Emergency Services director talks of successes as well as need for improvement
Providing better public education about storm surge risk, in advance of a potential strike by a tropical storm or hurricane this season, is among the proposals in the 54-page Sarasota County Emergency Services Department’s After Action Report on the 2024 storm season, Rich Collins, director of the department, has told the County Commission,
“We saw in [Hurricane] Helene 4 to 6 feet of storm surge across the barrier islands that had never been seen before in the community,” Collins told the board members during a May 20 presentation.
Helene passed offshore of Southwest Florida in late September 2024.
“Then, just 12 days later,” Collins continued, the National Hurricane Center forecast for Hurricane Milton called for the potential of 12 to 15 feet of storm surge.
Staff has learned, he added, that some Siesta Key residents think they saw 10 feet of storm surge when Milton came ashore at Big Pass on Oct. 9, 2024. Yet, he stressed, the surge “was only 4 to 6 feet again.”
However, in South County, Collins pointed out, “We did see 10 and 11 feet in a small area [of Manasota Key].”
Collins added that staff also is focused on making certain that the public understands that 15 feet of storm surge “could move well inland.”
The written report itself explains, “Storm surge is a potential impact of tropical cyclone events and carries significant risk to life and property and is the leading cause of hurricane-related fatalities. Storm size, intensity, and forward speed are all factors that affect the amount of storm surge, even in areas that are outside of where the storm makes landfall. Some residents had challenges understanding the complexities of storm surge and the potential impact to their homes and families. Members of the public who have previously not experienced significant storm surge flooding may not perceive risk and therefore may be reluctant to evacuate if under an evacuation notice. It is generally understood that this is not a unique issue to Sarasota County and is a challenge throughout the state of Florida.”
The resulting recommendation says, “The County should consider enhancing its public communications strategy for storm surge risk using NHC [National Hurricane Center] products and visual displays.” The goal, that part of the report adds, is to have that enhancement in place by September of this year.
The written report explains, “Sarasota County uses a web-based tool branded ‘Know Your Level’ where residents and business owners can view which evacuation level their property resides in (Levels A-E). Many individual properties fall into multiple evacuation levels, which can confuse the public when evacuation notices are issued. Similarly, some subdivisions have neighboring parcels in different evacuation levels, due to differences in property elevation. This can be misinterpreted by the public and increase challenges for responders on the ground who may be assisting with evacuations. Having a clear identification of parcels included in the evacuation notice would be beneficial to this process. The EOC provided first responders with language to reinforce evacuation notices. While utilizing first responders was an effective communication tool, having guidelines and templates available pre-disaster would save time in future emergencies.”
The related recommendations for enhancement call for county staff to “consider providing clarity on evacuation levels,” with the goal of having steps in place by October; and consideration of “creating guidelines for first responder assistance with public evacuation notifications.” October also is the timeline for completing that initiative, the report says.
Overall, Collins told the commissioners on May 20, one of staff’s major successes last year was in communications in general, especially in regard to the timeliness of announcements. He credited that largely to “the tremendous work by our Communications team and all of the joint information officers” working for the municipalities in the county. He characterized them as “singing with one voice.”
Instead of producing an after-action analysis for each of the 2024 storms, Collins explained, staff decided to produce what he called “a whole-season report.”
“We were pretty much activated for 65 days starting with [Tropical Storm] Debby [in early August 2024] and all the way through Milton making landfall,” plus response and recovery, he pointed out.
In preparation for crafting the report, he said, staff conducted 15 feedback sessions with what he called “key stakeholders,” as well as representatives of the municipalities and county employees.
Among other successes for the county, as shown in a slide, were “Creative use of diverse communication tools and platforms for public messaging”; “Timely procurement of critical resources, repairs, and services”; “Effective debris operations management across multiple incidents”; and “Recovery partnerships support with state, federal, and non-governmental agencies.”
The Emergency Services staff undertook its analysis in accord with a national preparedness model, Collins noted.
Enhancing communications with municipal partners
Turning to the topic of planning, Collins continued, “The active planning is the most important thing, but a plan is good until you take the first punch in the face, as [boxer] Mike Tyson would say.”
