BIFAS has a disaster website where they have a lot of great resources on there. In addition, the Florida EDEN website, which stands for Extension Disaster Education Network, has a lot of great resources. Both of these resources not only cover natural disasters, but they cover different types of disasters, including technological and biological disasters as well. Portable generators are handy and affordable. They keep your power humming. However, there are some downsides. Generators give off carbon monoxide gas, or CO. It causes illness, even death. You can't see, smell, or taste CO, so add safety. Put your generator 20 feet or more away from your home. Add safety. Prevent fires and power surges. Use outdoor power cords. Match cords amps to generator outlets amps. Add safety. Install battery-operated CO detectors in your home. Add up safety. Keep everything and everyone humming. Learn more at floridahealth.gov. Welcome to Living with Wildlife. Floridians understand the importance of being prepared for hurricane season and know how storms can impact a community, including wildlife. Here are some tips to help wildlife and avoid conflicts after a storm. Human health and safety come first. Never endanger yourself to help wildlife. Piles of branches or building materials make attractive hiding places for wildlife. Use caution when burning brush or removing debris to ensure you don't have an unexpected and unwelcome encounter. Make temporary repairs to your home to prevent wildlife from entering. When possible, secure attractants like garbage and spoiled food. Wild animals, including coyotes and bears, will linger in areas where they can easily find food. As always, watch your pets closely to prevent negative wildlife encounters. If you experience conflicts with wildlife, contact your regional FWC office. Living with Wildlife is a service of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, managing fish and wildlife resources for their long-term well-being and the benefit of people. More at myfwc.com. Hurricane season is underway. Are you ready? Here and now, reporter Joanne Magley has more on how to prepare, even on a budget. Broadcasters are predicting below-average activity this hurricane season, with 8 to 12 storms forming in the Atlantic. Last year, there were 20. And while a below-average season is good news, emergency management officials are advising residents to be prepared. The best example of an El Nino year small season was in 1992. There were 7 storms, and Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida, and has still to this day remains the number 2 most costly disaster that we've had. So all it takes is 1 to ruin your day. And so whether they're forecasting 20 or they're forecasting 5, we have to go through the same drill of making sure that our families are prepared. Charlie Craig is the director of emergency management for Volusia County. He and his staff make sure the county is prepared to respond to and recover from emergencies. He's urging everyone to have a plan. And when we say a plan, what we're saying is know if you need to leave, know what kind of terrain you're on, if you're in a low-line or a flood-prone area, or if you're in a manufactured home, or you're in a home that you just would not feel safe in, in strong winds, then you need to know where you're going to go. Are you going to go to friends or relatives? Are you going to go to a hotel? Are you going to take advantage of public shelter? What is your plan? And then part of that plan should be notifying relatives, telling people where you're going to go, so that they understand, if they try to get a hold of you, how they can do so. Part of your plan includes creating a disaster kit. One of the most important supplies in a disaster kit is a weather radio. That way, when the power goes out, you can stay informed of the weather. When it comes to water and food, Craig says plan on stocking up for five to seven days. One of the reasons that we have encouraged people to be self-sustaining for five to seven days is that we've been through about four years of recession. And these recessionary times have resulted in a shrinking, if you will, of government services. It doesn't mean we're any less prepared, and it doesn't mean we haven't continued to train every year, but what it means is we don't have the numbers of people, and we don't have the assets that we had a number of years ago. When it comes to drinking water, you should have one gallon of water per person per day and half a gallon per pet per day. For a family of five with a dog, that adds up to 27.5 gallons of water for a five-day supply. To save money, instead of buying gallons of water, you can make your own water bottles by either purchasing food-grade containers or coolers, or by reusing two-liter soda bottles. If the tap water has been commercially treated from a water utility with chlorine, you do not need to add anything else to the water to keep it clean. If you're using well water or water from a source that is not treated with chlorine, add two drops of non-scented liquid household chlorine bleach to the water, and then tightly close the container using the original cap. When it comes to stocking up on non-perishable foods, proteins such as tuna or peanut butter are essential, along with canned beans, snack bars, cereals, and shelf-stable milk. Don't forget the batteries or things such as hurricane shutters or plywood to protect the windows and tarps for use after the storm. And you don't need to buy the items for your kit all at once. Make a few extra purchases during regular grocery shopping. One thing you definitely can't afford is to not be ready. For Volusia Here Now, I'm Joanne Magley. Volusia County's Emergency Management Division offers a number of ways people can be notified in case of an emergency. The newest being through social media outlets, Facebook, and Twitter, and you can also be notified by email or telephone. To sign up, just go to volusia.org slash emergency and click on Emergency Alerts. Welcome to Solutions for Your Life. I'm Patrick Zays. And as you can see, it's that time of year again when storms are occurring every day, and that can even include hurricanes. So what do you do if you don't have power and you don't even have a grill? Well, you're in luck, because today I have a few tips that I'm going to share with you. Without power, well, you don't have a stove, you don't have a microwave, and you certainly don't have a fridge. Well, relax, because I'm here to share with you on how you can make a nice meal at home even without these amenities. For instance, we're going to start with a quick black bean salsa, and all that's going to take is a can of black beans, a can of corn, and a jar of salsa. What we're going to do is we're going to drain our black beans and corn. We're going to mix it into our bowl. Open up our can of salsa, pour the whole can right on top, and give it a good mix. I'm sure your family loves salsa. I know mine does. And when it comes to salsa, who doesn't love chips? Well, I do. So I'm going to go ahead and open up my bag of chips and take a bite. Choose a variety of items from each food group. When choosing foods for your family, consider foods that are nutritious, ready to eat, and do not need to be refrigerated or cooked. We want to make sure these foods are low in sodium, added sugars, and saturated fats. Don't forget about food safety. Once opened, many foods are no longer shelf stable. To reduce the risk of foodborne illness, eat these foods within two hours after opening. And make cleanup easy. In case water is not available for cleanup, stock up on hand sanitizer or sanitizing wipes, paper towels, disposable plates and cups, and of course, disposable forks, knives, and spoons. And make sure you have a manual can opener available. And of course, make sure they're foods that your family will enjoy and will meet their dietary needs. So what if your family isn't a fan of salsa, black beans, and chips? Well, you're in luck because I have another recipe for you, and it's packed with healthy fats. For this next recipe, I'm going to share with you a healthy trail mix. It's going to be really simple because you can have all these ingredients at home. We're going to go with three different types of cereals. We're going to include a square-type cereal with some whole grains. We're going to include a puff-type cereal with some whole grains. And even an O-type cereal, all whole grain. We want to choose variety because we want to have some different textures in there. Of course, who doesn't like sweet food? So we're going to add in some raisins to kind of sweeten it up a little bit. And then you want to get a little bit of crunch. So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to add in some pretzels. Like I mentioned, we want to make sure we're having some healthy fats for a good energy source. I'm going to go ahead and add in some mixed nuts. But you can use whatever nuts your family enjoys. So let's get started. I already have a half a cup right here of raisins. We're going to use a half a cup for everything just to keep it simple. I'm going to next move on to the cereal. Who doesn't love some O's? Try not to make a mess when you're making this at home. And even some puffs. I went with some no-salt-added pretzels. But choose what your family will enjoy so that way they're more likely to eat it at home. And of course, like I said, our mixed nuts just to finish it off and add in that healthy fat. Now go ahead and mix it up, add it to a few little plastic baggies, and have your family enjoy it. If you do happen to lose your power due to a hurricane or a severe storm, remember, always have three to four days' worth of food and a gallon of water per person for your family on hand at all times. With solutions for your life, I'm Patrick Zayas. This is Volusia Today, a public information radio program brought to you by the County of Volusia. Good morning, Volusia County. My name is Michael. And you are listening to Volusia Today, Volusia County's one and only trusted source for local news. Maggie, was that good? That was wonderful. I'm trying to be a little more brief on it. Yeah, a little spicy. I liked it, yeah. That was spicy. That was the most generic one I've ever had. Different, you know? Spicy. I am joined by my co-host, Maggie, this morning. Maggie, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Good, good. Big weekend plans? Not really. Nothing crazy happening. Just kind of hanging out at the house. Might do some wedding shopping, but other than that. No, shocker. Shocker. I know. Oh, my God. Wait, wait. First of all, we have two special guests in the audience that we're not going to talk to yet, but there's a running theme with our show, and it's Maggie's wedding. Maggie's getting married. I am. So, for two months, we've been trying to figure out where she's going to get married. Maggie, did you find a location? We do have a location, which is kind of exciting. I'm good for you. Location and date. Everything's kind of set up now. That has to be. And your location, of course, is in Volusia County? Of course. I would not go anywhere else. Anywhere else. We're getting married in New Smyrna, so we're excited. Good for you. That's got to be nice to kind of put that. But I have to tell you something funny. This morning, way early this morning, my wife and I are sitting in bed drinking our coffee, trying to wake up and stuff, and I hear this. She's on her phone, and I hear this voice. Oh, no. Yeah. You know where this is going to go, right? I know exactly where this is going. I hear this voice, and I'm like, I recognize that. It's like a little baby chicken. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, baby chicken, right? Super fast, super high-pitched. And I was like, I know that voice from somewhere. She's on her phone, on her Facebook feed, right? And she leans over, and she goes, Clint, she goes, do you even watch these videos before they go out? And I was like, oh, man. I'm like, it's way too early for this, right? Like, I've not even had a full cup of coffee yet. And I was like, no, maybe, sometimes. I didn't know what the right answer was. And she goes, is this Maggie? And she turns her phone. And I said, yeah, that's Maggie. And she goes, and I think the beating is about to come, right? Because I didn't watch the video. There's a mistake. Who knows, right? Because I get all those calls. And she turns around, and she goes, oh, my God, she's the cutest thing ever. Well, thank you. She's so funny. She's so cute. And blah, blah, blah, blah, Maggie. She's so great. She's as great as you said. I had to hear about Maggie for the next 20 minutes. Oh, wow. I feel honored. Wow. I'm going to talk about a conversation in Noah's house. Wow. So I guess the good news for you is I don't watch the videos before they go out. Well, that video, it's about turtle season. I don't know if you saw the one of me kind of coming out of the elevator. Bouncing down the hallway. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So fun. But turtle season is coming up. And so many people interacted with that video. And they found so much good content out of it, which was really cool. But turtle season, I didn't know that we had a marked time for turtle season. It's May 1st through October 31st. And there's so many rules and things that you have to follow to make sure that you're being safe for the turtles and making sure that they have a safe exit into the world and out into the ocean. I actually went yesterday, and I got to see some of the sea turtle nests. And there's some already on the beach. Yeah. It's really cool. I've never gotten to see the sea turtles in action because I'm not from around here originally. And so to actually see the sea turtle's nest, it was awesome to be able to see in person. But yeah, make sure that you're being safe out there on the beach. Keep your lights down. And don't build the sandcastles. Fill in your holes so that the sea turtles have a safe way to go. But it is awesome. I had some friends in town from Texas a long time ago. And we went paddle boarding during the day. And we saw a turtle. We saw a manatee, if I remember right. I love a manatee. And the little turtle pops his head up and goes back down. We go to the beach later that night, and we get to see a crawl. I've only seen a crawl like once. And I've been here 13, 14 years or something like that. I've seen it once, right? And it was amazing. And they were here for like two days. And they're like, oh, my God. They thought it was like Disney where I queued up all the animals. And the manatee showed up and the sea turtle showed up. Oh, yeah. It really is like awe-inspiring to watch them walk back into the ocean. Yeah, yeah. I'm excited to see it. I've never seen them walk. I've only ever seen the videos. So I'm excited to see it this year. Well, so speaking of the season, it is sea turtle season. That began May 1. Is that right? Yeah, May 1. It's also a different kind of season, which is probably actually, first of all, a great segue, Walt. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't even feel like coming. Another good segue is it's also a different season, Maggie. It's a good opportunity for us to introduce our guests today. May 1, June 1. Is it June 1, Clint? June 1. June 1. So May 1 is turtles. June 1 is hurricanes. They always come up at the same time. And so we are very honored today to have two special guests with us to talk about hurricane season. We have Clint Meacham. Meacham? Did I get there? Meacham? God, I knew I was going to do that. Let's see what I can do to Aubrey. Aubrey Austin? It's clear as day. Close enough. Wow. With Volusia County Emergency Management with us today. Thank you for joining us. Well, thanks for having us. We appreciate you guys being here early on a Friday. So you guys just kind of sit around for about nine months of the year, right? And don't do much of anything? Oh, gee, if that was only the case. Is that the case? Unfortunately, Mike, when we're not getting ready for hurricane season, there's actually a lot of other things that emergency management does year round. There are 17 different categories of disaster that we have to be ready for in the emergency management realm. And so when we're not getting ready for hurricane season or dealing with hurricane season, we have to deal with all of the others, whether they be other kinds of severe weather, whether they mean man-made events, terroristic events, fires, for example. So we're always living in that what-if world. So while hurricanes are our primary threat here in Volusia County, and we spend a lot of time and take those very seriously, we spend a lot of time in those other what-if worlds as well. We just recently completed an exercise with FEMA being here for a week in Volusia County, and we simulated a building collapse out in Daytona Beach Shores, for example. So we're always thinking about those potentials and possibilities, just in case they happen here in Volusia County. Clint, I know there's another simulation this week with, I think it was with EFDOT. Were you guys involved in that, I assume? Yes, we were. There was, in anticipation of the new SunRail line opening into land, one of the checkboxes that we have to do is to do a first responder exercise with SunRail. And so we did that exercise earlier this week. We had the Volusia County Sheriff was there, Volusia County Fire and Rescue, the Land Fire, lots of partners, EFDOT. And so we simulated an IED on board a train, and the first responders did their thing. And in emergency management, we're always in support. So we're always there to make sure that our first responders and our other partners have everything they need to deal with whatever's in front of them. And I tell you, let's dig into hurricanes a little bit later, maybe after the break. But let's talk a little bit more about your 17 different categories of design. I was just going to ask that. So in Florida, we do think about hurricanes a lot, obviously. And some of us, you know, there's an expo coming up I want to talk about too. But some of us get very, very prepared and buy all the, have our kit and have our evacuation plan and all that stuff. And some of us just buy a whole bunch of rum and like lock the doors, right? So that's true, it's true. So hurricanes, some of us are, you know, very cautious, and some of us are, you know, it's old hat for us, right? Sure. But we don't think a lot about all of those other disasters. We talk a lot about the wildfires from a couple years ago. But like you said, when we did the building simulation, the building collapse simulation, I've done a million of those, the simulations and stuff. That building collapse threw me for a loop several times on, oh, this is new to me. And what would I do here? And what would I do there? We as a team, we as an EOC and stuff. So it is important to go through those other disasters. It absolutely is. And we want to do that and get that experience and build that muscle memory under blue skies, as we call it, rather than waiting for an event to happen and then have to make it up as we go. So again, myself, my staff, and I do have an excellent staff in Volusia County Emergency Management working for our citizens and our visitors here. We spend pretty much every day that we're at work thinking about that what-if scenario, and regardless of what it is. So again, if it's flooding, if it's severe weather, if it's tornadoes, if it's a fire, if it's a terroristic event, whatever it might be, those are the things that we're always thinking about. And we're always trying to include our partners so we can have those aha moments like you had during the building collapse exercise, again, in a controlled learning environment rather than, oh, gee, we're doing it for real. Right, right. That's never a great time to learn. It's never a great time to learn something new. And I've been there. We always do, right? Of course you do. I've been there, and I've learned. I really probably cut my teeth on Hurricane Matthew. I did hurricanes prior to that and tornadoes and wildfires and all that stuff, but Matthew was probably the big first one for me. And so it was definitely a learning experience. And fortunately, some of the things that are out there as categories, we don't have to worry about too much. One of the ones that, coming from my former home in Utah, we had to worry about earthquakes a lot. Fortunately, we don't have to worry about earthquakes. So winter storms is another one that I hope we don't have to deal with. But severe weather, that's one that we do have to deal with. So those 17 categories, is that for all different emergency management systems? And then we only have a certain that we focus on here in Felicia County. That's correct. What are the ones that we focus on in Felicia County? So the ones that we primarily focus on, of course, are hurricane, any kind of severe weather, flooding, wildfire, and then the man-made stuff. So whether it be a hazardous materials incident, whether it be a terroristic event, whether it be a cyber event, those are the ones that we spend most of our time on. And then we spend a little less time, but we take into consideration things like tsunami. Oh my gosh, I didn't even think about that. Exactly. There's, I mean, a month, month and a half ago, we had a small earthquake off the coast. Yeah, that's right. For example. So those are always things that we have to be thinking about and going, what if, right? That's a little terrifying. But in the best way, because you guys are prepared for all of it. That's what we're here for. I tell you what, let's take a break and we'll come back. I want to dig into, like you mentioned your background a little bit and let's talk to Aubrey about hers too, and then we'll talk about hurricane season. Cool. Subscribe to the Felicia County YouTube channel. And hit the bell icon to know what's happening in your hometown. There are so many great places to explore. And things to learn. With over 1,000 videos available right now, the channel offers something for everyone. Let's go. Did you know we have countless features showcasing history, nature, wildlife, and recreation? Subscribe and hit the bell icon. Or that we live stream important county meetings and workshops where leaders make decisions that can impact our everyday lives. Did you subscribe yet? Or that we record our weekly radio show, Volusia Today, where we interview staff from the different divisions and departments across our great county. And they discuss the nitty gritty of their field and expertise. Go ahead. Subscribe. But that's not it. There's more. Subscribe. And hit the bell icon and fully explore. Score. Good morning, Volusia County. My name is Michael. And you are listening to Volusia Today. I am joined this morning by my co-host, Maggie. Maggie, thank you for being here. Of course. Anytime. I'm not sure you had a choice, but thank you for being here anyway. We have a couple of special guests today. It's Clint Mecham. I got it right that time. Yes, sir. And Aubrey Austin with us from Volusia County Emergency Management. And we are talking hurricane season. And actually, we're talking about Clint right now. Clint, you touched base on your background. Give me, you, if I remember right, you got here in September? August of August. August, okay. Correct. So where'd you come from? What'd you do? So before I got here to my new home in Volusia County, I was in Utah, Salt Lake City area. I spent 28 years as a career in the fire service out there, Unified Fire Authority. The last 10 years of that, I was the division chief over the Salt Lake County Emergency Management Division. So I bring that experience here to Volusia County. And again, there's a lot new to learn here in Volusia County. But again, hopefully I can pick up what I've learned over the years and apply it here to my new home. Sure. I guess we were talking a little bit before we went off there, too, for the break, that I would guess that your experience, a lot of it applies to almost any disaster, right? Any emergency. But then each one is different, too. It is. And so I would assume you're able to bring a foundational base of knowledge from Utah, because you dealt with stuff, though. You talked about earthquakes and stuff, that there's a good bit of that that actually does translate and does transfer over to Florida. Well, and you hit the nail right on the head, Michael. Each incident is unique. But there are some basic processes and some basic thought processes and preparations that we can do that are universal across whatever disaster we might have to deal with. And I've also been with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Program since 2000. So I've had experience. I spent some time at Ground Zero. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ernesto, Dean, Harvey, Barry. I spent all of October of 2022 with FEMA down in Lee County. I've been with Ian over there for fires. So I've been on the response side of hurricanes as well. But again, there's that basic process and those basic thought processes that we use that are kind of universal. But you do have to be flexible because each one is different. With mutual aid, I have served in a couple different jurisdictions. And it's interesting to go see how somebody else does it. Oh, yeah. And because kind of like we talked, you've got a book. You've got a manual. You've got some rules and regulations and all that stuff. But everywhere is different. And you involve elected officials who have a great deal of authority in that specific jurisdiction. But they may treat things differently. Absolutely. Different leaders and all that stuff. So that's a good experience. Aubrey, good morning. Good morning. How are you? I'm wonderful. Refresh my memory. I know we've had you on air before. But since we talked about Clint's background, tell me, how did you get here? Well, I've lived in Volusia County my entire life. So what feels like forever to me, I've lived in the land. I've been through all these storms that you've talked about already. So I've seen a lot of different things happen. I was here during the 98 wildfires. I was here during all the storms of the last 40-odd years. So it's definitely interesting to hear Clint's side of things versus our side of things. I haven't always been in emergency management, obviously. I've been there nine and a half years. Prior to that, I was an intern in Osceola County for a year and a half. So I've seen some things come and go. I've seen some even local agencies do things differently depending on what storm's going on. So I think a lot of times he calls us a great team all the time just because I've got that historical knowledge that's been going through our community forever for me and what's new for him. That probably is a great combination to have that history and that knowledge and to be able to speak the language here. But then Clint brings in a whole different set of skills and viewpoints and stuff. Absolutely. That's probably a great combination. I tell you what, let's take our second break and we'll come back and let's talk about actual hurricane season. Cool. Today on Marine Science Minute with Florida Sea Grant, hurricane awareness. This month marks the beginning of hurricane season, which lasts from June 1st to November 30th. All areas of Florida are at risk of hurricane impacts, including flooding and wind damage. Florida Sea Grant has tools and resources to help you prepare for the next hurricane. You can prepare for this year's season by following these tips. Develop an evacuation plan and know your evacuation zone. Assemble emergency supplies such as flashlights, water, and an emergency radio. Create a communication plan for your family, including an emergency meeting place in case of loss of cell phone network. Document your possessions through a home inventory. For information about this and other coastal topics, contact your county extension office or visit Florida Sea Grant at flcgrant.org. Today, and we are joined today by emergency management. We have Clint and Aubrey here and we are so excited to have them. It's been so interesting listening to you guys talk about the different things you guys deal with in your division. But one of the main things you guys deal with is hurricanes and hurricane season is coming up really quickly. And in Volusia County, we have a lot of people who this is their first time going through a hurricane. And that can be terrifying. I grew up in Florida. I grew up in South Florida, which is a little bit different. But it's still, I mean, even being a Floridian, you still are learning so much about the different ways to prepare. But you guys have so many different educational opportunities coming up for hurricane season. And one of the big ones is this weekend, you guys have the Hurricane Expo. What can we expect to see there? Yeah, so when we were talking earlier and Michael was asking if you had plans this weekend, I can make plans. Skip the wedding. We're going to the Hurricane Expo. Skip the wedding. You've got that. You know, exactly. No, we have our annual Hurricane Preparedness Expo that is co-sponsored by our COAD, which is our Community Organizations Active in Disasters. It is at the Volusia County Fairgrounds from 10 to 2 tomorrow. It's free to the public. We've got a lot of vendors coming in, over 50 vendors, to talk about whether it be preparedness or insurance or any of the other myriad of things that people can take care of or lean into in order to be prepared for hurricane season. So we're really looking forward to that, and we're really excited about it. Clint, don't forget the free food. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I will forget the free food. Oh, my goodness. Yes. No, there will be free food. And as a matter of fact, Aubrey wrangled some of her family members into helping cook for us this weekend. So this is truly a family affair. So by all means, we're going to have raffle prizes as well, and there's going to be a number of guest speakers there. I'll be speaking. There will be members from the insurance community there speaking. And, again, just to provide as much information as we can to our citizens so they can be just as prepared as possible. Because, like you said, hurricanes are our primary threat, right? And just because whether you're new to Volusia County or whether you've been here for a long time, each one is different. And so we just need to make sure that we've got as many tools in the toolbox as we can for everybody so we get through it together. Clint, tell me the dates. It starts today or tomorrow? Tomorrow. It's tomorrow. For some reason, I was thinking it was today. It's tomorrow. And what are the times? It's from 10 to 2. Okay. And where is it? At the Volusia County Fairgrounds. Okay. And help me understand, Maggie, and I think you just touched on this for a second, but Maggie, born and raised in Florida, I've been here a long time. I've been through a bunch of hurricanes. So is she, whatever. Why do we need to go to your Hurricane Expo? So, again, each one of these hurricanes, as they affect Volusia County, is a little bit different. Fun fact, or maybe not so fun, Volusia County has never been hit by anything stronger than a Category 1 hurricane. Oh, don't say that. Knock on wood. Exactly. So Ian, for example, when Ian hit Volusia County, Ian was not actually a hurricane when it got here. It was actually a tropical storm. Right. And it wasn't so much a wind event as it was a rain event. Versus Nicole, when she came and then kind of double-punched Volusia County, that was more of a wind event and a storm surge event than it was a rain event. So each one of these storms is a little different and presents its own little unique twist, if you will. So, again, there's common processes and common procedures that we follow, but we have to be flexible in being able to deal with the uniqueness of each storm. And that goes for our citizens and our visitors to Volusia County as well. Yeah, definitely. And I know for me, we're homeowners for the first time, and so this is a really great opportunity for us to learn how to prepare our home and make sure that we're ready to go. Clint, you're from Utah. So what was the most shocking thing coming here, going into hurricane season for the first time? So the most shocking thing for me is you get advanced warning that something's coming. You know it's coming. That's the big one for me. Most of the things that I dealt with in Utah were no-notice events. Earthquakes, for example, you don't get a lot of advanced warning those are coming. I've worked a lot of tornadoes. Same thing. Yeah, the EOC opens after the tornado's gone. Exactly, exactly. And so here we've got a little bit of time to prepare. We know it's coming pretty much every year, so we need to get ready for it. But earthquakes, for example, back in Utah, it's like a 500-year event, so maybe you're going to get one this year, maybe not. But here in Florida, we can always pretty much be guaranteed that we're going to be affected by a storm somehow, some way. And you mentioned you're a new homeowner. One of the things that we want to emphasize and that we're going to be talking about in the Expo, as well as the town halls that we have coming up, is insurance. Most people, they've got renter's insurance, they've got homeowner's insurance, whatever that might look like. But most people don't realize that that homeowner's insurance or renter's insurance doesn't cover flooding. And most of the damages that are incurred from hurricanes have to do with flooding. And so you need that extra flood insurance to make sure that you're well and truly covered and can recover quickly. And that's not something that you can call the insurance company as the storms come ashore and say, hey, I need flood insurance. You need to plan that out in advance because it takes some time for those policies normally to take effect. So, again, that's some of the information that we're trying to push out to the public so they can all be prepared and be ready. Yeah, definitely. I mean, lucky for us, my fiancee handles all the insurance. We do have flood insurance. He was ready. He was ready to go with that. But you mentioned the town halls y'all are having, too. If they can't go this weekend, you guys have a lot of opportunities for town halls. We are doing our level best to get out to as many members of the community and all areas of the county as we can. We have we've scheduled six town halls. We've conducted two of them. We we get about 25 or so people at the first two. We've got one coming up at the Ormond Beach Regional Library on Thursday, May 9th. And that's from 530 until 645. Deltona Regional Library is on Wednesday, May 22nd, again, from 530 to 645. The new Smyrna Beach Regional Library on Wednesday, May 29th. And then the last one will be at the Port Orange Regional Library on Wednesday, June 12th. So, again, we are doing our level best to get to all corners of the of the county and talk about preparedness, whether you live in a coastal community or whether you live inland. Yeah, that's awesome. And what's the benefit of going to town hall over the Hurricane Expo or vice versa? So the town halls are a little bit more intimate as far as the numbers of people. So we can address we can get into a little bit more of the specific questions that people have specific to their communities. We've been in the land already and then we've been in Daytona Beach. And so we can talk about the specific needs for the community. However, the the expo is is going to have more things and go on for a longer period of time. So people can dive into the specific topics they want to a little bit more specifically rather than community. So we're trying to get a good mix of both. So that's awesome. Nice. I tell you what, Maggie, let's take our last break and we're going to come back and talk about hurricane season itself. Volusia County Beach Safety. We're here to serve Volusia County's 47 miles of unique coastline. You know, Volusia County beaches. Those beaches. But also these beaches. We have millions of visitors every year and we work around the clock to keep our beaches safe and beautiful. And you can help. We're near a staff lifeguard tower. Pick up your trash and fill holes. Identify, avoid, and escape rip currents. Please leave the beach cleaner than you found it. There we go. Look out for one another. And keep an eye on kids, especially near the traffic lane and in the water. Pets are allowed at our two pet-friendly beaches. Lighthouse Point Park and Smyrna Dunes Park. If you see something, say something. A clean and safe beach guarantees fun and the sun for everyone. Thank you for doing your part to keep Volusia County beaches beautiful. See you at the beach! Make the most of your day at the beach. Download the Volusia County Beaches app today. Sign up for real-time notifications on vehicle ramp openings and closings. Find staff lifeguard towers. Get updates on tides and beach conditions. Plus, off-beach parking and coastal parks info. Volusia County Beaches app is available for your smart devices at the App Store and Google Play. Welcome back to Volusia Today. My name is Michael, and you are listening to Clint Mecham and Aubrey Austin. Today, talk about hurricane season, hurricane expo, and the town halls. So, we've talked a little bit about those two. Let's talk about hurricane season officially starts on June 1st. June 1st. Goes through November, is that right? Technically, yeah. Roughly. November 1st. Seems like it's always November 1st, and then there's something hanging out there about November 15th. There's always the oddball. It's always out there, yeah. Absolutely. So, what are the predictions? What does the season look like? So, we're still waiting for the National Weather Service to come out with their predictions from the National Hurricane Center. But Colorado State University has put out their predictions, and they have a very, very good and very, very storied program at Colorado State. They're telling us that we're looking at potentially 23 named storms this season. 11 of those will turn into hurricanes. Of those 11, 7 will be over Category 3. So, it is about a third busier than what's considered a normal season. Okay. Okay. Any reason why it's going to be busier? So, we're transitioning from an El Nino to a La Nina pattern. So, there's wind shear. There's atmospheric conditions that come into account here. But one of the other things, too, that we're really concerned about is the water temperature. Water temperatures right now on both Gulf Coast and on the Atlantic side are at July levels already. Look at Clint from Utah talking about water temperatures and El Ninos. He's ready. Like I said, I got a good team behind me pushing me and making me learn. He's rocking and rolling already. El Ninos and water temperatures. Exactly. I lived in Florida my whole life and I don't even know that. I don't know about the water temperature. I know if it's not 90, I'm not getting in it. Yeah. So, all of those environmental factors play into more frequent storms, stronger storms possibly? Yes, correct. Okay. So, what do I, as an average homeowner, need to do? Again, make sure you've got your go kit ready to go and make sure that you include pets in your go kit. Make sure you've got important documentation in your go kit. Things like birth certificates, social security cards, medications are always something that people seem to forget. Immunization records for your pets, that's something else. So, again, if we do have to issue an evacuation order, and believe me, we don't do that lightly, but if we do issue it, you can grab that kit, you can go, and you've got everything necessary to, again, once it's time to come back and recover from the storm, you have the proper documentation and the proper stuff to help you on that road to recovery. Clint, if I'm making the decision to ride it out, we've got about 40 seconds, I'm going to ride it out of my home, what do I need to do? So, if we're issuing an evacuation order, we don't recommend that, but again, a gallon of water per person per day. Understand that you may not have access to 911 and emergency services if you're going to ride it out for a period of time. Again, you just need to be self-reliant and ready for those potential consequences should you decide to ride it out. I tell you what, we are running out of time, but can we bring you guys back? Aubrey, I'm sorry, we didn't hear you talk very much today. Can we bring you guys back maybe mid-season or I don't know, you know, certainly if there's a hurricane coming, we'll come back and talk about that. Of course. But we'd like to, I feel like we didn't have enough time to dig into it today as much as we wanted to. No, happy to do it whenever. All right, you guys have a great weekend, Maggie. Have a good weekend. Thank you, you too. Go enjoy the beach, go enjoy the weather. Be safe. Go to the expo. Go to the expo. The storm is being called a 500-year flooding event. Leridians are going to experience the impacts from this storm for a very long time. You always prepare for the worst and you always hope for the best. This hurricane ended up being the perfect storm of everything that we didn't want to see. In was a storm that wasn't even supposed to hit our city. It was predicted to hit in Tampa. I called one of the mayors up there and I said, you know what, we're going to be here. Good luck. The forecast was a little uncertain. You realize the one constant with a hurricane is that you never know what a hurricane is going to do. I would say between three to two days that we knew we were not going to avoid this particular storm. FMIT was here on day one. We didn't even have to pick up the phone once to call them. They were there. FMIT makes a promise to its members to be there before, during, and after a storm. And Synergy helps fulfill that promise. You know, days before the storm, Synergy reached out to me. We pre-deploy ride-out teams. Could be anywhere from 24 to 48 hours pre-storm. FMIT team contacted me to let them know we're here, we're on standby. In this storm, we deployed approximately 40 ride-out teams to various EOCs on the West Coast. I left at about quarter till eight on Tuesday night, and we didn't know what was going to happen. It's always hard to leave your home. And leaving your home and not knowing what you're coming back to, it's hard to comprehend. The effects from Hurricane Ian were catastrophic. I mean, that's really the only word to describe it. We had several hard hits. I mean, we had a pier kind of disintegrated. About 4.30 in the morning, this woman came up to me in the lobby, and she just put her phone up in front of me, and it showed this grainy picture, bridge collapse. And we're looking at this phone, and we're seeing what we're facing. Our lifeline was broken. We went around looking at the damages. We saw that our downtown was hit pretty hard. Yeah, we have a reverse osmosis plant, and during the storm, that took substantial damage. The airport sustained pretty extensive damage. A lot of metal buildings, hangar buildings, a lot of structural buildings, hangar doors blown off. Almost every insured asset had some form of damage to it. Out at the lighthouse in Sanibel, there was two houses, one on each side of the lighthouse. They're completely gone. There's no visible sign of where those houses went. FMIT was extremely helpful during the storm. They were professionals. They knew exactly what they needed to do, so we could concentrate on search and rescue and the recovery aspects of our city. FMIT had already been doing their work, literally building a port on our island so we could have transportation back and forth within a day. We made the damage in Sanibel unique. While it had its wind damage, there was heavy surge damage. So you have, you know, salt water, three to ten foot inside all buildings, muck, sand. We had contractors and resources on standby, ready, and available to assist. They had barges already secured. They had equipment. They had contractors that could come and clear the roadways. What's unique about FMIT is that they really believe in a proactive response. What's important about these damage assessment teams is not only to be boots on the ground post storm, but to also identify where immediate mitigation and stabilization needs are. FMIT was able to get out with our RO plant that was substantially damaged and mitigated in the short term so we wouldn't sustain additional losses. We were able to temp in various roof sections within three days post storm. Not only did this keep the plant operational, but it also protected millions of dollars' equipment inside the building. Not only did they come in to meet our insurance needs, they were able to give us resources, talking to FEMA, talking to the governmental affairs people on a state level, on a federal level. I think the question that any city should ask is, in the event of a catastrophic event, what team do they have in place? You can see FMIT are a clear choice. You don't know you need something until you really need something. A city should consider FMIT if they want the confidence in knowing that when a disaster happens, they're going to have a team of people that know how to get the job done. I think this is a strong partnership, and we have been extremely impressed with the work that's been provided through FMIT. I live in a flood zone, so my home isn't at risk of flooding. Flooding. If my home floods, I'll be covered by my homeowner's insurance policy. Visit FloodSmart.gov. A message from your Volusia County Emergency Management. Flood insurance coverage may take up to 30 days to go into effect. Hi, my name is Hector with the City of Deltona Solid Waste Division. Here are some hurricane safety tips. Before the storm, we do ask that you secure any loose items. That may be the trash cans themselves, grills, lawn furniture, anything that may become a projectile, please bring it inside. As well, for any trash and yard waste, place them in an area that's accessible for you, but away from any power lines, fences, and trees. During the storm themselves, do not bring out any bulk trash to the curbside. As well, for any yard waste, do not prune or chop down any trees at the current time. For any of the trash cans themselves, place them in a safe area away from wind or tie them down to the best of your ability. After the storm, there will be adjustments to the Waste Pro schedule, so please be advised during the time. As well, for any household yard waste, anything of the sort, garbage bags, you can go ahead and keep them for your disposal until the regular services resume. If you have any further questions, give us a call at 386-878-8723. That is our solid waste line, and we're here to help you. When you don't know where to turn, turn to 2-1-1. Call, text, or visit us online. Any time you have an emergency, the best and fastest way to get help is calling 9-1-1. Today, for those who can't make a phone call, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office is rolling out text to 9-1-1. Text 9-1-1 for help should not be your first move unless it's absolutely necessary. That may be the case if you have a hearing or speech impairment, or if you're in a situation where making a voice call would put you in danger. The simple key to remember is call if you can, text if you can't. Text to 9-1-1 is currently available here in Volusia County, and in other Central Florida counties such as Seminole, Brevard, Orange, and Osceola. But it's not available everywhere. If you try to text 9-1-1 in an area where it's not available, you should receive a bounce-back message telling you to call 9-1-1. When you text 9-1-1, your first message should be brief, with a location and a type of emergency. Be ready to answer follow-up texts from us. Keep your messages clear and concise. Don't use abbreviations or emojis. Text to 9-1-1 is available only in English, and if you have a text or data plan for your text messages to come through, you can't send a text to 9-1-1 in a group message. 