(peaceful music) (upbeat music) - Hello, everyone.

I'm Rameca Vincent Leary and welcome to this edition of Connecting the Community.

It's never too early to prepare for natural disasters.

Hurricane season is under way and it's a reality that should never be taken lightly.

During this program, we'll explore specific things everyone should do before, during, and after a natural disaster, it's going to be a show packed with pertinent knowledge.

To get that conversation started, I'm happy to welcome Jason Beaman, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Mobile and Pensacola.

He's joined by Dr. Brian Rucker, history professor in the department of humanities and social sciences at Pensacola State College.

Plus we have a special guest joining us on the phone, Dr. Amal Elawady, assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Florida International University.

Dr. Elawady, there are some amazing things happening at the university, specifically the category five Wall of Wind hurricane simulator.

It sounds fascinating, can you tell us more about it?

- [Amal] Thanks for having me, yes.

So the Wall of Wind is a large-scale wind testing facility at Florida International University and is currently the only test facility at a US institution or university capable of generating cat five, category five, hurricanes.

And this is currently the most powerful level of hurricane.

The intake of the Wall of Wind facilities, equipped with a curved wall of 12 giant fans, very big fans, each one as tall as an average person height, together those 12 fans are working together to simulate up to 160 mile per hour hurricane, that can represent a category five hurricane.

- Dr. Elawady, that is fascinating.

And when you say that, it just lends credence to the fact that we have some video that we would like to share with our viewers right now, take a look.

(dramatic music) (doors open) (alarm blares) (dramatic music) (fans whir) Wow, now Jason Beaman, National Weather Service, that just has to really give you goosebumps, but I understand that you have a question for Dr. Elawady.

- I do, seeing that video reminds me of recent powerful hurricanes, like Hurricane Michael from a few years ago that just misses to the east and how we have to really increase our resiliency, and so Doctor, I was wondering what is one key takeaway that you hope the public takes out of this work to help everybody increase their resiliency for these powerful storms?

- [Amal] So we really need to understand how different structures and buildings are responding to severe and extreme wind storms and when the storms include extreme wind, high-intensity winds, and storm surge flooding.

And at the Wall of Wind, we are capable also of simulating rain effects through the water jets that we have.

So we can assess the water intrusion, which has been typically a major cause for interior damage.

The watersheds that we have in the facility help us to assess the water intrusion through the building interior, which typically happens during hurricane events, causing severe interior damage to low-rise buildings and other structures.

It's also important to assess the wind-borne debris effects from flying debris on building envelopes.

So in the facility, we can also test the structures up to that damaged state because we have an open field outside of the test section that we can set up the building models there and start to assess their response up to the damage.

By doing that, we can create new methods.

We can test new innovative mitigation strategies to help us to better prepare for future, more intense fine wind events.

- Well, that is amazing.

We'll get back to you in just a moment, Dr. Elawady.

But back to you, Jason, tell us what fatality stats are.

And I know that you want to share with us three different levels, take it away.

- That's right, when it comes to the fatalities from hurricanes, a lot of people think of the wind as they should, as Doctor's work has shown, the impact of wind and how we have to be more resilient of that.

But it's also very important for people to be mindful that it's the water that is resulting from the majority of fatalities in our country.

If you look historical over the past several decades, three out of every four fatalities have been the result of water, mainly storm surge and freshwater flooding.

And in the past five years, most of the fatalities have actually been from the result of freshwater flooding.

So we can't underestimate the power of water and while we have to treat every component of a hurricane seriously and be prepared for each and every threat.

- And then we have one that deals with the most recent five years of fatality stats.

- That's right, if you look back at the past five years, it's freshwater flooding that's actually killing more people than storm surge has, while storm surge has been the number-one killer in the past several decades.

People often underestimate the power of water.

It doesn't have to be the water coming from the Gulf of Mexico.

It could be the water coming from a river or from a tributary.

We have to be prepared for each and every threat and take those seriously and be mindful of those in the next storm.

- And then the third, as you were saying, indirect fatalities after the storm occurs, right?

- [Jason] That's right.

We're losing a lot of people after the storm, in post-storm cleanup, from cardiovascular events, heart attacks, from improper generator use.

We had a fatality after Hurricane Sally here locally from improper generator use, and that's been a number that's been on the climb from some of our recent hurricanes dating back the past couple of years.

We really have to be smart and be ready after the storm for extended power outages, prolonged heat, and make sure we do things safely and keep each other safe.

- Can't stress that enough.

Dr. Rucker, the historian that you are, take us back to Hurricane Ivan.

- I'll take you back even further.

- Do that, please.

- As a Florida historian, you can't separate Florida from hurricanes.

1559, Luna was trying to settle here and a month afterwards, a hurricane struck, wiped out most of his ships, their supplies, and that was the beginning of the end, 1565, a hurricane hits the Northeast coast of Florida and Menendez is able to use that and establishes St. Augustine, the first permanent Spanish settlement.

1926, a hurricane slams into Miami Beach, then into Pensacola and wiping out two very far flung Florida cities.