Collins told the commissioners, “Our team did a phenomenal job when they were hit with something that was unexpected,” including demonstrating the ability to work through new issues.
The most important observation in the planning category, he said, is that the county staff needs to enhance its coordination and communications with its municipal partners. Space is allocated in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for liaisons from the municipalities, the written report points out. Moreover, the report continues, when faced with an approaching storm, county staff hosts a twice-daily call that “includes municipal partners, hospital system representatives, and representatives from Sarasota County Constitutional Offices (i.e., Supervisor of Elections, Clerk of Court, Sheriff’s Office, School District, Tax Collector). This call enables the County to make contact with its community partners and share information from the EOC, assess ongoing issues, and gather information on unmet needs.”
However, the report points out, “[T]he County does not have a specific forum for City Managers to meet with the County Administrator. Additionally, with hundreds of resources deployed within the community for Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton, there were times when municipalities did not have full visibility on the movement of resources within their jurisdiction, especially around demobilization.”
Among the recommendations in the report in regard to planning is consideration of the creation of a “Municipal Manager/County Administrator call for the EOC Activation Schedule.” The goal is to have that plan in place this month, the report says.
EOC staffing and real-time communications for Tactical First-In Teams
Yet another issue that needs attention, Collins told the commissioners on May 20, involves the staffing of the Emergency Operations Center.
“In the evenings,” he said, “we had maybe more people than we needed.” However, he indicated, not enough staff was present in the daytime.
The related item in the written report said, “The County utilizes its employees to fill most EOC staffing roles. EOC shifts are generally divided between ‘A’ (day) and ‘B’ (night) shifts, with some sections having more personnel on B shift than others, depending on the needs of the incident. During Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton, there were personnel assigned to B shift who were proportionally less busy than their A shift counterparts. In the Finance/Administration Section, for example, Procurement personnel were staffed overnight, but county procurement was not taking place during that timeframe.”
That section added, “As the needs of the EOC changed and the County worked through the recovery process, departments needed their staff to return to daily operations. This was a challenge through all storms, as continuity of government and EOC operations created competing priorities. Sarasota County experienced challenges with the release of county staff back to their departments, as a written process for EOC staff demobilization was not in place.”
The top recommendation related to that issue said, “The County should consider identifying both internal and external staffing solutions for all phases of disaster.” That should be resolved by December, the report noted.
However, by September, the report pointed out, county leaders “should consider evaluating the positions needed in the EOC for B-shift and reviewing the activities tasked to B-shift positions.”
Turning to the Situational Awareness section of the report, Collins pointed to the need to be able to communicate in real time with the Tactical First-In Teams, which assess areas of the county in the immediate aftermath of storms.
The report itself explained that, following the strikes of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, information from those teams “was fed into the EOC via radios. First responders in the field were also relaying information back into the EOC, along with the incoming data from the damage assessment teams via their damage assessment system. There were challenges trying to encapsulate this information seamlessly into one visual format. The County should explore ways to streamline this information collection and develop a way to display the incoming data in a mapping system that can also be shared within the EOC. Additionally, the damage assessment teams reported challenges with uploading information and calculating substantial damage using their damage assessment system.”
Among the related recommendations, the report said, county staff “should consider assessing its current damage assessment tool and make recommendations for future damage assessment software”: and staff “should consider standardizing the EOC data collection schedule and display process.” The goal with the first recommendation is to have that initiative completed by December. However, the timeline for the second is July.
Another issue that arose, Collins noted on May 20, was the continued work of Brian Usher, director of the county’s Solid Waste Department, in managing debris removal at the same time Usher was trying to get his department up and running again on a normal schedule after storms.
Many other department directors were able to return to their primary roles, Collins noted.
“Our Solid Waste team is a small team,” Collins pointed out. Therefore, the decision has been made to hire an individual who will be focused on debris removal, along with handling the responsibility of identifying debris management sites before storms hit and dealing with contracts covering debris collection.
Further, Collins told the commissioners, the decision had been made to shift the debris management work from the Solid Waste Department to the EOC operations.