9-1-1 has to be the only recipient. And I shouldn't have to say this, but don't text and drive. Remember, call if you can, text if you can't. And thank you for helping us make Volusia County a safer place every day. Hi, I'm Gary Daniels. I'm the Assistant PIO and Production Manager here at the City of Deltona. And we have exciting news. You can now watch Deltona TV on your smartphone, iOS, iPhone, or Android. Here's how you do it. Go to your App Store. You'll open it up. And you'll go to your search bar and you will type in Cablecast, C-A-B-L-E-C-A-S-T, Cablecast. And then you'll see the app there with the green icon. Just go ahead and download the app. And once it has downloaded, you will open the app and there will be a lot of different channels from a lot of different organizations around the country. Luckily, Deltona TV, being one of the latest ones, is right here on the front page. But if it's not, you can go up to the search bar and type in Deltona TV. But as it is, it's right here on the front page. So you just click on it. And then you'll see a live streams Deltona TV option. You click on that as well. And you hit play. And now you are watching Deltona TV live in HD. And you can also do the same thing on your Android phone. Hi, City of Deltona. We heard that you guys have been having questions in regards to some of our events. And we know that you want to get notified. So with the new updated website, we have this really cool feature. It's called Notify Me. With the Notify Me feature, you can get instant up-to-date emails every single time we send out a news announcement, a new event. So once you click on the letter icon, you're going to have a little pop-up block that comes up. It's going to ask for some of your personal information. That way you can receive the latest in regards to our news alerts on the Notify Me feature with the new website. ...for the Juneteenth Unity in the Community Celebration, happening Saturday, June 21st from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at City Hall. Come together as we honor freedom, culture, and community with live music, group performances, plenty of food, and a whole lot of joy. This is a day to celebrate heritage, uplift voices, build unity through culture, art, and togetherness. Bring your friends, bring your family, and let's celebrate Juneteenth in a big way. We'll see you there. It's your Volusia County tax collector. When the annual property tax bill arrives in the mail, most people want to know how much they have to pay. It's all about the bottom line, the bottom line of the bill. That's where you'll find the amount due. You receive a discount the earlier you pay your taxes. The discounts and the due dates also are at the bottom of the bill. For example, if you pay in full in November, you get a 4% discount. There are two more important items on the bill. First, make sure all of your exemptions are listed. And finally, you may... 6.30, which is our start time. And I want to thank everybody for coming out. And I know that you're very interested in what we're going to be discussing here today, or at least our guest speakers are going to be discussing. And we're going to start... This has been going on for seven years here in the city of Deltona. And the first person that I want to introduce to you, I want to read a little bio on him. So, Brian is the meteorologist for Spectrum 13. And he's been working on this project with me since I was elected seven years ago. Thanks to Lee Lopez, who's sitting in the back, who worked with me on this project as well, and helped me put it together. So, Brian has been a meteorologist for more than 27 years and first joined the News 13 team in 2015. Brian had dreamed of being a meteorologist since childhood and was always passionate about learning how storms form while addressing the importance of weather across a variety of climates. Brian has earned the National Weather Association's seal of approval and the approval of Deltona. In the American Meteorological Society's CBM seal of approval. An Emmy nominee, he has also won several awards for his work, including being named the 2009 National Weather Association Broadcaster of the Year and Best Weathercaster by the Florida Association Press in 2016, 2017, 18, 20, and 21. Brian's career first took off in Mancota, Minnesota, where he reported on a record-breaking March tornado outbreak, staying on the air for more than two hours as tornadoes touched down. While working as a morning meteorologist in Des Moines, Iowa, Brian became a storm chaser and studied these storms in the field since 2011. Brian is certified to teach nationwide courses in tornado awareness, hurricane awareness, flooding hazards, science and preparedness, coastal hazards, and climate adoption planning by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. Brian has participated in the City of Deltona's hurricane awareness town hall meetings since they began seven years ago, sharing his expertise and knowledge on what to expect and how to prepare for hurricane season. We only bring you the best. So without further ado, I would like to bring Brian up. Don't forget to show them your, you know what I'm talking about. Okay, so here's Brian. Thank you. I'll shorten that bio next year. And update it too, I'll be celebrating 29 years in the TV business next month. So 29 years, 10 years here just back in April. Can't believe I've been 10 years in Central Florida. And yes, I've got my shoes, my radar shoes, but I also have my tropical storm socks that one of my meteorologists gave me for Christmas. Got to get it into, right? Well, appreciate you guys being out here tonight. And I know that we're coming up fast on our new season, 2025 season, and we're hoping for nothing, right? Wouldn't that be nice? All right, so we're going to talk about being prepared, not scared. Don't be scared, be prepared. That is our mantra at Spectrum News 13. And Central Florida storm season is about to get underway. We're your calm in the storm. Just a quick team shout out. We are the nation's only team of dual certified meteorologists. And that is a mouthful, meteorologists. That is an opportunity for us to show that we have the past education. We have our continuing education. We go out and do workshops. We go to conferences. We bring ourselves up to speed on the very latest in technology and research. And then we pass that education on to you. So tonight I'm having a great conversation with you guys on weather. And we'll answer any of your questions if I can. We did add a new meteorologist. And by the way, I'll just quickly run through Chris Gilson, our weekend night meteorologist. Mallory Nichols, who is standing right next to me. She's on right now. And she's the one who gave me the socks for Christmas. Maureen McCann is on my other side. She's our morning meteorologist. And then Zach Covey, far right, is our weekend morning meteorologist. In the back we have Amy Sweezy from WESH. We took her as soon as she walked away from WESH. And she wanted to keep her feet wet in the business. And I said, come on, let's go. And she's been a great addition to our team as a contractor. And Rob Eicher in the back as well. But we just added another meteorologist. He starts on Monday. His name is Greg Bennett. He has lots of Florida ties. He grew up in Florida in Brevard County. And he's moving back to Brevard County. As a matter of fact, he just moved back Sunday. They're unpacking, getting ready for upcoming hurricane season. And he starts on air with us on May 27th. So you have to stay tuned for the morning show on May 27th. All right. 24 days. That's it. Until we officially kick off the Atlantic hurricane season. It runs June 1st through November 30th. The Pacific hurricane season actually begins May 15th. So it's about a 15-day jump on the Atlantic season. It also runs through November 30th. And right now, models, they're all over, trying to figure out what's going on. And, of course, we get our early season spin-ups that are, we call them phantom storms. So if you hear a little chatter on the social media sites, there's nothing brewing for us. We don't have to worry about it, at least right now. Peak of hurricane season. It is September 10th. So as you see here in our graphic, we run all the way up to August and then see a very sharp incline in hurricane season to the peak on September 10th. And then a slow slide back out. You also notice that we can have storms in May and we can have storms in December. It's not out of the question. It's very rare, but not out of the question. Now, with that said, the peak of hurricane season, we typically see 53% of our tropical storms during the peak of hurricane season. I like to walk back and forth, by the way. It's just TV nature. I don't have a green screen, but. 61% of the hurricanes in a given hurricane season occur in the peak of hurricane season. And that actually roughly runs August 20th through about October 10th. And 73% of major hurricanes feeding off very warm ocean waters. That's usually what occurs. 73% would occur in that peak as well. So what do hurricanes need to form? Well, they need at least 79 degree or warmer sea surface temperatures. We have that right now in the Gulf. We do not have it in parts of the Atlantic just yet, which is some good news. I'll get to that in just a second. We need to keep that storm away from the equator because the equator stops that spin. Low wind shear is ideal for hurricane development. So what is wind shear? Well, as you're going up toward the sky, let's say we're walking up toward space. We're getting wind that's coming from our back. We'll keep going and it's coming from our side and it's coming from our front. And it's changing speed as well as the direction. So wind shear is actually something that can chop off a hurricane. Keep it from breathing because that wind is actually changing direction and speed and acting like the shears that you would take for your bushes chop off the top. And that's not allowing the hurricane to breathe. If there's no wind shear, there's nothing helping to kick that thing at the top. It's going to breathe. All right. So we're looking for low wind shear to keep development at a minimal. And we need an unstable atmosphere. It's going to provide the fuel for thunderstorms to develop. We need a system nearby, some sort of an area of low pressure that's going to develop and start to strengthen. All right. All right. So I didn't put May in here just because it's so rare because the official start of season is June 1st. But here's where we would be watching June 1st through June 30th, typically out in the Gulf. We see the Northwest Caribbean and also along our East Coast. This is because we typically at this time of year, we're still seeing some fronts occasionally drop south, cold fronts, and we get spins that may occur along those fronts. So as we take you to the peak of hurricane season, huge difference, right? Well, typically during the peak of hurricane season, we have very, very warm water right down through the central Atlantic. This is called our main development region. And this is where we would have all the high octane fuel. We'd have distance to feed and provide the moisture. And then as we curl back up off our coasts, a lot of times these things will drift across the Caribbean and into the Gulf. And a lot of times they'll take themselves up over Bermuda. And that seems to be where they were all tracking last year. Most of them were heading toward poor Bermuda. Oddly enough, they have been through so many hurricanes, but they still have a great lifestyle and really not a lot of damage that has been done in the island of Bermuda itself over the years. All right. So that takes us to this season. Right now, the only forecast out by official forecasters from Colorado State University, they are calling for 17 named storms this year. On average, we see 14. They're calling for nine hurricanes. Our average is seven. And they're calling for four major hurricanes. The average in a season is typically about three. So, with that said, they're calling for slightly above average. Now, we will wait until NOAA, National Weather Service NOAA, come out with their forecast. And we'll see if the hurricane center decides to go about the same. And I have a feeling they're probably going to be pretty lined up. Then they give a range. They'll probably say between 13 and 18 storms. So they'll give a range, whereas Colorado State just nails down a number and you go for it. But I want to tell you, right off the bat, I don't pay attention to those numbers. I really don't. Because it only takes one. That's all that matters. It doesn't matter if they're calling for 17 storms and they all occur. They're not all going to hit us. Knock on wood. Knock on wood. But I don't pay attention because it only takes one to really give us fits. So, early forecast is calling for a slightly above average season. But there is a lot of uncertainty because we actually have cooler, slightly cooler water in that main development region of the Atlantic Basin. So, we don't have the high octane fuel there. Last year at this time, it was about three or four degrees warmer in that part of the Atlantic, out in the central Atlantic. So we're running slightly cooler. That's what we like to hear, right? So, sea surface temperatures in the Gulf, unfortunately, they are already warm enough to sustain and support development. But, as I just mentioned, it only takes one. And this is what it looks like any forecast season. All over the place. All right. So, I love the memes. Jim Cantore, who's a great friend, I do know that wherever I see him go, I still get a little bit nervous. And he says, people asked when is a good time to worry, and that's when you worry. If he shows up in Deltona, Jim shows up in Deltona, you know we may have some issues. But we will always rebuild no matter what, right? I'm not sure. There's several of these memes that go out. It's pretty funny. All right. So, I want you to do me one favor, and I've shared these next two slides every year, just because it really hits home a point. Just ignore the hype. I told you right off the bat, we don't hype. Don't be scared. Just be prepared. We don't hype up a storm. I don't want to hype a storm because I don't want to scare. Hype does nobody any good. But here's what our former governor said, and again, it's not a political statement. All right? I'm not making any political statements. These are things that were actually said that just made me cringe. So, this is back, and I believe this is during Irma. Looks like I need to move that. Yeah, we had the collision occur over us, so it's pouring out right now. The sea breeze is right overhead. This is an unbelievably massive, destructive storm. Now, what do you think if somebody's scared to storms already? What are they thinking now? It's a killer. You will not survive all this storm surge. You're telling the residents of Florida this? And then goes on to say, Irma is bigger, faster, and stronger than Hurricane Andrew. My God, Hurricane Andrew destroyed South Florida. You know, Homestead really didn't exist after Andrew. This storm will be nothing like the state has ever seen. And I tell you what, we lived through Irma. It was nothing like he said it was going to be. We did have a lot of damage. I lost shingles. I lost some trees in my West Orange County home. But it was not bigger than Andrew. Then there's Shep Smith. I don't even know where he is anymore. But he's talking, Irma, and he says to a national audience, this moves 20 miles to the West, and you and everyone you know are dead. All of you, because you can't survive it. It's not possible unless you're very, very lucky. And your kids die too. Imagine a family of four and the parents sitting there with two young kids watching and hearing this, scared to death because they're telling you, you're going to die. Smith spoke with a Floridian woman who didn't want to leave her home. I'll ask her why she's staying and if she expects us to cover her funeral. Yeah. Tasteless, tacky, and this is what you don't want to listen to. Don't listen to people who freak you out. They're not doing you any good. They're doing a disservice in this business. That aside, let's move on to our names for the season. The first one on our list is Andrea. Move on to Barry and Chantal. All the way down to Lorenzo. Get over to Pablo, Tanya, and let's hope we don't get to Van or Wendy. And if we get to Wendy and we move on, here's our supplemental list. You know, they used to do Greek alphabet. They don't anymore because if you think about it, you have a Greek named storm and it's like Andrew where they've retired it because they retire storms at a certain amount of destruction and death. They don't want those names out there because that just is haunting and it brings back those memories. All right. So in a Greek alphabet, you've got one. You can't just change and put a different one in. You've got a list of Greek letters, but that's it. So if you retire one, then you're just eliminating from that list. And if you get all the way down to that. So they've decided to move with a supplemental list. Adria would be the first one all the way down to Will. Again, we ever get down to this and I don't want to live in Florida. I don't want to live in Florida if we get to Will on the second list. All right. At that point, I will be in Canada. I don't know. Somewhere where I'm not having to deal with two different name lists in one season. That would be insanity. Let's hope it never happens. So a quick dive into what we do behind the scenes. Seven to ten days out, we're actually looking at the pattern. We're trying to figure out, is this pattern favorable for any kind of development? Warm sea surface temperatures? Low shear? What's the pattern with the areas of low pressure? Our ridges are high pressure? We watch the trends over four to seven days out. And we continue to follow those trends. And just watch the model runs. Because some of the model runs will spit something out in one timeframe. And then two runs later, it disappears or it shifts. And that's going to happen. Within two to four days, we've got timing and impacts. We're getting pretty confident at this point. Especially with the technology that we have today. Satellites helping us pinpoint exactly where the storm is. The eye, etc. So we're getting better with the timing and impacts. About two to four days out. One to two days out, we've got that forecast nailed. We're going county by county. We're telling you here in Volusia County what you can expect with wind. What you can expect with rain. And what you can expect with potential tornadoes as well. All right, so with that, we may see a tropical storm watch issue. This is when winds are sustained at 39 to 73 miles per hour within the next 48 hours. You get a tropical storm warning. That's when winds of 39 to 73 are expected within the next 36 hours. So we're giving you time. And I'm not issuing these, by the way. These watches, the actual tropical watches coming out from the National Hurricane Center, are giving you, hopefully, enough time to prepare your family and your friends and neighbors, your homes, etc. And you're already doing that now as we head toward the season. If a watch for a hurricane is issued, it means winds over 74 are possible within the next 48 hours. But once we're in that hurricane warning, that means we are expecting winds over 74 miles per hour within the next 36 hours. Very quick rundown. I'm not going to go through each and every line of the categories. But I wanted to give you a really good idea of what we could see in these categories. All right? So a Category 1 hurricane, winds of 74 to 95 miles per hour, minor damage, power outages. We can handle that, right? We handle it every year, it seems like. We get these Category 1s or 2s or 3s that come close by, provide us rain and tornadoes and winds. Category 2, we're building up to 96 to 110 miles per hour. This is when we start taking down even more trees. We have a lot of trees in this county, a lot of pine trees that are tall and those old oaks. This is when we could actually start seeing power outages that last days to unfortunately even weeks. Category 3, 111 to 129 miles per hour, damage to roofing and windows likely. So maybe you're boarding up your windows, you're putting your shutters out. You're not running tape down the middle in a big X. That will not do you any good. It's not going to stop glass from breaking or blowing in, all right? So don't be putting a big old taped X on your windows. So we're now moving into Category 4. And before I get to 4, Category 3 and above, Category 3, 4, and 5, those are considered major hurricanes. Major hurricanes with those severe winds have the highest impact. So a 4 with 130 to 156 mile per hour winds, this is when we suffer major damage to our homes. And trees and power poles are snapped. Some homes are actually completely destroyed. Power outages last for weeks. And then we get into a Category 5. This is what Andrew was. This is what they bumped Michael up to. Michael hit Mexico Beach up in the pan. It came ashore as a 4, but after they did more research, they found that there was damage to sustain a Category 5 hurricane just at landfall. And it was a rapidly intensifying hurricane at that. This is extensive damage. This is devastating damage with power outages that last for weeks. These are the hurricanes that also produce the flooding rains. And as we know too well, the St. John's River was flooding from rains out of Ian back a couple years ago. And we had flooding on that St. John's River for two months. It was beyond Thanksgiving. It was like we were still talking the holidays and that river was still up. So what can you do now to prepare? And I know that we've got some other guests that are probably going to go through some of these. But I'll just go through quickly just to give you a few ideas. Shop today. Create a hurricane kit. Avoid those lines. Don't wait until the last minute. You wait in these huge lines. You've got people who are getting angry. They're getting frustrated. They're getting scared. Get your supplies now. Not to mention plywood goes fast. And you may run out. Bottled water. We saw that during Irma. Bottled water off the shelves so very quickly. Know your evacuation route. And you guys don't have to worry about that. But do keep in mind if you're near a body of water. Or if you are at the coast here in Volusia County. You need to figure out where to evacuate. Perform an insurance checkup. You realize that your insurance doesn't include flood insurance. Policies don't here in the state. You have to make sure that you have flood insurance. I highly recommend it. You don't have to have it. I would highly recommend it. So take advantage of the sales tax holidays. I believe we have two. I don't know offhand the dates. But usually in June. And then another one mid-season. There are two separate periods where you can get discounts. Tax holidays. Buy and donate supplies to those who are less fortunate. We have a lot of folks who can't afford to go out and get supplies. And just kind of figure out what you need to last several days maybe without power. During a hurricane, obviously you don't want to go outside. Stay indoors, away from windows and glass. Put as many walls between you and the outside as you can. Have your safe place. Have your hurricane kit there. Have yourself a way to get alerts. Watch for rising water. I just mentioned that. And obviously have a way to watch your local news. I would love it if you watch Spectrum News. We take you through these storms from beginning to end. But whoever you trust, all right? Whoever you trust. Keep your curtains and blinds closed. I know that's kind of a drag because it's like, ah, it's so dark. But that will help if debris decides to blow in to keep that debris from coming into your house. After a storm, make sure your family and friends are safe. Check on your neighbors, those who are susceptible and cannot actually maybe get out of the house. Maybe they've sustained damage. Help them out. Just make sure they're okay. Check your property, but be mindful of debris, power lines and trees, standing water, critters in that water. We get flood waters and we have those big old nasty snakes and those gators that can come out. And keep generators outside and away from your house. All right? You don't want that generator running inside because carbon monoxide is a killer. And we unfortunately lose lives every single year due to carbon monoxide poisoning. You use battery powered flashlights. I wouldn't use candles. You fall asleep, kick it, accidentally knock it over. That's not going to be a good situation. All right. So hopefully I didn't go too fast as I'm kind of winding down here. Concluding thoughts. Everyone should be aware of our growing Florida population. We were just discussing. You guys are probably over 100,000 population in Deltona alone now. I think when I first started this with Lee, a little over 80,000. So, I mean, this population is exploding and you're seeing it. We discussed the traffic. And so just be mindful of those who have moved into the county who don't know about hurricane season or maybe they've never been through one. They're going to need some extra hand-holding, a little help. Check in with them. See what they need. Give them some ideas. I just gave you a bunch. Go through a kit and just maybe show them your kit and how to put them together and prepare for the upcoming season. And we all should be prepared for tropical and severe weather any time of year. This line that's developing will more than likely kick out a severe storm or two, probably on my drive down I-4. But we need to be prepared for this every year. And so if we do so and we prepare ahead of time, we're going to be ready for what comes. We're not going to be thinking, oh, my God, I forgot this. Oh, my God, I forgot that. So once you get into that state of mind that, hey, I'm prepared, then you won't be scared. That's why we say don't be scared. Just be prepared. And don't get wrapped up in the hype of local media and social media. I tell you, my friend keeps telling me I need to call out some of the local meteorologists who are hype mongers. I'm afraid to call them out because they are also friends. And I hint behind the scenes. But I'm like, go ahead and do what you're going to do because we do what we do. And people say, I tuned in because you were calm and you weren't freaking us out. So one of these days, as I'm getting a little older, I might start calling them out. But you know who they are. Some of you know who those local hype mongers are. So this, by the way, is a snapshot of, OK, I had an image off the very top of the slideshow. And I should have told you it was Hurricane Milton down near the Gulf, in the Gulf, near the Yucatan Peninsula. The fastest-growing hurricane record went from a tropical storm to a Cat 5. And then that's what came up. Milton came up and provided us some nasty weather, including a record-breaking tornado outbreak in South Florida. This is actually Helene. This is an image of Helene. And I tell you, each of these storms that comes in just off our west coast makes us all go, oh, God, because we're on that, what they call the dirty side of the hurricane. This is where we get the tornadoes. This is where we get bands of extremely heavy rain. That was Helene providing us a glancing blow before it took on the Big Bend and, unfortunately, took on Georgia, South Carolina, and really, really hammered the mountains of North Carolina. They are still suffering. And now, because of drought growing, they have fires burning all over in those mountains. So now people are trying to get ready for the next hurricane season, and there's fires to concern themselves with. So don't be scared. Just be prepared. We're all going to be good. Yeah, this is a good way to end it, huh? I'd like to cancel my subscription, and I'm sure you would as well, for the Hurricane of the Month Club. So I do want to take a selfie really quick, and on top of that, if you guys want to join, I'll give a quick picture of everybody. I have to, unfortunately, I have to take off. I have an early morning meeting that I have to jump on tomorrow, and it's from here to my house on the south side of Orlando is about an hour or so, especially with this. So I will answer questions as soon as I take a quick selfie of all of us. No, I think I can get everybody in. Yeah, I've got everybody, except you guys. Here, I don't know if I can see you guys back there or not. We're going to get this side. You ready? Three, two, one. I don't know if it would be better, because you two are over there if I come to this side. Sorry, I'm particular with my selfies. There we go. Now we've got everybody. All right. Everybody ready? Got to look good. Yeah, say Hurricane. Hurricane! No hurricanes. All right, quick questions. It doesn't have to be hurricane-related. This is live, so it's being televised, so if you have a question, I want you to do it on, speak on the microphone so everybody can hear your question and hear your answer. Anybody have any questions? Okay. None. Thank you. So before you leave, though, Brian, we'd like to give you something. The city has prepared a proclamation for you. Oh, wow. And it says, Brian Carrick, Chief Meteorologist Spectrum News 13, thank you, for being the guest speaker at the City of Deltona's hurricane awareness town halls for the past seven years. Your expertise and knowledge on what to expect and how to prepare for hurricane season provides valuable education for our residents to stay safe during and after a hurricane tornado event. Don't be scared. Be prepared. Be prepared. Oh, wow. Thank you so much. Wow, thank you! But, something else, this is from me personally, but I need you to open it. Oh! Yeah, right? I didn't think about that one... By the way, I'll, uh, at some point, Catherine, I'll send our hurricane guides. They aren't printed yet, so once they're printed, we'll have some hurricane guides here at City Hall. City Hall. Thank you. Awesome. Wow. Thank you. It's the city of Deltona. Thank you, meteorologist Brian Carrick. Awesome. Oh, and be prepared, not scared. Don't forget that mantra. Be prepared, not scared, because it really does help you go into the hurricane season, and you're not nervous because you're all ready to go. And I want to thank my friend Rachel for putting that together for me at the last minute. Thank you. No questions? I know, right? Thank you. Thank you so much. Good to see you again. Good to see you, sir. Next year for sure. Absolutely. Okay, so our next presenter would be Clint Mecham from the Volusia County Emergency Management, who will discuss what the county does to prepare for hurricane season. And to us here in Deltona is an honor to have Clint here, because it's not very rarely that we can drag the county representatives here into the city of Deltona. So thank you so much for being out here. And I know he has somebody with him who also would like to share some information on emergency shelters. Thank you very much. Well, folks, thanks for allowing me to come and spend part of my evening with you. As I was introduced, my name is Clint Mecham. I am your Volusia County Emergency Management Director. I am a transplant. I have been here about two years now. I retired from the fire service in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. So everybody's like, Utah, what do you know about hurricanes? Well, fortunately, we didn't have a lot of hurricanes in Utah. But we did have avalanches and earthquakes and that kind of stuff. So at least hurricanes, I can see them coming. So I very much appreciate that aspect of being here in Florida. But I very much enjoyed getting to know my new friends and family here in Volusia County. I do try and get to the west side of the county as often as I can, because there's this little thing called the St. Johns River that runs down the west side of the county that we need to pay attention to, even especially during hurricane season with the closed basin. A little bit about myself above and beyond, just coming from Utah. I did spend 28 years in the fire service. I retired as a division chief with Unified Fire Authority in the Salt Lake Valley. The last 10 years of that career, I was Salt Lake County's Emergency Management Director. It was part of the fire department. Since 2000, I've also been with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Program. And I've had the opportunity to deploy to a few large incidents, Ground Zero, Katrina, Rita, Ernesto, Dean, Barry, Harvey. And I spent all of October of 2022 in Lee County for EM. So while I don't have a lot of experience on the front side of hurricanes, I have a whole bunch of experience on the backside and responding to hurricanes. So I'm going to spend a lot of time regurgitating what Brian already told you. So that's a good thing. I appreciate him doing that for me, because that means you don't have to listen to me as long. But I do want to take a minute and talk about what emergency management is. So in Florida, especially, everybody thinks emergency management are those hurricane people. That's not necessarily true. We are what we call all hazards. There's actually 17 different categories of disaster that we have to play the what-if game and think about, whether they be weather-related, whether it be terroristic-type stuff, whether it be hazardous materials and transportation incidents, and the list goes on and on. Cyber is the latest and greatest one that we're having to contend with right now. Yes, wonderful, right? But we provide, in a nutshell, we provide our first responder communities, okay, and those would be your fire, your law enforcement, your public works, your public utilities people, with the logistical and coordination support to make sure that we are all working together in lockstep to respond to and recover from any significantly impactful events here in the county. So that's what we do. I have a staff of 10 in Volusia County Emergency Management, and we serve all, at latest count, 600,000 folks in Volusia County. We also take into account the visitors that we get to Volusia County. Anybody want to take a wild stab at how many visitors we had to Volusia County last year? 10.2 million. Florida as a state had 132 million visitors last year to the state. We got 10 million of those. So we're a very popular destination space, and you folks living here close to I-4, you get the brunt of that, right? The fact that you're close to Orlando, you get the brunt of that, too. So you kind of get a double whammy on that. But we spend a lot of time thinking about what if and creating plans on how we coordinate the resources to work together at the local, the county, the state, and the federal level to essentially return you folks back to as close to normal as what was before the event as fast as we can after the event, okay? We do a lot of logistical support for our first responders. We make sure that they've got, in a military parlance, the beans, bodies, and bullets that they need to respond to whatever tactical situations that they may face. We don't tell them how to do their jobs. We make sure that they have what they need to do the job that they, the way they determine they need to do it. So that's what we do. We spend a lot of time talking with our cities and a lot of time talking with the state on how we coordinate those resources and how we get additional resources into the county in the event that we need them, okay? So that's emergency management in a nutshell. Just more verbiage, and these slides are very word dense, and I apologize for that. But we have five mission pillars, okay? We have prevention, preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery. So those are our five mission areas, okay? Response is the one that everybody always talks about and the ones that everybody sees, right? That's two percent of our time, okay? It's the fun part. It's not necessarily where we spend most of our time. We spend most of our time in preparation and mitigation, and unfortunately, on the recovery side of things. While an incident, a storm, for example, a hurricane, may affect us for a day or two, recovery can go on for literally months, and in some cases, years. We still have one mitigation project on the books from Irma that we are contending with. So it can take a long time to get back to that normal state after we experience a significant impact. But as I said, here's some of the things we think about. Wildfires, that's been kind of a topic the last couple of weeks, but thanks to Brian's rain dance, hopefully we're getting towards the end of that season. Yeah, exactly, and I'll give him the credit all day long. So anyway, sinkholes. Anybody ever had to deal with a sinkhole? We have to worry about those too, right? Exotic diseases, and not just COVID. I know my counterparts over in Texas right now are dealing with measles outbreaks, right? So there's a lot of those kinds of things. My deputy director has told me that if we ever have to do something like COVID again, she's quitting. So I'm just giving Aubrey a bad time, but we deal with that. And as I said, 10 million visitors to Volusia County, we spend a lot of time doing special event stuff. I mean, we've already seen the 500 this year. We've seen Bike Week this year. We just got done with Jeep Beach. Anybody know what the next one rolling up here in a week is? Rockville. Rockville's next week. Coke Zero Sugar 400's coming up shortly. So that's on the books, and then Biketoberfest, and so it goes, and so it goes. On top of our just normal tourist season from having world-famous beaches on the east side of the county, right? And as I understand it, we're getting more and more tourists into the west side of the county because of the mountain biking trails. So again, you folks are going to start seeing more and more of that kind of stuff too. So those are some of the things we have to deal with. But getting back to a little bit more specifically about the topic tonight, we operate out of the Emergency Operations Center. It's on Tiger Bay Road, just off of International Speedway Boulevard. It was built in 2011. It is designed to withstand 180-mile-an-hour sustained winds, and we can bunker in there, and we do bunker in there before a storm, and we stay there throughout the storm until we get the all clear. It's also co-located with the Sheriff's Dispatch Center, and the Sheriff's Dispatch Center handles all the 911 calls in the entire county for law enforcement, fire, and EMS. So we're co-located in that facility. The facility is open. If you ever want to come take a tour, come knock on the door. We'll show you around, okay? Nothing we do is top secret. So to kind of recap 2024, getting back to hurricanes, 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes, five majors, two impacts to Florida for majors, Helene and Milton, okay? At landfall, Helene was a four, at least that's what the National Weather Service is telling me, and Milton was a three. Can anybody tell me the most, the strongest storm that Volusia County, level of storm that Volusia County has ever been directly impacted by? Category one. Category one. When all the storms have gotten to Volusia County, they have not been stronger than a cat one. So while they start big, by the time we get, they get here, they're not necessarily as strong, right? Anybody remember, I mean, everybody remembers Milton last year, right? Ian, a few years before that. Charlie, those were significantly impactful to Volusia County, right? So when Brian says, be prepared, that is key, because they're not anything to be scared of, but we do need to be in a position to help ourselves and help our neighbors so we can get back to that near normal state as rapidly as possible together, and it will take all of us together. And as we've seen from a lot of the storms that have affected Volusia County, it's not just, most people think, oh, it's a hurricane, the beach is going to get washed away. Well, maybe. Do you know where the highest level of rainfall was for Milton in Volusia County? The land in Deltona, okay? You guys took the brunt of the rainfall for those storms, at least according to the official accounts. In some cases, we had reports of 18 and a half inches of rain up into land, okay? That's a lot. That's a 500-year storm event, okay? A 100-year storm event's around 11-ish, I believe, if I remember my numbers correctly. So that's a recap of the 2024 season. Some of the things, and again, I'm not telling you anything you folks don't already know. Extreme wind, tornadoes. Anybody know how many tornadoes Milton spawned? Latest official count I got was 46. St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties took the brunt of those, and we appreciate them falling on that sword for us. We really do. But again, I've