And that really ended the Florida land boom, for sure nobody wanted to invest in Florida real estate after that.

1935, the Labor Day Hurricane, category five, hit the Keys and hundreds of people killed because they didn't know the storm was going to go there and it was too late to evacuate people.

We've seen Homestead devastated by Andrew, Michael devastated Mexico Beach.

We've seen Ivan a few years ago in Pensacola and Sally just a few years ago.

When these storms hit, people come to Florida for the beaches and the waterfront living but beaches and bays are one of the most susceptible parts of hurricane damage.

So it's people will go those places and we've destroyed a lot of barrier islands, which really have helped prevent and mitigate damages from hurricanes, but they knocked down the dunes, put up condos, and that accelerates the problem, it's a thing that Floridians have had to live with for thousands of years.

- Countless, countless memories, I know.

And Dr. Elawady, just listening to Dr. Rucker, what or who was the brainchild behind the Wall of Wind, the category five Wall of Wind?

He just talked about several hurricanes, can you tell us?

- [Amal] Yeah, the Wall of Wind was actually built as a result of the legacy of Hurricane Andrew, which devastated south Florida in 1992.

So we are actually now on the 30 years anniversary of that hurricane, Hurricane Andrew, this year.

So in 1996, like four years after Andrew, when the International Hurricane Research Center was established at Florida International University, which is the house of the Wall of Wind facility, the Wall of Wind was created in 2005.

But at that time it was initially equipped with only two small fans.

And then in 2007, those two fans were developed to be six fans, to produce more powerful storm, until it was redesigned and reconstructed in its current setup a 12 fans, the 12 giant fans, I would say, in 2012.

So the Wall of Wind in its current setup was built like 10 years ago.

- Awesome, and Dr. Rucker, hearing that, I know that you have a question now for Dr. Elawady.

- Yes, Dr. Elawady, when you built this, was it designed to test structures, or actually the impact of flying debris, or a combination of several things?

- [Amal] It's a combination, so currently we can test wind, first of all, we can characterize the wind flow, right, just without any impact on the structure.

And then we can build different structure models, like buildings, low-rise, high-rise buildings, transmission lines, different building envelopes, like curtain walls, different transportation infrastructures that we can test at the Wall of Wind at the larger scale and full scale.

So those we can test and also with our rain simulations, we can also test when the driven rain, which is a very powerful rain that happens and impacts the envelope of our structures during hurricanes, those we can simulate.

And because of the setup of the facility, we have an open field that would allow us also to test the structures until failure.

And this is important because there we can observe how the structure would fail, how the failure mode is forming.

And then we can learn based on these failure modes, and progressive failures and cascading failures, there we can know more about the structural response and better be prepared for the next storm by hopefully modifying the current codes and standards.

- Wonderful, now Jason, back to you.

Chilling reality, we cannot focus solely on the category of a storm.

Why don't you expand on that?

- It goes back to the water, right.

The water leading the fatality stats.

The category can only speak to the wind, as far as the impact of the wind.

And we can see that that is very powerful, but it doesn't give you the full scope and reality of what the water can do.

A large category two hurricane like Sally, we saw what the impacts of Sally was to our area.

- We sure did.

- It doesn't have to take a major hurricane, category three category four, category five.

I always tell people if a category one sits on you for two days and produces 40 inches of rain, it's a problem.

And so we have to treat each storm uniquely, with its own threats, its own forecast, and be mindful of that in future preparations.

- All right, now Dr. Rucker, as an educator, and I know you've been through many natural disasters, but on that personal level, dealing with students, how do they cope or how have they coped?

- I think the biggest problem for students is lack of technology afterwards.

When the electricity goes and when the air conditioner goes, when the wifi internet goes, it's gone back to the middle ages.

And I remember during Ivan, we lost power for about a week or so.

And all the people in the neighborhood would gather on the porches and talk about things.

And I remember like a week later, the power came on and we all went inside and never saw each other again.

So there's something about it does bring community together.

And I think that if people could understand that you can have reliance on your neighbors and be there for other people, you're all in it together.

We're all in it together.

- We absolutely are.

Dr. Elawady, back to you.

You are such a busy person.

So we know you already have the category five simulator, but we have a category six on the horizon.

Why don't you spill the beans on that?

Tell us more about that.

- [Amal] Yeah, well, so first of all, we learned a lot from our current Wall of Wind, the current hurricane simulator.

And we gained a lot of knowledge through testing and was able even to enhance the current building code and standards.

However, the nature is changing, the nature of the storm is changing.

And to be ahead of the game, we need to be prepared for the future storms.

We've seen bigger and more intense storms that are heavier in rains and sometimes they are rapidly intensifying, giving us like less time to prepare for evacuations, for example.

So this storm hits with more intense winds, with more storm surge, flooding, and debris.

And this is the reason why we are working with other eight universities to design a new facility to test construction and different structure types.

Again, it's up to 200 mile per hour wind, but this time, instead of just testing against wind we will combine it with a water basin.

So basically we will test against wind, flood, and storm surge.

