson Beach area and then a little bit a little bit to the south. That was where the majority of the flooding the Indian. And the river areas of course.

1:43:28They

1:43:29were

1:43:29not prepared for that on the river tops.

1:43:32Well I'll say the um the evacuation is uh something that we definitely need to address. And and I talked about this when we get back from Hurricane E and watching uh everything under the base flood of Elishon was g completely wiped out. If this storm had hit us at seven to nine feet as virtually projected, we would have just had seen devastation everywhere. Now what happened during some of the forecasting from talking to people, again I'm drawn from. talk to different people why the why they didn't go, why they think that people didn't go. Some people heard there was only gonna be like a foot

1:44:02of storm surge on different things. And I think partially

1:44:06that at the Hair Beauty Solomon.

1:44:08Okay, so and so so par I think partially people hearing, oh it's only a foot, I'm good. And when you look at what they actually projected for the changing of of the way they're forecasting or predicting it, they're changing the formula. Now I don't know the specifics to exactly how, but one foot of what they were selling calling for surge is actually four feet. So those numbers gave people comfort. And I was very cautious as much as I've talked I had talked before about shutting the water system down up and down. Um I didn't get to the electric component

1:44:38of it till the day of the uh the the EOC meeting with Senator Scott and all but When you look at what could have happened with that data that goes out there, we need to address not only uh us locally what w what we're telling people, but we need to look and see what else is being told on the outside outside because it's it it kept people, I think, home. Um going to better detail with it as well. I think we need to have a meeting, maybe next meeting, make the make it make it an agenda item.

1:45:08Let's go talk about what it would take to be able to shut the water down up and down the coast, you know, for evacuation zone A, and what it would take as far as shutting the electricity down. And as much as you know our first responders, we don't want them in da in in danger. I mean the Sheriff's Office, our first uh fi fire MS team out there did a phenomenal job, but they shouldn't be in that danger. You saw one of the pictures there with the firefighters shooting the shooting the water. Well the water's already gone, the fire's already happened. What do we do other than protect it from getting any worse? But

1:45:38it would be so much better if electricity wasn't there mixing the water, making these things go off. And we still don't know what the causes of, but we need to find a way to shut the water off. Shut the electricity off and notify people we're going to do that. Now the biggest issue with with that's going to increase dramatically the amount of people are going to want to evacuate or have to evacuate because they don't bother. So I think what we need to do is and uh schools are set up for this, uh for the most part, they're hardened. But we don't want to put too much burden because we want everybody able

1:46:09to get back to the homes the next day, as well as the schools to open up as soon as they can as well. So I think if we s we set up a plan where you're gonna evacuate, you're gonna lose water and electricity. It's gonna make it go we're pet friendly and at one point five A High School actually had more pets than people. It balanced it did. It balanced out but that was good. It it lets people know they can bring their pets because that used to be a big issue and we've overcame that. But if we're gonna do that, we've gotta go take a look at if you're gonna go to the school, you gotta bring your own cooler for

1:46:39your own food, you gotta bring Uh whatever you know, for whatever food, drink you need, just for that eight hour period of time when that storm's coming in, right? You go go there, you have your own sleeping blanket, blanket, sleeping bag, whatever it may be, that you can just like lay out and be c and and just know it's only eight hours. As soon as the storm passes, now you're free to go back home and hopefully find out what's there. Those that get stuck in a bigger situation will use the hurricane uh the the facinal hurricane shelter and we can even be set up to use the Wiregrass ranch

1:47:09for evacuation. For people that let's say the home is damaged, let's say a nine-foot storm does come, that we can overcome that. But we need to get people back in their homes as quick as possible. We need everything safe. We need to protect the first responders that are out there. We don't need to go through this whole whole thing of what happens if, and let's face it, we got lucky with no loss of life. I don't want to be a Lee County. I don't want to have this situation. Had this storm turned right, or we've stayed its regular course, we would would have been devastated. And it could and the storms can switch one way to the other, so I think we need to

1:47:39go look at it. I know one was afraid of that conversation before, but from what we just saw, I think we got a bigger fear of like having someone have a house burnt down inside with it or even a first resp responder going out there. Maybe some type of wave comes in wave actually comes in and takes a first responder out as well. We don't need to go down that road.

1:48:00And maybe we already do, and I just haven't noticed it. Um, you know that silver alert or whatever it is, the system that the state has for um abducted children or uh someone with Alzheimer's, you know, senior with Alzheimer's who's lost, and they have those signs on the highway. I think we have 119. And you get it on your phone. Um, but I'm I'm wondering if we could use that system to alert that, you know, uh mandatory evacuations

1:48:31LA, tides expected to be or water expected to be this level. And we could also put those um signs that we put up like the road closures, the flashing sign, um, in in areas that are could seriously be affected. I mean put more messaging up.

1:48:49So I I I will say this all great points with regards to what you're talking about, Commissioner. You know, we talk about connecting with people. Um when we sent out an it was an Everbridge blast, I think, uh regarding evacuations or something, we actually had more more more interest on on that. So there's some points, you know, and and obviously a balancing act before you pull those triggers. Um I I would like to take some time before I bring something back to the board. Next next board meeting is probably too close. We'd like to do some after action reports both with our emergency management

1:49:19staff and our partners and I think maybe then we can kind of present to you kind of some lessons learned and if we want to look at ways to uh encourage uh evacuations is what I'm hearing. Um but but also you know make sure that things are are good and safe for recovery so we can we can speed things back um all all for it and and know that our team is all all for that stuff. So um we'll take all that into account.