been here a short period of time, but my staff, who has been here much longer, tells me that traditionally, if we do see tornadoes coming from severe weather storms, whether they be hurricanes or thunder cells, they have a tendency to follow the I-4 corridor. So again, I'm not trying to create a panic with anybody, but you folks are right here along it. So again, being prepared, being ready is absolutely critical for all of you, right? Storm surge. Storm surge, we saw it during Ian. We saw it during Nicole. Worse than Ian. That's always a problem. Coastal erosion. Everybody tells me that the beaches are still not recovered from maybe what they were pre-Ian, pre-Nicole. Hey, I'm just happy to have a beach to go to. Utah didn't have a lot of beaches. Great Salt Lake doesn't count. Okay? Just saying. Okay. Utility outages, and Brian talked about those as well. Damaged infrastructure. Okay? That's one that we spend a lot of time recovering from. Water mains, sewer systems, electrical systems, gas systems, gas stations, grocery stores. A lot of that kind of stuff can take a long time to recover. Now, Florida does a really good job at a statutory level requiring various types of facilities to be more prepared. They have stipulations on gas stations that are close to freeways, having generator backup power, those sorts of things. But again, it can take a long time to recover. And again, Brian went through this much better than I can, so I'm just going to breeze through this fairly quick. Tropical depression, up to 38 miles an hour. Tropical storm, 39 to 73. Hurricane, 74, 73 or above. Right? Okay? I will spend a little time on this. And again, Brian went through the categories. And again, there they all are. But what I want to emphasize is damage levels. Okay? So the damage incurred by these types of storms is not a linear scale. It is an exponential scale. Okay? So if we use a category one hurricane as a level one damage, by the time we get up to a category five, it's 500 times the amount of damage to be expected than a category one. So again, when we start talking escalations between categories, the potential impacts are significant. And again, I don't say that to scare anybody, but please understand the threat that we are facing when we go even from a category one to a category two. It's 10 times the amount of damage in that one step. Okay? Major hurricanes only account for 21 percent, or major hurricanes only about 21 percent make U.S. landfall. When it comes to FEMA payout and FEMA claims and the damages that are reported, they account for 83 percent of the damages reported in the U.S. due to natural disasters. So again, they are significant. Sorry, Wesh is up there, Brian, not you guys. So this is what we've been able to accrue. And again, Brian went through this. Colorado State University has a very good hurricane research center. Why they study hurricanes in Colorado, I'm not exactly sure. But they do. And again, there are the numbers that we got from them earlier in the season. They've updated that number a little bit. And that was reflected in Brian's slide. The National Weather Service, as Brian indicated, they will be coming out with their predictions May 22nd is the date that they've given us that they will come out with their predictions. So again, you can see kind of where everybody's guessing. And it's a touch above normal. It's not as big as last year's predictions. But as Brian said, it only takes one. Right? Names. You've seen the names. See, I told you, he stole a lot of my thunder here, which is a good thing. One of the things I wanted to talk about, though, too. And again, most of us here in Volusia County have experienced it. Right? The rainfall event. Right? Milton and Ian were not significant wind events for Volusia County. It was all about the water. Right? And I believe, if I remember correctly, Spruce Creek for Ian got almost 22 inches of rain in less than 18 hours. Okay? There's not a storm system in the U.S. that can handle that kind of rainfall. Right? So that's why we saw the impacts. Milton was much the same. We got a lot of water in a very short period of time. So even though it may not seem like we are going to get significantly impacted by wind, a storm may be downgraded from a hurricane back down to a tropical storm, for example. That does not necessarily mean that we will not be impacted by the water. Right? Hurricane, those categories are all based on wind speed, not necessarily water. So we want to throw that out there. The other thing, and again, Brian said the dirty side of the storm, the upper right quadrant. Right? When it comes to rainfall, it can be any place. So you can see here with Fay, it went right along the track. That was where the heaviest rainfall was. Right? For Irma, the rainfall was heaviest to the right of the track, which kind of follows with the dirty side of the storm. Right? Ian was to the left of the track. Okay? So that's on the quote-unquote clean side of the storm. So just because we're not in that situation where we're calling it a hurricane does not mean that we're not going to see significant impacts out of that. Okay? All right. And again, I'm going to just reinforce what Brian said. So this goes back to 1851 through 2020. Yet I haven't gotten an updated map on my PowerPoint since then. But this is August hurricanes. Okay? Going all the way back to when they started recording. That is what it looks like over the Florida Peninsula. Right? Here's September. There's October. October looks like somebody barfed up a plate of spaghetti on a map of Florida. Right? So October, the end of September and October are traditionally our busiest months here in Florida. And this reflects that. So again, hurricane warning, hurricane watch. Right? Hurricane watch comes first. The terminology I want to reemphasize to you folks again because that goes along with the educational piece. Right? And knowledge is power when it comes to being prepared. So hurricane force winds are possible within 48 hours. Tropical storm watch is the same. Tropical form stores, force winds are possible within 48 hours. When it switches to a warning, now they're expected within 36 hours. So please understand the difference when you hear the terms. Okay? When we go from a watch to a watch, we're like, okay, we need to pay attention. We like today, I was getting watches from about noon on about the possibility of severe thunderstorms this afternoon. It went to a warning just as our little session here kicked off. That's when I kind of perked up a little bit and started paying attention a little bit more. Okay? But please understand the terminology. So let's talk a little bit more about how to prepare. And again, Brian gave you a good overview. I just want to hit some additional key points. Stay informed. That is absolutely key. Um, but I will reemphasize what Brian said. Make sure you are getting your information from credible sources. For us in the first responder world and in emergency management, we can only act on official information from NOAA and the National Weather Service. Okay? So believe me, we don't, we tune into Brian and we don't tune into Tony and we turn it, tune into everybody else, but we can only act on the information that is provided to us by NOAA and the National Weather Service. Okay? I've got a lot of staff members that watch so-and-so's weather page and so on and somebody else's weather guests and so on and so forth. Right? It's always good to see what people are saying, but we can only act on that official information. But stay informed. Okay? Along with the stay informed, aside from watching the weather, there's other things you can do. Um, your city and the county have, um, social media pages where we put out information above and beyond maybe what the National Weather Service is talking about. We will start talking about where you can pick up sandbags, for example. Okay? Um, we will talk about where our shelters are going to open and if they're going to open and all that good kind of stuff. We push those out through social media. So subscribe to those social media, um, sites. Volusia County Emergency Management has an app. Uh, it's available on the Apple Store and the Android Store. Uh, and again, the National Weather Service alerts and other alerts like Amber Alerts come through that, uh, as well as additional information when we activate on additional things that we are doing. Again, sandbag events, shelter events, whatever it might be. Uh, I know the jerk that actually gets to call evacuations. Yeah, that's me. Um, in this county. And so we will push that information out through that app, through our traditional media and through social media as well. Uh, if we close bridges, yeah, again, I know the jerk that closes the bridges. That's me. Um, uh, we will also put that out, uh, that way as well. So stay informed. It gives you, put your finger on the pulse of not only what was going on, but we do our absolute level best in conjunction with, uh, your city officials on providing you with information, not only about what's going on, but what you can be doing, right? An evacuation order. We issued an evacuation order for Milton. Everybody aware of that? We issued an evacuation warning for for, um, flood, flood zone a anybody know what flood zone they're in here in Delta. It varies. Okay. Um, uh, there is, you can go, if you Google know your zone, you can actually go to a website that is done by the state of Florida. They can, you can put in your address and it will tell you what your, your flood zone is. And we normally evacuate by flood zone. When we pulled the trigger on flood zone evacuation a, there's about 111,000 residents in Volusia County that were in impacted by that order. Okay. So again, stay informed. Knowledge is power. Okay. Brian talked about, um, uh, the other thing that we'll try and push out is when those sales tax breaks, holidays come down the pike for preparation. Okay. They haven't announced them yet because they haven't approved the budget yet is my understanding. Traditionally, there's one, the first part of June. And then there's another one, uh, in the August, September timeframe. We're assuming that will happen again this year, but we don't have official dates yet. We will push that information out as well. So again, to reduce the impact as much as possible on you folks to be prepared. Okay. Um, prepare a kit Deltona fire over here and your folks have done a fantastic job of showing off a very, very good kit, uh, for a, for a, for a household. Okay. Um, there's a bajillion variations on that kit. Uh, you can buy them commercially. You can create your own. Uh, it all is dependent on, on how you want to do it, but I recommend you have a kit and we'll talk about some of the things to have in a kit here in just a minute. Okay. Know your evacuation zone. We talked about that. Make a plan. Okay. Does everybody know what their evacuation route is out of their, their neighborhood? Okay. We have official ones that we don't publish until we need them because every storm or every incident that we have has a personality to it, if you will, and it can change. So we don't want people getting in the habit of going down this evacuation path. If all of a sudden that evacuation path is underwater, for example, right? But know some alternative routes to get out of your neighborhood or, or, um, get out of your city. Did everybody see what happened to I-95 and I-4 pre Milton? We saw all the traffic coming from Tampa and other places. We were driving on the shoulders legally. I've seen a lot of illegal driving on the shoulders, but that's a whole nother story. Um, so, and again, while we weren't necessarily in that evacuation order, we were impacted by all of that traffic. And not only were we impacted by the traffic leaving, then everybody had to come back, right? So we got it both directions. So know some alternatives when it comes to evacuation. If you have kids, grandkids that you're responsible for and they go to school, how are you going to get reattached with those people if you need to evacuate? So have a family communication plan, right? Um, sometimes included in that can be a family meeting point. If you can't get ahold of each other on these little nifty gizmos, and guess what the first thing to fail when something bad happens is it's these nifty little gizmos, though the cell phone companies do a very good job trying to keep them up and operating. But do you have alternative, um, modes to contact friends and family? Do you have an out-of-state point of contact? Sometimes it's easier to call across the country than it is to call across town. So have an out-of-state point of contact where somebody can, if you can't get ahold of your friends and family here, you can at least let somebody out-of-state know. Now you've got a common contact point where you can connect and say, yeah, I've heard from so-and-so and everybody's okay, right? Um, but that family communication plan. A lot of times, um, and again, coming from the Salt Lake Valley was a little different. We had a lot of no-notice events, um, meaning that we didn't get any warning that they were coming. Um, meeting locations. If I can't get ahold of you on the cell, on my cell phone, go to this location and we will meet there. Okay? So there's those kinds of things that you can put tools in your toolbox, so to speak, to help you be more resilient and more resistant to the impacts that we may suffer. Okay? Um, the other thing, look out for each other in your community. Um, we all have, uh, friends, family, neighbors that maybe are limited in their mobility or their ability to take care of themselves. Make sure that we're looking out for those folks as well. Um, to that end, there is a special needs registry and Carissa will probably touch on that a little bit. Um, that you can register those folks in pre-storm and that gives us an emergency management, the health department, our first responders, a database to go off of a people that might need a little extra help and a little extra warning to help get them out of, out of harm's way. Okay? Um, evacuations. Um, there's a, there's some terminology that's kind of out there that is a little bit erroneous. Uh, some people will talk about mandatory evacuations versus involuntary evacuations. I'm here to tell you an evacuation order is an evacuation order. Okay? I will probably, you will probably not see me come out and say this is a mandatory evacuation or a voluntary evacuation. This is just an evacuation order. That means we are telling you conditions are going to be bad enough. We don't want you in that impact zone anymore. Okay? And part of that is because the situation may cause an environment that is immediately dangerous to life and health. There's a phrase that we like to use a lot. Um, or it may be that we can't get help to you if you pick up the phone and call 9-1-1 because you, you haven't left, you've gotten in trouble. We pick up the phone and call 9-1-1. Our first responders will literally kill themselves trying to get to you, but there are some situations potentially where they physically cannot get to you. And the last thing we want is for you folks to be in a situation where you pick up the phone, you call 9-1-1 and the answer is we'll get to you as soon as we can. Okay? So that's one of the things. Um, long-term interruption of, of, um, public utilities, fresh water, sewer, electricity, gas. Um, my experiences with hurricanes, one of the biggest problems, uh, that we see a lot of the times in, in debris cleanup and repopulating areas that are evacuated are what we call white waste. Unfortunately, when do most of our hurricanes occur? September, October, right? What's the temperature like in, in, in central Florida in September and October? Okay? Now imagine your refrigerator going without power for a week in that kind of heat and what it looks like, smells like, and, and feels like after in central Florida. Okay? All of that stuff comes into account, right? We've got to get you, we want you out of that dangerous situation. Okay? Um, down power lines, that's a big issue, right? We'll see them all over the county. We don't know if they're energized or not. Again, our utility companies do a very, very good job in making, in trying to make sure that we're safe and everybody is safe when they move around, but we can't always tell if a line's de-energized or not. If that line happens to be down on a chain link fence and that chain link fence runs for two blocks, that whole fence is energized, right? So there's just environmental impacts and things that we cannot control and you cannot see that makes it dangerous for you to be in that impact zone. So that's why we issue those evacuation orders. The last thing I want to do is ask you folks to leave your homes and leave your possessions, right? Not my favorite thing to do. Trust me. Okay? I work for the government. I'm here to help, honestly. Um, but I'll go back to the old cliche saying stuff can be replaced. People cannot. And that's where my priority is, is making sure that you are all here after the storm to be mad at me for asking you to leave. Okay? And I'm okay with that. So those are just some of the things that we talk about. Why do we evacuate? Okay? The other thing, if we do evacuate folks, I will ask in your patience in getting back into your homes. Okay? A lot of the times with hurricanes and we've all seen it, right? Within a day, the storm's gone. The sun's out. It looks nice outside. Why can't I go back home? Well, we are dealing with all of those impacts, including cleaning up all of those nasty refrigerators, that we have to make sure that the environment is safe before we can let you back in. So be patient with us when it comes to the repopulation side of the evacuation. We are doing our level best and we have lots of help that is out there doing that as well. But it takes a minute. So please be patient with us. Okay? So what can we do right now? We've talked about a lot of them. Know your risk. Anybody live in a, in a, anybody know their flood zone right now? What flood zone they're in? Okay. Know your zone will help with that. If you're in a flood zone, guess what's going to happen when a storm comes? You're going to flood. Yeah, I know. It's not rocket science folks or I wouldn't be here. Right? Do you live in a manufactured or a mobile home? They're a lighter weight construction and they have a tendency to suffer damage easier than a typically, what's now typical in this area in, in, in Florida are those block constructed homes or those block constructed buildings, right? So know what your vulnerabilities are. Have an evacuation plan. We talked about that. I always tell people, Hey, you don't have to wait for me to issue an evacuation order. If it feels uncomfortable for you, leave, right? Go visit the mouse in Orlando. Go do something. Go visit friends and family in Georgia. I don't care. Right? But if it's uncomfortable, go have two evacuation routes. Again, a primary and a backup. We've talked about notify friends and family, neighbors out of state, out of state com contacts and carry with you. And we'll get into this a little bit more. A list of important phone numbers. What should be on your list of important phone numbers, folks, friends and family that's given, right? What else? There's the one I was looking for right there. Your insurance company that will become huge later on. Okay. That's an important number. Okay. Any other phone numbers or contacts that you think you should have doctors, you may need to call and get a prescription transferred, adjusted, extended, those kinds of things. Okay. So think, think a little bit outside of the box, play that what if game with yourself. Okay. Um, we've talked about the family communication plan. I will, uh, I'll reemphasize here too. Please consider pets if you have pets in, in your family. Um, it's heartbreaking when we are forced to deal with abandoned pets. Uh, we had to do that a lot, uh, in my experiences with Katrina and Rita, uh, down in, uh, Mississippi and Louisiana. Uh, lots and lots of animals were, had to be euthanized because they were left behind. Okay. So please consider your pets when it comes to that. Um, basic terminology and notifications, right? We've talked about those. We've given you a little bit of knowledge tonight to talk about those. The next one insurance. I know insurance is a four letter word in the state of Florida right now. I get it. But if at all possible, please include insurance as a tool in your toolbox. Now is a good time to reach out to your agent and understand what your level of coverage is. A lot of policy, not a lot. Some policies will have exceptions written into them about extreme wind, for example. Right? And if there's that exception in there, guess what? They're not paying. Flood insurance is separate from your homeowner's insurance. There's water damage in most homeowner or renter's insurance policies, but not flood. They are separate. And they will tell you that when you call them and say, Hey, my house flooded. Oh, it flooded. I'm sorry to hear that. You're not covered. Okay. So if at all possible, have though, make sure you know what your, your coverage is and you include as much coverage as possible for flood insurance. Please understand if you need to add it, you can't add it the day before a storm hits. Most insurance companies require 30 days notice for a policy to go into effect. So think that's why I'm saying, think about it now because we're inside that 30 day window to the start of hurricane season. And there's nothing that says that we won't see an early, an early season hurricane. Again, I'm not trying to panic anybody, but I live in that what if world. So that's what I do. Okay. Some other minor things to think about. If it looks like we are going to get a storm. Okay. Don't wait until 24 hours before to go down to the corner gas station and fill up your car. Do it beforehand. Okay. If you've got the capability of safely storing a little extra gasoline, it's never a bad idea, right? Whether it's for your home generator or whether it's for your car, it's good to have that sort of thing around. But again, make sure you're storing it safely and appropriately if you do so. Let's talk about other things in your kit for a minute. I'm going to deviate from my slides here. I can do death by PowerPoint all day long, but some other things to think about with your kit. And again, your fire department has done a wonderful job in preparing this kit. What are some other things that you think you would need to put in your kit? There's one really specific answer I'm looking for here. Important documents, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, insurance information, all of that stuff, social security cards, and they need to be the originals. The reason being, if you have to apply for assistance after the fact, copies don't work. Okay. They will work, but there's an additional process, right? So you need, if you can have the originals with you, it just speeds that recovery process for you. So important documents in some sort of watertight container that you can put in your kit. Okay. What else? What's that? Cash. That's the other one I was looking for. It really sucks if you go to the gas station to fill up and they say the power's down, we're on generator power, cash only. Most of us, except in times of a storm, I don't carry cash anymore. My wife doesn't let me out of the house with cash. She says I'm dangerous with it, but that's a whole nother story. Most of them will go into this cash and carry mode, right? It really sucks if you need cash, you run up to the local ATM and the power's out. Guess what? The ATM doesn't work. Okay. So I have a little cash on hand. That's never a bad idea. Okay. Those are the two big things I wanted to touch on. Family communications plan. We've talked about that already. Again, more information about your disaster kit. A lot of places will say 72 hours. We recommend 96 hours. Plan on being on your own for 96. I won't steal too much of Carissa's thunder, but I will say even if you end up going to a shelter, whether it is a general population shelter or a special needs shelter, please understand those shelters that we establish are called shelters of last resort. Okay. And again, I'm not trying to panic anybody. I just want to be transparent with you. Those are not what you normally see in a movie where you see a shelter set up and there's all kinds of nice, neat little cots and lots of people running around to help and stuff like that. Normally it's at one of our schools. It's in the gymnasium or the cafeteria and there's no furniture. So think about things to put in your kit that if you need to go to a shelter, that makes your stay there a little bit easier. Blankets, sweaters, chairs, okay, et cetera, et cetera. Food, snacks, things to entertain yourself with. It really, again, most people entertain themselves with these. The power runs out. Can't always guarantee you that you're going to be able to charge it, right? I always, in my kit, I got a deck of cards, right? Just something where I can keep myself entertained. Again, just to help with that whole sheltering experience if we need to go to. But these are things, and there's some information up here at the front next to your fire department's display that I can leave here for you that's got a lot of this information in it as well, okay? And we've talked about this. And again, Brian and people talked about battery-powered flashlights and battery-powered radios. They are good. I am a fan of solar-powered or hand-cranked, okay? The reason being, I don't have to carry extra batteries and the batteries don't go bad sitting on the shelf waiting to be used, okay? That's just a personal preference for me. If you do use battery-operated devices, make sure you've got extra batteries. We talked about the important documents. Here's the other one. Medications and glasses or contacts, right? Make sure you've got a sufficient supply because they may not be readily available. Here's some just suggestions on some of those extra funsy things. Change of bed linens, specialty items for babies and children. Nothing worse than having a kid at a shelter or on a long car trip, and you've got to entertain them and there's nothing to entertain them with, right? So think about that. Coloring books, again, those things that don't require power. My wife's kid is 22 years old, so I don't know what the latest trend with young kids are. I don't know if a lot of kids know what coloring books are anymore, but I'm just saying, okay? Any specific personal hygiene items you might need, some extra tools, a basic set of tools is good. Here's another one that I've seen a lot. Extra keys. I swear during most major disasters, there's a little gremlin that runs around and eats keys, okay? And if you get into that, when you get into that repopulation area, one of the things that law enforcement kind of looks for is, do you have a key to the front door? Because if you do, I know you belong there and I can let you in, right? If you don't have a key, it takes a little longer to reunify you with your, back to your home, for example, and you may suffer some additional damage, i.e. the door gets kicked in for you to get you in, or a window gets broken or something like that. So again, have an extra set of keys in your kit, okay? Pets. Again, I said, please don't forget your pets. Include them when you talk about water. The recommendation is one gallon per person per day. A pet is a person when it comes to planning for that, so make sure you include that. Food, medications, special food if they need it. A lot of shelters. If you don't have a carrier or a leash, you may be asked to, you may be separated from your pet and that pet put in a special location away from everybody else because there's no way to contain them. Does that make sense? Okay? And that may happen anyway, just depending on what the shelter is and how it's laid out, okay? After the storm, again, Brian talked about it, don't use candles or open flame. I won't even say I recommend you don't. I'm just going to tell you don't, okay? It really sucks to live through a big hurricane or a big storm or a big natural disaster, weather, and then your home burns down because you had an accident with a candle. That's really a bad day. You might even constitute a bad week, right? Take extra care with the generators. Unfortunately, we always seem to have casualties after a storm from carbon monoxide poisoning related to generator use. Drive only if necessary. If the lights are out, it's a four-way stop, okay? And again, all the other stuff that seems common sense, but if common sense were so common, right? Okay? Food safety, here's another one. We talked about the refrigerators. When in doubt, throw it out, okay? Again, healthcare services, emergency medical services may be delayed or reduced in their capacity to help you, so don't put yourself in a position unnecessarily that you need to use their help, okay? That's it. That's all I've got, and you're like, thank God. Can you shut up and sit down there, right? Are there any questions? Ma'am. Special needs registry. Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. No, you're good. Again, like I said, this is being televised, so we want everyone out there to know what the question is to the answer. Okay. Thank you. When you mentioned special needs registry, how, to what degree of special needs? I have an 88-year-old mother. She's still mostly mobile. Is that, would that be like a special needs? So, I'm going to turn this one over to Carissa. Carissa is my cohort in crime. She is from the Florida Department of Health. The Florida Department of Health is one of our absolute essential partners when it comes to special needs and special needs sheltering, and she can probably answer that. In general, my answer is, if she's limited in mobility in any way, or it takes her a little bit longer to do something, register her. There's no harm or foul in doing so, and I would rather err on the side of safety than not. Carissa, and I'll let you expand on that. Thanks. Yes, go ahead and have her register, or you can register her. But yes, it's important to go ahead and get her in there, because again, sometimes things change over time too, so it's always important to go back into that registry and get that. I have a question about bank vaults. You said to take all your paperwork with you. Yes, ma'am. Your important paperwork. If we have a bank vault, is it safe in there? Is it a vault in your home, or is it a vault in the bank? In the bank. It depends on the bank, and I'm not going to pick on any banks. Their vaults are very secure, but if it gets flooded, sometimes water is insidious, and sometimes it gets into the vault. So there's always a concern there, and then the other piece becomes, can you get to the documentation after the storm? Can you get to the bank to get it out? Okay, and my last question, and I thank you for all of this. I thank you for having all this. About evacuations, I don't know of an evacuation route in Deltona. Okay, so normally what happens, if we issue an evacuation order, again, remember I said each storm's got a personality, we will give you recommended routes that we know are open, and that we coordinate with law enforcement, for example, so we have, and FDOT, so we have the extra capability. We have them pre-designated, but we will tell you the major routes, the major roads and stuff to use. I can't give you a specific to get to, out of your neighborhood, to that major road. So when I say have some alternates, have some alternates on how to get out of your neighborhood to the major roads. Okay. Thank you for helping me clarify that. I probably didn't do a good job of that. Thank you. Of course. Any other questions for me? If I may add something to that question, you know, sometimes when I'm driving around, I pay attention to the signs, and I've seen some signs that says evacuation route. And again, that would tell you, like, that's the road that you need to follow, and I guess you just keep following the signs as you keep going along. And we will give you destination points, too. We will tell you where to go, and the reason that we don't have those front-loaded for you is, again, the situation may change, and I don't want you getting in the habit of, oh, my evacuation route, I go here, I go here, and go here, and I'm driving you into a flooded road, for example, right? So we try and be careful. But if we issue the evacuation order, we will be pushing out information about what routes are safe and where to go is safe. About the special needs, where do I register? All right. So that's it for Clint's question. Any other questions for me? And I'm going to turn and give some time to Carissa. She's going to talk about special needs and special needs shelters. She's much more of an expert on that than I am. So thank you. Folks, again, thank you for letting me share part of your question. Thank you, Clint. Thanks, Clint. All right. So for special needs shelters, there is a way to register. Up on the table, there is a flyer for it that you can get. There's a QR code on there, and there's also the website that you can go to. What's important about the special needs shelter is the people that need oxygen are something that requires power to keep them going, because it's a medical device. We will have the power. Now, we are last resource. So again, if you have a family member, register them, even if they're not going to come to us, but just get them into the system and registered. But the best place for them to be is with the family, our friends, because again, they're used to it and they're comfortable. We want them to be healthy and happy and as best they can, right? Because we're all under a lot of anxiety at this point. Our anxiety is going because we have this, we're trying to get this way from the storm. There is going. We also do have a room for an area that we try to put our Alzheimer's and dementia patients. So that way, if we do, if they do have to come to us, we are able to handle them. Now at our shelters, we do have some nurses there. They're, you know, they're there just to kind of do the minimal, just to assist. They'll help you with, take your vitals if you need it, help you get your medications, but they are not what you will find in an ER or in a medical facility. These are just, um, our nurses that we have our health department, which are family planning nurses. Um, but they are there to assist in that way. We also, the health department does stock up the, um, shelters. We do have six shelters. The school gives us, um, three on the West side, three on the East side. Now, which ones are we using? Well, that'll be based on the County Clint over there. He will then decide which ones we are opening and, um, they will put out that announcement on which ones will be open. So you guys can get to those shelters. Um, special needs shelters also are pet friendly. So if you do have a pet, you may bring your pet with you. Now, if it is a service animal, the service animal will stay with the patient while they're there at the shelter, because again, the service animal is providing a service. Um, if it's just a domestic animal, um, they will go into an area that is set aside for pets. Um, we have a room that we do put aside for pets. Um, again, if you're bringing a cat, make sure that the cat has a cage, kennel, um, that's big enough to fit a litter box, because they do need a place to go potty. Um, and you don't want to let them out because then there might be a, you might be missing your cat. Yeah. So, um, but you'll be responsible for the care of your pet. We do have an animal service individual that will be at the shelter for the, at the special needs shelter. Um, but again, that's one person and there's going to be lots of pets. So you will be responsible for making sure and making sure you bring your animals, food and water bowls, things like that. And yes, at the special needs shelters, we do have cots there for our clients because they are usually the most vulnerable of the population. So we try to make sure that they're set. Um, but if you have any questions about the special needs shelter, please register for this now instead of right when it happens. So that way we can make sure we have everything that is needed when you guys are there. Any questions? Thank you. So we sort of come down outside. It was really ugly out there. I mean, I just opened the door and I got soaking wet. It just splashed all over me. My papers are all soaking wet. Um, but, um, the next, um, I'm going to jump over a little bit. Um, person we're going to come up call is the assistant chief of the fire department, Steven cousins. Um, so that he can quickly give us a quick demo or information, uh, what the fire department does and what they can do to help you. And then we'll go into the last resort to save you doing everything that's been discussed, which is the insurance. Thank you very much. Uh, thank you very much. So I appreciate it. Uh, thank you very much. My name is Steve cousins. Um, I'm assistant chief and one of my roles as assistant chief is a mercy management coordinator. Our fire chief bill Snyder is our mercy manager for the city. Um, and we, we ramp up those roles historically, um, in, in hurricane season, that's typically our most active second most active is typically, uh, wildfire season. And then we fill everything in, in between special events and things like that. So, um, uh, to me, what stands out the most so far, uh, coming towards the end is, uh, there's so many resources out there. There's a lot of information, a lot of resources. The biggest thing is, is understanding the resources are there and knowing where to find them. Um, Clint talked about, um, the Volusia County website is a great place. There's a lot of resources, um, that, that fit us here in Deltona as well as the County as a whole. Um, those resources are coordinated. They're shifted to where the largest need is right to, to meet the demands of the many. Um, so websites are good. Uh, just one last time re hit when you look for, um, legitimate information, I can't urge you enough to find an official government related site, whether it's National Weather Service, NOAA, um, Volusia County, the city of Deltona, those are those most trusted sites, right? Um, typically, um, if you look at Deltona and you look at the county, um, you will see a majority of information mirrored, right? So things like sandbag locations will be on our site, but it'll be combined, um, countywide on the countywide site. So typically the information we have, they'll have and vice versa. Um, sometimes they may be a little quicker at posting things or we may be a little quicker, but, but those sites, um, you want to drill down a little bit in, into our local level level here in Deltona. Um, you're going to, you're going to get just things that are related to us. Um, small things that may be beneficial looking on a bigger side as well is, is a sandbag location. For example, uh, you're in the city, but there may be a county location like, um, right off of, um, four 15 at the fire station 36 here in Osteen. That may be a shorter drive. I may have more sand or things like that. So just, just get those trusted resources. And, um, we try to keep those up to date as much as possible. So again, drill them down at the local level. So when we have a specifically hurricane related, um, we'll coordinate with the county, state, NOAA, National Weather Service, all that stuff to make these determinations. Um, and, and everything primarily is on a coordinated effort. So when we do stand up, um, the emergency operations center here in our city, city Deltona is in this room that we're sitting in today. Um, we've made improvements to the structure and building to make sure it's safe and sound for us to occupy the space. And just like Clint said that they do, um, we eat, sleep and, and work out of this, this building primarily right here. Um, a lot of work goes ahead of time. Our logistics department comes in and make sure we have food resources, cots, all those things. Um, and as a whole, every department comes in here primarily and occupies some at some level in the room. Um, we have departments like, um, code enforcement that help us post storm. So they ramp up and get their things. They go home, they stay safe post of post storm. They'll come in and they'll do assessments. They'll assess at the citywide level. Um, they'll help assess, um, city infrastructure, city, city, um, parks, facilities, and things like that to let us know what the, what the level of damage is on some of the most critical infrastructure that we have, right? Super important things for us are water, right? Roads, access, and things a little bit out of our control power, right? What we have control, um, related to that is, is opening up roadways and assisting in opening up roadways so the power company can get in and things like that. So, um, so out of this room, um, you'll see water department, you'll see public works, everybody will be in here, fire, us, EMS as well, sheriff's office. Um, they have a seat at the table as well. Um, all of our utility folks are in here. So we're up and running and we'll, we'll do that ahead of time and, um, and we'll run through the event until the primary response, um, and mitigation piece is done. Meaning not every single road necessarily is open and not every power is restored to everything, every home. But as long as the majority of the assets are up and running and things are stabilized to the point that we can start getting everybody back to normal, you guys back to your homes, hopefully with power, as well as the folks that have been in here for usually several days, they get home, they get the check, and then they get back to their offices, right? The most comfortable place, most efficient place for them to work. Um, so that's kind of our cycle, um, through our EOC. What guides us through all our disasters, hopefully a limited number, um, on a small scale is our comprehensive emergency management plan. Um, we have one on the local level. Um, it dovetails in at the countywide level, right? Is there complementary to each other? And it outlines everything in responsibilities by department, right? We pull that out. We ensure, um, we train annually on the plan. We stand up and we'll set up the EOC and make sure everything from computer connections are working, power, antennas, all those things are up and running. So at the point in time, we have to stand up and occupy this room. Everything's good to go. That'll happen later on this month for us. Um, and we'll do that and, and ensure everybody knows their roles and responsibilities. Staff constantly changes, so we ensure that everybody is where they need to be. Um, I won't hit too much on the, the resources and things like that, right? We've, we've had, um, a lot of information about it. Um, but just know if you are having trouble finding a piece of information, please call us. Just call our main number and we'll direct you in the right place. Just like we had somebody call and ask about, Hey, where do I find the special needs registry? How do I do it? We were able to, to sit down, talk them through it. Um, this person needed lecture help. So we were on the phone as they were, they were getting online and doing it and we walked them through. That's what we're here to do is to support you, um, through that whole process. A few things on the, um, for us is, is, uh, Clint talked about is, is get prepared early. Um, do everything from take advantage of a public's, uh, BOGO on some food and shelf stable stuff to, um, flood zones to, to anything you can do to prep, right? And, and know those things. Understand that at the same time you're prepping, right? At those four days in, in sooner, we're doing the same thing as the city. Um, we're boarding up facilities still need to be boarded up that don't have hurricane rated windows. Um, we continue to clean, uh, drainage ditches. We continue to check on infrastructure that are there. Um, we're ordering supplies, um, example, everything from adding a few extra chainsaws, some more fuel and things like that. And, and the fire department law enforcement is re-racking a schedule, um, bringing in additional people, setting that up. And, uh, we have to have the employees time to fix and get settled at home so they can come in. Um, so while you're preparing, so