And to do that, we will assess the impact of strong and rapidly intensifying storms and their impacts on structures.

As I said, the wind can be up to 200 mile per hour, which is much higher than cat five, which is right now at 160, the storm surge is up to like 20 feet plus weight.

And also then the new facility, I should say, that it will also enable testing other type of storms, such as tornadoes, and thunderstorms, and other events.

- So how much further along will it take, will it be years, before the cat six simulator is completed?

- [Amal] Well, we are currently in the design phase of this new facility.

So we recently received a support, funding support, from the National Science Foundation to support this effort.

And the design phase is expected to extend until 2026.

Once the design is complete, then we can think about other source of funding or maybe NSF would be interested to fund the actual facility of this wind and rain facility.

- Amazing.

All right, Jason, very important to stay updated on potential tropical threats.

We can't take anything lightly, can we?

- No, and we have to stay constantly informed.

As Dr. Elawady pointed out, rapidly intensifying hurricanes.

As Dr. Rucker mentioned, the Florida Keys hurricane, 1935, Andrew, Michael, category five hurricanes, they were all tropical storms 72 hours prior to landfall and all rapidly intensified prior to landfall.

So you really have to stay up to date on the forecast and the latest information.

Don't take a look at one forecast and think you're safe and then something changes, and all of a sudden you've gotta scramble to be prepared.

You have to constantly stay up to date for these storms.

- This has been such an enlightening segment.

I know I've learned a lot and thanks to all of us, you for being here and Dr. Elawady, we want to thank you, as well.

We appreciate all of your input and we are so excited about your research.

Now, as we head to break, to find out more about Florida International University's Wall of Wind, log onto the website that you see on your screen.

We'll be back right after this.

(dramatic music) Hello, everyone.

During this segment, we're focusing on Escambia County.

It's a pleasure to welcome Travis Tompkins, Escambia County emergency manager.

He's joined by Kyle Kinser, director of protection services for Escambia County Public Schools.

Now, Kyle, I understand that you and Travis are good friends.

One thing some people may not realize is how our schools come into play during a natural disaster.

Why don't you elaborate?

- So, with Escambia County School District, our number-one concern is always in making sure that our staff and our students are as safe as humanly possible, which is a challenge day to day.

So working with Travis, Travis keeps us up to date on any incident in the community, whether that's weather that's gonna impact whether students and staff can come to school.

And so it's a great relationship that Travis and I have had.

We've known each other for years and it is just having that resource of the county and having that person that you can pick up the phone and call and say, hey, what do you think, it's a great resource to bounce off of.

So, with the school district specifically, though, our mission is obviously to educate students.

But what we have to keep in mind is that we can't educate students if they're not in a safe environment.

And so what we do is by working with Travis is we wanna make sure when there's a storm approaching that our facilities are safe, they're prepared.

And so that way, when the storm has passed, the students and the community can come back together and get back to normalcy.

And until schools are back in session, there is no normalcy in the community.

- I understand that and a million dollar question, when to close schools, and I know you get that question all the time, but tell us really what goes into it as far as thought process.

- It's a huge process.

We don't want our staff, we don't want our students, we don't want our families, especially on the road.

Our schools are some of the safest places.

We use them as hurricane shelters, but that traveling to school and leaving school every day, some of the most vulnerable times that we have.

And so we obviously we work with Travis.

Those are some late nights, some sleepless nights, being in contact and making those decisions is not light, it is not something we take lightly.

We constantly are monitoring that, not just with Travis, but also with Jason with the National Weather Service.

The community should feel assured that there is someone watching the weather and that we are constantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, prepared to react.

- Exactly, we'll get back to you in just a moment.

Now, Travis, there are some crucial things that we should never forget.

We should know our zone.

We should know our home.

And we should also know our plan.

Why don't you break those three parameters down for us, please?

- Sure, so any disaster preparedness discussion that we have, those are the three things that we want to make sure that we always hit upon.

That know your zone, that know your zone is whether or not you are located in a storm surge zone area.

As Jason Beaman had said earlier in your segment, the storm surge is the number-one killer during a hurricane.

Everybody thinks about the wind, but that storm surge, it's so important to understand what that is.

And so we have a tool on our website at myescambia.com/beready.

If you scroll down just a little bit, there's a big icon that says know your zone.

If you click on that, you can put in your address and that will show you whether or not you're in a storm surge zone area in Escambia County.

It's very, very important to know if you're in that storm surge, because if we call for an evacuation, it's because of a potential storm surge.

So evacuations, we go by the category of the storm.

And we always make sure that we call for those evacuations depending on whatever zone that looks like that that storm surge is going to impact.

- [Rameca] Then we think about our homes, right?

- That's exactly right.

And so your home, so first and foremost, if you're in that storm surge zone, you need to evacuate, period.

But if you're out outside of that zone, for keeping your house protected, to understand your home, was it built before 2002, the building codes changed in Florida in 2002.

And so there were several retrofit programs that came about after Hurricane Ivan, So making sure that gables are secured properly to the building structure.

