Shannon Weiner, Director of Emergency Management for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about preparing for any emergency.
House Bill 1567 is on the governor’s desk and would establish minimum qualifications for local emergency planners.
Weiner said, “It was brought to the attention of the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association sometime in early January, that there was a House Rep out of out of Charlotte County actually who was very interested in pulling together a bill establishing minimum qualifications for local emergency managers. So that is under Florida State statute 262. The legislator created that position of your county emergency management director and made them the lead for those disaster responses across the state of Florida. That happened way back a long time ago in the 60s, but since then, in the past few years, Florida in particular has felt the brunt of so many storms, so many hurricanes and tropical storms. The realization of how important that job is also, as the number of residents of Florida has grown, has really come to the forefront of the job that we do as professional emergency managers. So the association was approached by the House Rep and he said, look, I am looking to establish some minimum qualifications to really establish a new level of professionalism in the field of emergency management in the state of Florida. So we got together, our association has what we call our county emergency management directors working group. All the counties in the state of Florida, there’s 67 County Emergency Managers, got together and said, what does this look like? How can we help craft this bill, and work to help make it not just benefit the people in the state of Florida, but help really grow and establish our profession. So we were able to do that. It was very exciting. They carried it forward, it was approved by the Senate, it’s on the governor’s desk. Basically, what it says is, you have to have experience to come into that position, with having actual disaster response experience, you have to have responded to a number of disasters, so that you really know what it’s like to have that type of disaster chaos and clean up around you and step up to that comprehensive job of recovery that we do in emergency management. You have to have training or formal education or formal training in the field of emergency management. You can also have your certification, your professional Emergency Manager Certification, which is something that the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association offers. We offer two different levels of certification, one called an associate emergency manager for someone who’s newer or younger in the field that has about three years experience and one that is called a Professional Emergency Manager Certification where you have five or more years of experience in the field. It’s just a really neat way to tie the work of the association and what we do, and help you build that network of professionalism across the state to the qualifications and the standards of what we do every day as emergency managers in all the counties across the state.”
Hurricane season is coming up and it might be a busy one.
Weiner said, “I know a lot of people pay attention to Colorado State University and their predictions and they have a forecast for 23 named storms this year. That is pretty busy. That’s credited to the change in the weather pattern that seems like not that long ago you and I were talking about the El Nino winter and how it might be a little bit more stormy winter than we’re used to having and now it looks like El Nino was going to leave us and La Nina, the opposite weather pattern, is going to come in probably late summer or early fall, August, September. Which also happens to be the height of hurricane season. The thing about El Nino was it provides a lot of heavy wind shear, so sometimes that kept a lot of those storms from getting too close or breaking down before us or made them maybe a little less severe but La Nina does not have that wind shear. She does not bring that with her. So it is looking like a stormy season. But no matter what the count, we all know living in Florida and especially the Florida Keys that it just takes one storm to have that disastrous and catastrophic impact and we all need to have a plan and be prepared.”
One prediction is there will be 23 named storms.
Weiner said, “They may or may not make it here or anywhere. But they’re looking to have 23 storms develop to the point where they have a name, which is a tropical storm, could be a tropical storm, not necessarily a hurricane. But definitely a busy season ahead.”
Making a plan is important and now is the time to do that.
Weiner said, “Especially here in the Florida Keys, you kind of have to have two plans. You have to have a plan if we’re going to shelter in county or you’re going to have to have a plan to shelter out of county. Here in the Keys, we will usually shelter in county and open up our local county shelters for a category one storm, sometimes a tropical storm depending on the impact. So we always want to make sure you pay attention to what impacts may be coming your way. So sometimes we do open a shelter under those types of conditions and maybe a low end category two we’ll stay in county for now. So if we stay in county and you have a safe place to be, you have a safe home, you can have a plan to shelter.
Your home needs to be safe.