are we. It doesn't mean we don't have time. We're here to ensure and guide you in whatever direction you need, um, for any, any of those questions that you have. Um, again, we're hunkered down. We're doing everything we can do to respond in the most efficient and effective manner. Um, and, and we're out as soon as we can after, um, both folks, um, prior to me talked about there's going to be a point in time where we may not be able to respond or have a delayed response out. Um, wind is a big thing for us. We have high profile vehicles. Um, it sounds silly, but, um, an ambulance struggles a little bit sooner than a fire truck, even though a fire truck oftentimes a little bit taller, but due to its weight, it can traverse a little bit better where ambulances have to come off the roads a little bit sooner on wind and patrol cars are even sooner than that. So at some point in time, there may be a delay or, or postponement and we won't be able to respond. So again, finding an appropriate place, if that's home based on what's coming, that's fine, right? That's the easiest. Um, the next easiest and just one more time to reinforce is the next easiest place is with a family member or friend, right? They know you, they understand you, they have the creature comforts of the things that are there. And then of course the shelter is, is the last resort. Um, understand that when you evacuate or you decide to relocate, um, uh, all the way back from me, I'm a native of Florida and Volusia County. I was born and lived in New Smyrna beach pretty much my whole life. I worked there till I retired and then came back to work here in Deltona and, and extremely happy. It's a great place to work. No, no, just, just stating the truth. But one of the things, um, through, um, the 04 hurricanes were real simple. We saw clogs on some of those first storms on 95 hours and hours and hours and hours of not moving. Um, you may not, depending upon the circumstance and then like Clint said, every storm is different. You may not need to go out of state. You may just need to move inland, just a little bit North, just a little bit South. So you don't have to be hours. You don't have to be in Atlanta. You don't have to be in Tennessee. You don't have to be necessarily in other places, right? Um, typically you want to find a place. If you have a family friend or relative, you want to get out of that, you know, preferably you want to be out of that category one, right? Or lower situation. So, um, if, if Volusia County is kind of in the main heart of it, you may be able to go just slightly farther East on Ocala or something like that and get out of that really significant, um, uh, risk area. Um, you don't have to always be miles and miles or States away to do that, to get to a safe location. So pre-planning that ahead of time and those options, um, and just staying current. Um, I'll close, um, cause she knows I can talk all day. A lot of materials already been covered, but the biggest thing locally is, is that if you're struggling to get information or finding out accurate information, or you just need some guidance on, I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do or, Hey, is there a resource? Call us, stop by, and we will get you pointed in the right direction. If it's something we can handle, we will, if we can get you in contact with Clint or his staff, if it's kind of above our scale or any of the other resources are out there, but I can guarantee you there's more resources out there than most people are typically aware of. So again, if you're struggling to find that, find the right answer, or you're not sure, call us and we will either get you the answer, point you in the right direction, but we won't leave you hanging. We will always ensure that you get whatever information you need, um, for the planning purposes that, that you guys have. So I'll end it with, is there, is there any questions? That's one of my shortest thoughts. I'm telling you, I'm giving you an award. Thank you. You know, one of the things that, um, I have to say is immediately after hurricane has passed and is safe, these guys are out on the road with our code, uh, compliance staff accessing the damages and making sure that all the roads are safe for our residents to travel in. And as he said, this room becomes the, uh, emergency, uh, shelter, uh, center for us. So everything here looks different. Every department is here. The sheriff's department is here. I mean, everybody that works for the city is here. Um, and I can tell you that probably nobody knows it, but once the county declares a state of emergency, our city manager no longer exists. The chief of the police, of the, I'm sorry, chief of the fire department takes over the control of the city. They run the city. So all the orders and, and recommendations and this comes from our chief, our fire chief. Um, so the next person that's going to be speaking, it's, uh, from AAA. I know that, um, you was, you brought her to speak, right? I left my, my notes. Okay. I wouldn't love you for that. So, um, this is the next, uh, I guess the most important phase in your life when it comes to hurricane tornadoes and stuff, which is your insurance. Um, and hopefully everybody does have a home insurance if you need to have one. And, um, I have to pass experience for a lot of insurance. All right. I live on a hill. So I was told that if I flood, the old tone is gone. So I'm good with that. But, um, if you guys want to come up and speak on, on behalf of your insurance, uh, I know we have AAA. Here you go. Thank you. Very sturdy. Hey, good evening, everybody. Um, Mike Comento with Comento Insurance Group, and this is Jen with AAA Insurance. Uh, we're going to be kind of short and sweet because we have a fantastic group of people that have already spoken. Um, I'm actually kind of impressed with the caliber of people that we have here in Deltona helping us. It's pretty cool. Um, they've already touched on pretty much 90% of what I think we were going to say. Um, a couple of things that they didn't talk about with your actual insurance policy. One, of course, know your coverage. Two, know the things that are not included in your coverage. How many people have solar panels? Okay. If you have solar panels, oh, I got my, my homeowner's insurance set up 10 years ago, and then I added solar panels, but I never added my $30,000 insurance panels to my insurance policy. Guess what will not be covered most likely? So little things like that. I added a shed. Um, I have an extensive amount of jewelry or firearms. Those kinds of things typically need additional coverages with your homeowner's insurance. So always kind of keep an eye on that. Um, for your health insurance, which is kind of more my side of specialty, um, know what kind of network you have. Where can I go? If my local doctor gets flooded and I can't go there for a month, what are my backup options? Medications. Do I have enough to go through a couple of weeks? You know, if I have to leave town or whatever, uh, things like that. Um, and then I'm going to let you talk because I think that's pretty much mostly what I wanted to talk about. Thanks so much for having me, Mike. And of the city of Deltona, I just wanted to share a quick about myself. I'm Jen Canada and I am with triple A and we do have home insurance, flood insurance, auto insurance. We are writing new policies right now for homes in Florida. A lot of people were worried that we were not writing new home policies right now, but we do have home insurance and we are writing new home insurance. Flood insurance is really important. It's our own product, but it is the national flood insurance program. We did find out and confirm that any policies that get started between now and September, they are guaranteeing through FEMA that they will, um, cover for the entire year. And so I know a lot of people were worried about if FEMA was going to have the funds to be able to even back those policies. Yes, the reinsurance has been confirmed and the national flood insurance is allowing us to continue to write brand new flood insurance policies. There is a 30 day wait on flood insurance. So now is the time to get with your agent. If you don't have one, I would love to do that for you. Um, my name is Jen Canada and I have been an insurance agent for 12 years here in Florida. I'm married to a fireman and paramedic. He's retired from city of Orlando and he did 25 years. So I understand both sides is the after effect, things that happen and also what things that you might need to protect. A lot of people just don't even know what kind of policy they have. They bought whatever the realtor recommended because that was the price that they needed to get their home loan. Pull out that paperwork, call your agent, ask them to go through it with you. Okay. We want to see you every year. We want to talk about what's changed in your house and in your life. Did you have a new baby? Did you buy a new car? Did you add the solar panels? Do you have a screened room off the back of the house? That's usually not automatically covered at the time of a hurricane. It needs to be included. You want to list that extra item on your policy. So call me and let us talk about it. We want to walk through the policy line for line. Maybe you don't need all the stuff that was automatically included in there. Maybe you can save a little bit of money and we can find that extra money that you need to buy that flood insurance. Right? So I'm Jen Canada with AAA. I'm out of your local Daytona office or Heathrow. I grew up here in Deltona. I actually graduated from Pine Ridge. Go Panthers. And I've been in this area for 30 years. So I do know the area and I'm happy to help talk through your policies line by line. I am a teacher at our office. I actually teach classes for mature drivers. And so I am really dedicated to helping you understand what you have. You know, I have some flyers here if you need them. It's Jen Canada. And my email, if you want to contact me, is jcanada at acg.aa.com. And you can contact me that way. You can reach out. You can send me a copy of your policy. You can just send me your name, your address, and your birth date. And I can reply to you with that flood quote. I can tell you how much it would cost to have that added flood insurance at your house and make sure that you're protected. Again, it's Jen Canada with AAA. And we do have new policies that we can help you with now. And it's not to sell something. It's just to make sure that you're protected. I can help you find the money for it in your policy, I bet. That's pretty much it, guys. Like I said, everybody else has really covered it. Have all your documents. Put them all in one place. It's a good idea, regardless of what's going on. Oh, that was the other thing I was going to say. Before a storm comes, take photos. Don't take pictures of every single thing. You know where your couch is going to still be there. But if you have a workshop full of tools, I have a big workshop in my backyard full of tools. Every year, if a storm's coming, I go in there and take photos because I have to be able to show the insurance company, yes, I had that table saw and I had this, that, and the other. Those are very expensive. So, yes, always take photos. You can also email them to yourself. Basically, everybody today has their phone. They have the cloud and everything. So, typically, everything's automatically backed up. You notice how a woman has to always be next to a man to help them out? You notice that, huh? I did. One of the things that I learned in one of the previous presentations was to always look at your insurance papers. And you're going to find that what your home is valued to be replaced on your papers is much less than what it's really going to cost you, God forbid, something happens to your home. That you're not really insured properly and that you need maybe a little bit higher insurance to make sure that your home is covered completely. And I learned that from another person that I know from an insurance company. There's a standard replacement cost that you can add that will cover you if labor and lumber and materials actually are higher at the time of a loss, which after a storm, cost of materials is higher. You know, it's hard to get that wood. It's hard to get that block. And so, you can add an endorsement to your current policy for that added extended replacement cost. Right. And everything is going up now these days. So, and hurricanes around the corner. So, you go home and look at your insurance papers and make sure that, you know, everything is covered. You wanted to ask a question? Yes. One other thing real quick I want to add on to that because I'm sorry. I'm not as high tech as some of our previous speakers where they had PowerPoints. I just had a little notepad. One thing a lot of people don't realize, your regular deductible for your homeowner's insurance and your hurricane deductible are two very different numbers. Typically, it goes from $1,000 to 3% of the overall cost, which can be, you know, 10 grand up sometimes. Yes. Question? I know. You're a Sobel, right? Emma Rose. Emma Rose. Sobel's my sister. She's an Emma. Oh, I'm sorry, my question. Sorry. Number one, salvage credit. Do you guys do HO6 policies for condos? Yes. Yes. Yes. And this is a dumb question, but I've been asked it multiple times, so I want to ask. Flood insurance. If you live on the second floor of a condo, do you need flood insurance? Yeah. Basically, you need flood insurance for anything you want to be covered for flooding. So what? Flood is not rising water? It is. No. Yes. So your water damage, and correct me if I'm wrong, because this is, she does more property and casualty. I do more health life. Yeah, call her. But typically speaking, when you have water damage coverage in your policy, it's more for, like, a pipe bursting, not... That's even a separate endorsement. No, but water damage can be a pipe burst. Yeah, too. The roof is leaking. Yeah, that's it. The plumbing's messed up. You pulled out the, you know, refrigerator to clean behind it, and you pushed it back, and the tubing broke. That can be water damage in the house. A flood is, from the outside, it has to cover at least two properties, so not just your property, but your neighbor also has to be flooding, or the street has to be flooding. So it's two or more properties, and the water has to come up from outside. Two inches of water can cause a ton of damage. How on the second floor could you have damage? Your neighbor is going to get some erosion on a foundation because there's water, and then everything's going to shift a little bit. Well, that's going to cause you to have problems, too. I know of an example, beachside during Ian, a storm door broke on a balcony on the 23rd floor, and caused damage all the way down. So the storm broke damage all the way down. It's not water damage. It's flood damage. The coverage that we have, so the confusion to me is, I'm on the second floor. There's something in there called wind-driven rain. So there's like all different, so that's the stuff that needs. Lots of different scenarios where they can say no thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And my owners always, like my owners say, do I need flood? I'm like, you're on the second floor. Like, it's not raising all the way up there, but that's the information I need to find out. Yep. Okay, so you can talk after the meeting and make an appointment, and then thank the city. We're happy to help, but just want people to understand what they have, so that they can feel confident going into it and not be like, oh, I wish that I had checked before. Any other questions? So go home and check your policy. Make sure that you have the coverage necessary, especially now with the inflation going up and everything raised, you know. Thank you guys so much, and I apologize for the short, but you like that, right, Mike? It was short and quick. Absolutely. Okay, look at this. I have so many microphones. I don't know which one to use. So, again, thank you, everyone, from coming out, and I hope that you're walking away with something, some information that you didn't know about, and that's going to help you when you get back home. I want to give a big shout out, and thank you to our PIO, Catherine, who actually put all this together for me, and her staff. Also want to give a shout out to Parks and Rex, Ruben, who's stuck back there in the darkroom. Let's see who else. And again, thank you, everyone, for being here and choosing to be more educated on what's, you know, what the do's and the don'ts during hurricane tornadoes. And I just want to say something real quick about Clint when he said that the tornadoes usually like to take I-4. He'd know about that. The last tornado that was here was right next to McDonald's on Deltona Boulevard. So we were all hiding in our little shelter, which is, to us, is our laundry room, because that's the only place that we don't have windows and doors and, you know, going to the outside. And the only thing that would have passed on I-4 during right now. Thank you, everyone, for being here. Thank you to our fire department for taking the time. Yes, we're going to do the raffle now, but I just want to thank my staff, our staff, the city staff for being here. You know, these guys have been working since early this morning. Kat, I mean, thank you so much. You know, she's been here since this morning as well, a poor thing. All week, we've been beating up on her for events. So, I mean, thank you so much for being here and putting all this together. This is all on you. Thank you so much. So if everybody get a raffle ticket. So these are, actually, these are the weather radios that are recommended, highly recommended by our fire department, because all the information that comes from that weather radio comes from, what was the? National Weather Service and NOAA. Exactly. That's the ones that reports, sends the reports out through these weather radios. So we're going to be having, Clint, can you do us a favor of pulling a ticket? Do you trust me? Of course. And I'm going to tell you, I have one in my house. I don't even know it's there. But if something is coming, you know, you know, it lets you know. It's so noisy. It's unbelievable. So the ticket number, of course, is 38806. Am I getting close? One. Closer. Zero. Ah, there you go. They work with electricity and batteries. So as Clint says, always have an extra body, battery next, at home available. And you can fix it to only get reports from local sites or, you know, wherever else you want to get a report from. Okay. So the last four numbers, zero six. Getting close? Five. We have two more. Okay. Next four numbers, zero six. Oh, okay. That's nice of you. Thank you. Mine is like kind of breaking up. So maybe I'll take it for myself. Zero six. Ah, there you go. Last, but not least. Zero six. Sorry. Eight. Three. Oh, there you go. Again, thank you everyone for coming out. And those of you viewing from home, thank you for tuning in and watching this event. And, you know, if you want something more than what we're presenting to you, please let us know. And we'll make sure that for next year, we will have it available information available for you, as well as the people watching from home. Let us know through emails, contact our PIO, let her know what else you would like to see. Thank you, Clint and, um, Clarissa. Thank you so much for coming out. We, we are so happy to have partnered with the county, uh, coming to us and helping us with this event. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. And if you have a text or data plan for your text messages to come through, you can't send a text to 911 in a group message. 911 has to be the only recipient. And I shouldn't have to say this, but don't text and drive. Remember, call if you can, text if you can't. And thank you for helping us make Volusia County a safer place every day. Hi, I'm Gary Daniels. I'm the assistant PIO and production manager here at the city of Deltona. And we have exciting news. You can now watch Deltona TV on your smartphone, iOS, iPhone, or Android. Here's how you do it. Go to your app store. You'll open it up and you'll go to your search bar and you will type in cable cast, C-A-B-L-E-C-A-S-T cable cast. And then you'll see the app there with the green icon. Just go ahead and download the app. And once it has downloaded, you will open the app and there'll be a lot of different channels from a lot of different organizations around the country. Luckily, Deltona TV being one of the latest ones is right here on the front page. But if it's not, you can go up to the search bar and type in Deltona TV. But as it is, it's right here on the front page. So you just click on it and then you'll see a live streams Deltona TV option. You click on that as well and you hit play. And now you are watching Deltona TV live in HD. And you can also do the same thing on your Android phone. Hi, city of Deltona. We heard that you guys have been having questions in regards to some of our events and we know that you want to get notified. So with the new updated website, we have this really cool feature. It's called notify me with the notify me feature. You can get instant up to date emails every single time we send out a news announcement, a new event. So once you click on the letter icon, you're going to have a little pop up block that comes up. It's going to ask for some of your personal information. That way you can receive the latest in regards to our news alerts on the notify me feature with the new website. That's for the Juneteenth unity in the community celebration happening Saturday, June 21st from 10am to 2pm at City Hall. Come together as we honor freedom, culture and community with live music, group performances, plenty of food and a whole lot of joy. This is a day to celebrate heritage, uplift voices, build unity through culture, art and togetherness. Bring your friends, bring your family and let's celebrate Juneteenth in a big way. We'll see you there. Your Volusia County tax collector. When the annual property tax bill arrives in the mail, most people want to know how much they have to pay. It's all about the bottom line, the bottom line of the bill. That's where you'll find the amount due. You receive a discount the earlier you pay your taxes. The discounts and the due dates also are at the bottom of the bill. For example, if you pay in full in November, you get a 4% discount. There are two more important items on the bill. First, make sure all of your exemptions are listed. And finally, you may pay by phone, online or by mail. If you're paying by check, make sure it's made payable to Will Roberts Tax Collector. If you have questions, please visit our website at vctaxcollector.org. That's vctaxcollector.org. Or call us at 386-736-5938. The road is everyone's responsibility. Riders, wear protective gear, make yourself visible and follow traffic laws. Hello and welcome to this next episode of Florida in Motion. With hurricane season on the horizon, we're going to make today's episode all about emergency response efforts. This is such a major part of our industry and a huge responsibility that the communities of Florida depend on us for day in and day out. I've come to realize over the years by working here and working through many hurricanes that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. Hurricane season helps to shed light on the true value of transportation and the major role it plays in connecting people and communities throughout the entire state of Florida. Numerous preparations are done year-round to prepare for hurricane season, which starts on June 1st. Various actions and plans go into play the second we get word of a storm. We immediately monitor storm activity, strategize plans, and secure any necessary assets needed before and after a storm through close coordination with leadership and many of our key partners and stakeholders. We waste no time staging resources, equipment, and staff before the storm makes landfall to ensure we're responding as quickly as possible. It's all hands on deck. In fact, to best serve the regional area anticipating a storm's impact, we'll start rolling out heavy equipment and crews and mobilizing the resources necessary from every district across the state to have them ready to respond on a moment's notice. From dump trucks to bridge inspectors to those aiding in evacuation measures, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to carrying out work in advance of a storm. During and after storm activities are just as demanding and rigorous. Florida depends on FDOT to be on the front line with eyes on the entire transportation network and clear any obstacles for our partners to perform their essential duties like the life safety mission and restoring utilities and power immediately after the storm. This means we're often the first boots on the ground that helps first responders reach those in need, supplies get back in stores, and all the other important components of a community getting back to normal. The biggest driving force behind our ability to get this work done is the true passion our team members have for our communities. I truly believe there is no greater calling than serving communities when they need it most. This is truly an important mission and the loyalty and commitment that goes into FDOT's response efforts is truly remarkable. Many team members must spend hours upon hours at the state emergency operations center or the district emergency operations centers. Some are sent out in advance of the storm and are strategically staged closer to the impact zone to be ready to spring into action as soon as the storm passes. Some team members may be deployed to assist from other parts of the state where they will be stationed at base camps away from their homes and families for days even weeks at a time. With many roles and responsibilities that go into preparing and responding to emergencies, we would like to offer first-hand perspective from the various team members that are involved in these emergency response efforts. Let's take a few minutes to hear from some of the team now. I'll tell you what, it's a mixture of both anxiety and excitement because our agency does a lot of great things when when it comes to hurricane response and it really gives it gives us a chance to highlight all of our equipment and our people and our ability to plan and execute. So that's the excitement part. The anxiety part is we never want to see devastation hit Florida and and hurricane certainly brings that brings that to Florida depending on the size of the storm. We are engaged in hurricanes all year long from the planning and designing of our projects to ensure that we can have an operational ESU emergency shoulder use during evacuations. Our evacuation routes are clear and be open for use. What's the condition of our equipment? Do we have a lot of downed equipment? What's our vacancy rates in our work units to make sure that if I need to retool and move some people around the district to be ready and be incorporated in that? And then our Everbridge system. How do we get our notifications out? So there's a lot of checkpoints going on but that happens throughout the entire year. So I serve as the district maintenance engineer. I head up the emergency management team to ensure that the district staff is ready to respond and they understand the roles that they play in response to the storm. I make sure that they have their resources available. Pretty much we start in January and I begin to go through the checklist of making sure we have everybody's personal contact information, that there is updates to all of our emergency plans. We secure our emergency contracts pre-season so that they're ready to activate with us when the storm hits. I think about how many named storms we would have, what kind of impact we would have, think about the previously impacted areas and areas within the state of Florida who have not been hit and whether or not they're prepared. I think about those things a lot. Communicating with our district leadership, communicating with our leadership here in central office to make sure we have the right plans. So as we see the storm approaching the state, those discussions have to be had about what resources are available in that district, what other districts have to be deployed that are neighboring, and then what districts have to be kind of in the wings of ready to fold in as we get fatigued out, right? So everybody's willing to help. They want to help. They're inching to help. But until we get a full impact assessment, we don't know where we need to put the resources. So one thing we are very good at is districts wanting to help other districts and to make sure our pre-positioning efforts, whether it's either equipment or people, are there to serve our communities as quickly as we can. We send out reminders to our staff to first and foremost secure their homes, brace their families for the storm that's approaching. We confirm their contact information, get an understanding of what their personal plan is for safety to hunker down. That's when it gets really exciting. There's things that we got to check. Make sure we got plenty adequate fuel. I want to make sure that my damage assessment teams are ready. I want to make sure our cut and toss crews are ready. They're pre-positioned, ready to go at a moment's notice. We are first responders. I mean, unless you can fly or float, you got to follow us to the impacted area. We are looking at our equipment readiness, our staff readiness, and just being prepared to move throughout the state if we're called a bomb. So the state EOC is kind of behind the scenes. What you normally see when it comes to storm response is our folks helping the communities. The role in the state EOC is to help coordinate between the different ESFs, right, the different agency leads, to making sure the resources are in place that we can work collaboratively to help our communities. We're reviewing the folks that would be going with us if we had to deploy throughout the state and their status. Deploying a lot of times can be stressful. We're developing communications with the impacted area if we are the district that's getting deployed to another area to discuss routes and the logistics and to identify any potential hazards within the defined route that we've decided to travel. So when I'm activated, I would be here in the District 1 Emergency Operations Center facility. I would see these stations all filled with staff working in their designated roles. We have staff here that work overnight before landfall, during the storm, and after landfall. This place pretty much operates like a machine with a lot of professionals juggling many demands. I've had numerous assignments, various hurricanes, various response teams. I'm always one willing to volunteer. So in the case of Hurricane Ian, we were responsible for the reconnection of Pine Island back to the mainland. So I was boots on the ground. I had over 100 dump trucks. I had over 100 dump trucks working to make that reconnection, and we did that in less than three days. It's helping our communities. That is the most rewarding thing that we can ask for. It's what we do every day with transportation solutions. It's getting people where they need to be. And so pre-storm that's evacuating effectively, the communities are going to be impacted. It's very important that we're part of the solution because we play an integral role as a first responder of getting utilities back up and running. We play an integral role of getting people back to their property. And so one of the ideas that we carried forward on Pine Island was deliver a truck full of coolers and ice. And so refrigeration is something that most people don't think about. And you can get generators. A lot of homeowners have generators, but not everybody does, right? So how can we help those communities? And ice and coolers are certainly one way we can do that. That's why it's satisfying because we can actually help. We can be frontline help to individual homes, individual people, individual communities, and even statewide. When I see people that have lost homes, people have lost their vehicle, people have damage to their place of employment. I've seen people standing on foundations where there was once a home. And you know, they're there with nowhere to go. And it's just heartbreaking. For me, it's the selflessness. You really get to see the heart of state agencies when disasters happen. Just looking at the fact that it's bigger than us, we get to know that. Within FDOT, there's this one concept. And you really get to see that when we deploy to other locations throughout the state. The folks are selfless. They leave their families not knowing what they're going to go into in terms of environmental conditions. And we work beyond the standard work hours and things of that nature. We're the first step to get communities restored. We clear the travel way, restore roadways and bridges so that families can reunite and kids get back to school. Families can begin to repair and restore their homes and businesses can restore. During the recent storms of Ian, Nicole and Idalia, we were in the EOC monitoring repairs in real time to the island of Sanibel and Pine Island, Matt Lachey. The day access was restored, they drove over the bridge to bring the convoy of power restoration teams, food and water to the island. That was a moment of great pride and emotion that we collectively made that happen. Hurricane response is nothing but long hours. And they're different for all levels of response, different efforts that we all play or different roles we all play. You know, from our blue shirts or white shirts in the field, it could be up on a piece of equipment or behind a chainsaw. That's very fatiguing on the body and the mind. It could be all the way up to senior leadership, sitting in rooms for long hours all night, talking with other agencies and then state leadership of how do we execute, how do we respond quicker. Having that next plan ready is always in my thought process or the next two or three steps to that plan to make sure fatigue doesn't put us in a dangerous situation, unsafe situation. And we can continue to provide resources and solutions in the upcoming days, weeks and even months. The hours are long. For an extended period of time, we are away from our families who are also suffering from the emotional stress and trying to recover from that devastation that they see around them. Going into areas that you're unfamiliar with, you're unaware of the surroundings, the conditions. It's very intense, long hours, sometimes 17, 18 hour days. And just making sure that, you know, our folks are mentally prepared and they understand what the mission is. You live off of adrenaline. Your appetite goes away. You're working very, very long hours in very rough conditions. And whether we're in a base camp or having a commute back into, it's always lots and lots of hours. After you've been living off that adrenaline, it just keeps you pumping, keeps you excited, keeps you moving. And then when that goes away, the exhaustion sets in and then, you know, reality hits of what all you just saw. And how many people, I've got a warm bed. They don't even have a home. They only have a foundation if even that left. So it causes you to question a lot of things about yourself. It's working through the challenges as an agency, as a district, as a work unit and always finding solutions. It's very prideful to be around a group of professionals that we have to find solutions. And knowing that you have a whole team behind you, next to you, in front of you to help work through those solutions. So if anything, it's been, I've been with DOT or working for DOT over 25 years. So it's, it's something that has fed my family and that, that has supported me when I needed support and, and extremely grateful to be part of this agency. The most rewarding thing for me is to go into some of these impacted areas and the gratitude that's expressed by those citizens who have been impacted. Keeping in mind that some of those same citizens are also FDOT employees and the oneness of family is really identified in that situation. Um, so we kind of focus on that and we really emphasize it through the communities and being resilient and, and, and being able to just, you know, recover and, and put people before ourselves. I love being a public servant. I love working with others of like-minded cause. When there's a time of need, uh, I've got so many resources at my disposal that I know I can make a difference when I get there. And my guys will tell you that when we are deployed, my boots are on the ground first. If it's safe for me to be there, they know it's safe for them to be there and they come prepared to get the job done. I came to FDOT seeking a career as an engineer, but I stayed because of the opportunity for professional and personal growth and the work culture is fabulous. I, uh, I've enjoyed being a public servant, uh, but working in emergency management has given me a satisfaction knowing that I can serve our communities of Southwest Florida in their greatest time of need. Before signing off, please remember that every single one of you are truly essential in times of emergency. And it's important that you have a plan and that you and your family are prepared and have a means to be safe so that we can get to work and support the people of Florida. Stay safe this season and thank you. Hurricanes and the devastation they can cause are an annual threat to Florida's coastline, which is why the Florida Department of Transportation, FDOT, has implemented emergency shoulder use. Emergency shoulder use involves the use of roadway shoulders as a temporary additional travel lane to add capacity and improve traffic flow during an evacuation. All vehicles may use the shoulder except large trucks, buses, and trailers. Vehicles will drive on the shoulder, which is narrower than typical interstate travel lane. Travel lanes are usually 12 feet wide, while shoulders are generally only 10 feet wide. When driving on the shoulder, you'll need to slow down and navigate with caution. Motorists must be especially aware of locations where the travel lane narrows and traffic flow is impeded by bridges, signage, barrier walls, guardrail, and overpasses. Drivers using the shoulder will also experience a continuous noise due to the presence of rumble strips. Besides rumble strips and narrow shoulders, you may also encounter shallow concrete gutters and inlets within the shoulder. You will enter and exit the shoulder at designated locations where law enforcement and state officials are directing traffic. Temporary message boards, overhead dynamic message signs, and other signage will provide information through each designated emergency shoulder use area. Florida has established six major evacuation routes for emergency shoulder use. Alligator Alley, north and southbound, from US 27 in Weston near Sunrise to Collier Boulevard in Naples. Interstate 4, eastbound from US 41 in Tampa to World Drive in Celebration near Orlando. Interstate 10 westbound from US 301 in Jacksonville to Capitol Circle US 319 in Tallahassee. I-75 northbound from Collier Boulevard, State Road 951 in Naples to Hamilton Avenue, State Road 143 in Jennings near the Florida-Georgia state line. I-95 northbound, from State Road 706 in Jupiter to south of I-295 in Jacksonville. On Florida's Turnpike, northbound, from south of Hypoluxo Road in Boynton Beach to Osceola Parkway in Kissimmee, as well as from State Road 50 in Winter Garden to US 301 in Wildwood. Let's look at these evacuation routes in greater detail. Alligator Alley is the only emergency shoulder use route that will accommodate both northbound and southbound traffic from US 27 near Sunrise to Collier Boulevard in Naples. This allows added capacity to evacuate the east or west coast. Emergency shoulder use is designated in the right outside emergency lane. Interstate 4 emergency shoulder use will only go one way, eastbound from US 41 in Tampa to World Drive near Orlando. There, traffic will use the left inside lanes. Along I-10 westbound, from US 301 in Jacksonville to Capital Circle, US 319 in Tallahassee. Emergency shoulder use is designated in the right outside emergency lane. There is a small area where emergency shoulders won't be used at the Interstate 75 interchange. Along I-75 northbound, from Collier Boulevard, State Road 951 in Naples to State Road 143 in Hamilton County, motorists will utilize the left inside shoulder for emergency shoulder use. Along I-95 northbound, from State Road 706 in Jupiter to South of I-295 in Jacksonville, motorists will utilize the left inside shoulder for emergency shoulder use. Along Florida's Turnpike northbound, from South of Hypoluxo Road in Boynton Beach to Osceola Parkway in Kissimmee, and again from State Road 50 to US 301 in Wildwood, motorists will utilize the right outside shoulder. Unless emergency shoulder use is authorized, everyday shoulder use is reserved for disabled vehicles and emergencies only. Drivers must follow the direction of law enforcement personnel and obey signage, as not all areas of the state may experience emergency shoulder operations at the same time. We are prepared. Are you? In the event of a weather emergency, such as a flood or a major storm, being prepared can keep you and your loved ones safe and ease some of the immediate challenges you might face. You can start by preparing an emergency supply kit. In your kit, include plenty of unused batteries, important documents such as insurance paperwork, extra cash, a properly stocked first aid kit, a flashlight, one gallon of drinking water per person per day for at least three days, healthy canned and long-lasting foods such as beans, canned tuna, oranges and dried fruit with a manual can opener, an all-hazard weather radio, and any additional or special items that may be needed by infants, people with medical conditions, or pets. If you lose power, eat your perishable food from the refrigerator first, while it's still cold, then eat your emergency foods. For additional tips, please download our Emergency Preparedness Guide at www.FloridaHealth.gov. Hurricanes can disrupt our normal life. High winds and flooding can cause power outages, and that may lead to contaminated food. Hi, I'm Chef Justin. It's hurricane season, and the Division of Food Safety has a few tips to protect you, your family, and your pets from food-borne illnesses in the event of a storm. Let's talk preparation. Stock up on non-perishable, ready-to-eat, or easy-to-cook foods that have a long shelf life in case the food supply is disrupted for an extended amount of time. Remember to represent the needs of your whole household like infants, pets, and any special diets. Each person and pet should have at least one gallon of water each day. Buy bottled water for drinking and fill jugs or other containers with water for cooking and bathing. To reduce the use of water for cleaning, stock up on plastic cups, forks, spoons, and knives, as well as paper plates, bowls, and towels. Be sure to have a method to thoroughly cook your food, like an outdoor grill or camping stove. Have enough propane or charcoal for those grills. And remember to have a manual can opener on hand. For more tips on preventing food-borne illnesses in the aftermath of a hurricane, visit the Division of Food Safety's Consumer Resources and Outreach website at fdax.gov. Hurricanes can disrupt our normal life. High winds and flooding can cause power outages and that may lead to contaminated food. Hi, I'm Chef Justin. It's hurricane season and the Division of Food Safety has a few tips to protect you, your family, and your pets from food-borne illnesses in the event of a storm. Let's talk refrigeration. Before you lose power, here are some tips to help keep your refrigerated food from spoiling. Ready.gov tells us that a refrigerator will keep food at temperature about 40 degrees for four hours without power. A fully stocked freezer will keep food at temperature about zero degrees for 48 hours. And if it is half full, it will keep food at temperature for 24 hours without power. How do you keep food in your refrigerator cold for a long period of time? If a storm approaches, begin freezing ice packs, bottles of water, and other containers. Fill any coolers you have with ice. Buy dry ice or ice blocks to place in your freezer and or refrigerator. 