But one of the things that are so easy to do is making sure that you have storm shutters of some kind.

Storm shutters are something that everybody can do that can very much benefit their home.

If you can't get storm shutters, marine-grade plywood is another resource that you can use.

So what happens is, if you don't do that, if that wind, or if something busts through that window, that air pressure can start to raise the roof.

And that's what causes people to lose their roofs.

The other thing is don't tape your windows, that has absolutely no effect whatsoever.

We don't see that as much anymore thankfully.

I think that message has started to get out, but it doesn't, it has no effect whatsoever.

And then knowing your plan.

So what are you going to do?

Now, number one, as I have to reiterate, if you're in a storm surge, evacuate.

Of we call for an evacuation, that's very serious.

We don't ever do that lightly.

The knowing your plan is if I'm going to stay in my home, and that's what we prefer people to do, we want to make sure that you have enough food and water for at least a week.

So that means a gallon of water per person, enough food to get you and your family through a week.

We used to say the first 72 is on you, but in a large storm it could take longer than that.

And so we wanna make sure that everybody has batteries.

Have a plan, be prepared to ride out that storm and understand that things could be uncomfortable and difficult for a while.

Making sure that you fill up your tank before that storm because all the gas stations are gonna run out out of gas or they're not going to have power necessarily.

Be prepared to be able to see receive weather alerts or anything of that nature.

We still have weather radios.

It's a low tech thing, but it still works really well.

So having that plan and understanding what it is that you're going to do.

You don't necessarily have to evacuate hundreds of miles.

You could just go tens of miles, making sure that you stay with maybe a family or friends or someone that is in a structure that you feel comfortable with.

- Salient points there, Travis.

Now, Kyle, a lot of people that wind up being displaced oftentimes shelter at schools.

But as you stated earlier, we know the many things that you do, principals can also serve as shelter administrators, also food service, why don't you elaborate on those things?

- So if you are a principal or assistant principal in Escambia County School District, you will be assigned to a hurricane shelter, that is a responsibility that you do and you understand that when you take on that role.

So not just our administrators, but our maintenance folks, we have on-call maintenance, janitorial staff, we have food service personnel.

So if you're getting a meal at one of our shelters, more than likely one of your school food service staff is who's providing that meal and cooking that meal.

So we are a critical piece of what we're doing and this isn't just normal hours.

We're working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and this staff, they stay in the shelter, they leave home and sometimes make the community a priority before they can make their own family a priority.

So that's really important.

And I think the community should know that the district is there to support the community in these times of need.

- I think it's wonderful that there are so many partnerships with other agencies, The Red Cross, the police, talk about what they do in Escambia County.

- So we have a great partnership with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, Pensacola Police Department, they are there to help keep us safe in the event.

You think back to Hurricane Sally, they were making rescues, high water rescues, they were delivering those folks to shelters that were manned by our school principals, receiving meals that were cooked by our food service staff.

Keeping and having, after you've went through this traumatic event sometimes, having that sheriff's car or that police department car out there, it just gives you a sense of security.

And that's something that we really appreciate and not just for shelters, but also every day in the Escambia County School District, those folks are keeping us safe every day and we greatly appreciate the partnership we have with them.

- We also appreciate you and everything you do, all right, Kyle.

So we need to know our specific evacuation zones in the county.

We have A through E, will you talk a little bit about those zones, please?

- Sure, so let's go off of an example.

Hurricane Sally was a category two storm.

So we called for an evacuation of all of the barrier islands And so, like a Hurricane Michael in Bay County, that was a category five storm, so that would've been a evacuation zone E because they were getting storm surge up to potentially 20 feet.

So a category S is a storm surge up to seven feet.

And then you go through those different categories and a category E, up to 20 feet of storm surge potential.

So that's how we judge those evacuation levels.

- Now I see you have something right there, please hold up the disaster guide.

Let's take a good look at that and talk about that because honestly, there's so many things that we need to have to prepare, and we think about medications and oftentimes the elderly, correct?

- That's correct.

- List a few other factors that we need to take in mind when it comes to this disaster guide.

- So there's anything and everything.

This disaster guide covers most all hazards that could potentially impact Escambia County.

It also has very good checklists.

It's got information about how to prepare for a storm, how to sign up for alerts.

That's a key part of what we want to make sure, if people are getting that storm information, and there's an easy way to connect to our alert system.

There's a ton of information that's in this guide, but it's also on our website, as well.

And I know that you'll be highlighting that - We sure will.

- In your show later on.

Everything that's in the guide is also on our website, and so keep that in mind, as well.

But this is a great resource.

It's free to anybody in the county.

And all you have to go to do is come up to 6575 North W Street, that's the public safety facility, and we'll give you a guide.

- That's wonderful.

Kyle, we mentioned Dr. Rucker in segment number one as he talked about his students, education is essential.

So in Escambia County, preparing our youngsters, making sure that they don't take natural disasters lightly, will you tell us what the school district is doing in that respect?

- Absolutely, obviously we're dealing with a huge age gap From kindergarten to 12th grade.

So we have developed age-appropriate materials.

