Cory Schwisow, the interim director of Monroe County Emergency Management, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
Shannon Weiner has actually taken an emergency management position with the University of Tampa.
Michael Stapleford of KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM said, “We appreciate her many years of dedicated service.”
Hurricane season has officially begun.
Schwisow said, “We’re preparing for well, NOAA, our National Weather Service partners are talking about an above average, but regardless of the outlook, we’re going to go into the hurricane season prepared like we do every year, and what a great honor it is to follow in the footsteps of Shannon. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor and a better leader to go through this transition.”
Stapleford noted, “We are honored to have you in our midst, and also want to thank you for over 23 years of service in the US Navy, service to our country and now serving us here in Monroe County.”
NOAA is predicted a range of 13 to 19 named storms. Of those six to 10 are forecast to become hurricanes, including three to five major hurricanes.
Schwisow said, “In about 10 days, we have our annual hurricane exercise, and then we’re going to get all of our partners together, test and validate some of our plans that we’ve made adjustments to and going over some lessons learned from some of the impacts from up north and over last year, and we’ll identify some gaps and hopefully highlight some strengths going forward. So we’re looking forward to that, and this is going to be the first full hurricane exercise that we have in our new emergency operations center. So we were able to test the EOC out last year, I think we cut the ribbon on the new facility, and then that same day, we activated for hurricane Helene.”
The state has moved resources into place.
Schwisow said, “That’s very important for us down here. One thing that we don’t have a lot of is space, and we need to constantly coordinate, with our county partners up north, we like to call our big brothers in Miami Dade. We have a great relationship with the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and we’re in direct contact with Director Guthrie, throughout the year, and then leading up to any type of impacts that we have for a storm. So they are more than happy to lean forward to move some of those resources closer by, so that as soon as we are impacted by any type of event, we have supplies here to support our recovery and our response operations.”
Preparedness is so critical at this time of year.
Schwisow said, “We do a great job down here of constantly reminding our residents of, hey, what do we need to do to prepare? The season is here. So just those friendly reminders, treat your gas tank like, if it’s at a half tank, it’s empty, keeping fuel in there, and then having a plan, not with just yourself, but with your children, with your family. What documents do I need to take to evacuate? What documents do I need to come back? So having that mindset the entire summer is really going to pay dividends and pay attention to the local news. Visit our webpage, we provide timely updates from the National Weather Service, our partners. Then, if you haven’t done so, please sign up for alert Monroe. You can do that right on our website. Also jot down our hotline number. In the event that we are impacted by a storm, we are going to provide updates to that hotline, and that number is 1-800-955-5504.”
Remember your pets as well.
Schwisow said, “Please, if we evacuate, do not leave your pets at home. We have pet friendly shelters, and you actually can go on prior to and register your pets online on our webpage and that’s just going to streamline the process when we check into a shelter, if we open those shelter here in county, or if we need to open up shelters out of county, up in Miami Dade County. On that website, it’s going to tell you, what pets are eligible, and what to bring and any type of paperwork you need for your pets.”
There are also special needs shelters.
Schwisow said, “We will provide that transportation to our in county special needs shelters, and if we need to evacuate out of the county, we’ll coordinate that transportation out of the county to make sure that all of our residents are safe from any type of impacts from these storms.”
Tree trimming ahead of time can help keep debris low.
Schwisow said, “If anybody has children like me, they like to stockpile their toys into the house and so make sure you’re taking precautions. If it looks like it can move during a normal storm, that’s not a hurricane, you definitely need to get it tied down and secured so that you can eliminate some of those debris hazards.”
Boat preparation also should be considered.
Schwisow said, “If you haven’t moved your boat trailer in three years, you should definitely take a look at that, because for Hurricane Irma, you see a lot of broken down trailers and wheel issues. We’re in a little bit of a lull. We haven’t had a major impact since Irma. So we need to take this season seriously, and just like any other season, prepare like it could be a bad one, and that way, if something does happen, we’re ready to go and definitely take heed of warnings, especially with the evacuations. You can hide from wind, but we are 100% in a flood zone down here, so we can’t hide from that water, and that storm surge is a huge concern for us. It’s not like it’s filling up a bathtub, it’s coming in violent and when it leaves, it’s going to leave violent. We really want to take that warning and evacuate to a safe location. We have a great team down here, not just the emergency management team, but all of our partners across the county, and we have a top notch National Weather Service in Key West that we get some fantastic updates and forecasts from. So we’re looking forward to continue those partnerships and hoping for a very quiet season. Everyone be safe this this season and start making those preparations now. The season is here.”
For more information, click here: https://www.monroecountyem.com/1324/Emergency-Management