25 pounds of dry ice will keep a 10 cubic foot freezer below freezing for three to four days. Transfer items from your refrigerator to your freezer that need to be kept cold. Transfer some ice products to the refrigerator to keep temp. Move perishable foods to the front of the fridge so you can get to them quickly. Should your power go out, reduce trips to the fridge. Only open the door if you absolutely need something and even then have the door opened briefly. If the power is out for an extended period of time, you may want to transfer perishable items to the coolers of ice. Remember, the longer your perishable items stay cool, the lower the risk of food contamination. For more tips on preventing foodborne illnesses in the wake of a hurricane, visit the Division of Food Safety's Consumer Resources and Outreach website at fdax.gov. Before a hurricane strikes, be sure your family is protected from foodborne illness. Each person and pet should have at least one gallon of water each day. Buy bottled water for drinking and fill jugs or other containers with water for cooking and bathing. To reduce the use of water for cleaning, stock up on plastic forks, spoons and knives as well as paper plates, bowls and towels. For more tips on preventing foodborne illnesses in the aftermath of a hurricane, visit the Division of Food Safety's Consumer Resources and Outreach website at fdax.gov. Before a hurricane strikes, be sure your family is protected from foodborne illness. Be sure to have a method to thoroughly cook your food and thoroughly cook your food like an outdoor grill or camping stove. Have enough propane or charcoal for those grills. For more tips on preventing foodborne illnesses in the aftermath of a hurricane, visit the Division of Food Safety's Consumer Resources and Outreach website at fdax.gov. Before a hurricane strikes, be sure your family is protected from foodborne illness. Stock up on non-perishable, ready to eat, or easy to cook foods that have a long shelf life in case the food supply is disrupted for an extended amount of time. Remember to represent the needs of your whole household like infants, pets and any special diets. And remember to have a manual can opener on hand. For more tips on preventing foodborne illnesses in the aftermath of a hurricane, visit the Division of Food Safety's Consumer Resources and Outreach website at fdax.gov. Hurricane season is the time of the year that we are more probable to have hurricanes. So within our area, hurricanes are more likely to come between June 1st and November 30th. Hurricane season is a very big deal for us here in Florida for the number one reason that we are surrounded by water. Understanding what we need to do to prepare, mitigate, respond and recover to these hurricanes, especially for us as a peninsula state is extremely important. Some of the things that people can do to prepare for hurricane seasons are of course make sure that you have your hurricane supply kit. There's a lot of resources out there. UF-IFAS Extension has some great resources on how to prepare your hurricane preparedness kit. When you believe that a hurricane is about to impact your area, one of the first things and the most important thing you can do is listen to your local officials and that includes understanding what your evacuation zone is and so if you are in that evacuation zone, making sure that you listen carefully to those local officials, making sure that if you need to evacuate that you do so. Extension is very involved in all four levels of disaster management including preparation, mitigation, response and recovery. Throughout the year, Extension folks are doing programs throughout our entire state that help folks prepare, especially folks that are new within our state. Also, mitigation. A lot of our Extension faculty and staff work really carefully in looking at those supplies and those materials that can be hurricane-proof. And then response. We have Extension faculty and staff that actually are first responders. We have many that work 12-hour shifts in the Emergency Operations Center. In addition, right after a hurricane comes through, many of our faculty and staff are instrumental in doing those agricultural assessments. But the recovery area is really where our Extension faculty shine and work that they do. Recovery can be very long and it can be very frustrating and very tiresome. And our Extension folks understand that. We have two great Extension resources. UF-IFAS has a disaster website where they have a lot of great resources on there. In addition, the Florida-EDEN website, which stands for Extension Disaster Education Network, has a lot of great resources. Both of these resources not only cover natural disasters, but they cover different types of disasters, including technological and biological disasters as well. Portable generators are handy and affordable. They keep your power humming. However, there are some downsides. Generators give off carbon monoxide gas, or CO. It causes illness, even death. You can't see, smell, or taste CO. So, add safety. Put your generator 20 feet or more away from your home. Add safety. Prevent fires and power surges. Use outdoor power cords. Match cords amps to generator outlets amps. Add safety. Install battery-operated CO detectors in your home. Add up safety. Keep everything and everyone humming. Learn more at floridahealth.gov. Welcome to Living with Wildlife. Floridians understand the importance of being prepared for hurricane season and know how storms can impact a community, including wildlife. Here are some tips to help wildlife and avoid conflicts after a storm. Human health and safety come first. Never endanger yourself to help wildlife. Piles of branches or building materials make attractive hiding places for wildlife. Use caution when burning brush or removing debris to ensure you don't have an unexpected and unwelcome encounter. Make temporary repairs to your home to prevent wildlife from entering. When possible, secure attractants like garbage and spoiled food. Wild animals, including coyotes and bears, will linger in areas where they can easily find food. As always, watch your pets closely to prevent negative wildlife encounters. If you experience conflicts with wildlife, contact your regional FWC office. Living with Wildlife is a service of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, managing fish and wildlife resources for their long-term well-being and the benefit of people. More at myfwc.com. Hurricane season is underway. Are you ready? Here and now, reporter Joanne Magley has more on how to prepare, even on a budget. ...casters are predicting below-average activity this hurricane season, with 8 to 12 storms forming in the Atlantic. Last year, there were 20. And while a below-average season is good news, emergency management officials are advising residents to be prepared. The best example of an El Nino year small season was in 1992. There were 7 storms. And Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida and has still to this day remains the number 2 most costly disaster that we've had. So all it takes is 1 to ruin your day. And so whether they're forecasting 20 or they're forecasting 5, we have to go through the same drill of making sure that our families are prepared. Charlie Craig is the Director of Emergency Management for Volusia County. He and his staff make sure the county is prepared to respond to and recover from emergencies. He's urging everyone to have a plan. And when we say a plan, what we're saying is know if you need to leave, know what kind of terrain you're on. If you're in a low-line or a flood-prone area or if you're in a manufactured home or you're in a home that you just would not feel safe in in strong winds, then you need to know where you're going to go. Are you going to go to friends or relatives? Are you going to go to a hotel? Are you going to take advantage of public shelter? What is your plan? And then part of that plan should be notifying relatives, telling people where you're going to go so that they understand if they try to get a hold of you, how they can do so. Part of your plan includes creating a disaster kit. One of the most important supplies in a disaster kit is a weather radio. That way when the power goes out, you can stay informed of the weather. When it comes to water and food, Craig says plan on stocking up for five to seven days. One of the reasons that we have encouraged people to be self-sustaining for five to seven days is that we've been through about four years of recession. And these recessionary times have resulted in a shrinking, if you will, of government services. It doesn't mean we're any less prepared, and it doesn't mean we haven't continued to train every year. But what it means is we don't have the numbers of people, and we don't have the assets that we had a number of years ago. When it comes to drinking water, you should have one gallon of water per person per day and half a gallon per pet per day. For a family of five with a dog, that adds up to 27 and a half gallons of water for a five-day supply. To save money, instead of buying gallons of water, you can make your own water bottles by either purchasing food-grade containers or coolers or by reusing two-liter soda bottles. If the tap water has been commercially treated from a water utility with chlorine, you do not need to add anything else to the water to keep it clean. If you're using well water or water from a source that is not treated with chlorine, add two drops of non-scented liquid household chlorine bleach to the water, and then tightly close the container using the original cap. When it comes to stocking up on non-perishable foods, proteins such as tuna or peanut butter are essential, along with canned beans, snack bars, cereals, and shelf-stable milk. Don't forget the batteries or things such as hurricane shutters or plywood to protect the windows and tarps for use after the storm. And you don't need to buy the items for your kit all at once. Make a few extra purchases during regular grocery shopping. One thing you definitely can't afford is to not be ready. For Volusia Here Now, I'm Joanne Magley. Volusia County's Emergency Management Division offers a number of ways people can be notified in case of an emergency. The newest being through social media outlets, Facebook, and Twitter. And you can also be notified by email or telephone. To sign up, just go to volusia.org slash emergency and click on emergency alerts. Welcome to Solutions for Your Life. I'm Patrick Zays. And as you can see, it's that time of year again when storms are occurring every day, and that can even include hurricanes. So what do you do if you don't have power and you don't even have a grill? Well, you're in luck, because today I have a few tips that I'm going to share with you. Without power, well, you don't have a stove, you don't have a microwave, and you certainly don't have a fridge. Well, relax, because I'm here to share with you on how you can make a nice meal at home even without these amenities. For instance, we're going to start with a quick black bean salsa. And all that's going to take is a can of black beans, a can of corn, and a jar of salsa. What we're going to do is we're going to drain our black beans and corn. We're going to mix it into our bowl. Open up our can of salsa, pour the whole can right on top, and give it a good mix. I'm sure your family loves salsa. I know mine does. And when it comes to salsa, who doesn't love chips? Well, I do. So I'm going to go ahead and open up my bag of chips and take a bite. Choose a variety of items from each food group. When choosing foods for your family, consider foods that are nutritious, ready to eat, and do not need to be refrigerated or cooked. We want to make sure these foods are low in sodium, added sugars, and saturated fats. Don't forget about food safety. Once opened, many foods are no longer shelf stable. To reduce the risk of foodborne illness, eat these foods within two hours after opening. And make cleanup easy. In case water is not available for cleanup, stock up on hand sanitizer or sanitizing wipes, paper towels, disposable plates and cups, and of course, disposable forks, knives, and spoons. And make sure you have a manual can opener available. And of course, make sure the foods that your family will enjoy and will meet their dietary needs. So what if your family isn't a fan of salsa, black beans, and chips? Well, you're in luck because I have another recipe for you and it's packed with healthy fats. For this next recipe, I'm going to share with you a healthy trail mix. It's going to be really simple because you can have all these ingredients at home. We're going to go with three different types of cereals. We're going to include a square type cereal with some whole grains. We're going to include a puff type cereal with some whole grains, and even an O type cereal, all whole grain. We want to choose variety because we want to have some different textures in there. Of course, who doesn't like sweet food? So we're going to add in some raisins to kind of sweeten it up a little bit. And then you want to get a little bit of crunch. So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to add in some pretzels. Like I mentioned, we want to make sure we're having some healthy fats for a good energy source. I'm going to go ahead and add in some mixed nuts, but you can use whatever nuts your family enjoys. So let's get started. I already have a half a cup right here of raisins. We're going to use a half a cup for everything just to keep it simple. I'm going to next move on to my cereal. Who doesn't love some O's? Try not to make a mess when you're making this at home. And even some puffs. I went with some no salt added pretzels, but choose what your family will enjoy. So that way they're more likely to eat it at home. And of course, like I said, our mixed nuts, just to finish it off and add in that healthy fat. Now go ahead and mix it up, add it to a few little plastic baggies, and have your family enjoy it. If you do happen to lose your power due to a hurricane or a severe storm, remember, always have three to four days worth of food and a gallon of water per person for your family on hand at all times. With solutions for your life, I'm Patrick Zayas. This is Volusia Today, a public information radio program brought to you by the County of Volusia. Good morning, Volusia County. My name is Michael. And you are listening to Volusia Today, Volusia County's one and only trusted source for local news. Maggie, was that good? That was wonderful. I'm trying to be a little more brief on it. Yeah, a little spicy. I liked it, yeah. That was spicy. That was the most generic one I've ever had. A little different, you know? Spicy. I am joined by my co-host Maggie this morning. Maggie, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Good, good. Big weekend plans? Not really. Nothing crazy happening. Just kind of hanging out at the house. Might do some wedding shopping, but other than that. No, shocker. Shocker. I know. Oh my God, wait, wait. First of all, we have two special guests in the audience that we're not going to talk to yet, but there's a running theme with our show and it's Maggie's wedding. Maggie's getting married. I am. So for two months, we've been trying to figure out where she's going to get married. Maggie, did you find a location? We do have a location, which is kind of exciting. I'm good for you. Location and date. Everything's kind of... And your location, of course, is in Volusia County? Of course. I would not go anywhere else. Anywhere else. We're getting married in New Smyrna. So, you know, we're excited. That's got to be nice to kind of put that. But I have to tell you something funny. This morning, way early this morning, my wife and I sitting in bed drinking our coffee, trying to, you know, wake up and stuff. And she, and I hear this, she's on her phone and I hear this voice. Oh no. Yeah. You know where this is going to go, right? I know exactly where this is going. I hear this voice and I'm like, I recognize that. It's like, it's like a little baby chicken, baby chicken, right? Super fast, super high pitch. And I was like, I know that voice from somewhere. She's on her phone, on her, on her Facebook feed. Right. And she leans over and she goes, Clint, she goes, do you even watch these videos before they go out? And I was like, oh man, here, I'm like, it's way too early for this. Right. Like I've, I've not even had a full cup of coffee yet. And I was like, um, no, maybe sometimes I didn't know what the right answer was. And she goes, is this Maggie? And I said, yeah, that's Maggie. And, um, and she goes, oh, and I think the beating is about to come. Right. Cause I didn't watch the video. There's a mustache. Who knows? Right. Cause I get all those calls. And, uh, she turns around and she goes, oh my God, she's the cutest thing ever. She's so funny. She's so cute. And blah, blah, blah, blah. Maggie, she's so great. She's as great as you said. I had to hear about Maggie for the next 20 minutes. Oh, wow. I feel honored. Wow. I'm going to talk about a conversation in Noah's house. Wow. So, um, I guess, I guess the good news for you is I don't watch the videos. Well, that video, it's about turtle season. I don't know if you saw the one of me kind of coming out of the elevator down the hallway. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So fun. But turtle season is coming up and so many people interacted with that video and they found so much good content out of it, which was really cool. Um, but turtle season, I didn't know that we had a marked time for turtle season. It's May 1st through October 31st. And there's so many rules and things that you have to follow to make sure that you're, you're being safe for the turtles and making sure that they have a safe exit into the world and out into the ocean. Um, I actually went yesterday and I got to see some of the sea turtle nests and there's some already on the beach. Yeah. It's really cool. Um, I've never gotten to see the sea turtles in action because I'm not from around here originally. And so to actually see the sea turtles nest was, it was awesome to be able to see in person. Um, but yeah, make sure that you're being safe out there on the beach, keep your lights down and, uh, don't build the sandcastles, fill in your holes so that the sea turtles have a safe, safe way to go. But it is awesome. I had some friends in town, um, from Texas a long time ago and we went paddle boarding during the day and, uh, we saw, we saw a turtle, we saw, um, a manatee if I remember right. And there, and like the little turtle pops his head up and goes back down. Well, we go to the beach later that night and we get to see a crawl. I've only seen a crawl like once and I've been here, uh, 13, 14 years or something like that. I've seen it once. Right. And it was amazing. And they were here for like two days and like, Oh my God, it's like they thought it was like Disney where I queued up all the animals and the manatee showed up and the sea turtle showed up. Oh yeah. It really is like awe inspiring to watch them, to watch them walk back into the ocean. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited to see it. I've never, I've never seen them walk. I've only ever seen the videos. So I'm excited to see it this year. Um, well, so speaking of the season, it is sea turtle season that began, um, May 1. Is that right? Yeah. May 1. Um, it's also a different kind of season, which is probably actually, first of all, great segue. Thank you. Thank you. Um, another good segue is it's also a different season, Maggie. And it's a good opportunity for us to introduce our guests today. Um, May 1, May 1, June 1. Is it June 1, Clint? June 1. June 1. So May 1 is turtles. June 1 is hurricanes. They always come up at the same time. Um, and so we are very honored today to have two special guests with us to talk about hurricane season. We have Clint Meacham. Meacham. Meacham. Meacham. I knew I was going to do that. Let's see what I can do to Aubrey. Aubrey Austin. It's clear as day. Close enough. Wow. With, with, um, Volusia County emergency management with us today. Thank you for joining us. Well, thanks for having us. We appreciate you guys being here early on a Friday. Um, so you guys just kind of sit around for about nine months of the year, right? And don't do much of anything? Oh, gee, if that was only the case. Is that the case? Unfortunately, Mike, uh, um, when we're not getting ready for hurricane season, um, there's actually, uh, a lot of other things that emergency management does, uh, year round. There are 17 different categories of disaster that we have to be ready for in the emergency management realm. And so, um, when we're not getting ready for hurricane season or dealing with hurricane season, we have to deal with all of the others, whether they be other kinds of severe weather, whether they mean man-made events, terroristic events, um, fires, for example. So there's, there's, we're always living in that what if world. So while, while, while hurricanes are our primary threat here in Volusia County, and we spend a lot of time and take those very seriously, uh, we spend a lot of time in those other what if worlds as well. We just recently, um, completed an exercise with FEMA being here for a week in Volusia County. And, uh, we simulated a building collapse out in Daytona Beach Shores, for example. So we're always thinking about those what if possible, uh, potentials and possibilities just in case they happen here in Volusia County. Clint, I know there was another, uh, simulation this week with, I think it was with FDOT. Were you guys involved in that? I assume. We were. There was, uh, uh, in anticipation of the new SunRail line opening into land. Uh, one of the, uh, checkboxes that we have to do is to do a, uh, a first responder, uh, exercise, uh, with SunRail. And so we did that, um, uh, that, uh, exercise earlier this week. We had, uh, the Volusia County Sheriff was there, Volusia County Fire and Rescue, um, the land fire, uh, lots of partners, uh, FDOT. And so we, uh, we simulated a, uh, IED, uh, on board a train and, uh, the first responders did their thing and, uh, and emergency management. We're always in support. So we're always there to make sure that our first responders and our other partners have everything they need to deal with whatever's in front of them. I tell you, let's, let's, let's dig into hurricane things a little bit, um, later, maybe after the break, but let's talk a little bit more about your 17 different categories of design. I was just going to ask that. We, so, so in Florida, we do think about hurricanes a lot obviously. And, and some of us, you know, there's an expo coming up. I want to talk about too, but so, you know, some of us get very, very prepared and, you know, buy all the, have our kit and have our evacuation plan and all that stuff. And some of us just buy a whole bunch of rum and like lock the doors. Right. So that's true. It's true. Um, so hurricanes, some of us are, are, you know, very cautious and some of us are just, you know, it's, it's, it's old hat for us. Right. Sure. But we don't think a lot about all of those other disasters. We talk a lot about the wildfires, um, for, from a couple of years ago, but like you said, we, the, when we did the building simulation, the building collapse simulation, I've done a million of those, um, the simulations and stuff that building collapse threw me for a loop several times on, Oh, I'm, this is new to me. And what would I do here? And what would I do there? We as a team, we as a, as an EOC and stuff. So it is important to go through those other, those other disasters. It absolutely is. And we want to do that and get that experience and build that muscle memory under blue skies, as we call it, rather than waiting for an event to happen and then have to make it up as we go. So again, uh, myself, my staff, and I do have an excellent staff in Volusia County emergency management working for our citizens and our visitors here. Um, we spend pretty much every day that we're at work thinking about that. What if scenario and regardless of what it is? So again, if it's flooding, if it's severe weather, if it's tornadoes, if it's a fire, if it's a terroristic event, if it, whatever it might be, um, those are the things that we're always thinking about. And we're always trying to include our partners so we can have those aha moments like you had during the, during the building collapse exercise, again, in a controlled learning environment rather than, Oh gee, we're doing it for real. Right. Right. That's never, never, never a great time to learn. Never a great time to learn something new. And I've been there. We always, we always do. Right. I've been there and I've learned. I, I, I really probably cut my teeth on hurricane Matthew. Um, I did hurricanes prior to that and tornadoes and wildfires and all that stuff. But Matthew was probably the big first one for me. And so it was definitely a learning experience. And fortunately, some of the things that, uh, that are out there as categories, we don't have to worry about too much. Um, one of the ones that, uh, coming from, from my former home in Utah, we had to worry about earthquakes a lot. Fortunately, we don't have to worry about earthquakes. So, uh, winter storms is another one that I hope we don't have to deal with, but severe weather. Yeah. That's one that we do have. So those 17 categories, is that for all different emergency management systems? And then we only have a certain that we focus on here in Felicia County. That's correct. What are the ones that we focus on in Felicia County? So the ones that we primarily focus on, of course, are hurricane, any kind of severe weather, flooding, wildfire, and then the man-made stuff. So whether it be a hazardous materials incident, whether it be a terroristic event, whether it be a cyber event, those are the ones that we spend most of our time on. And then we spend a little less time, but we take into consideration things like tsunami. Oh my gosh. I didn't even think about that. Exactly. There's, I mean, a month, month and a half ago, we had a small earthquake off the coast. Yeah, that's right. For example. So those are always things that we have to be thinking about and going, what if, right? That's a little terrifying. But in the best way, because you guys are prepared for all of it. That's what we're here for. I tell you what, let's, let's take a break and we'll come back. I want to dig into, um, to let you mention your background a little bit and we'll talk to Aubrey about hers too, and then we'll talk about hurricane season. Cool. Subscribe to the Volusia County YouTube channel. And hit the bell icon to know what's happening in your hometown. There are so many great places to explore. And things to learn. With over 1,000 videos available right now, the channel offers something for everyone. Let's go. Did you know we have countless features showcasing history, nature, wildlife, and recreation? Subscribe and hit the bell icon. Or that we live stream important county meetings and workshops where leaders make decisions that can impact our everyday lives. Did you subscribe yet? Or that we record our weekly radio show, Volusia Today, where we interview staff from the different divisions and departments across our great county, and they discuss the nitty gritty of their field and expertise. Go ahead. Subscribe. But that's not it. There's more. Subscribe. And hit the bell icon and fully explore. Score. Good morning, Volusia County. My name is Michael, and you are listening to Volusia Today. I am joined this morning by my co-host, Maggie. Maggie, thank you for being here. Of course. Anytime. I'm not sure you had a choice, but thank you for being here anyway. We have a couple of special guests today. It's Clint Mecham. I got it right that time? Yes, sir. And Aubrey Austin with us from Volusia County Emergency Management. And we are talking hurricane season. And actually, we're talking about Clint right now. Clint, you touched base on your background. Give me, you, if I remember right, you got here in September? August of August. August, okay. Correct. So, where'd you come from? What'd you do? So, before I got here to my new home in Volusia County, I was in Utah, Salt Lake City area. I spent 28 years as a career in the fire service out there, Unified Fire Authority. The last 10 years of that, I was the division chief over the Salt Lake County Emergency Management Division. So, I bring that experience here to Volusia County. And, again, there's a lot new to learn here in Volusia County. But, again, hopefully I can pick up what I've learned over the years and apply it here to my new home. Sure. I guess we were talking a little bit before we went off the air, too, for the break, that I would guess that your experience, a lot of it applies to almost any disaster, right? Any emergency. But then each one is different, too. It is. And so, I would assume you're able to bring a foundational base of knowledge from Utah, because you dealt with stuff, though. You talked about earthquakes and stuff. There's a good bit of that that actually does translate and does transfer over to Florida. Well, and you hit the nail right on the head, Michael. Well, each incident is unique, but there are some basic processes and some basic thought processes and preparations that we can do that are universal across whatever disaster we might have to deal with. And so, and I've also been with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Program since 2000. So, I've had experience. I spent some time at Ground Zero. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ernesto, Dean, Harvey, Barry. I spent all of October of 2022 with FEMA down in Lee County. I'm dealing with Ian over there in Fort Myers. So, I've been on the response side of hurricanes as well. But, again, there's that basic process and those basic thought processes that we use that are kind of universal. But you do have to be flexible because each one is different. With mutual aid, I have served in a couple different jurisdictions. And it's interesting to go see how somebody else does it. Oh, yeah. And because kind of like we talked, you've got a book, you've got a manual, you've got some rules and regulations and all that stuff, but everywhere is different. And you involve elected officials who have a great deal of authority in that specific jurisdiction, but they may treat things differently. Absolutely. Different leaders and all that stuff. So, that's a good experience. Aubrey, good morning. Good morning. How are you? I'm wonderful. Refresh my memory. I know we've had you on the air before. Since we talked about Clint's background, tell me, how did you get here? Well, I've lived in Volusia County my entire life. So, what feels like forever to me, I've lived in the land. I've been through all these storms that you've talked about already. Yeah. So, I've seen a lot of different things happen. I was here during the 98 wildfires. I was here during all the storms over the last 40-odd years. So, it's definitely interesting to hear Clint's side of things versus our side of things. I haven't always been in emergency management, obviously. I've been there nine and a half years. Prior to that, I was an intern in Osceola County for a year and a half. So, I've seen some things come and go. I've seen some even local agencies do things differently depending on what storm's going on. So, I think a lot of times he calls us a great team all the time just because I've got that historical knowledge that's been going through our community forever for me. Right. And what's new for him. That probably is a great combination to have that history and that knowledge and to be able to speak the language here. But then Clint brings in a whole different set of skills and viewpoints and stuff. Absolutely. That's probably a great combination. I tell you what, let's take our second break and we'll come back and let's talk about actual hurricane season. Cool. Today on Marine Science Minute with Florida Sea Grant, Hurricane Awareness. This month marks the beginning of hurricane season, which lasts from June 1st to November 30th. All areas of Florida are at risk of hurricane impacts, including flooding and wind damage. Florida Sea Grant has tools and resources to help you prepare for the next hurricane. You can prepare for this year's season by following these tips. Develop an evacuation plan and know your evacuation zone. Assemble emergency supplies such as flashlights, water, and an emergency radio. Create a communication plan for your family, including an emergency meeting place in case of loss of cell phone network. Document your possessions through a home inventory. For information about this and other coastal topics, contact your county extension office or visit FloridaSeaGrant at flcgrant.org. Today, and we are joined today by emergency management. We have Clint and Aubrey here, and we are so excited to have them. It's been so interesting listening to you guys talk about the different things you guys deal with in your division. But one of the main things you guys deal with is hurricanes, and hurricane season is coming up really quickly. And in Volusia County, we have a lot of people who this is their first time going through a hurricane. And that can be terrifying. I grew up in Florida. I grew up in South Florida, which is a little bit different. But it's still, I mean, even being a Floridian, you still are learning so much about the different ways to prepare. But you guys have so many different educational opportunities coming up for hurricane season. And one of the big ones is this weekend, you guys have the Hurricane Expo. What can we expect to see there? Yeah, so when we were talking earlier, and Michael was asking if you had plans this weekend, I can make plans. Skip the wedding. We're going to the Hurricane Expo. Skip the wedding. You've got that. You know, exactly. No, we have our annual Hurricane Preparedness Expo that is co-sponsored by our COAD, which is our Community Organizations Active in Disasters. It is at the Volusia County Fairgrounds from 10 to 2 tomorrow. It's free to the public. We've got a lot of vendors coming in, over 50 vendors, to talk about whether it be preparedness or insurance or any of the other myriad of things that people can take care of or lean into in order to be prepared for hurricane season. So we're really looking forward to that, and we're really excited about it. Clint, don't forget the free food. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Oh, that sounds great. I'm sorry. Oh, my goodness. Yes. No, there will be free food. As a matter of fact, Aubrey wrangled some of her family members into helping cook for us this weekend. So this is truly a family affair. So by all means, we're going to have raffle prizes as well. And there's going to be a number of guest speakers there. I'll be speaking. There will be members from the insurance community there speaking. And, again, just to provide as much information as we can to our citizens so they can be just as prepared as possible. Because, like you said, hurricanes are our primary threat, right? And just because whether you're new to Volusia County or whether you've been here for a long time, each one is different. And so we just need to make sure that we've got as many tools in the toolbox as we can for everybody so we get through it together. Clay, tell me the dates. It starts today or tomorrow? Tomorrow. It's tomorrow. For some reason, I was thinking it was today. It's tomorrow. And what are the times? It's from 10 to 2. Okay. And where is it? At the Volusia County Fairgrounds. Okay. And help me understand. Maggie, and I think you just touched on this for a second, but Maggie, born and raised in Florida. I've been here a long time. I've been through a bunch of hurricanes. So is she. Whatever. Why do we need to go to your Hurricane Expo? So, again, each one of these hurricanes, as they affect Volusia County, is a little bit different. Fun fact, or maybe not so fun, Volusia County has never been hit by anything stronger than a Category 1 hurricane. Oh, don't say that. Knock on wood. Exactly. So Ian, for example, when Ian hit Volusia County, Ian was not actually a hurricane when it got here. It was actually a tropical storm. Right. It wasn't so much a wind event as it was a rain event, versus Nicole, when she came and then kind of double-punched Volusia County, that was more of a wind event and a storm surge event than it was a rain event. So each one of these storms is a little different and presents its own little unique twist, if you will. So, again, there's common processes and common procedures that we follow, but we have to be flexible in being able to deal with the uniqueness of each storm. And that goes for our citizens and our visitors to Volusia County as well. Yeah, definitely. And I know for me, we're homeowners for the first time, and so this is a really great opportunity for us to learn how to prepare our home and make sure that we're ready to go. Clint, you're from Utah, so what was the most shocking thing coming here, going into hurricane season for the first time? So the most shocking thing for me is you get advanced warning that something's coming. You know it's coming. That's the big one for me. Most of the things that I dealt with in Utah were no-notice events. Earthquakes, for example, you don't get a lot of advanced warning those are coming. I've worked a lot of tornadoes. Yeah, same thing. Yeah, the EOC opens after the tornado's gone. Exactly, exactly. And so here we've got a little bit of time to prepare. We know it's coming pretty much every year, so we need to get ready for it. Earthquakes, for example, back in Utah, it's like a 500-year event, so maybe you're going to get one this year, maybe not. But here in Florida, we can always pretty much be guaranteed that we're going to be affected by a storm somehow, some way. And you mentioned you're a new homeowner. One of the things that we want to emphasize and that we're going to be talking about in the expo, as well as the town halls that we have coming up, is insurance. Most people, they've got renter's insurance, they've got homeowner's insurance, whatever that might look like. But most people don't realize that that homeowner's insurance or renter's insurance doesn't cover flooding. And most of the damages that are incurred from hurricanes have to do with flooding. And so you need that extra flood insurance to make sure that you're well and truly covered and can recover quickly. And that's not something that you can call the insurance company as the storms come ashore and say, hey, I need flood insurance. You need to plan that out in advance because it takes some time for those policies normally to take effect. So, again, that's some of the information that we're trying to push out to the public so they can all be prepared and be ready. Yeah, definitely. I mean, lucky for us, my fiancee handles all the insurance. We do have flood insurance. He was ready. He was ready to go with that. But you mentioned the town halls y'all are having, too. If they can't go this weekend, you guys have a lot of opportunities for town halls. We are doing our level best to get out to as many members of the community and all areas of the county as we can. We've scheduled six town halls. We've conducted two of them. We get about 25 or so people at the first two. We've got one coming up at the Ormond Beach Regional Library on Thursday, May 9th, and that's from 530 until 645. Deltona Regional Library is on Wednesday, May 22nd, again, from 530 to 645. The new Smyrna Beach Regional Library on Wednesday, May 29th. And then the last one will be at the Port Orange Regional Library on Wednesday, June 12th. So, again, we are doing our level best to get to all corners of the county and talk about preparedness, whether you live in a coastal community or whether you live inland. Yeah, that's awesome. And what's the benefit of going to the town hall over the Hurricane Expo or vice versa? So, the town halls are a little bit more intimate as far as the numbers of people, so we can address, we can get into a little bit more of the specific questions that people have specific to their communities. We've been in the land already, and then we've been in Daytona Beach, and so we can talk about the specific needs for the community. However, the expo is going to have more things and go on for a longer period of time so people can dive into the specific topics they want to a little bit more specifically rather than community. So, we're trying to get a good mix of both. That's awesome. Nice, I too. Maggie, let's take our last break, and we're going to come back and talk about hurricane season itself. Volusia County Beach Safety. We're here to serve Volusia County's 47 miles of unique coastline. You know, Volusia County beaches, these beaches, but also these beaches. We have millions of visitors every year, and we work around the clock to keep our beaches safe and beautiful. And you can help. A staff lifeguard tower. Pick up your trash and fill holes. Identify, avoid, and escape rip currents. Please leave the beach cleaner than you found it. Look out for one another and keep an eye on kids, especially near the traffic lane and in the water. Pets are allowed as our two pet-friendly beaches. Lighthouse Point Park and Smyrna Dunes Park. If you see something, say something. A clean and safe beach guarantees fun and the sun for everyone. Thank you for doing your part to keep Volusia County beaches beautiful. See you at the beach! Make the most of your day at the beach. Download the Volusia County Beaches app today. Sign up for real-time notifications on vehicle ramp openings and closings. Find staff lifeguard towers. Get updates on tides and beach conditions. Plus, off-beach parking and coastal parks info. Volusia County Beaches app is available for your smart devices at the App Store and Google Play. Welcome back to Volusia Today. My name is Michael, and you are listening to Clint Mecham and Aubrey Austin. Today, talk about hurricane season, hurricane expo, and the town halls. So, we've talked a little bit about those two. Let's talk about hurricane season officially starts on June 1st. June 1st. June 1st. Goes through November, is that right? Technically, yeah. Roughly. November 1st. Seems like it's always November 1st, and then there's something hanging out there about November 15th. There's always the oddballs. It's always out there, yeah. Yes, absolutely. So, what are the predictions? What does the season look like? So, we're still waiting for the National Weather Service to come out with their predictions from the National Hurricane Center. But Colorado State University has put out their predictions, and they have a very, very good and very, very storied program at Colorado State. They're telling us that we're looking at potentially 23 named storms this season. 