My daughter, going into fifth grade, how many times do our kids actually come home and tell us what we should be doing?

When you go out to the beach, you know the color codes of the flags, because guess what, not because I learned it, because my daughter told me.

Those are interesting things that we try to pass on to our students, which inherently they go home and take home to their parents.

- And I know that you probably have an interesting story.

Maybe why don't you share one with us from the school district or your experiences in the job that you have?

- Well, every day is a challenge.

Every day we are wearing, no different than Travis, man, many hats.

One of the biggest challenges that I experience is definitely when we start getting that inclement weather coming into the area and you have a lot of uneasiness, a lot of parents get concerned, should I, should I not?

Something that I'd like to remind parents is that, ultimately, if you don't feel safe sending your students to school, they're your children, you can make that decision.

You can say, hey, we don't have to send our children to school that day.

Some things that I also remind parents is that maybe this is the day we use the car rider line.

We don't leave them out at the bus stop.

So something I'm always pushing, several of our different department heads always wanna push is making sure you keep your parent information up to date, having a correct phone number, so that way you're receiving those phone calls that we are or we are not having school.

So many times we get parents saying, hey, I didn't get the message.

You can go on the school district website, you can go on our social media pages, and by keeping that phone number up to date, you're also gonna receive those automatic phone calls.

Keeping your information up to date, making sure that you understand that you do have responsibility for your students and we respect that.

We want a parent to make that decision when it's appropriate.

- I must say, gentlemen, great advice.

I know I have learned a lot, thank you so much, Folks, stay right there, we're going to be back in just a moment.

(dramatic music) Hello everyone, during this segment, we're shifting our focus to Santa Rosa and Okaloosa Counties.

I'm happy to welcome Tom Lloyd, public safety director for Santa Rosa County.

He's joined by Patrick Maddox, director of the department of public safety in Okaloosa County.

Welcome to both of you.

Very happy to have you here.

Patrick, I'm going to start with you.

Can you tell us what data on previous engagements is, or the acronym DOPE?

- Sure, sure, and we get a lot of mileage out of that acronym saying we're gonna talk about DOPE now and tell people, hey, relax it's not what you think it is.

So data on previous engagements in the special operations world is kind of how we ask people to think about, does your property behave under similar circumstances in similar conditions if all things were equal?

So we ask people, keep an eye during the year on how your property reacts to 10 inches of rain, 12 inches of rain, or an 80 mile an hour windload that you might get in a thunderstorm.

And then you can apply that data moving forward when we give you the expectations of local impacts from other storms.

So if we tell you you're going to receive eight or 10 inches of rain, you already know and kind of realize how your property will behave under those circumstances.

- Really like that.

An interesting factoid, and you and I have discussed this, most of your preparation rehearsals should take place when we have blue skies, right?

- Correct, so we talk about blue skies, gray skies, and black skies.

And blue skies are your normal operating conditions when your heart rate is under 110, and you're walking around with a smile on your face, and things are normal.

Gray skies is during threat detection when you begin your preparation process, most people.

And then black skies, of course, is when you're in the thick of it, responding to the crisis.

And what we want people to realize is that the most benefit you get from preparing during blue skies is that you have the opportunity to think when crisis is not imminent.

So you won't be forced under stress conditions to try to prepare when the storm is breathing down your neck.

- So by preparing during blue skies, let's say you're at the beach, you see the beautiful waves, everything is calm.

What are some of the things that we would do to prepare during those blue skies?

- Absolutely, so when we talk about that we want people to actually rehearse their plan with their family.

So it's more than just rereading your plan from the previous year, actually walk the plan through with your family in your home, in your particular geography.

Just because you didn't have construction on your main ingress and egress routes last year doesn't mean this year isn't different.

So with a county like Okaloosa, where we have expansive growth, that means that there's gonna be construction in different places.

Or you may have a family member that has a different challenge this year than they did last year.

So actually rehearse, you might have younger folks or folks who are older who might become stressed during those times when people begin to move quickly.

So if you walk through those plans early, it takes that stress inoculation component through and kind of allows everybody to think more clearly.

- Wonderful, okay Tom.

Alert, Santa Rosa, I have it, I love it.

Please talk about that.

- So we encourage, the tri counties actually have it, Okaloosa, Escambia, and Santa Rosa, I'll talk to our alert Santa Rosa program that we have.

So what you'll do is you can sign up on our emergency management website, so www.santarosa.fl.gov/emergency.

And you'll sign up for this program that's called alert Santa Rosa.

Now there's several different things that you can select to be alerted for, even though one of them automatically is populated as thunderstorms.

Well, in Florida, what do we have every afternoon, thunderstorms.

So if you want to deselect that, that's perfectly fine for you to do.

But this program is designed for us, as emergency management staff, public safety staff, to be able to send a critical alert to your cell phone.

Every person has their cell phone on them, or the majority of people have their cell phone on them all the time.

And that allows us to be able to send a critical alert to you if there's a life safety risk, if there's imminent weather, some type of imminent threat to an area, not just the entire county, we can geospace, geofence certain areas, depending on conditions and situations.