Weiner said, “You want a good roof on your home. You want hurricane shutters or be able to board up and you want to have that plan for water, that one gallon per person a day for five days. You want to have canned food. You want to be have food for your pets. Sometimes people forget about food for your pet. You want to have your car fueled up before the storm comes. You want to have cash in case we lose electric and you need to go to the store and you need to pay for some groceries there. You also want to have your prescriptions. It’s good to have prescriptions a little extra on hand if you can. If you can’t in the state of Florida, there is a law that says if we are under a state or local emergency or there is a storm pending that you can go out and get prescriptions refilled so that you have them post storm if need be. So definitely you know a ton to be prepared to have that in county shelter plan.”
The in county shelters in Monroe County are Key West High School, Sugarloaf School, Marathon High School and Coral Shores High School.
Weiner added, “Then you want to have a plan for if we evacuate. Now we’ll evacuate for a category three storm or higher or sometimes a high end category two because a lot of times storms come in with stronger impacts than planned for, so we want to make sure everyone is safe. So if we call for an out of county evacuation, that is something that the county in their decision making weighs heavily on. We know that it is a challenge logistically for people. We know it’s hard on the roadways. We know people don’t like to leave their homes, but we only call for that evacuation unless it is absolutely necessary. One of the reasons we do is because when you have those category three storms or higher, you have deadly levels of storm surge. So that means surge three feet or higher. So it’s not a safe place to be anywhere in Keys. That’s why a lot of us have elevated homes because you want to get away from that storm surge. So no place in the Keys safe from storm surge, unlike on the mainland. In the mainland, sometimes you only have to evacuate 10 miles, five miles, but here we do have to go all the way to Miami Dade County. We have a shelter that is open to everyone in Miami Dade County at FIU. It is pet friendly, so everyone can bring their family and their pets. A lot of people go to the mainland and stay with friends or family that they know that live up there as well. So as long as you have a safe place to go, have that out of county plan, as well. All the things you put in that at home shelter kit, for sheltering in county, make them mobile and take them with you. We’re always going to try and get our residents back as soon as possible. We know everyone wants to come and check on their homes and make sure that if any repairs are needed, they get done as soon as possible. We live here too and all your first responder community, all your infrastructure and health care partners are working to help put your county back together and make it a whole again. We’re in the same boat as you. We want to be able to get home and check on our homes and get them back better because we know how important it is that you be there and we have that return to normalcy as soon as possible. So that’s always our goal. We don’t take evacuation lightly.”
It takes an amazing amount of coordination during an emergency for the professionals in the county.
Weiner said, “Having a storm, having a disaster, in particular, a hurricane, you do have the benefit of having time to plan. Here in Monroe County, we have fantastic partners. Of course, the National Weather Service of Key West and the National Hurricane Center, the professionals there are just that. They are top notch. They have a great team down there. We really couldn’t make the plans and respond like we do without the information that we get from them and their partners with the National Hurricane Center. They are just always available, standing guard 24/7. So they are definitely a key to public safety here in Monroe County during hurricane season. So that makes my job a lot easier.”
The hurricane placard reentry program will help people get back into their homes after an evacuation.
Weiner said, “The end of the month will be the deadline for local businesses to apply for what we call our early reentry business program. What that does is offer businesses the opportunity who want to come back in and have the offerings, the skill sets, the services to help the county recover quickly. It allows them to come back in early and help put their businesses back together quickly to be able to provide those services to help the community volunteer with the county. So we’re looking for businesses like landscapers and restaurants to provide food or hotels to provide places to stay, construction contractors, those types of things. Anyone who can help with debris removal, moving things out of the road, helping neighborhoods clean up from debris. Those are the types of businesses that we’re looking for and all they have to do is, go online to our website and look for re entry and fill out an application, you do have to apply. Because you are coming back into the county early, we do want you to have a plan on how you can take care of yourself and your staff. So in the event that we don’t have power, or water, we want you to have a safe place to stay. We want you to have a plan if you get a flat tire, we want you to have a plan to feed yourself and we want you to be able to be able to be self sustaining is what we call it in the business, and help others. It’s good to have that kind of plan anyway. So we encourage our businesses that can help out and are willing to volunteer with the county during that recovery phase. We encourage you all to apply and I believe the last day of April, is the last day to apply for this hurricane season.”