1:49:42And and I would look to participate in that after activation uh meeting as well I think. You know aga again my district The whole the whole coast of it was affected dramatically by it.

1:49:53Something that's very important, I think, for citizens uh to feel comfortable evacuating is to make sure that there's no looting that's gonna go out. Because that's why a reason why a lot of people won't leave. And look at the shameful people that were out there uh robbing someone with a truck. Um so I hope they go to church. And I should wait in the text.

1:50:16Yeah, so and just to touch on that w Rob real quick, so if you think about it. You can either have your whole arsenal of people and Mike who was quite a scene at C Ranch, all the people are out there, all the crux are out there, uh all the vehicles everywhere. It would be so much better if we had them segmented to go from s position A to position B, guarding them instead of having to go in there and rescue people, rather than guarding people from the get go. And w we know that if the evacuation has been ordered, other than people coming out of there, nobody should be going in there. Exactly. And it's a lot it'd be a lot easier to monitor if we have

1:50:46that set of setup. I mean it's still gonna be a big operation, but it's a lot better than rescue. A

1:50:52lot of factors to balance, but

1:50:54again, that's what's that's why it's good to get all the conversations. I mean, when we talked about doing the electricity and the and the water, there was a big pushback about getting that done. And at that moment it was probably tough to do it, but if you do it in advance, it could possibly work. Commissioner Weightman.

1:51:09Yeah. Whenever the Sheriff's Department sends out a text, is that just the Sheriff function or is that County Emergency Management? 'Cause there'll be a text if something weird's going on in your your area there's a text and then a follow up with the seven two seven phone number from the county. I don't know if that's a sheriff's office action. or county action. We not all that we have to do.

1:51:33Yeah we do. Yeah we do and that and that to your point that was that was actually pretty effective when folks when we sent those those blasts out. We actually got more phone calls into customer service as a res as a result of that. So again we want to be judicious about about when we when we send those blasts. I don't know what the sheriff has in particular but yes.

1:51:51Who whose text line that that was 'cause typically in an emergency situation, but I thought those texts were very effective and I I assume we'd use it for this type of situation.

1:52:01Yes we do. Elf you want to come up and address it?

1:52:08Well Alex is coming up, I will say, you know, listening to the different national news channels, we got a lot of comments on all the toys our sheriff has. They were um very uh complimentary of the the tools our county has now.

1:52:25Yes ma'am. So um to your question, Commissioner, um I'll have to see the the text you're talking about, most of what we put out uh is going to be on our social media platforms and our news website. So we'll tell people to go on onto Facebook or onto Twitter if they can. And everything that we're getting that we're updating as we go, that's where it's getting put first.

1:52:44Yeah I'm not saying I didn't know who the text came from. I just when I've seen it it just says you know it's not basically an emergency situation. I didn't know who was responsible for sending sending that out. Either way I think it's a great tool. And it's an inexpensive

1:52:57Yes sir. Yes sir. And I think uh yeah to to uh um the county administrator's point, yeah, I think uh there's an alert system that goes out through the county uh emergency management as well. So

1:53:08Thank you. Okay, thank you. And and Alex, uh the Sheriff's team working with Fire MS was phenomenal to doing their evacuations. We uh definitely want to have you guys part of what we're doing in the future to try to prevent having having to go through all that too.

1:53:20Yes sir. Yes sir.

1:53:21That picture of the sheriff holding James Mann will send it out out of the side, holding uh helping a woman elderly woman evacuate. That was priceless. I think I saw one with the chief as well.

1:53:33Mm-hmm. Yeah, so that 'cause we had seen a lot of uh of the flooding all in Hudson and um that entire morning the sheriff and all our folks were out there. Any them anyone we can get out of their house and get 'em out and get 'em to safety, we we were doing that. So happy to do it.

1:53:48Thank

1:53:48you.

1:53:52County Attorney. Um public comment this morning, the first one uh about the demolition order. Um my office has reviewed it, as has the building department. Um Um I will say that the

1:54:13Let me just say there are minimum standard violations, there's unsafe plumbing, there is uh unsafe electrical um the gentleman purchased the property knowing that that demo order was or should have known that that demo order was in in place. Um it's not our recommendation that you at this time rescind the demo order that is was recorded and in

1:54:43place when you purchased the property.

1:54:46Uh I'll say I I did meet with um your team about it. Um and it wasn't there w there are there are issues that are extra that are out there. So uh as it was relayed to us to what the team felt about and the ramifications of other things coming up, it could really mess up the way we're doing it. So I'm

1:55:08comfortable.

1:55:10as was represented to me this morning.

1:55:12Right. And then then and I and from what they said, you know, and and I just want to make sure it was and they assured me that there was more to it. So I'm comfortable with just going forward with it the way it's set.

1:55:27that problem child helped. Then we need to get a house built on it that will improve it.

1:55:34But I think I think we made the right time to take a l extra look at it. But again I knew staff had looked at it. I thought they would have referred the information already, but maybe just not clear enough. But I'm comfortable with everything I saw too.

1:55:44Okay.

1:55:45Okay.

1:55:46That's it.