- Let's segue into something I see right there on the desk, disaster preparedness guide.

Why don't you hold it up for us if you don't mind?

- So we, again, the tri counties have these, this one is Santa Rosa's, so this is our disaster guide.

And inside of this guide, we have different ways for you to prepare your family, your pets, and even your neighbors to make sure that your community is safe and prepared, not just for hurricane.

When people say emergency management, a lot of people just think hurricane, but we're actually, all of the counties, we're all hazard based emergency management and public safety organizations.

So if you've noticed the past several years, we've had floods, we've had wildfires, we've had hurricanes, we've had any number of different disasters.

And that's the approach that we all take with preparedness, this all hazards approach.

So inside these disaster guides are just short, little snippet, little tips, golden nuggets, if you will, silver bullets on how you prepare for whatever disaster may be at hand.

And then if you don't have a disaster guide, again, we've worked through getting these little, basically their little postcards, little handouts that have a QR code on it.

So all you do is scan that with your smartphone and it gives you a digital copy of our disaster guide.

- Love that.

Okay, Patrick, we need to have annual hurricane plans, right, not just fly by night, let's throw stuff together.

Why is that so important?

- Because things change from year to year.

Like I mentioned before, sometimes you might have some challenges that perk up midyear, maybe with a family member, maybe there's a mobility challenge or some other type of physical challenge where now you have to figure out your timeline and rework it based on that new challenge for this year.

Or you may have additional family members, let's say mom and dad, or grandma and grandpa move in and now you have a mobility challenge that you have to work for and it might slow you down in loading a car.

Or you might have to have different changes in medication needs for extended periods of time.

And all those things need to be worked into your plan early so that you can renew it, review it, and make sure you can prepare for it before the storm hits.

- Very good.

All right, so Tom, transportation issues.

Hurricane Sally, of course we know, and can you tell us what happened in Santa Rosa County?

- Sure, what I do wanna touch on very quickly is have a plan.

Make sure that your plan is in place ahead of time, whether it's transportation or whether, like Patrick said, it's medications, things are ever evolving, they're always changing, and that plan has to change every year.

So as far as transportation issue goes, the tri county area, Escambia, Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa, we only have so many roads, so many large arteries that can get you away from the coast.

When it comes to evacuations, we want you to evacuate tens of miles, not hundreds or thousands of miles away, because eventually you want to be able to get back when it's safe to do so.

But plan your evacuation ahead of time, know where you're going to go, if you're gonna stay with family, if you're gonna stay at a hotel.

A lot of times, those hotels and different areas like that, even rest areas will fill up quickly and the last place that we want you to do is seek shelter in a rest area, and then you become almost part of the problem in certain situations.

- Understandably.

And what about the evacuation zones?

Can you elaborate on that for us?

- Yeah, so we want you to know your zone.

I'm sure as you heard Travis with Escambia County talk about, you want to know your zone.

So you can find your zone on our website and that's santarosa.fl.gov/emergency, as well as in our disaster guides.

Pay attention to the zones, pay attention to the tides that are predicted.

So again, very close relationship with National Weather Service in Mobile, they do their very best to make sure that they give accurate predictions for us to be able to make our decisions on when or should someone evacuate.

- All right, okay.

Patrick, sometimes people get target locked into the categories of storms, we heard about that in a previous segment.

Why is that detrimental?

- And I'm gonna throw a plug to the very wise Jason Beaman on this one.

One of his favorite sayings is that the greatest killer of future hurricanes is past hurricanes.

And what that means is that people feel like they've survived or sheltered in place during a category three storm and come out okay, so there's no way they would leave for a tropical storm.

But unfortunately we have tropical storms like Allison in 2001, which impacted the port of Houston, Texas, very slow moving, a large storm, which dumped 37 inches of rain, $5 billion worth of damage, which is about 8.25 billion today.

So you can't get stuck on what is the category of the storm.

What you need to get stuck on and listen to your local authorities is what are the projected local impacts.

Don't get stuck on it's only a cat one, it's only a cat two, what actual local impacts are predicted for our area.

- All right, Tom, citizen damage reports.

And I like what Santa Rosa County is doing.

Will you explain, please?

- So what we've done is basically reached out to our community and we want them to be almost a force multiplier.

So, you know your home, you know your property.

And when you experience damage, we ask that you basically do your own damage assessment and our crews will come out and do damage assessments appropriately.

But basically you take a picture or a video, and then you submit it through damage assessment and it almost gives us a snapshot, well, it does give us a snapshot of the heaviest damaged areas so that we can make sure that our assessment teams and assessment crews get out to those first so that we can get our community back to the way that it was.

- And I like the fact that you mentioned taking pictures.

And I know you may have run across stories where a person called 911, instead of filling out the form.

Have you ever run into any situations like that?

- So we have.

As with all the counties, we want to encourage you to use 911 when there's a life safety risk at hand.

If it is for damage assessment or reporting something that is non-life threatening, we want you to call our citizen information line, which is 983-INFO for Santa Rosa County.