11 of those will turn into hurricanes. Of those 11, 7 will be over Category 3. So, it is about a third busier than what's considered a normal season. Okay. Okay. Any reason why it's going to be busier? So, we're transitioning from an El Nino to a La Nina pattern. So, there's wind shear. There's atmospheric conditions that come into account here. But one of the other things, too, that we're really concerned about is the water temperature. Water temperatures right now on both Gulf Coast and on the Atlantic side are at July levels already. Look at Clint from Utah talking about water temperatures and El Ninos. He's ready. Like I said, I got a good team behind me. He's rocking and rolling already. El Ninos and water temperatures. I lived in Florida my whole life, and I don't even know that. I know if it's not 90, I'm not getting in it. Yeah. So, all of those environmental factors play into more frequent storms, stronger storms possibly? Yes, correct. Okay. So, what do I, as an average homeowner, need to do? Again, make sure you've got your go kit ready to go and make sure that you include pets in your go kit. Make sure you've got important documentation in your go kit, things like birth certificates, social security cards. Medications are always something that people seem to forget. Immunization records for your pets, that's something else. So, again, if we do have to issue an evacuation order, and believe me, we don't do that lightly, but if we do issue it, you can grab that kit. You can go, and you've got everything necessary to, again, once it's time to come back and recover from the storm, you have the proper documentation and the proper stuff to help you on that road to recovery. Clint, if I'm making the decision to ride it out, we've got about 40 seconds. I'm going to ride it out of my home. What do I need to do? So, if we're issuing an evacuation order, we don't recommend that, but, again, a gallon of water per person per day. Understand that you may not have access to 911 and emergency services if you're going to ride it out for a period of time. Again, you just need to be self-reliant and ready for those potential consequences should you decide to ride it out. I tell you, well, we are running out of time, but can we bring you guys back? Aubrey, I'm sorry, we didn't hear you talk very much today. Can we bring you guys back maybe mid-season or, I don't know, you know, certainly if there's a hurricane coming, we'll come back and talk about that. Of course. But we'd like to, I feel like we didn't have enough time to dig into it today as much as we wanted to. No, happy to do it whenever. All right. You guys have a great weekend, Maggie. Have a good weekend. Thank you, you too. Go enjoy the beach. Go enjoy the weather. Be safe. Go to the expo. Go to the expo. The storm is being called a 500-year flooding event. Floridians are going to experience the impacts from this storm for a very long time. You always prepare for the worst, and you always hope for the best. This hurricane ended up being the perfect storm of everything that we didn't want to see. In was a storm that wasn't even supposed to hit our city. It was predicted to hit in Tampa. I called one of the mayors up there, and I said, you know what, we're going to be here. Good luck. The forecast was a little uncertain. You realize the one constant with a hurricane is that you never know what a hurricane's going to do. I would say between three to two days that we knew we were not going to avoid this particular storm. FMIT was here on day one. We didn't even have to pick up the phone once to call them. They were there. FMIT makes a promise to its members to be there before, during, and after a storm, and Synergy helps fulfill that promise. Days before the storm, Synergy reached out to me. We pre-deploy ride-out teams, could be anywhere from 24 to 48 hours pre-storm. FMIT team contacted me to let them know we're here, we're on standby. In this storm, we deployed approximately 40 ride-out teams to various EOCs on the West Coast. I left at about quarter till eight on Tuesday night, and we didn't know what was going to happen. It's always hard to leave your home. And leaving your home and not knowing what you're coming back to, it's hard to comprehend. The effects from Hurricane Ian were catastrophic. I mean, that's really the only word to describe it. We had several hard hits. I mean, we had a pier kind of disintegrated. About 4.30 in the morning, this woman came up to me in the lobby, and she just put her phone up in front of me, and it showed this grainy picture, bridge collapse. And we're looking at this phone, and we're seeing what we were facing. Our lifeline was broken. We went around looking at the damages. We saw that our downtown was hit pretty hard. We have a reverse osmosis plant, and during the storm, that took substantial damage. The airport sustained pretty extensive damage. A lot of metal buildings, hangar buildings, a lot of structural buildings, hangar doors blown off. Almost every insured asset had some form of damage to it. Out at the lighthouse in Sanibel, there was two houses, one on each side of the lighthouse. They're completely gone. There's no visible sign of where those houses went. FMIT was extremely helpful during the storm. They were professionals. They knew exactly what they needed to do, so we could concentrate on search and rescue and the recovery aspects of our city. FMIT had already been doing their work, literally building a port on our island so we could have transportation back and forth within a day. We made the damage in Sanibel unique. While it had its wind damage, there was heavy surge damage. So you have, you know, salt water, three to ten foot inside all buildings, muck, sand. We had contractors and resources on standby, ready and available to assist. They had barges already secured, they had equipment, they had contractors that could come and clear the roadways. What's unique about FMIT is that they really believe in a proactive response. What's important about these damage assessment teams is not only to be boots on the ground post-storm, but to also identify where immediate mitigation and stabilization needs are. FMIT was able to get out with our RO plant that was substantially damaged and mitigated in the short term so we wouldn't sustain additional losses. We were able to temp in various roof sections within three days post-storm. Not only did this keep the plant operational, but it also protected millions of dollars' equipment inside the building. Not only did they come in to meet our insurance needs, they were able to give us resources. Talking to FEMA, talking to the governmental affairs people on a state level, on a federal level. I think the question that any city should ask is, in the event of a catastrophic event, what team do they have in place? You can see FMIT are a clear choice. You don't know you need something until you really need something. A city should consider FMIT if they want the confidence in knowing that when a disaster happens, they're going to have a team of people that know how to get the job done. I think this is a strong partnership, and we have been extremely impressed with the work that's been provided through FMIT. Live in a flood zone, so my home isn't at risk of flooding. If my home floods, I'll be covered by my homeowner's insurance policy. Visit FloodSmart.gov. A message from your Volusia County Emergency Management. Flood insurance coverage may take up to 30 days to go into effect. Hi, my name is Hector with the City of Deltona Solid Waste Division. Here are some hurricane safety tips. Before the storm, we do ask that you secure any loose items. That may be the trash cans themselves, grills, lawn furniture, anything that may become a projectile. Please bring it inside. As well for any trash and yard waste, place them in an area that's accessible for you, but away from any power lines, fences, and trees. During the storm themselves, do not bring out any bulk trash to the curbside. As well for any yard waste, do not prune or chop down any trees at the current time. For any of the trash cans themselves, place them in a safe area away from wind or tie them down to the best of your ability. After the storm, there will be adjustments to the waste pro schedule, so please be advised during the time. As well for any household, yard waste, anything of the sort, garbage, bags, you can go ahead and keep them for your disposal until the regular services resume. If you have any further questions, give us a call at 386-878-8723. That is our solid waste line, and we're here to help you. Forward slash renew. That's VCTaxCollector.org forward slash renew. You can use this service every other renewal period. You also must be Real ID compliant. If there's a gold star on your license, it's Real ID compliant. Once you complete the online process, the state of Florida will mail the license to you. The next time you need to renew or update your driver's license, consider skipping the trip by renewing online at VCTaxCollector.org forward slash renew. I'm Lieutenant Jim Buford with the Florida Highway Patrol. Street racing, stunt driving, and roadway takeovers have become increasingly common in Florida. These dangerous and illegal activities endanger the participants, spectators, and innocent bystanders. FHP and our law enforcement partners are actively involved in enforcing and investigating any occurrence. But we need your help in reporting these events. If you see street racing, stunt driving, or a roadway takeover in progress, call Star FHP. This will direct you to the closest dispatch center for help. If you have knowledge or video of individuals participating in street racing, stunt driving, or roadway takeovers, email us at stopracing at flhsmv.gov. Again, email us at stopracing at flhsmv.gov. You may be wondering why you should follow the fertilizer ordinance. Do you enjoy kayaking, paddleboarding, boating, fishing, or just the beautiful views? If so, do you want your waterways to look like this? Here's another thought. Do you value the local economy, your property values? If so, we can't afford to have the waterways look like this. If you fertilize your yard, you may be contributing to these water quality problems. If you fertilize, the fertilizer can be washed off, not watered in. And then it doesn't benefit your yard. In fact, the fertilizer and your money go right down the storm drain. Once it goes down the storm drain, it flows directly into the waterways. What goes down the storm drain ends up in the waterways. And once fertilizer gets to the waterways, it does what fertilizer does. And that makes green things grow. In the water, that's algae. Once you get algae, the oxygen is depleted in the water. And then that leads to fish kills. The light is blocked. And that leads to seagrass loss. And all kinds of other problems in the water. Also, the fertilizer can penetrate the soil and go down into the aquifer and into the water supply. The best thing to do is to follow the fertilizer ordinance. What that means is nitrogen-based fertilizers are banned during the rainy season, which is June 1st to September 30th. If you choose to fertilize in the spring, the ordinance also specifies to use zero phosphorus. If you look at the three numbers on the bag, the middle number should be zero. Our soils in Florida contain a lot of phosphorus, and there is no need to add any more. You also want to look for 50% slow-release nitrogen. Find the total amount of nitrogen on the bag and look and find out how much is slowly available. When you use slow-release nitrogen, it gradually releases over time, and you get extended benefits without contaminating the waterways. Also, remember to sweep off any fertilizer that may wind up on hard surfaces. If not, it could wind up in the waterways as well. Also, do not apply any fertilizer within 15 feet of any water body. Grass clippings should be blown back into the yard because they contain nitrogen. If they wind up in the street, they'll go into the waterways and cause algae. When you blow them back into your yard, that's free fertilizer for you. You also want to make sure you prevent those glass clippings from going directly into the water, and the best way to do that is to create a no-mow zone around the waterway. You can use native plants, and it will make your waterway beautiful. When you follow the fertilizer ordinance, you will protect your recreation, our local economy, your wallet, and our waterways. You will be doing your part to keep Volusia beautiful. I'm overwhelmed. I need help finding a job. Hi, I don't know where to start. Hi, I need help finding child care. Can you help me find counseling for my son? Whether you're calling for yourself or a loved one, 211 introduces you to a variety of resources and services. I need help finding affordable housing. We can help with that. I'll send the resources right over. When you don't know where to turn, turn to 211. Call, text, or visit us online. Any time you have an emergency, the best and fastest way to get help is calling 911. Today, for those who can't make a phone call, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office is rolling out text to 911. Text 911 for help should not be your first move unless it's absolutely necessary. That may be the case if you have a hearing or speech impairment, or if you're in a situation where making a voice call would put you in danger. The simple key to remember is call if you can, text if you can't. Text to 911 is currently available here in Volusia County and in other Central Florida counties such as Seminole, Brevard, Orange, and Osceola. But it's not available everywhere. If you try to text 911 in an area where it's not available, you should receive a bounce-back message telling you to call 911. When you text 911, your first message should be brief with the location and the type of emergency. Be ready to answer follow-up texts from us. Keep your messages clear and concise. Don't use abbreviations or emojis. Text to 911 is available only in English, and if you have a text or data plan for your text messages to come through. You can't send a text to 911 in a group message. 911 has to be the only recipient. And I shouldn't have to say this, but don't text and drive. Remember, call if you can, text if you can't. And thank you for helping us make Volusia County a safer place every day. It's 6.30, which is our start time, and I want to thank everybody for coming out. And I know that you're very interested in what we're going to be discussing here today, or at least our guest speakers are going to be discussing. And we're going to start. This has been going on for seven years here in the city of Deltona. And the first person that I want to introduce to you, I want to read a little bio on him. So, Brian is the meteorologist for Spectrum 13, and he's been working on this project with me since I was elected seven years ago, thanks to Lee Lopez, who's sitting in the back, who worked with me on this project as well and helped me put it together. So, Brian has been a meteorologist for more than 27 years and first joined the News 13 team in 2015. Brian had dreamed of being a meteorologist since childhood and was always passionate about learning how storms form while addressing the importance of weather across a variety of climates. Brian has earned the National Weather Association's seal of approval and the approval of Deltona in the American Meteorological Society's CBM seal of approval. An Emmy nominee, he has also won several awards for his work, including being named the 2009 National Weather Association Broadcaster of the Year and Best Weathercaster by the Florida Association Press in 2016, 2017, 18, 20, and 21. Brian's career first took off in Mancota, Minnesota, where he reported on a record-breaking March tornado outbreak, staying on the air for more than two hours as tornadoes touched down. While working as a morning meteorologist in Des Moines, Iowa, Brian became a storm chaser and studied these storms in the field since 2011. Brian is certified to teach nationwide courses in tornado awareness, hurricane awareness, flooding hazards, science and preparedness, coastal hazards, and climate adoption planning by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. Brian has participated in the City of Deltona's hurricane awareness town hall meetings since they began seven years ago, sharing his expertise and knowledge on what to expect and how to prepare for hurricane season. We only bring you the best. So without further ado, I would like to bring Brian up. And don't forget to show them your, you know what I'm talking about. Okay, so here's Brian. Thank you. I'll shorten that bio next year. And update it, too. I'll be celebrating 29 years in the TV business next month. So 29 years. Ten years here just back in April. Can't believe I've been ten years in Central Florida. And, yes, I've got my shoes, my radar shoes, but I also have my Tropical Storm socks that one of my meteorologists gave me for Christmas. Got to get it into, all right? Well, appreciate you guys being out here tonight, and I know that we're coming up fast on our new season, 2025 season, and we're hoping for nothing, right? Wouldn't that be nice? All right, so we're going to talk about being prepared, not scared. Don't be scared. Be prepared. That is our mantra at Spectrum News 13. And Central Florida storm season is about to get underway. We're your calm in the storm. Just a quick team shout-out. We are the nation's only team of dual-certified meteorologists, and that is a mouthful, meteorologists. That is an opportunity for us to show that we have the past education. We have our continuing education. We go out and do workshops. We go to conferences. We bring ourselves up to speed on the very latest in technology and research. And then we pass that education on to you. So tonight I'm having a great conversation with you guys on weather, and we'll answer any of your questions if I can. We did add a new meteorologist. And by the way, I'll just quickly run through Chris Gilson, our weekend night meteorologist. Mallory Nichols, who is standing right next to me, she's on right now, and she's the one who gave me the socks for Christmas. Maureen McCann is on my other side. She's our morning meteorologist. And then Zach Covey, far right, is our weekend morning meteorologist. In the back we have Amy Sweezy from WESH. We took her as soon as WESH, as she walked away from WESH, and she wanted to keep her feet wet in the business. And I said, come on, let's go. And she's been a great addition to our team as a contractor, and Rob Eicher in the back as well. But we just added another meteorologist. He starts on Monday. His name is Greg Bennett. He has lots of Florida ties. He grew up in Florida in Brevard County, and he's moving back to Brevard County. As a matter of fact, he just moved back Sunday. They're unpacking, getting ready for upcoming hurricane season. And he starts on air with us on May 27th. So you have to stay tuned for the morning show on May 27th. All right, with that out of the way, 24 days. That's it. Until we officially kick off the Atlantic hurricane season. It runs June 1st through November 30th. The Pacific hurricane season actually begins May 15th. So it gets about a 15-day jump on the Atlantic season. It also runs through November 30th. And right now, models, they're all over, trying to figure out what's going on. And, of course, we get our early season spin-ups that are, we call them phantom storms. So if you hear a little chatter on the social media sites, there's nothing brewing for us. We don't have to worry about it, at least right now. Peak of hurricane season. It is September 10th. So as you see here in our graphic, we run all the way up to August and then see a very sharp incline in hurricane season to the peak on September 10th and then a slow slide back out. You also notice that we can have storms in May and we can have storms in December. It's not out of the question. It's very rare, but not out of the question. Now, with that said, the peak of hurricane season, we typically see 53% of our tropical storms during the peak of hurricane season. I like to walk back and forth, by the way. It's just TV nature. I don't have a green screen, but 61% of the hurricanes in a given hurricane season occur in the peak of hurricane season. And that actually roughly runs August 20th through about October 10th. And 73% of major hurricanes feeding off very warm ocean waters, that's usually what occurs, 73% would occur in that peak as well. So what do hurricanes need to form? Well, they need at least 79-degree or warmer sea surface temperatures. We have that right now in the Gulf. We do not have it in parts of the Atlantic just yet, which is some good news. I'll get to that in just a second. We need to keep that storm away from the equator because the equator stops that spin. Low wind shear is ideal for hurricane development. So what is wind shear? Well, as you're going up toward the sky, let's say we're walking up toward space, we're getting wind that's coming from our back, we'll keep going, and it's coming from our side, and it's coming from our front, and it's changing speed as well as the direction. So wind shear is actually something that can chop off a hurricane, keep it from breathing, because that wind is actually changing direction and speed and acting like the shears that you would take for your bushes chop off the top, and that's not allowing the hurricane to breathe. If there's no wind shear, there's nothing helping to kick that thing at the top. It's going to breathe, all right? So we're looking for a low wind shear to keep development at a minimal. And we need an unstable atmosphere. It's going to provide the fuel for thunderstorms to develop. We need a system nearby, some sort of an area of low pressure that's going to develop and start to strengthen. All right, so I didn't put May in here just because it's so rare, because the official start of season is June 1st. But here's where we would be watching June 1st through June 30th, typically out into the Gulf. We see the northwest Caribbean and also along our east coast. This is because we typically, at this time of year, we're still seeing some fronts occasionally drop south, cold fronts, and we get spins that may occur along those fronts. So as we take you to the peak of hurricane season, huge difference, right? Well, typically, during the peak of hurricane season, we have very, very warm water right down through the central Atlantic. This is called our main development region. And this is where we would have all the high-octane fuel. We'd have distance to feed and provide the moisture. And then as we curl back up off our coasts, a lot of times these things will drift across the Caribbean and into the Gulf. And a lot of times they'll take themselves up over Bermuda. And that seems to be where they were all tracking last year. Most of them were heading toward poor Bermuda. And oddly enough, they have been through so many hurricanes, but they still have a great lifestyle and really not a lot of damage that has been done in the island of Bermuda itself over the years. All right. So that takes us to this season. Right now, the only forecast out by official forecasters from Colorado State University, they are calling for 17 named storms this year. On average, we see 14. They're calling for nine hurricanes. Our average is seven. And they're calling for four major hurricanes. The average in a season is typically about three. So, with that said, they're calling for slightly above average. Now, we will wait until NOAA, National Weather Service NOAA, come out with their forecast. And we'll see if the Hurricane Center decides to go about the same. And I have a feeling they're probably going to be pretty lined up. Then they give a range. They'll probably say between 13 and 18 storms. So they'll give it a range, whereas Colorado State just nails down a number and you go for it. But I want to tell you, right off the bat, I don't pay attention to those numbers. I really don't. Because it only takes one. That's all that matters. It doesn't matter. If they're calling for 17 storms and they all occur, they're not all going to hit us. Knock on wood. But I don't pay attention because it only takes one to really give us fits. So, early forecast is calling for a slightly above average season. But there is a lot of uncertainty because we actually have cooler, slightly cooler water in that main development region of the Atlantic Basin. So, we don't have the high octane fuel there. Last year at this time, it was about three or four degrees warmer in that part of the Atlantic, out in the central Atlantic. So, we're running slightly cooler. That's what we like to hear, right? So, sea surface temperatures in the Gulf, unfortunately, they are already warm enough to sustain and support development. But, as I just mentioned, it only takes one. And this is what it looks like any forecast season. All over the place. All right. So, I love the memes. Jim Cantore, who's a great friend, I do know that wherever I see him go, I still get a little bit nervous. And he says, people asked when is a good time to worry, and that's when you worry. If he shows up in Deltona, Jim shows up in Deltona, you know we may have some issues. But we will always rebuild no matter why, right? I'm not sure. There's several of these memes that go out. It's pretty funny. All right. So, I want you to do me one favor, and I've shared these next two slides every year just because it really hits home a point. Just ignore the hype. I told you right off the bat, we don't hype. Don't be scared. Just be prepared. We don't hype up a storm. I don't want to hype a storm because I don't want to scare. Hype does nobody any good. But here's what our former governor said. And, again, it's not a political statement. All right? I'm not making any political statements. These are things that were actually said that just made me cringe. So, this is back, and I believe this is during Irma. Looks like I need to move that. Yeah, we had the collision occur over us, so it's pouring out right now. The sea breeze is right overhead. This is an unbelievably massive, destructive storm. Now, what do you think if somebody's scared to storms already? What are they thinking now? It's a killer. You will not survive all this storm surge. You're telling the residents of Florida this? And then goes on to say, Irma is bigger, faster, and stronger than Hurricane Andrew. My God, Hurricane Andrew destroyed South Florida. You know, Homestead really didn't exist after Andrew. This storm will be nothing like the state has ever seen. And I tell you what, we lived through Irma. It was nothing like he said it was going to be. We did have a lot of damage. I lost shingles. I lost some trees in my West Orange County home. But it was not bigger than Andrew. Then there's Shep Smith. I don't even know where he is anymore. But he's talking, Irma, and he says to a national audience, this moves 20 miles to the West, and you and everyone you know are dead. All of you, because you can't survive it. It's not possible unless you're very, very lucky. And your kids die, too. Imagine a family of four and the parents sitting there with two young kids watching and hearing this, scared to death because they're telling you you're going to die. Smith spoke with a Floridian woman who didn't want to leave her home. I'll ask her why she's staying and if she expects us to cover her funeral. Yeah. Tasteless, tacky, and this is what you don't want to listen to. Don't listen to people who freak you out. They're not doing you any good. They're doing a disservice in this business. That aside, let's move on to our names for the season. The first one on our list is Andrea. Move on to Barry and Chantal. All the way down to Lorenzo. Get over to Pablo. Tanya. And let's hope we don't get to Van or Wendy. And if we get to Wendy and we move on, here's our supplemental list. You know, they used to do Greek alphabet. They don't anymore because if you think about it, you have a Greek named Storm, and it's like Andrew where they've retired it because they retire storms at a certain amount of destruction and death. They don't want those names out there because that just is haunting, and it brings back those memories. All right? So in a Greek alphabet, you've got one. You can't just change and put a different one in. You've got a list of Greek letters, but that's it. So if you retire one, then you're just eliminating from that list, and if you get all the way down to that. So they've decided to move with a supplemental list. Adria would be the first one, all the way down to Will. Again, if we ever get down to this, and I don't want to live in Florida. I don't want to live in Florida if we get to Will on the second list. All right? At that point, I will be in Canada. I don't know. Somewhere where I'm not having to deal with two different name lists in one season. That would be insanity. Let's hope it never happens. So a quick dive into what we do behind the scenes. Seven to ten days out, we're actually looking at the pattern. We're trying to figure out, is this pattern favorable for any kind of development? Warm sea surface temperatures, low shear. What's the pattern with the areas of low pressure? Our high, our ridges are high pressure. We watch the trends over four to seven days out, and we continue to follow those trends and just watch the model runs because some of the model runs will spit something out in one time frame, and then two runs later, it disappears or it shifts, and that's going to happen. Within two to four days, we've got timing and impacts. We're getting pretty confident at this point, especially with the technology that we have today. Satellites helping us pinpoint exactly where the storm is, the eye, et cetera. So we're getting better with the timing and impacts about two to four days out. One to two days out, we've got that forecast nailed. We're going county by county. We're telling you here in Volusia County what you can expect with wind, what you can expect with rain, and what you can expect with potential tornadoes as well. All right, so with that, we may see a tropical storm watch issued. This is when winds are sustained at 39 to 73 miles per hour within the next 48 hours. Get a tropical storm warning. That's when winds of 39 to 73 are expected within the next 36 hours. So we're giving you time, and I'm not issuing these, by the way. These watches, the actual tropical watches coming out from the National Hurricane Center, are giving you, hopefully, enough time to prepare your family and your friends and neighbors, your homes, et cetera. And you're already doing that now as we head toward the season. If a watch for a hurricane is issued, it means winds over 74 are possible within the next 48 hours. But once we're in that hurricane warning, that means we are expecting winds over 74 miles per hour within the next 36 hours. Very quick rundown. I'm not going to go through each and every line of the categories, but I wanted to give you a really good idea of what we could see in these categories. All right, so a Category 1 hurricane, winds of 74 to 95 miles per hour, minor damage, power outages. We can handle that, right? We handle it every year, it seems like. We get these Category 1s or 2s or 3s that come close by, provide us rain and tornadoes and winds. Category 2, we're building up to 96 to 110 miles per hour. This is when we start taking down even more trees. We have a lot of trees in this county, a lot of pine trees that are tall and those old oaks. This is when we could actually start seeing power outages that last days to unfortunately even weeks. Category 3, 111 to 129 miles per hour, damage to roofing and windows likely. So maybe you're boarding up your windows, you're putting your shutters out, you're not running tape down the middle in a big X. That will not do you any good. It's not going to stop glass from breaking or blowing in, all right? So don't be putting a big old taped X on your windows. So we're now moving into Category 4. And before I get to 4, Category 3 and above. Category 3, 4, and 5. Those are considered major hurricanes. Major hurricanes with those severe winds have the highest impact. So 4 with 130 to 156 mile per hour winds. This is when we suffer major damage to our homes. And trees and power poles are snapped. Some homes are actually completely destroyed. Power outages last for weeks. And then we get into a Category 5. This is what Andrew was. This is what they bumped Michael up to. Michael hit Mexico Beach up in the pan. It came ashore as a 4, but after they did more research, they found that there was damage to sustain a Category 5 hurricane just at landfall. And it was a rapidly intensifying hurricane at that. This is extensive damage. This is devastating damage with power outages that last for weeks. These are the hurricanes that also produces the flooding rains. And as we know too well, the St. John's River was flooding from rains out of Ian back a couple years ago. And we had flooding on that St. John's River for two months? It was beyond Thanksgiving. It was like we were still talking the holidays and that river was still up. So what can you do now to prepare? And I know that we've got some other guests that are probably going to go through some of these, but I'll just go through quickly just to give you a few ideas. Shop today. Create a hurricane kit. Avoid those lines. Don't wait until the last minute. You wait in these huge lines. You've got people who are getting angry. They're getting frustrated. They're getting scared. Get your supplies now. Not to mention, plywood goes fast. And you may run out. Bottled water. We saw that during Irma. Bottled water off the shelves so very quickly. Know your evacuation route. You guys don't have to worry about that, but do keep in mind if you're near a body of water or if you are at the coast here in Volusia County, you need to figure out where to evacuate. Perform an insurance checkup. You realize that your insurance doesn't include flood insurance? Policies don't here in the state. You have to make sure that you have flood insurance. I would highly recommend it. You don't have to have it. I would highly recommend it. So take advantage of the sales tax holidays. I believe we have two. I don't know offhand the dates, but usually in June and then another one mid-season, there are two separate periods where you can get discounts, tax holidays. Buy and donate supplies to those who are less fortunate. We have a lot of folks who can't afford to go out and get supplies. And just kind of figure out what you need to last several days maybe without power. During a hurricane, obviously you don't want to go outside. All right, stay indoors, away from windows and glass, put as many walls between you and the outside as you can, have your safe place, have your hurricane kit there, have yourself a way to get alerts. Watch for rising water, I just mentioned that, and obviously have a way to watch your local news. I would love it if you watch Spectrum News. We take you through these storms from beginning to end. But whoever you trust, all right, whoever you trust. Keep your curtains and blinds, because I know that's kind of a drag because it's like, God, it's so dark, but that will help if debris decides to blow in to keep that debris from coming into your house. After a storm, make sure your family and friends are safe. Check on your neighbors, those who are susceptible and cannot actually maybe get out of the house. Maybe they've sustained damage. Help them out. Just make sure they're okay. Check your property, but be mindful of debris, power lines and trees, standing water, critters in that water, we get floodwaters, we have those big old nasty snakes and those gators that can come out. And keep generators outside and away from your house, all right? You don't want that generator running inside, because carbon monoxide is a killer. And we unfortunately lose lives every single year due to carbon monoxide poisoning. You use battery-powered flashlights. I wouldn't use candles. You fall asleep, kick it, accidentally knock it over. Yeah, that's not going to be a good situation. All right, so hopefully I didn't go too fast as I'm kind of winding down here. Concluding thoughts, everyone should be aware of our growing Florida population. We were just discussing, you guys are probably over 100,000 population in Deltona alone now. I think when I first started this with Lee, a little over 80,000. So, I mean, this population is exploding. You're seeing it. We discussed the traffic. And so just be mindful of those who have moved into the county who don't know about hurricane season, or maybe they've never been through one. They're going to need some extra hand-holding, a little help. Check in with them. See what they need. Give them some ideas. I just gave you a bunch. Go through a kit and just maybe show them your kit and how to put them together and prepare for the upcoming season. And we all should be prepared for tropical and severe weather any time of year. This line that's developing will more than likely kick out a severe storm or two, probably on my drive down I-4. But we need to be prepared for this every year. And so if we do so and we prepare ahead of time, we're going to be ready for what comes. We're not going to be thinking, oh, my God, I forgot this. Oh, my God, I forgot that. So once you get into that state of mind that, hey, I'm prepared, then you won't be scared. That's why we say don't be scared, just be prepared. And don't get wrapped up in the hype of local media and social media. I tell you, my friend keeps telling me I need to call out some of the local meteorologists who are hype mongers. I'm afraid to call them out because they're also friends. And I hint behind the scenes. But I'm like, go ahead and do what you're going to do because we do what we do. And people say, I tuned in because you were calm and you weren't freaking us out. So one of these days, as I'm getting a little older, I might start calling them out. But you know who they are. Some of you know who those local hype mongers are. So this, by the way, is a snapshot of, okay, I had an image off the very top of the slideshow. And I should have told you it was Hurricane Milton down near the Gulf, in the Gulf, near the Yucatan Peninsula, the fastest-growing hurricane record went from a tropical storm to a Cat 5. And then that's what came up. Milton came up and provided us some nasty weather, including a record-breaking tornado outbreak in South Florida. This is actually Helene. This is an image of Helene. And I tell you, each of these storms that comes in just off our west coast makes us all go, oh, God, because we're on that, what they call the dirty side of the hurricane. This is where we get the tornadoes. This is where we get bands of extremely heavy rain. That was Helene providing us a glancing blow before it took on the Big Bend and unfortunately took on Georgia, South Carolina, and really, really hammered the mountains of North Carolina. They are still suffering. And now, because of drought growing, they have fires burning all over in those mountains. So now people are trying to get ready for the next hurricane season. And there's fires to concern themselves with. So don't be scared. Just be prepared. We're all going to be good. Yeah. This is a good way to end it, huh? I'd like to cancel my subscription, and I'm sure you would as well, for the Hurricane of the Month Club. I do want to take a selfie really quick. And on top of that, if you guys want to join, I'll give a quick picture of everybody. I have to, unfortunately, I have to take off. I have an early morning meeting that I have to jump on tomorrow. And it's from here to my house on the south side of Orlando is about an hour or so, especially with this. So I will answer questions as soon as I take a quick selfie of all of us. No, I think I can get everybody in. I've got everybody, except you guys. Here, we'll do the... I don't know if I can see you guys back there or not. We're going to get this side. You ready? Three, two, one. I wonder if it would be better, because you two are over there if I come to this side. Sorry, I'm particular with my selfies. There we go. Now we've got everybody. All right. Everybody ready? Got to look good. Yeah, say Hurricane. Hurricane! No hurricanes. No hurricanes. All right. Quick questions? It doesn't have to be hurricane-related. We've been live, so it's been televised. So if you have a question, I want you to do it on... Speak on the microphone so everybody can hear your question and hear your answer. Anybody have any questions? Okay. None. Thank you. So before you leave, though, Brian, we'd like to give you something. The city has prepared a proclamation for you. Oh, wow. And it says, Brian Carrick, Chief Meteorologist, Spectrum News 13, thank you, for being the guest speaker at the City of Deltona's Hurricane Awareness Town Hall for the past seven years. Your expertise and knowledge on what to expect and how to prepare for hurricane season provides valuable education for our residents to stay safe during and after a hurricane tornado event. Don't be scared. Be prepared. Oh, wow. Thank you so much. Wow. Thank you. But something else. This is from me personally, but I need you to open it. Yeah, right? I didn't think about that one. By the way, at some point, Catherine, I'll send up our hurricane guides. They aren't printed yet. So once they're printed, we'll have some hurricane guides here at City Hall. Thank you. Awesome. Wow. Thank you. So City of Deltona, thank you, Meteorologist Brian Carrick. Awesome. Oh, and be prepared, not scared. Don't forget that mantra. Be prepared, not scared, because it really does help you go into the hurricane season and you're not nervous because you're all ready to go. And I want to thank my friend, Rachel, for putting that together for me at the last minute. Thank you. No questions? I know, right? Trajan. There you go. Thank you so much for being here. It's good to see you again. Good to see you, sir. Next year for sure. Absolutely. I like my name. Okay, so our next presenter will be Clint Mecham from the Volusia County Emergency Management, who will discuss what the county does to prepare for hurricane season. And to us, here in Deltona, it's an honor to have Clint here, because it's very rarely that we can drag the county representatives here into the city of Deltona. So thank you so much for being out here. And I know he has somebody with him who also would like to share some information on emergency shelters. Thank you very much, ma'am. Well, folks, thanks for allowing me to come and spend part of my evening with you. As I was introduced, my name is Clint Mecham. I am your Volusia County Emergency Management Director. I am a transplant. I have been here about two years now. I retired from the fire service in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. Utah, so everybody's like, Utah, what do you know about hurricanes? Well, fortunately, we didn't have a lot of hurricanes in Utah. But we did have avalanches and earthquakes and that kind of stuff. So at least hurricanes, I can see them coming. So I very much appreciate that aspect of being here in Florida. But I very much enjoyed getting to know my new friends and family here in Volusia County. I do try and get to the west side of the county as often as I can because there's this little thing called the St. John's River that runs down the west side of the county that we need to pay attention to, even especially during hurricane season with the closed basin. A little bit about myself above and beyond, just coming from Utah. I did spend 28 years in the fire service. I retired as a division chief with Unified Fire Authority in the Salt Lake Valley. The last 10 years of that career, I was Salt Lake County's Emergency Management Director. It was part of the fire department. Since 2000, I've also been with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Program. And I've had the opportunity to deploy to a few large incidents, Ground Zero, Katrina, Rita, Ernesto, Dean, Barry, Harvey. And I spent all of October of 2022 in Lee County for EM. So while I don't have a lot of experience on the front side of hurricanes, I have a whole bunch of experience on the backside in responding to hurricanes. So I'm going to spend a lot of time regurgitating what Brian already told you. So that's a good thing. I appreciate him doing that for me because that means you don't have to listen to me as long. But I do want to take a minute and talk about what emergency management is. So in Florida especially, everybody thinks emergency management are those hurricane people. That's not necessarily true. We are what we call all hazards. There's actually 17 different categories of disaster that we have to play the what-if game and think about, whether they be weather-related, whether it be terroristic-type stuff, whether it be hazardous materials and transportation incidents, and the list goes on and on. Cyber is the latest and greatest one that we're having to contend with right now. Yes, wonderful, right? But we provide, in a nutshell, we provide our first responder communities, and those would be your fire, your law enforcement, your public works, your public utilities people, with the logistical and coordination support to make sure that we are all working together in lockstep to respond to and recover from any significantly impactful events here in the county. So that's what we do. I have a staff of 10 in Volusia County Emergency Management, and we serve all, at latest count, 600,000 folks in Volusia County. We also take into account the visitors that we get to Volusia County. Anybody want to take a wild stab at how many visitors we had to Volusia County last year? 10.2 million. Florida as a state had 132 million visitors last year to the state. We got 10 million of those. So we're a very popular