Cory Schwisow, Director of Emergency Management for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about the organization.
Every year, Monroe County prepares for the possibility of a nuclear event with Turkey Point.
Schwisow said, “On January 21 we have our annual plume release exercise with the Turkey Point nuclear facility. Florida Power and Light partnered with Miami Dade County, Collier County, Palm Beach County and this is just an exercise that, if you guys didn’t know, we do have a pretty large nuclear facility in our backyard up there in Florida City and we exercise, that what if. I live in that what if world, so that everyone else can enjoy the Florida Keys. But what if something does happen at Turkey Point, what is our protective action? So we’ll be exercising a plume release up there in Turkey Point. And then how do we protect our residents from those types of impacts, from a radiological exercise? It’s just a great opportunity for us to work with our partners in Florida Power and Light, and that Turkey Point nuclear facility is an absolute phenomenal facility. I know there’s a lot of talk about it’s an aging facility, and we need to spend money to get this thing improved or have a whole new plant built, but I’ll tell you what, it is an absolute incredible operation.”
Monroe County Emergency Management will also study surge forecasting.
Schwisow said, “I have a great a great opportunity coming up here at the end of February. I was one of four emergency managers in South Florida selected to attend a training conference at the National Hurricane Center in the end of February, for a week, we’re going to be studying surge forecasting and how do we look at the surge forecasting? How do we get more accurate, and then, what types of protective actions can we put in place down here in the Keys based on those surge forecasts to maximize our protection for our residents and minimize the damage as much as we possibly can and really use those tools in this offseason to take advantage of any type of mitigation projects that we can? Because you have this hurricane season for six months of the year and you think we have six months to prepare. But I’ll tell you what, we’re already in January, 5, right now, and already on my radar here, and just over five months we’re back in the storm season. So a lot of planning goes into this time period, and then really taking as much time as we possibly can to make sure we can lessen those impacts for the seasons come June.”
Storm surge can really affect people in the Keys.
Schwisow said, “Our building codes have gotten so much better. I know they’re frustrating, like we have to get better storm windows and doors and bolster some of those building codes, but when it comes to storm surge, like, hey, surprise, every single one of us here in the in the Florida Keys, we’re in a flood zone. You can hide from some of those winds, but when it comes to storm surge, you look at Wilma, Wilma skirted by to the north of us, but still brought catastrophic storm surge to the Lower Keys. Once you make that decision, no, I’m not going to go anywhere. Something does happen. This water, it doesn’t come in like a bathtub filling up, it comes in like a raging river, and it’s going to pick up everything it can, and then as quickly as it came in, it’s going to take everything with it away. And if you’re stuck in that situation, in a vehicle or out in the elements, it’s going to be a very bad situation for anybody. So when we talk about the surge threat, we really want everyone to lean to the side of caution. Say it’s not worth that chance to get stuck in that situation and just let me get to safety. And then, we’ll come back here as quickly as we possibly can to the Keys. And take a look at what we have to do to repair and respond and recover.”
Storm surge can even come up canals, too.
Schwisow confirmed, “You start seeing that. A lot of the studies that are happening up in the northern counties in the state, is a lot of those tributaries, those rivers, those streams, that connect. If you build a home next to this beautiful, old creek bed, up there in the north, at one time, that wasn’t just a small creek bed, that’s a way for water to get from one place to another. So just make sure that if that old creek bed used to have water in a couple decades, someday, there’s going to be water there.”
Alert Monroe is another way to stay informed too.
Schwisow said, “It’s a great tool. Just before the season, we saw some impacts from wildfires, and we learned a lot of lessons. So we’re going to be looking at utilizing a lot more of that alert messaging if we do have traffic impacts to wildfires at the stretch. So definitely, if you have not signed up for Alert Monroe, you’ll go to our website and then follow the cookie crumbs over to Alert Monroe and sign up your yourself, your friends, your family, anybody that’s going to be down here in the Keys, a lot of great information and tools coming out there with that. And along with that, we’ve seen some water outages, so there’s also messaging that goes out from Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, so make sure you sign up for those alerts, so that if you are in those effect areas, you get information at a moment’s notice.”
Has there been any talk from the state about cutting funding for emergency management?
Schwisow said, “We haven’t had any talk about cutting any emergency services. We’ve been very proactive over the last several months down here in the county to make sure that if we do have any type of issues, that we do have increased reserve funds for that emergency response. So as far as up there at the Capitol Hill, a lot of that talk for slashing some of those emergency service cuts have reduced. So I know we had a lot of rumors last year. So far so good. It’s one of those things where, I like to say when you have challenging situations, you’ll be amazed of how your people will work when given the opportunity to be creative. So my input on that is that, hey we’re going to have some budgetary issues. We’re having budgetary challenges, but I’m very confident that our team can bring our heads together and really find solutions to get through this.
The budget for the 2026 fiscal year for the county did include a $2 million increase to the reserves.
Schwisow said, “It’s really important. And we were able to increase some of the reserves and give us some of our emergency services an increase, pay raise, which is really important. It’s very hard for us to keep our first responders down here in the county, we train them, we get them qualified. They serve for us a little bit. And it’s just too hard. The cost of living is too much. So it is nice to see that we’re going to be given a little bit of a paycheck to our first responders and keep them down here in Monroe County, because the hardest thing is to find people who not only are good first responders that but they understand Monroe County’s challenges, so we really need to do our best to keep our first responders down here in the county.”
For more information, click here: https://monroecountyem.com/