- You two have been such a wealth of information, thank you for taking time out to join us on the show.

Appreciate you so much.

All right, folks, we still have more to come and we can't forget our fur babies.

We'll explore this further right after the break.

(dramatic music) Hello everyone, during this segment we're focusing on pets, including what we should refrain from doing if we experience damage from a natural disaster.

It's a pleasure to welcome Michelle Thorson, community development and public relations officer for the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society.

She's joined by Ginny Craynor, fire chief for the Pensacola Fire Department.

Ginny, let's start with you, love your infectious smile, I really do.

We're excited to have you because, honestly, oftentimes during natural disasters, people may tend to be a little cavalier.

- They are, and the number one thing, even in severe weather, particularly if there's any kind of a tropical storm or a hurricane, the number one thing we don't want people to do is to leave the house after the storm just to look around.

Driving around is a terrible idea.

If we have severe impacts in our area, the first thing first responders are gonna do is do damage assessments and surveys.

And if there are trees down, we are going to be out trying to remove the trees from those main roads to get to hospitals and nursing homes and critical areas of the community.

So if you're out looking around, it contributes to some of the danger for first responders also.

- [Rameca] And it also reminds me of things like downed power lines, and as you mentioned, we must always be prepared, but even before natural disaster, what are some things that people should be cognizant of in their homes, safety precautions?

- Well be aware of where your breaker panel is in your home.

If you have gas utilities, be aware of how to turn those off, not only at the appliance, but perhaps outside your home, too.

And if we're going to have power out for a very long time, whenever power returns to the community, there can be a surge in your home, depending on your power.

It's always best to turn off the power at your breakers so that there's not a large surge that could impact your home and possibly overheat and cause a fire.

- Absolutely.

All right, Michelle, I see you have some fur babies.

Why don't you introduce them?

- Yes, thank you for having us.

So this is Google, oh, perfect timing, this is Marley, as well.

so these are my two fur babies, and yeah, they wanted to come out and join the show.

- I know, they wanted to meet us.

But here's the interesting thing, Michelle.

So we must have disaster plans for our pets.

We think about food and medications, are there any other things that we need to make sure that we have for our fur babies?

- I mean, yeah, so as was reiterated in the past, making sure that you do have a plan for both you and your pets.

So things to think about, where can you go in the need of an evacuation.

So identifying evacuation shelters that are pet friendly or reaching out to friends and family members early to identify if they can be a resource for you and your pets.

And then using myself, as an example.

So for me, Marley and Googs, I wanna make sure that I have kind of a go bag for them.

So I want to have that food ready for them.

We suggest using canned food, so it's non-perishable, also wanting to make sure that you have all of their medical records and of course that they are up to date on all their vaccines.

And also proper identification is so needed, now they're gonna be playing around.

Proper identification is so needed.

So having an identifier on their collars or on their carriers with their name, your name, and contact information.

And beyond that, we really, really suggest that you microchip your pets.

So microchipping, it's small, about the size of a grain of rice and it's implanted in their shoulder blades.

So it holds their information.

And in the case that your pet may get lost and their collars may fall off, that way we're able to scan that microchip and have your contact information and can give y'all a call if you have lost your pet so you can get reconnected.

- So here's another thing, fear of the unknown.

And I know Google's roaming around the studio and Marley's having an awesome time, but sometimes if a pet has to go to a shelter that may be a little traumatizing.

How can they cope with that?

- And so with that, too, so that's also important, if they have any medications and I say that because Marley is my anxious boy.

And so he does have anti-anxiety medications that I already have ready in his go bag.

Also having comforting items for them, maybe their favorite toys or a blanket that smells like home, having a carrier or a popup kennel for them so they can feel comforted if they are in that shelter environment, and an extra blanket to put over the top, 'cause they're natural burrowers and that will make them feel a little bit more comfortable.

- That sounds wonderful.

So Ginny, let's talk about rescues.

Water, land, and fires, why don't you go through those three, water, land, and fires?

- Well particularly a recent example would be Hurricane Sally that you've talked about.

We had several rescues from people's homes with our rescue crews and with assistance from the National Guard, getting into areas where people were trapped in their homes in high water and removing them.

We definitely want you to know your zone, just like so many people have mentioned, but also be able to get someplace that's a little safer.

The problem with when the water starts to come and if there's also wind at about 39 miles per hour sustained winds, which is the beginning of a tropical storm, that's when emergency vehicles may not be able to respond.

And for those large aerial fire apparatus with the ladders on top, it could be even less than that.

So we may not be able to come and rescue you if you're in a situation where the wind is very high or you're in an area where it's difficult to get to because of the water, it may be delayed.

So we do want you to consider that evacuation zone very critically.

- They really are, and medical emergencies, oftentimes we'll see EMS, and then we'll see a fire truck.

Will you explain, so are there certain scenarios where you may show up in a medical emergency?

- [Ginny] Well our firefighters are everywhere in the community, in the whole Pensacola and Escambia County community, there's more fire stations than there are ambulances.

