Cory Schwisow, director of Monroe County Emergency Management, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Schwisow will be meeting with the staff of Florida International University’s Emergency Management to talk about the special needs shelter.
He said, “Every year we take a trip up to FIU to the recreational center, and that is the out of county shelter for our special needs population. So we’ll be meeting with the staff at FIU emergency management, along with our partners at the Department of Health who will help oversee our special needs clients while we’re evacuated out of county, but what we do is we tour the facility, if there have been any changes to facility, and then what we’ll do is we’ll walk through, how are we going to activate that shelter with our staff, DOH and FIU, so that if we are called upon to evacuate, that that transition happens seamlessly. We have two different shelters for the general populations over at the Fuchs pavilion at the fairgrounds up there in Miami Dade, just adjacent to FIU, and then within a mile of there is the special needs population shelters, and that’s a designated shelter so that we can have specialized medical professionals in that facility to help oversee any special needs that our clients may have. But we also have a joint pet shelter over at that Fuchs pavilion, so any of our special needs clients that have pets, they can evacuate with their pets, we’ll get them checked into the pet friendly shelter, along with our general population personnel and their pets. But what’s great about that pet shelter up there is it is operated by licensed veterinarians, so that we have specialized personnel overseeing your pets while you’re taking refuge in our shelter.”
What is the capacity as far as the shelters on the mainland and what happens if capacity is exceeded?
Schwisow said, “The fairgrounds can hold, I want to say upwards, over 2,000 personnel, because it’s the entire fairgrounds, and all of the different structures in the fairgrounds. So we have our special needs population. We all have about 100 or so special needs clients in Monroe County. But our medically managed clients will be taken to a different medical facility up in the Miami Dade area so that they can actually get medical care up there. So we have plenty of room up there, plenty of staff to help operate those shelters up there.”
There is a wall of wind at FIU.
Schwisow said, “This is an incredible facility. It’s the only hurricane simulator in the country, and I met with the FIU professors and researchers just last week doing a workshop. And one of the things that they’re looking at is, how do elevated structures withstand some of the hurricane force winds? And so what these researchers have done is that they build models and different configurations. So buildings that have nothing underneath it, elevated. But then they also start putting different variations of homes that you see in the Florida Keys. What does a downstairs enclosure look like? Even specifically, where is that downstairs enclosure? Is it in the middle of the building? Is it on the side of the building? But even to expand on that, the columns. Are your columns square or your columns round? They have found that esthetically, people, when they build homes, they want square columns, but when they put these structures under hurricane force winds, round columns have done better with reducing some of the force and pressure on these structures. So, really, really excited to see this facility. A lot of time and research is being put into it. I remember going through this workshop, it’s a double edged sword. You feel safe because you’re in an elevated structure because of the storm surge, which one of our number one concerns being in an almost 100% flood area. But then a ground structure does better in storm force winds. But here in Monroe County, you look at the insurance costs, one, can you even get insurance on a ground enclosure? And if you can, what do those insurance policies look like?”
Water surge is a serious concern during hurricanes.
Schwisow said, “Our codes have gotten better, our buildings have gotten engineered better to withstand these winds. But you can’t get away from storm surge, and it’s one of the focus items that we’re making a priority on our hurricane exercise this year. We are going to simulate a Wilma type event where we have catastrophic flooding from Key Largo out on the Key West and really stress our partners of what does that look like? What kind of damage are we going to endure during a big storm surge like Wilma, so really excited to put our team to the test come May 29 this year, and we’ll definitely make any changes that we have to make prior to the storm season.”
Hurricane season is two months away.
Schwisow said, “There’s been a lot of talk recently about this El Nino summer, which there’s been a lot of reports of it’s going to be fewer storms, but if we do get hit, it could be a very powerful storm. So we go into every storm season, like it’s going to be our worst season. We need to make sure that our teams are prepared. Try to ignore some of that noise of, hey, this El Nino season is going to have fewer storms. But as long as we practice that preparedness piece, not just during hurricane season, but all year, so that when we do enter the hurricane season, we’re not changing our lifestyle. So definitely be prepared. Have a plan, and it’s not just your plan. What are you going to do for your pets? What do your kids need for a potential long term stay out of the county?”
What are the deadlines for reentry placards?
Schwisow said, “May 1 is going to be our deadline for our emergency worker and business reentry placard. And we’re doing things a little bit different this year. In the past, we issued out hard placards that you can put in your rear of your mirror. You give me five minutes with Adobe Pro, I can probably counterfeit those things pretty easily. So what we have changed over to is we’re going to be issuing out a QR code that is going to be scanned at the checkpoint by our Sheriff’s Office. That does two things for me. It lets me know immediately who is reentering the county to help support our operations. But once you scan that QR code, that QR code is now deactivated, so it cannot be counterfeited. And then we can also make changes, add other businesses or individuals to our emergency reentry program right on the spot. It takes about 30 seconds and so you can use it like a boarding pass, save that QR code on your phone or print it off and have it like a boarding pass and scan it. So we’re really excited about some of these changes. We’re operating on a little bit of a reduced budget. We have a smaller staff, so we’re just looking at ways to operate a little bit more efficiently.”
For more information, click here: https://monroecountyem.com/