So the fire department will get there and provide that critical initial lifesaving care while they wait on an ambulance to arrive and advance that care and transport someone to the hospital.

So, often a fire apparatus will be there with trained medical responders waiting on the ambulance to get there in the community.

- All right, Michelle, back to you.

Let's say you have an indoor-outdoor pet, we're in the midst of a natural disaster, They're scratching on the window pane wanting to go outside, what do you do?

- Absolutely not, they stay inside.

- [Rameca] They stay inside and why is that the best advice?

- It's just for their safety.

And that way you can ensure that you can keep an eye on them.

There's gonna be a lot of things going around outside they are gonna get spooked, they might run further than you're able to get them back from.

And of course just keeping them safe because there's a lot of dangers if they are outside.

So definitely keeping them indoors.

We also do suggest, don't chain your animal.

Actually, you don't wanna kennel them either.

Because in a case that there might be some damages to the structure, they also need to have a way to escape.

They still are animals and so they do have natural survival instincts.

But keeping them safe indoors with you, just don't chain 'em up, don't put them in kennels.

- [Rameca] So I know our viewers are curious, tell us more about the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society and all the services.

- Yeah, so PAWS, we are located in Fort Walton Beach off of Lovejoy Road in Doolittle area.

And so we are a resource for the community, for education, pet sheltering.

We offer low cost clinics, as well, which you can't also get vaccinations and microchipping there.

And we take animals in.

We focus on the abandoned, abused, and neglected pets and we give them a second chance and find them their next forever home.

- Forever home, don't you love the sound of that, Ginny.

It's amazing.

So I would like to know more about your responsibilities.

You are a person who definitely wears a lot of hats.

You're the city's emergency management coordinator.

You work collaboratively with numerous agencies.

Please tell us more.

- Yes, so as the city of Pensacola is a municipality inside of Escambia county, so Travis Tompkins is our emergency manager and I coordinate the city's services with the government of Escambia county.

So we work collaboratively all the time together.

- And what about the local law enforcement authorities, especially during a natural disaster.

I know that so many hands in the pot, but you work so well together.

That's the beauty of it all.

- We do, we work with all of our public safety partners, with Pensacola Police Department, and of course the Escambia Sheriff's Department and then the other counties, as well, we work together.

And whenever there's a large storm, I love the Connecting the Community and the in unity part.

- Ah, appreciate that.

- Because we are really, we rally together as a community when there's a storm like this.

And we all come together to provide mutual aid, if necessary, we sent teams to Bay County for Hurricane Michael and they've sent teams here to help before.

So we really are ready at a moment's notice to help each other.

- Love that.

Michelle, after a natural disaster, you probably come across numerous stranded animals that need forever homes, is that prevalent?

Is that really a big problem?

- Absolutely, I mean, even after some of the thunderstorms that we've been seeing the past couple weeks and the Fourth of July, those loud noises that can spook these pets.

- Fireworks.

- Exactly.

So we see a lot of stray or abandoned pets that do come to us, our biggest goal is to get them reconnected with their owners, and that's why it's so important to microchip and have IDs on them.

But if we aren't able to do so, or if they may not have an owner, that's where we come in and we work with our community members to showcase their personalities and how great they are and get the best home for them.

- Do you seek volunteers?

- Absolutely.

We are always in need of volunteers and foster homes, as well, especially after these big storms.

We only have so much available space.

So you can offer a temporary home for a pet and we give you all of the supplies.

We give you the food, kennel, everything that you need.

And honestly, it's such a huge help, especially when we have so many additional animals that are in our shelter.

- Now, if someone wants to become a volunteer, is it an intrinsic process, is it an easy process?

- We make it as easy as possible.

So you can visit our website, it's paws-shelter.org, you just sign up for a volunteer orientation and that orientation is one-on-one.

So we'll touch base with you, see where you wanna help us out.

Do you prefer to help with the cats, with the dogs?

We also have administrative duties.

And so we'll train with you and make sure that you are completely set and comfortable.

And we always remain a resource afterwards and the same thing with the foster program.

- So Ginny, your best advice for our viewers out there.

And you've shared so much pertinent information, but every now and then we have someone that wants to catch a wave or just wants to go out, what would you tell that individual having heard everything that we have discussed in this show?

- I would tell them to be extra careful and extra cautious.

When they have the double red flags out at the beaches, we have to be super careful.

And although some of our surfers are pros and they have a flotation device with them, it is still very dangerous and inspires, perhaps, some that aren't as well trained to get out there and do something dangerous.

So, just take a minute and be really careful.

- Not worth the risk, right, Michelle?

- Exactly.

- And what do Google and Marley have to say about that?

- They say that they are my rescue babies, so just throwing that out there, always adopt, don't shop.

- Oh, I love that, always adopt, don't shop.

I'll have to use that sometime.

Ladies, it has been such a pleasure having both of you on the show, such spectacular women.

All right, everyone.

I want to thank all of our guests for joining us.

I'm Rameca Vincent Leary, remember keep it locked in right here on WSRE, PBS for the Gulf Coast.

(dramatic music)