destination space, and you folks living here close to I-4, you get the brunt of that, right? The fact that you're close to Orlando, you get the brunt of that, too. So you kind of get a double whammy on that. But we spend a lot of time thinking about what if and creating plans on how we coordinate the resources to work together at the local, the county, the state, and the federal level to essentially return you folks back to as close to normal as what was before the event as fast as we can after the event. We do a lot of logistical support for our first responders. We make sure that they've got, in a military parlance, the beans, bodies, and bullets that they need to respond to whatever tactical situations that they may face. We don't tell them how to do their jobs. We make sure that they have what they need to do the job the way they determine they need to do it. So that's what we do. We spend a lot of time talking with our cities and a lot of time talking with the state on how we coordinate those resources and how we get additional resources into the county in the event that we need them. So that's emergency management in a nutshell. Just more verbiage. And these slides are very word-dense, and I apologize for that. But we have five mission pillars. We have prevention, preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery. So those are our five mission areas. Response is the one that everybody always talks about and the ones that everybody sees. Right? Two percent of our time. Okay? It's the fun part. It's not necessarily where we spend most of our time. We spend most of our time in preparation and mitigation and, unfortunately, on the recovery side of things. While an incident, a storm, for example, a hurricane, may affect us for a day or two, recovery can go on for literally months. And in some cases, years. We still have one mitigation project on the books from Irma that we are contending with. So it can take a long time to get back to that normal state after we experience a significant impact. But, as I said, here's some of the things we think about. Wildfires, that's been kind of a topic the last couple of weeks. But thanks to Brian's rain dance, hopefully we're getting towards the end of that season. Yeah, exactly. And I'll give him the credit all day long. So anyway, sinkholes. Anybody ever had to deal with a sinkhole? We have to worry about those too, right? Exotic diseases and not just COVID. I know my counterparts over in Texas right now are dealing with measles outbreaks, right? So there's a lot of those kinds of things. My deputy director has told me that if we ever have to do something like COVID again, she's quitting. So, no, I'm just giving Aubrey a bad time. But we deal with that. And, as I said, 10 million visitors to Volusia County. We spend a lot of time doing special event stuff. I mean, we've already seen the 500 this year. We've seen Bike Week this year. We just got done with Jeep Beach. Anybody know what the next one rolling up here in a week is? Rockville. Rockville's next week. Coke Zero Sugar 400's coming up shortly. So that's on the books. And then Biketoberfest and so it goes and so it goes. On top of our just normal tourist season from having world-famous beaches on the east side of the county, right? And as I understand it, we're getting more and more tourists into the west side of the county because of the mountain biking trails. So, again, you folks are going to start seeing more and more of that kind of stuff, too. So those are some of the things we have to deal with. But getting back to a little bit more specifically about the topic tonight, we operate out of the Emergency Operations Center. It's on Tiger Bay Road just off of International Speedway Boulevard. It was built in 2011. It is designed to withstand 180-mile-an-hour sustained winds. And we can bunker in there, and we do bunker in there before a storm. And we stay there throughout the storm until we get the all clear. It's also co-located with the Sheriff's Dispatch Center. And the Sheriff's Dispatch Center handles all the 911 calls in the entire county for law enforcement, fire, and EMS. So we're co-located in that facility. The facility is open. If you ever want to come take a tour, come knock on the door. We'll show you around. Nothing we do is top secret. So to kind of recap 2024, getting back to hurricanes, 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes, five majors, two impacts to Florida for majors, Helene and Milton. At landfall, Helene was a four. At least that's what the National Weather Service is telling me. And Milton was a three. Can anybody tell me the most, the strongest storm that Volusia County, level of storm that Volusia County has ever been directly impacted by? Category one. Category one. When all the storms have gotten to Volusia County, they have not been stronger than a cat one. So while they start big, by the time they get here, they're not necessarily as strong, right? Anybody remember, I mean, everybody remembers Milton last year, right? Ian, a few years before that. Charlie. Those were significantly impactful to Volusia County, right? So when Brian says, be prepared, that is key, because they're not anything to be scared of, but we do need to be in a position to help ourselves and help our neighbors so we can get back to that near normal state as rapidly as possible together. And it will take all of us together. And as we've seen from a lot of the storms that have affected Volusia County, it's not just, most people think, oh, it's a hurricane, the beach is going to get washed away. Well, maybe. Do you know where the highest level of rainfall was for Milton in Volusia County? The land in Deltona, okay? You guys took the brunt of the rainfall for those storms, at least according to the official accounts. In some cases, we had reports of 18 and a half inches of rain up in Deland, okay? That's a lot. That's a 500-year storm event. A 100-year storm event's around 11-ish, I believe, if I remember my numbers correctly. So that's a recap of the 2024 season. Some of the things, and again, I'm not telling you anything you folks don't already know. Extreme wind. Tornadoes. Anybody know how many tornadoes Milton spawned? Latest official count I got was 46, okay? St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties took the brunt of those, and we appreciate them falling on that sword for us. We really do. But, again, I've been here a short period of time, but my staff, who has been here much longer, tells me that traditionally, if we do see tornadoes coming from severe weather storms, whether they be hurricanes or thunder cells, they have a tendency to follow the I-4 corridor. So, again, I'm not trying to create a panic with anybody, but you folks are right here along it. So, again, being prepared, being ready is absolutely critical for all of you, right? Storm surge. Storm surge, we saw it during Ian. We saw it during Nicole. Worse than Ian. That's always a problem. Coastal erosion. Everybody tells me that the beaches are still not recovered from maybe what they were pre-Ian, pre-Nicole. Hey, I'm just happy to have a beach to go to. Utah didn't have a lot of beaches. Great Salt Lake doesn't count. Okay? Just saying. Utility outages, and Brian talked about those as well. Damaged infrastructure. Okay? That's one that we spend a lot of time recovering from. Water mains, sewer systems, electrical systems, gas systems, gas stations, grocery stores. A lot of that kind of stuff can take a long time to recover. Now, Florida does a really good job at a statutory level requiring various types of facilities to be more prepared. They have stipulations on gas stations that are close to freeways, having generator, backup power, those sorts of things. But, again, it can take a long time to recover. And, again, Brian went through this much better than I can, so I'm just going to breeze through this fairly quick. Tropical depression, up to 38 miles an hour. Tropical storm, 39 to 73. Hurricane, 74, 73 or above. Right? Okay? I will spend a little time on this. And, again, Brian went through the categories. And, again, there they all are. But what I want to emphasize is damage levels. Okay? So the damage incurred by these types of storms is not a linear scale. It is an exponential scale. Okay? So if we use a Category 1 hurricane as a level 1 damage, by the time we get up to a Category 5, it's 500 times the amount of damage to be expected than a Category 1. So, again, when we start talking escalations between categories, the potential impacts are significant. And, again, I don't say that to scare anybody. But please understand the threat that we are facing when we go even from a Category 1 to a Category 2. It's 10 times the amount of damage in that one step. Okay? Major hurricanes only account for 21 percent – or major hurricanes only about 21 percent make U.S. landfall. When it comes to FEMA payout and FEMA claims and the damages that are reported, they account for 83 percent of the damages reported in the U.S. due to natural disasters. So, again, they are significant. Sorry, Wesh is up there, Brian, not you guys. So this is what we've been able to accrue. And, again, Brian went through this. Colorado State University has a very good hurricane research center. Why they study hurricanes in Colorado, I'm not exactly sure. But they do. And, again, there are the numbers that we got from them earlier in the season. They've updated that number a little bit. And that was reflected in Brian's slide. The National Weather Service, as Brian indicated, they will be coming out with their predictions May 22nd is the date that they've given us that they will come out with their predictions. So, again, you can see kind of where everybody's guessing. And it's a touch above normal. It's not as big as last year's predictions. But as Brian said, it only takes one. Right? Names. You've seen the names. See, I told you, he stole a lot of my thunder here, which is a good thing. One of the things I wanted to talk about, though, too, and, again, most of us here in Volusia County have experienced it. Right? The rainfall event. Right? Milton and Ian were not significant wind events for Volusia County. It was all about the water. Right? And I believe, if I remember correctly, Spruce Creek, for Ian, got almost 22 inches of rain in less than 18 hours. Okay? There's not a storm system in the U.S. that can handle that kind of rainfall. Right? So that's why we saw the impacts. Milton was much the same. We got a lot of water in a very short period of time. So even though it may not seem like we are going to get significantly impacted by wind, a storm may be downgraded from a hurricane back down to a tropical storm, for example, that does not necessarily mean that we will not be impacted by the water. Right? Hurricane, those categories are all based on wind speed, not necessarily water. So we want to throw that out there. The other thing, and, again, Brian said the dirty side of the storm, the upper right quadrant. When it comes to rainfall, it can be any place. So you can see here with Fay, it went right along the track. That was where the heaviest rainfall was. For Irma, the rainfall was heaviest to the right of the track, which kind of follows with the dirty side of the storm. Right? Ian was to the left of the track. So that's on the, quote-unquote, clean side of the storm. So just because we're not in that situation where we're calling it a hurricane does not mean that we're not going to see significant impacts out of that. All right. And, again, I'm going to just reinforce what Brian said. So this goes back to 1851 through 2020. Yet I haven't gotten an updated map on my PowerPoint since then. But this is August hurricanes, okay, going all the way back to when they started recording. That is what it looks like over the Florida Peninsula, right? Here's September. There's October. October looks like somebody barfed up a plate of spaghetti on a map of Florida, right? So October, the end of September and October are traditionally our busiest months here in Florida. And this reflects that. So, again, hurricane warning, hurricane watch, right? Hurricane watch comes first. The terminology I want to reemphasize to you folks again because that goes along with the educational piece, right? And knowledge is power when it comes to being prepared. So hurricane force winds are possible within 48 hours. Tropical storm watch is the same. Tropical form force winds are possible within 48 hours. When it switches to a warning, now they're expected within 36 hours. So please understand the difference when you hear the terms, okay? When we go from a watch to a watch, we're like, okay, we need to pay attention. Like today, I was getting watches from about noon on about the possibility of severe thunderstorms this afternoon. It went to a warning just as our little session here kicked off. That's when I kind of perked up a little bit and started paying attention a little bit more, okay? But please understand the terminology. So let's talk a little bit more about how to prepare. And, again, Brian gave you a good overview. I just want to hit some additional key points. Stay informed. That is absolutely key. But I will reemphasize what Brian said. Make sure you are getting your information from credible sources. For us in the first responder world and in emergency management, we can only act on official information from NOAA and the National Weather Service. Okay? So believe me, we tune in to Brian and we tune in to Tony and we tune in to everybody else. But we can only act on the information that is provided to us by NOAA and the National Weather Service. Okay? I've got a lot of staff members that watch so-and-so's weather page and somebody else's weather guests and so on and so forth, right? It's always good to see what people are saying, but we can only act on that official information. But stay informed. Okay? Along with the stay informed, aside from watching the weather, there's other things you can do. Your city and the county have social media pages where we put out information above and beyond maybe what the National Weather Service is talking about. We will start talking about where you can pick up sandbags, for example. Okay? We will talk about where our shelters are going to open and if they're going to open and all that good kind of stuff. We push those out through social media. So subscribe to those social media sites. Volusia County Emergency Management has an app. It's available on the Apple Store and the Android Store. And, again, the National Weather Service alerts and other alerts, like Amber Alerts, come through that, as well as additional information when we activate on additional things that we are doing. Again, sandbag events, shelter events, whatever it might be. I know the jerk that actually gets to call evacuations. Yeah, that's me. In this county. And so we will push that information out through that app, through our traditional media, and through social media as well. If we close bridges. Yeah, again, I know the jerk that closes the bridges. That's me. We will also put that out that way as well. So stay informed. It gives you, put your finger on the pulse of not only what was going on, but we do our absolute level best in conjunction with your city officials on providing you with information not only about what's going on, but what you can be doing. Right? An evacuation order. We issued an evacuation order for Milton. Everybody aware of that? We issued an evacuation warning for flood zone A. Anybody know what flood zone they're in here in Deltona? It varies. Okay? There is, you can go, if you Google Know Your Zone, you can actually go to a website that is done by the state of Florida. You can put in your address and it will tell you what your flood zone is. And we normally evacuate by flood zone. When we pulled the trigger on flood zone evacuation A, there's about 111,000 residents in Volusia County that were impacted by that order. So again, stay informed. Knowledge is power. Brian talked about the other thing that we'll try and push out is when those sales tax breaks, holidays, come down the pike for preparation. They haven't announced them yet because they haven't approved the budget yet, is my understanding. Traditionally, there's one the first part of June and then there's another one in the August-September time frame. We're assuming that will happen again this year, but we don't have official dates yet. We will push that information out as well. So again, to reduce the impact as much as possible on you folks to be prepared. Prepare a kit. Deltona Fire over here, your folks have done a fantastic job of showing off a very, very good kit for a household. There's a bajillion variations on that kit. You can buy them commercially. You can create your own. It all is dependent on how you want to do it. But I recommend you have a kit. And we'll talk about some of the things to have in a kit here in just a minute. Know your evacuation zone. We talked about that. Make a plan. Okay? Does everybody know what their evacuation route is out of their neighborhood? Okay? We have official ones that we don't publish until we need them because every storm or every incident that we have has a personality to it, if you will, and it can change. So we don't want people getting in the habit of going down this evacuation path if all of a sudden that evacuation path is underwater, for example. Right? Okay? But know some alternative routes to get out of your neighborhood or get out of your city. Did everybody see what happened to I-95 and I-4 pre-Nolton? We saw all the traffic coming from Tampa and other places. We were driving on the shoulders legally. I've seen a lot of illegal driving on the shoulders, but that's a whole other story. So, and again, while we weren't necessarily in that evacuation order, we were impacted by all of that traffic. And not only were we impacted by the traffic leaving, then everybody had to come back. Right? So we got it both directions. So know some alternatives when it comes to evacuation. If you have kids, grandkids that you're responsible for and they go to school, how are you going to get reattached with those people if you need to evacuate? So have a family communication plan. Right? Sometimes included in that can be a family meeting point. If you can't get a hold of each other on these little nifty gizmos, and guess what the first thing to fail when something bad happens is, it's these nifty little gizmos. Though the cell phone companies do a very good job trying to keep them up and operating. But do you have alternative modes to contact friends and family? Do you have an out-of-state point of contact? Sometimes it's easier to call across the country than it is to call across town. So have an out-of-state point of contact where somebody can, if you can't get a hold of your friends and family here, you can at least let somebody out-of-state know. Now you've got a common contact point where you can connect and say, yeah, I've heard from so-and-so and everybody's okay. Right? But that family communication plan. A lot of times, and again, coming from the Salt Lake Valley was a little different. We had a lot of no-notice events. Meaning that we didn't get any warning that they were coming. Meeting locations. If I can't get a hold of you on my cell phone, go to this location and we will meet there. Okay? So there's those kinds of things that you can put tools in your toolbox, so to speak, to help you be more resilient and more resistant to the impacts that we may suffer. Okay? The other thing, look out for each other in your community. We all have friends, family, neighbors that maybe are limited in their mobility or their ability to take care of themselves. Make sure that we're looking out for those folks as well. To that end, there is a special needs registry, and Carissa will probably touch on that a little bit. You can register those folks in pre-storm, and that gives us in emergency management, the health department, our first responders, a database to go off of of people that might need a little extra help and a little extra warning to help get them out of harm's way. Okay? Okay? Evacuations. There's some terminology that's kind of out there that is a little bit erroneous. Some people will talk about mandatory evacuations versus voluntary evacuations. I'm here to tell you an evacuation order is an evacuation order. Okay? You will probably not see me come out and say this is a mandatory evacuation or a voluntary evacuation. This is just an evacuation order. That means we are telling you conditions are going to be bad enough. We don't want you in that impact zone anymore. Okay? And part of that is because the situation may cause an environment that is immediately dangerous to life and health. There's a phrase that we like to use a lot. Or it may be that we can't get help to you if you pick up the phone and call 911 because you haven't left, you've gotten in trouble, we pick up the phone and call 911. Our first responders will literally kill themselves trying to get to you, but there are some situations potentially where they physically cannot get to you. And the last thing we want is for you folks to be in a situation where you pick up the phone, you call 911, and the answer is we'll get to you as soon as we can. Okay? So that's one of the things. Long-term interruption of public utilities, fresh water, sewer, electricity, gas. My experiences with hurricanes, one of the biggest problems that we see a lot of the times in debris cleanup and repopulating areas that are evacuated are what we call white waste. Unfortunately, when do most of our hurricanes occur? September, October, right? What's the temperature like in Central Florida in September and October? Okay? Now imagine your refrigerator going without power for a week in that kind of heat and what it looks like, smells like, and feels like after in Central Florida. Okay? All of that stuff comes into account, right? We've got to get you, we want you out of that dangerous situation. Okay? Down power lines, that's a big issue, right? We'll see them all over the county. We don't know if they're energized or not. Again, our utility companies do a very, very good job in trying to make sure that we're safe and everybody is safe when they move around. But we can't always tell if a line's de-energized or not. If that line happens to be down on a chain link fence and that chain link fence runs for two blocks, that whole fence is energized, right? So there's just environmental impacts and things that we cannot control and you cannot see that makes it dangerous for you to be in that impact zone. So that's why we issue those evacuation orders. The last thing I want to do is ask you folks to leave your homes and leave your possessions, right? Not my favorite thing to do, trust me. Okay? I work for the government. I'm here at Hill, honestly. But I'll go back to the old cliche saying, stuff can be replaced, people cannot. And that's where my priority is, is making sure that you are all here after the storm to be mad at me for asking you to leave. Okay? And I'm okay with that. So those are just some of the things that we talk about. Why do we evacuate? Okay? The other thing, if we do evacuate, folks, I will ask in your patience in getting back into your homes. Okay? A lot of the times with hurricanes, and we've all seen it, right? Within a day, the storm's gone, the sun's out, it looks nice outside. Why can't I go back home? Well, we are dealing with all of those impacts, including cleaning up all of those nasty refrigerators. But we have to make sure that the environment is safe before we can let you back in. So be patient with us when it comes to the repopulation side of the evacuation. We are doing our level best, and we have lots of help that is out there doing that as well. But it takes a minute. So please be patient with us. Okay? So what can we do right now? We've talked about a lot of them. Know your risk. Anybody live in a—anybody know their flood zone right now? What flood zone they're in? Okay. Know your zone will help with that. If you're in a flood zone, guess what's going to happen when a storm comes? You're going to flood. Yeah, I know. It's not rocket science, folks, or I wouldn't be here. All right? Do you live in a manufactured or a mobile home? They're a lighter weight construction, and they have a tendency to suffer damage easier than a typically— what's now typical in this area in Florida are those block-constructed homes or those block-constructed buildings, right? So know what your vulnerabilities are. Have an evacuation plan. We talked about that. I always tell people, hey, you don't have to wait for me to issue an evacuation order. If it feels uncomfortable for you, leave, right? Go visit the mouse in Orlando. Go do something. Go visit friends and family in Georgia. I don't care, right? But if it's uncomfortable, go. Have two evacuation routes. Again, a primary and a backup. We've talked about notify friends and family, neighbors, out-of-state contacts, and carry with you— and we'll get into this a little bit more—a list of important phone numbers. What should be on your list of important phone numbers, folks? Friends and family. That's a given, right? What else? There's the one I was looking for right there. Your insurance company. That will become huge later on, okay? That's an important number. Any other phone numbers or contacts that you think you should have. Doctors, you may need to call and get a prescription transferred, adjusted, extended. Those kinds of things, okay? So think a little bit outside of the box. Play that what-if game with yourself, okay? We've talked about the family communication plan. I'll reemphasize here, too. Please consider pets if you have pets in your family. It's heartbreaking when we are forced to deal with abandoned pets. We had to do that a lot in my experiences with Katrina and Rita down in Mississippi and Louisiana. Lots and lots of animals had to be euthanized because they were left behind, okay? So please consider your pets when it comes to that. Basic terminology and notifications, right? We've talked about those. We've given you a little bit of knowledge tonight to talk about those. The next one, insurance. I know insurance is a four-letter word in the state of Florida right now. I get it. But if at all possible, please include insurance as a tool in your toolbox. Now is a good time to reach out to your agent and understand what your level of coverage is. A lot of policies, not a lot. Some policies will have exceptions written into them about extreme wind, for example, right? And if there's that exception in there, guess what? They're not paying. Flood insurance is separate from your homeowner's insurance. There's water damage in most homeowner or renter's insurance policies, but not flood. They are separate, and they will tell you that when you call them and say, hey, my house flooded. Oh, it flooded? I'm sorry to hear that. You're not covered, okay? So if at all possible, make sure you know what your coverage is and you include as much coverage as possible. For flood insurance, please understand if you need to add it, you can't add it the day before a storm hits. Most insurance companies require 30 days' notice for a policy to go into effect. So that's why I'm saying think about it now, because we're inside that 30-day window to the start of hurricane season, and there's nothing that says that we won't see an early-season hurricane. Again, I'm not trying to panic anybody, but I live in that what-if world, so that's what I do, okay? Some other minor things to think about. If it looks like we are going to get a storm, okay, don't wait until 24 hours before to go down to the corner gas station and fill up your car. Do it beforehand, okay? If you've got the capability of safely storing a little extra gasoline, it's never a bad idea, right? Whether it's for your home generator or whether it's for your car, it's good to have that sort of thing around. But again, make sure you're storing it safely and appropriately if you do so. Let's talk about other things in your kit for a minute. I'm going to deviate from my slides here. I can do death by PowerPoint all day long. But some other things to think about with your kit. And again, your fire department has done a wonderful job in preparing this kit. What are some other things that you think you would need to put in your kit? There's one really specific answer I'm looking for here. Important documents. Birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, insurance information, all of that stuff. Social security cards. And they need to be the originals. The reason being, if you have to apply for assistance after the fact, copies don't work, okay? They will work, but there's an additional process, right? So if you can have the originals with you, it just speeds that recovery process for you. So important documents in some sort of watertight container that you can put in your kit, okay? What else? What's that? Cash. That's the other one I was looking for. It really sucks if you go to the gas station to fill up, and they say the power's down, we're on generator power, cash only. Most of us, except in times of a storm, I don't carry cash anymore. My wife doesn't let me out of the house with cash. She says I'm dangerous with it. But that's a whole other story. Most of them will go into this cash and carry mode, right? It really sucks if you need cash, you run up to the local ATM and the power's out. Guess what? The ATM doesn't work, okay? So I have a little cash on hand. That's never a bad idea, okay? Those are the two big things I wanted to touch on. Family communications plan, we've talked about that already. Again, more information about your disaster kit. A lot of places will say 72 hours. We recommend 96 hours. Plan on being on your own for 96. I won't steal too much of Carissa's thunder, but I will say even if you end up going to a shelter, whether it is a general population shelter or a special needs shelter, please understand those shelters that we establish are called shelters of last resort, okay? And again, I'm not trying to panic anybody. I just want to be transparent with you. Those are not what you normally see in a movie where you see a shelter set up and there's all kinds of nice, neat little cots and lots of people running around to help and stuff like that. Normally, it's at one of our schools. It's in the gymnasium or the cafeteria, and there's no furniture. So, think about things to put in your kit that if you need to go to a shelter, that makes your stay there a little bit easier. Blankets, sweaters, chairs, okay? Et cetera, et cetera. Food, snacks, things to entertain yourself with. It really, again, most people entertain themselves with these. The power runs out. Can't always guarantee you that you're going to be able to charge it, right? I always, in my kit, I got a deck of cards, right? Just something where I can keep myself entertained. Again, just to help with that whole sheltering experience if we need to go to. But these are things, and there's some information up here at the front next to your fire department's display that I can leave here for you that's got a lot of this information in it as well, okay? And we've talked about this. And again, Brian and people talked about battery-powered flashlights and battery-powered radios. They are good. I am a fan of solar-powered or hand-cranked, okay? The reason being, I don't have to carry extra batteries, and the batteries don't go bad sitting on the shelf waiting to be used, okay? That's just a personal preference for me. If you do use battery-operated devices, make sure you've got extra batteries. We talked about the important documents. Here's the other one. Medications and glasses or contacts, right? Make sure you've got a sufficient supply because they may not be readily available. Here are some just suggestions on some of those extra-funsy things. Change of bed linens. Specialty items for babies and children. Nothing worse than having a kid at a shelter or on a long car trip. And you've got to entertain them, and there's nothing to entertain them with, right? So think about that. Coloring books, again, those things that don't require power. My wife's kid is 22 years old, so I don't know what the latest trend with young kids are. I don't know if a lot of kids know what coloring books are anymore. But I'm just saying, okay? Any specific personal hygiene items you might need, some extra tools, a basic set of tools is good. Here's another one that I've seen a lot. Extra keys. I swear during most major disasters, there's a little gremlin that runs around and eats keys, okay? And if you get into that, when you get into that repopulation area, one of the things that law enforcement kind of looks for is, do you have a key to the front door? Because if you do, I know you belong there, and I can let you in, right? If you don't have a key, it takes a little longer to reunify you with your, back to your home, for example, and you may suffer some additional damage, i.e. the door gets kicked in for you to get you in, or a window gets broken or something like that. So again, have an extra set of keys in your kit, okay? Pets. Again, I said, please don't forget your pets. Include them when you talk about water. The recommendation is one gallon per person per day. A pet is a person when it comes to planning for that. So make sure you include that. Food, medications, special food if they need it. A lot of shelters, if you don't have a carrier or a leash, you may be separated from your pet, and that pet put in a special location away from everybody else because there's no way to contain them. Does that make sense? And that may happen anyway, just depending on what the shelter is and how it's laid out. After the storm, again, Brian talked about it, don't use candles or open flame. I won't even say I recommend you don't. I'm just going to tell you don't, okay? It really sucks to live through a big hurricane or a big storm or a big natural disaster, and then your home burns down because you had an accident with a candle. That's really a bad day. You might even constitute a bad week, right? Take extra care with the generators. Unfortunately, we always seem to have casualties after a storm from carbon monoxide poisoning related to generator use. Drive only if necessary. If the lights are out, it's a four-way stop, okay? And again, all the other stuff, that seems common sense, but if common sense were so common, right? Food safety, here's another one. We talked about the refrigerators. When in doubt, throw it out, okay? Again, health care services, emergency medical services may be delayed or reduced in their capacity to help you, so don't put yourself in a position unnecessarily that you need to use their help, okay? That's it. That's all I've got. And you're like, thank God. Can you shut up and sit down there, right? Are there any questions? Ma'am. Special needs registry. Yes. Let me do that. Oh, I'm sorry. No. You're good. Again, like I said, this is being televised, so we want everyone out there to know what the question is to the answer. Okay. Thank you. When you mentioned special needs registry, to what degree of special needs? I have an 88-year-old mother. She's still mostly mobile. Would that be like a special needs? So I'm going to turn this one over to Carissa. Carissa is my cohort in crime. She is from the Florida Department of Health. The Florida Department of Health is one of our absolute essential partners when it comes to special needs and special needs sheltering, and she can probably answer that. In general, my answer is if she's limited in mobility in any way or it takes her a little bit longer to do something, register her. There's no harm or foul in doing so, and I would rather err on the side of safety than not. So, Carissa, I'll let you expand on that. Thanks. Yes, go ahead and have her register, or you can register her. But, yes, it's important to go ahead and get her in there because, again, sometimes things change over time, too, so it's always important to go back into that registry and get that. I have a question about bank vaults. You said to take all your paperwork with you. Yes, ma'am. Your important paperwork. If we have a bank vault, is it safe in there? Is it a vault in your home or is it a vault in the bank? In the bank. It depends on the bank, and I'm not going to pick on any banks. Their vaults are very secure. But if it gets flooded, sometimes water is insidious and sometimes it gets into the vault. So there's always a concern there. And then the other piece becomes can you get to the documentation after the storm? Can you get to the bank to get it out? Okay. And my last question, and I thank you for all of this, I thank you for having all this, about evacuations. I don't know of an evacuation route in Deltona. Okay. So normally what happens, if we issue an evacuation order, again, remember I said each storm's got a personality? We will give you recommended routes that we know are open and that we coordinate with law enforcement, for example, and FDOT, so we have the extra capability. We have them pre-designated, but we will tell you the major routes, the major roads and stuff to use. I can't give you a specific to get out of your neighborhood to that major road. So when I say have some alternates, have some alternates on how to get out of your neighborhood to the major roads. Okay. Thank you for helping me clarify that. Thank you. I probably didn't do a good job of that. Thank you. Of course. Any other questions for me? If I may add something to that question, you know, sometimes when I'm driving around, and I pay attention to the signs, and I've seen some signs that says evacuation route. But that would tell you, like, that's the road that you need to follow. And I guess you just keep following the signs as you keep going along. And we will give you destination points, too. We will tell you where to go. And the reason that we don't have those front-loaded for you is, again, the situation may change, and I don't want you getting in the habit of, oh, my evacuation route, I go here, I go here, and go here, and I'm driving you into a flooded road, for example, right? So we try and be careful. But if we issue the evacuation order, we will be pushing out information about what routes are safe and where to go is safe. About the special needs, where do I register? All right. So that's it for Clint's podcast. Any other questions for me? And I'm going to turn and give some time to Carissa. She is going to talk about special needs and special needs shelters. And she's much more of an expert on that than I am. So thank you. Folks, again, thank you for letting me share. Thank you, Clint. Thanks, Clint. All right. So for special needs shelters, there is a way to register. Up on the table, there is a flyer for it that you can get. There's a QR code on there, and there's also the website that you can go to. What's important about the special needs shelter is the people that need oxygen are something that requires power to keep them going because it's a medical device. We will have the power. Now, we are last resource. So, again, if you have a family member, register them, even if they're not going to come to us, but just get them into the system and register it. But the best place for them to be is with the family, our friends, because, again, they're used to it and they're comfortable. We want them to be healthy and happy as best they can, right? Because we're all under a lot of anxiety at this point. Our anxiety is going because we have this—we're trying to get this way from the storm. They're going. We also do have a room for an area that we try to put our Alzheimer's and dementia patients, so that way if they do have to come to us, we are able to handle them. Now at our shelters, we do have some nurses there. They're there just to kind of do the minimal, just to assess. Yes, they'll help you take your vitals if you need it, help you get your medications, but they are not what you will find in an ER or in a medical facility. These are just our nurses that we have at our health department, which are family planning nurses, but they are there to assist in that way. We also—the health department does stock up the shelters. We do have six shelters the school gives us, three on the west side, three on the east side. Now, which ones are we using? Well, that will be based on the county. Clint over there, he will then decide which ones we are opening, and they will put out that announcement on which ones will be open so you guys can get to those shelters. Special needs shelters also are pet-friendly. So if you do have a pet, you may bring your pet with you. Now, if it is a service animal, the service animal will stay with the patient while they're there at the shelter because, again, the service animal is providing a service. If it's just a domestic animal, they will go into an area that is set aside for pets. We have a room that we do put aside for pets. Again, if you're bringing a cat, make sure that the cat has a cage, kennel, that's big enough to fit a litter box because they do need a place to go potty, and you don't want to let them out because then there might be a—you might be missing your cat. There's more of her cats. Yeah, so—but you'll be responsible for the care of your pet. We do have an animal service individual that will be at the shelter, at the special needs shelter. But, again, that's one person, and there's going to be lots of pets, so you will be responsible for making sure you bring your animals food and water bowls, things like that. And, yes, at the special needs shelters, we do have cots there for our clients because they are usually the most vulnerable of the population, so we try to make sure that they're set. But if you have any questions about the special needs shelter, please register for this now instead of right when it happens, so that way we can make sure we have everything that is needed when you guys are there. Any questions? Thank you. So it sort of calmed down outside. It was really ugly out there. I mean, I just opened the door, and I got soaking wet. It just splashed all over me. My papers are all soaking wet. But the next—I'm going to jump over a little bit. The person we're going to call is the assistant chief of the fire department, Stephen Cousins, so that he can quickly give us a quick demo or information of what the fire department does and what they can do to help you. And then we'll go into the last resort to save you doing everything that's been discussed, which is the insurance. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So I appreciate it. Thank you very much. My name is Steve Cousins. I'm assistant chief, and one of my roles as assistant chief is emergency management coordinator. Our fire chief, Bill Snyder, is our emergency manager for the city. And we ramp up those roles historically in hurricane season. That's typically our most active. Second most active is typically wildfire season. And then we fill everything in between special events and things like that. So to me, what stands out the most so far, coming towards the end, is there's so many resources out there. There's a lot of information, a lot of resources. The biggest thing is, is understanding the resources are there and knowing where to find them. Clint talked about the Volusia County website is a great place. There's a lot of resources that fit us here in Deltona as well as the county as a whole. Those resources are coordinated. They're shifted to where the largest need is, right, to meet the demands of the many. So websites are good. Just one last time, re-hit. When you look for legitimate information, I can't urge you enough to find an official government-related site, whether it's National Weather Service, NOAA, Volusia County, the city of Deltona. Those are those most trusted sites, right? Typically, if you look at Deltona and you look at the county, you will see a majority of information mirrored, right? So things like sandbag locations will be on our site, but it'll be combined countywide on the countywide site. So typically, information we have, they'll have, and vice versa. Sometimes they may be a little quicker at posting things, or we may be a little quicker, but both those sites. You want to drill down a little bit into our local level here in Deltona. You're going to get just things that are related to us. Small things that may be beneficial, looking on a bigger site as well, is sandbag locations, for example. You're in the city, but there may be a county location like right off of 415 at the fire station 36 here in Osteen. That may be a shorter drive, may have more sand or things like that. So just get those trusted resources, and we try to keep those up to date as much as possible. So, again, drilling down at the local level. So when we have a specifically hurricane-related, we'll coordinate with the county, state, NOAA, National Weather Service, all that stuff to make these determinations. And everything primarily is on a coordinated effort. So when we do stand up, the Emergency Operations Center here in the city of Deltona is in this room that we're sitting in today. We've made improvements to the structure and building to make sure it's safe and sound for us to occupy the space. And just like Clint said that they do, we eat, sleep, and work out of this building primarily right here. A lot of work goes ahead of time. Our logistics department comes in to make sure we have food, resources, cots, all those things. And as a whole, every department comes in here primarily and occupies at some level in the room. We have departments like code enforcement that help us post-storm. So they ramp up and get their things. They go home. They stay safe post-storm. They'll come in, and they'll do assessments. They'll assess at the citywide level. They'll help assess city infrastructure, city parks, facilities, and things like that to let us know what the level of damage is on some of the most critical infrastructure that we have. Super important things for us are water, roads, access, and things a little bit out of our control power. What we have control related to that is opening up roadways and assisting in opening up roadways so the power company can get in and things like that. So out of this room, you'll see water department. You'll see public works. Everybody will be in here, fire, us, EMS as well, sheriff's office. They have a seat at the table as well. All of our utility folks are in here. So we're up and running, and we'll do that ahead of time. And we'll run through the event until the primary response and mitigation piece is done, meaning not every single road necessarily is open and not every power is restored to everything, every home. But as long as the majority of the assets are up and running and things are stabilized to the point that we can start getting everybody back to normal, you guys back to your homes, hopefully with power, as well as the folks that have been in here for usually several days. They get home, they get the check, and then they get back to their offices, right? The most comfortable place, most efficient place for them to work. So that's kind of our cycle through our EOC. What guides us through all our disasters, hopefully a limited number on a small scale, is our comprehensive emergency management plan. We have one on the local level. It dovetails in at the county-wide level, right? They're complementary to each other, and it outlines everything and responsibilities by department, right? We pull that out. We ensure we train annually on the plan. We stand up, and we'll set up the EOC and make sure everything from computer connections are working, power, antennas, all those things are up and running. So at the point in time, we have to stand up and occupy this room. Everything's good to go. That'll happen later on this month for us, and we'll do that and ensure everybody knows their roles and responsibilities. Staff constantly changes, so we ensure that everybody is where they need to be. I won't hit too much on the resources and things like that, right? We've had a lot of information about it, but just know if you are having trouble finding a piece of information, please call us. Just call our main number, and we'll direct you in the right place. Just like we had somebody call and ask about, hey, where do I find the special needs registry? How do I do it? We were able to sit down, talk them through it. So this person needed an extra help, so we were on the phone as they were getting online and doing it, and we walked them through. That's what we're here to do is to support you through that whole process. A few things for us, as Clint talked about, is get prepared early. Do everything from take advantage of a public's BOGO on some food and shelf-stable stuff to flood zones to anything you can do to prep, right? And know those things. Understand that at the same time you're prepping, right, at those four days and sooner, we're doing the same thing as the city. We're boarding up facilities that still need to be boarded up that don't have hurricane-rated windows. We continue to clean drainage ditches. We continue to check on infrastructure that are there. We're ordering supplies, example, everything from adding a few extra chainsaws, some more fuel, and things like that. And the fire department, law enforcement is re-racking a schedule, bringing in additional people, setting that up. And we have to have the employees' time to fix and get settled at home so they can come in. So while you're preparing, so are we. It doesn't mean we don't have time. We're here to ensure and guide you in whatever direction you need for any of those questions that you have. Again, we're hunkered down. We're doing everything we can do to respond in the most efficient and effective manner. And we're out as soon as we can after. Both folks prior to me talked about there's going to be a point in time where we may not be able to respond or have a delayed response out. When is the big thing for us? We have high-profile vehicles. It sounds silly, but an ambulance struggles a little bit sooner than a fire truck, even though a fire truck oftentimes is a little bit taller. But due to its weight, it can traverse a little bit better, where ambulances have to come off the roads a little bit sooner on wind. And patrol cars are even sooner than that. So at some point in time, there may be a delay or postponement, and we won't be able to respond. So, again, finding an appropriate place. If that's home, based on what's coming, that's fine, right? That's the easiest. The next easiest, and just one more time to reinforce, is the next easiest place is with a family member or friend, right? They know you. They understand you. They have the creature comforts of the things that are there. And then, of course, the shelter is the last resort. Understand that when you evacuate or you decide to relocate, all the way back from me, I'm a native of Florida and Volusia County. I was born and lived in New Smyrna Beach pretty much my whole life. I worked there until I retired and then came back to work here in Deltona and extremely happy. It's a great place to work. Just stating the truth. But one of the things through the 04 hurricanes were real simple. We saw clogs on some of those first storms on 95. Hours and hours and hours and hours of not moving. You may not, depending upon the circumstances, and like Clint said, every storm is different, you may not need to go out of state. You may just need to move inland, just a little bit north, just a little bit south, so you don't have to be hours. You don't have to be in Atlanta. You don't have to be in Tennessee. You don't have to be necessarily in other places, right? Typically, you want to find a place, if you have a family, friend, or relative, you want to get out of that, you know, preferably, you want to be out of that category one, right? Or lower situation, so if Volusia County is kind of in the main heart of it, you may be able to go just slightly farther east, an Ocala or something like that, and get out of that really significant risk area. You don't have to always be miles and miles or states away to do that, to get to a safe location. So pre-planning that ahead of time and those options. And just staying current. I'll close, because she knows I can talk all day. A lot of materials have already been covered. But the biggest thing locally is that if you're struggling to get information or finding out accurate information, or you just need some guidance on, I don't know where to start, I don't know what to do, or, hey, is there a resource? Call us. Stop by. And we will get you pointed in the right direction. If it's something we can handle, we will. If we can get you in contact with Clint or his staff, if it's kind of above our scale, or any of the other resources that are out there. But I can guarantee you there's more resources out there than most people are typically aware of. So, again, if you're struggling to find that, find the right answer, or you're not sure, call us, and we will either get you the answer, point you in the right direction, but we won't leave you hanging. We will always ensure that you get whatever information you need for the planning purposes that you guys have. So, I'll end it with, is there any questions? That's one of my shortest thoughts. I'm telling you, I'm giving you an award. Thank you. You know, one of the things that I have to say is, immediately after hurricane has passed and is safe, these guys are out on the road with our code compliance staff accessing the damages and making sure that all the roads are safe for our residents to travel in. And, as he said, this room becomes the emergency shelter center for us, so everything here looks different. Every department is here. The sheriff's department is here. I mean, everybody that works for the city is here. And, I can tell you that probably nobody knows it, but once the county declares a state of emergency, our city manager no longer exists. The chief of the police, I'm sorry, chief of the fire department takes over the control of the city. They run the city. So, all the orders and recommendations comes from our chief, our fire chief. So, the next person that's going to be speaking, it's from AAA. I know that you brought her to speak, right? I left my notes. We're going to share. We're going to share, yeah. Okay. We're going to be short of speaking. I'm going to love you for that. So, this is the next, I guess, the most important phase in your life when it comes to hurricane, tornadoes, and stuff, which is your insurance. And, hopefully, everybody does have a home insurance if you need to have one. And, I have to pass experience for a lot of insurance, right? I live on a hill, so I was told that if I flood, Eltona's gone. So, I'm good with that. But, if you guys want to come up and speak on behalf of your insurance, I know we have AAA. Here you go. Thank you. Very sturdy. Hey, good evening, everybody. Mike Comento with Comento Insurance Group. And, this is Jen with AAA Insurance. We're going to be kind of short and sweet because we have a fantastic group of people that have already spoken. I'm actually kind of impressed with the caliber of people that we have here in Deltona helping us. It's pretty cool. They've already touched on pretty much 90% of what I think we were going to say. A couple of things that they didn't talk about with your actual insurance policy. One, of course, know your coverage. Two, know the things that are not included in your coverage. How many people have solar panels? If you have solar panels, oh, I got my homeowner's insurance set up 10 years ago, and then I added solar panels. But, I never added my $30,000 insurance panels to my insurance policy. Guess what will not be covered most likely? So, little things like that. I added a shed. I have an extensive amount of jewelry or firearms. Those kind of things typically need additional coverages with your homeowner's insurance. So, always kind of keep an eye on that. For your health insurance, which is kind of more my side of specialty, know what kind of network you have. Where can I go? If my local doctor gets flooded and I can't go there for a month, what are my backup options? Medications. Do I have enough to go through a couple of weeks, you know, if I have to leave town or whatever? Things like that. And then, I'm going to let you talk because I think that's pretty much mostly what I wanted to talk about. Thanks so much for having me, Mike. And the city of Deltona. I just wanted to share a quick about myself. I'm Jen Canada, and I am with AAA. And we do have home insurance, flood insurance, auto insurance. We are writing new policies right now for homes in Florida. A lot of people were worried that we were not writing new home policies right now. But we do have home insurance, and we are writing new home insurance. Flood insurance is really important. It's our own product, but it is the National Flood Insurance Program. We did find out and confirm that any policies that get started between now and September, they are guaranteeing through FEMA that they will cover for the entire year. And so, I know a lot of people were worried about if FEMA was going to have the funds to be able to even back those policies. Yes, the reinsurance has been confirmed, and the National Flood Insurance is allowing us to continue to write brand new flood insurance policies. There is a 30-day wait on flood insurance, so now is the time to get with your agent. If you don't have one, I would love to do that for you. My name is Jen Canada, and I have been an insurance agent for 12 years here in Florida. I'm married to a fireman and paramedic. He's retired from the city of Orlando, and he did 25 years. So, I understand both sides is the after effect, things that happen, and also what things that you might need to protect. A lot of people just don't even know what kind of policy they have. They bought whatever the realtor recommended because that was the price that they needed to get their home loan. Pull out that paperwork. Call your agent. Ask them to go through it with you, okay? We want to see you every year. We want to talk about what's changed in your house and in your life. Did you have a new baby? Did you buy a new car? Did you add the solar panels? Do you have a screened room off the back of the house? That's usually not automatically covered at the time of a hurricane. It needs to be included. You want to list that extra item on your policy. So, call me and let us talk about it. We want to walk through the policy line for line. Maybe you don't need all the stuff that was automatically included in there. Maybe you can save a little bit of money, and we can find that extra money that you need to buy that flood insurance. Right? So, I'm Jen Canada with Triple A. I'm out of your local Daytona office or Heathrow. I grew up here in Deltona. I actually graduated from Pine Ridge. Go Panthers! And I've been in this area for 30 years, so I do know the area, and I'm happy to help talk through your policies line by line. I am a teacher at our office. I actually teach classes for mature drivers, and so I am really dedicated to helping you understand what you have. You know? I have some flyers here if you need them. It's Jen Canada. And my email, if you want to contact me, is jcanada at acg.aa.com. And you can contact me that way. You can reach out. You can send me a copy of your policy. You can just send me your name, your address, and your birth date. And I can reply to you with that flood quote. I can tell you how much it would cost to have that added flood insurance at your house and make sure that you're protected. Again, it's Jen Canada with AAA, and we do have new policies that we can help you with now. And it's not to sell something. It's just to make sure that you're protected. I can help you find the money for it in your policy, I bet. That's pretty much it, guys. Like I said, everybody else has really covered it. Have all your documents. Put them all in one place. It's a good idea, regardless of what's going on. Oh, that was the other thing I was going to say. Before storm comes, take photos. Don't take pictures of every single thing. You know where your couch is going to still be there. But if you have a workshop full of tools, I have a big workshop in my backyard full of tools. Every year, if a storm's coming, I go in there and take photos because I have to be able to show the insurance company, yes, I had that table saw and I had this, that, and the other. Those are very expensive. So, yes, always take photos. You can also email them to yourself. Basically, everybody today has their phone. They have the cloud and everything. So, typically, everything's automatically backed up. Do you notice how a woman has to always be next to a man to help them out? You notice that, huh? I do. So, one of the things that I learned in one of the previous presentations was to always look at your insurance papers. And you're going to find that what your home is valued to be replaced on your papers is much less than what it's really going to cost you, God forbid, something happens to your home. That you're not really insured properly and that you need maybe a little bit higher insurance to make sure that your home is covered completely. And I learned that from another person that I know from an insurance company. There's an extended replacement cost that you can add that will cover you if labor and lumber and materials actually are higher at the time of a loss, which, after a storm, cost of materials is higher. You know, it's hard to get that wood. It's hard to get that block. And so, you can add an endorsement to your current policy for that added extended replacement cost. Yeah, and everything is going up now these days. So, and hurricanes around the corner. So, you go home and look at your insurance papers and make sure that, you know, everything is covered. You wanted to ask a question? Yes. One other thing real quick I want to add on to that because I'm sorry. I'm not as high tech as some of our previous speakers where they had PowerPoints. I just had a little notepad. But one thing a lot of people don't realize, your regular deductible for your homeowner's insurance and your hurricane deductible are two very different numbers. Typically, it goes from $1,000 to 3% of the overall cost, which can be, you know, $10,000 up sometimes. Yes, question? I know. You're a Sobel, right? Emma Rose. Emma Rose. Sobel's my sister. She's an Emma. Oh, I'm sorry, my question. Sorry. Number one salvage question. Do you guys do HO6 policies for condos? Yes. Yes. Yes. And this is a dumb question, but I've been asked it multiple times, so I want to ask. Flood insurance. If you live on the second floor of a condo, do you need flood insurance? Yeah. Basically, you need flood insurance for anything you want to be covered for flooding. So what? Flood is not rising water? It is. No. Yes. So your water damage, and correct me if I'm wrong, because she does more property and casualty. I do more health life. Yeah. Call her. But typically speaking, when you have water damage coverage in your policy, it's more for like a pipe bursting, not— That's water backup. That's even a separate endorsement. No, but water damage can be a pipe burst. Yeah, that's it. The roof is leaking. Yeah, that's it. The plumbing's messed up. You pulled out the refrigerator to clean behind it, and you pushed it back, and the tubing broke. That can be water damage in the house. A flood is, from the outside, it has to cover at least two properties, so not just your property, but your neighbor also has to be flooding, or the street has to be flooding, so it's two or more properties, and the water has to come up from outside. Two inches of water can cause a ton of damage. How on the second floor could you have damage? Your neighbor is going to get some erosion on her foundation because there's water, and then everything's going to shift a little bit, so you have problems, too. I know of an example, Beachside, during Ian, a storm door broke on a balcony on the 23rd floor and caused damage all the way down. So the storm broke 23rd floor damage all the way down. It's not water damage. It's flood damage. Water. The coverage that we have, so the confusion to me is we don't have flood insurance. I'm on the second floor. There's something in there called wind-driven rain. So there's, like, all different, so that's the stuff that needs. Lots of different scenarios where they can say no thank you. Yeah. Or, yeah. And my owners always, like, my owners say, do I need flood? I'm like, you're on the second floor. Like, it's not raising all the way up there, but that's the information I need to find out. Yep. Okay, so you can talk after the meeting and make an appointment and then thank the city. We're happy to help. I just want people to understand what they have so that they can feel confident going into it and not be like, oh, I wish that I had checked before. Any other questions? So go home and check your policy. Make sure that you have the coverage necessary, especially now with the inflation going up and everything raised, you know. Thank you guys so much, and I apologize for the short, but you like that, right, Michael? It was short and quick. Absolutely. It's well. Okay, look at this. I have so many microphones. I don't know which one to use. So, again, thank you, everyone, for coming out, and I hope that you're walking away with something, some information that you didn't know about and that's going to help you when you get back home. I want to give a big shout-out and thank you to our PIO, Catherine, who actually put all this together for me and her staff. Also want to give a shout-out to Parks and Recs, Ruben, who's stuck back there in the dark room. Let's see who else. Yes, and again, thank you, everyone, for being here and choosing to be more educated on what's, you know, what the do's and the don'ts during hurricane tornadoes, and I just want to say something real quick about Clint when he said that the tornadoes usually like to take I-4. He know about that. The last tornado that was here was right next to McDonald's on Deltona Boulevard, so we were all hiding in our little shelter, which is, to us, is our laundry room, because that's the only place that we don't have windows and doors and, you know, going to the outside. Thank you, everyone, for being here. Thank you to our fire department for taking the time. Yes, we're going to do the raffle now, but I just want to thank my staff, our staff, the city staff, for being here. You know, these guys have been working since early this morning. Kat, I mean, thank you so much. You know, she's been here since this morning as well, a poor thing. All week, we've been beating up on her for events, so, I mean, thank you so much for being here and putting all this together. This is all on you. Thank you so much. So, everybody get a raffle ticket. So, these are what, actually, these are the weather radios that are recommended, highly recommended by our fire department, because all the information that comes from that weather radio comes from, what was the? National Weather Service and NOAA. Exactly. That's the ones that reports, sends the reports out through these weather radios. So, we're going to be having, Clint, can you do us a favor of pulling a ticket? Do you trust me? Of course. And I'm going to tell you, I have one in my house. I don't even know it's there. But if something is coming, you know, you know, it lets you know. It's so noisy. It's unbelievable. So, the ticket number, of course, is 38806. Am I getting close? One. Closer. Zero. Ah, there you go. They work with electricity and batteries. So, as Clint says, always have an extra body, battery next, at home, available. And you can fix it to only get reports from local sites or, you know, wherever else you want to get a report from. Okay. So, the last four numbers, 06. Getting close? Five. We have two more. Oh, okay, that's nice of you. Thank you. Mine is, like, kind of breaking up, so maybe I'll take it for myself. 06. There you go. Last. One more. Not least, 06, sorry, 8, 3. Oh, there you go. Again, thank you, everyone, for coming out. And those of you viewing from home, thank you for tuning in and watching this event. And, you know, if you want something more than what we're presenting to you, please let us know. And we'll make sure that for next year, we will have it available, information available for you, as well as the people watching from home. Let us know through emails. Contact our PIO. Let her know what else you would like to see. Thank you, Clint and Clarissa. Thank you so much for coming out. We are so happy to have partnered with the county coming to us and helping us with this event. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. You may be wondering why you should follow the fertilizer ordinance. Do you enjoy kayaking? Paddleboarding? Boating? Fishing? Or just the beautiful views? If so, do you want your waterways to look like this? Here's another thought. Do you value the local economy? Your property values? If so, we can't afford to have the waterways look like this. If you fertilize your yard, you may be contributing to these water quality problems. If you fertilize, the fertilizer can be washed off, not watered in. And then, it doesn't benefit your yard. In fact, the fertilizer and your money go right down the storm drain. Once it goes down the storm drain, it flows directly into the waterways. What goes down the storm drain ends up in the waterways. Once fertilizer gets to the waterways, it does what fertilizer does, and that makes green things grow. In the water, that's algae. Once you get algae, the oxygen is depleted in the water, and then that leads to fish kills. The light is blocked, and that leads to seagrass loss and all kinds of other problems in the water. Also, the fertilizer can penetrate the soil and go down into the aquifer and into the water supply. The best thing to do is to follow the fertilizer ordinance. What that means is nitrogen-based fertilizers are banned during the rainy season, which is June 1st to September 30th. If you choose to fertilize in the spring, the ordinance also specifies to use zero phosphorus. If you look at the three numbers on the bag, the middle number should be zero. Our soils in Florida contain a lot of phosphorus, and there is no need to add any more. You also want to look for 50% slow-release nitrogen. Find the total amount of nitrogen on the bag, and look and find out how much is slowly available. When you use slow-release nitrogen, it gradually releases over time, and you get extended benefits without contaminating the waterways. Also, remember to sweep off any fertilizer that may wind up on hard surfaces. If not, it could wind up in the waterways as well. Also, do not apply any fertilizer within 15 feet of any water body. Grass clippings should be blown back into the yard because they contain nitrogen. If they wind up in the street, they'll go into the waterways and cause algae. When you blow them back into your yard, that's free fertilizer for you. You also want to make sure you prevent those glass clippings from going directly into the water, and the best way to do that is to create a no-mow zone around the waterway. You can use native plants, and it will make your waterway beautiful. When you follow the fertilizer ordinance, you will protect your recreation, our local economy, your wallet, and our waterways. You will be doing your part to keep Volusia beautiful. Overwhelmed. I need help finding a job. Hi, I don't know where to start. Hi, I need help finding child care. Can you help me find counseling for my son? Whether you're calling for yourself or a loved one, 2-1-1 introduces you to a variety of resources and services. I need help finding affordable housing. We can help with that. I'll send the resources right over. When you don't know where to turn, turn to 2-1-1. Call, text, or visit us online. Anytime you have an emergency, the best and fastest way to get help is calling 9-1-1. Today, for those who can't make a phone call, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office is rolling out text to 9-1-1. Text 9-1-1 for help should not be your first move unless it's absolutely necessary. That may be the case if you have a hearing or speech impairment or if you're in a situation where making a voice call would put you in danger. The simple key to remember is call if you can, text if you can't. Text to 9-1-1 is currently available here in Volusia County and in other Central Florida counties such as Seminole, Brevard, Orange, and Osceola. But it's not available everywhere. If you try to text 9-1-1 in an area where it's not available, you should receive a bounce-back message telling you to call 9-1-1. When you text 9-1-1, your first message should be brief with the location and the type of emergency. Be ready to answer follow-up texts from us. Keep your messages clear and concise. Don't use abbreviations or emojis. Text to 9-1-1 is available only in English. And if you have a text or data plan for your text messages to come through, you can't send a text to 9-1-1 in a group message. 9-1-1 has to be the only recipient. And I shouldn't have to say this, but don't text and drive. Remember, call if you can, text if you can't. And thank you for helping us make Volusia County a safer place every day. Hi, I'm Gary Daniels. I'm the Assistant PIO and Production Manager here at the City of Deltona. And we have exciting news. You can now watch Deltona TV on your smartphone, iOS, iPhone, or Android. Here's how you do it. Go to your App Store. You'll open it up. And you'll go to your search bar. And you will type in Cablecast. C-A-B-L-E-C-A-S-T. Cablecast. And then you'll see the app there with the green icon. Just go ahead and download the app. And once it has downloaded, you will open the app. And there will be a lot of different channels from a lot of different organizations around the country. Luckily, Deltona TV being one of the latest ones is right here on the front page. But if it's not, you can go up to the search bar and type in Deltona TV. But as it is, it's right here on the front page. So you just click on it. And then you'll see a live streams Deltona TV option. You click on that as well. And you hit play. And now you are watching Deltona TV live in HD. And you can also do the same thing on your Android phone. Hi, City of Deltona. We heard that you guys have been having questions in regards to some of our events. And we know that you want to get notified. So with the new updated website, we have this really cool feature. It's called Notify Me. With the Notify Me feature, you can get instant up-to-date emails every single time we send out a news announcement, a new event. So once you click on the letter icon, you're going to have a little pop-up block that comes up. It's going to ask for some of your personal information. That way you can receive the latest in regards to our news alerts on the Notify Me feature with the new website. It's for the Juneteenth Unity in the Community Celebration, happening Saturday, June 21st from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at City Hall. Come together as we honor freedom, culture, and community with live music, group performances, plenty of food, and a whole lot of joy. This is a day to celebrate heritage, uplift voices, build unity through culture, art, and togetherness. Bring your friends, bring your family, and let's celebrate Juneteenth in a big way. We'll see you there. You're Volusia County Tax Collector. When the annual property tax bill arrives in the mail, most people want to know how much they have to pay. It's all about the bottom line, the bottom line of the bill. That's where you'll find the amount due. You receive a discount the earlier you pay your taxes. The discounts and the due dates also are at the bottom of the bill. For example, if you pay in full in November, you get a 4% discount. There are two more important items on the bill. First, make sure all of your exemptions are listed. And finally, you may pay by phone, online, or by mail. If you're paying by check, make sure it's made payable to Will Roberts Tax Collector. If you have questions, please visit our website at vctaxcollector.org. That's vctaxcollector.org. Or call us at 386-736-5938. Is everyone's responsibility. Riders, wear protective gear, make yourself visible, and follow traffic laws. Drivers, look twice for motorcycles. Use caution when changing lanes. Motorcycles may be hard to see. And maintain four seconds of following distance. Motorcycles can slow down without activating a brake light. Find out more ways to stay safe. Share the road, Florida, and arrive alive. Will Roberts, your Volusia County Tax Collector. Every eight years, you need to renew your driver license. Through our website, you can renew your license or replace a lost driver license. You can also change your address. To renew your driver license, visit vctaxcollector.org forward slash renew. That's vctaxcollector.org forward slash renew. You can use this service every other renewal period. You also must be Real ID compliant. If there's a gold star on your license, it's Real ID compliant. Once you complete the online process, the state of Florida will mail the license to you. The next time you need to renew or update your driver license, consider skipping the trip by renewing online. At vctaxcollector.org forward slash renew. I'm Lieutenant Jim Buford with the Florida Highway Patrol. Street racing, stunt driving, and roadway takeovers have become increasingly common in Florida. These dangerous and illegal activities endanger the participants, spectators, and innocent bystanders. FHP and our law enforcement partners are actively involved in enforcing and investigating any occurrence. Oh, we need your help in reporting these events. If you see street racing, stunt driving, or a roadway takeover in progress, call Star FHP. This will direct you to the closest dispatch center for help. If you have knowledge or video of individuals participating in street racing, stunt driving, or roadway takeovers, email us at stopracing at flhsmv.gov. Again, email us at stopracing at flhsmv.gov. You may be wondering why you should follow the fertilizer ordinance. Do you enjoy kayaking, paddleboarding, boating, fishing, or just the beautiful views? If so, do you want your waterways to look like this? Here's another thought. Do you value the local economy, your property values? If so, we can't afford to have the waterways look like this. If you fertilize your yard, you may be contributing to these water quality problems. If you fertilize, the fertilizer can be washed off, not watered in. And then it doesn't benefit your yard. In fact, the fertilizer and your money go right down the storm drain. Once it goes down the storm drain, it flows directly into the waterways. What goes down the storm drain ends up in the waterways. And once fertilizer gets to the waterways, it does what fertilizer does. And that makes green things grow. In the water, that's algae. Once you get algae, the oxygen is depleted in the water, and then that leads to fish kills. The light is blocked, and that leads to seagrass loss and all kinds of other problems in the water. Also, the fertilizer can penetrate the soil and go down into the aquifer and into the water supply. The best thing to do is to follow the fertilizer ordinance. What that means is nitrogen-based fertilizers are banned during the rainy season, which is June 1st to September 30th. If you choose to fertilize in the spring, the ordinance also specifies to use zero phosphorus. If you look at the three numbers on the bag, the middle number should be zero. Our soils in Florida contain a lot of phosphorus, and there is no need to add any more. You also want to look for 50% slow-release nitrogen. Find the total amount of nitrogen on the bag, and look and find out how much is slowly available. When you use slow-release nitrogen, it gradually releases over time, and you get extended benefits without contaminating the waterways. Also, remember to sweep off any fertilizer that may wind up on hard surfaces. If not, it could wind up in the waterways as well. Also, do not apply any fertilizer within 15 feet of any water body. Grass clippings should be blown back into the yard because they contain nitrogen. If they wind up in the street, they'll go into the waterways and cause algae. When you blow them back into your yard, that's free fertilizer for you. You also want to make sure you prevent those glass clippings from going directly into the water, and the best way to do that is to create a no-mow zone around the waterway. You can use native plants, and it will make your waterway beautiful. When you follow the fertilizer ordinance, you will protect your recreation, our local economy, your wallet, and our waterways. You will be doing your part to keep Volusia beautiful. If you're overwhelmed, I need help finding a job. Hi, I don't know where to start. Hi, I need help finding child care. Can you help me find counseling for my son? Whether you're calling for yourself or a loved one, 211 introduces you to a variety of resources and services. I need help finding affordable housing. We can help with that. I'll send the resources right over. When you don't know where to turn, turn to 211. Call, text, or visit us online. Any time you have an emergency, the best and fastest way to get help is calling 911. Today, for those who can't make a phone call, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office is rolling out text to 911. Text 911 for help should not be your first move unless it's absolutely necessary. That may be the case if you have a hearing or speech impairment or if you're in a situation where making a voice call would put you in danger. The simple key to remember is call if you can, text if you can't. Text to 911 is currently available here in Volusia County and in other Central Florida counties such as Seminole, Brevard, Orange, and Osceola. But it's not available everywhere. If you try to text 911 in an area where it's not available, you should receive a bounce back message telling you to call 911. When you text 911, your first message should be brief with the location and the type of emergency. Be ready to answer follow-up texts from us. Keep your messages clear and concise. Don't use abbreviations or emojis. Text to 911 is available only in English. And if you have a text or data plan for your text messages to come through, you can't send a text to 911 in a group message. 911 has to be the only recipient. And I shouldn't have to say this, but don't text and drive. Remember, call if you can, text if you can't. And thank you for helping us make Volusia County a safer place every day. Hi, I'm Gary Daniels. I'm the Assistant PIO and Production Manager here at the City of Deltona. And we have exciting news. You can now watch Deltona TV on your smartphone, iOS, iPhone, or Android. Here's how you do it. Go to your app store. You'll open it up. And you'll go to your search bar. And you will type in Cablecast, C-A-B-L-E-C-A-S-T, Cablecast. And then you'll see the app there with the green icon. Just go ahead and download the app. And once it has downloaded, you will open the app. And there will be a lot of different channels from a lot of different organizations around the country. Luckily, Deltona TV, being one of the latest ones, is right here on the front page. But if it's not, you can go up to the search bar and type in Deltona TV. But as it is, it's right here on the front page. So you just click on it. And then you'll see a live streams Deltona TV option. You click on that as well. And you hit play. And now you are watching Deltona TV live in HD. And you can also do the same thing on your Android phone. Hi, City of Deltona. We heard that you guys have been having questions in regards to some of our events. And we know that you want to get notified. So with the new updated website, we have this really cool feature. It's called Notify Me. With the Notify Me feature, you can get instant up-to-date emails every single time we send out a news announcement, a new event. So once you click on the letter icon, you're going to have a little pop-up block that comes up. It's going to ask for some of your personal information. That way, you can receive the latest in regards to our news alerts on the Notify Me feature with the new website. It's for the Juneteenth Unity in the Community Celebration, happening Saturday, June 21st from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at City Hall. Come together as we honor freedom, culture, and community with live music, group performances, plenty of food, and a whole lot of joy. This is a day to celebrate heritage, uplift voices, build unity through culture, art, and togetherness. Bring your friends, bring your family, and let's celebrate Juneteenth in a big way. We'll see you there. It's your Volusia County tax collector. When the annual property tax bill arrives in the mail, most people want to know how much they have to pay. It's all about the bottom line, the bottom line of the bill. That's where you'll find the amount due. You receive a discount the earlier you pay your taxes. The discounts and the due dates also are at the bottom of the bill. For example, if you pay in full in November, you get a 4% discount. There are two more important items on the bill. First, make sure all of your exemptions are listed. And finally, you may pay by phone, online, or by mail. If you're paying by check, make sure it's made payable to Will Roberts Tax Collector. If you have questions, please visit our website at vctaxcollector.org. That's vctaxcollector.org. Or call us at 386-736-5938. The road is everyone's responsibility. Riders, wear protective gear, make yourself visible, and follow traffic laws. Drivers, look twice for motorcycles. Use caution when changing lanes. Once, motorcycles may be hard to see and maintain four seconds of following distance. Motorcycles can slow down without activating a brake light. Find out more ways to stay safe. Share the road, Florida, and arrive alive. I'm Will Roberts, your Volusia County Tax Collector. Every eight years, you need to renew your driver license. Through our website, you can renew your license or replace a lost driver license. You can also change your address. To renew your driver license, visit vctaxcollector.org forward slash renew. That's vctaxcollector.org forward slash renew. You can use this service every other renewal period. You also must be Real ID compliant. If there's a gold star on your license, it's Real ID compliant. Once you complete the online process, the state of Florida will mail the license to you. The next time you need to renew or update your driver license, consider skipping the trip by renewing online at vctaxcollector.org forward slash renew. Lieutenant Jim Buford with the Florida Highway Patrol. Street racing, stunt driving, and roadway takeovers have become increasingly common in Florida. These dangerous and illegal activities endanger the participants, spectators, and innocent bystanders. FHP and our law enforcement partners are actively involved in enforcing and investigating any occurrence. But we need your help in reporting these events. If you see street racing, stunt driving, or a roadway takeover in progress, call Star FHP. This will direct you to the closest dispatch center for help. If you have knowledge or video of individuals participating in street racing, stunt driving, or roadway takeovers, email us at stopracing at flhsmv.gov. Again, email us at stopracing at flhsmv.gov. It's 30, which is our start time, and I want to thank everybody for coming out. And I know that you're very interested in what we're going to be discussing here today, or at least our guest speakers are going to be discussing. And we're going to start. This has been going on for seven years here in the city of Deltona. And the first person that I want to introduce to you, I want to read a little bio on him. So, Brian is the meteorologist for Spectrum 13, and he's been working on this project with me since I was elected seven years ago. Thanks to Lee Lopez, who's sitting in the back, who worked with me on this project as well and helped me put it together. So, Brian has been a meteorologist for more than 27 years and first joined the News 13 team in 2015. Brian had dreamed of being a meteorologist since childhood and was always passionate about learning how storms form while addressing the importance of weather across a variety of climates. Brian has earned the National Weather Association's Seal of Approval and the Approval of Deltona and the American Meteorological Society's CBM's Seal of Approval. An Emmy nominee, he has also won several awards for his work, including being named the 2009 National Weather Association Broadcaster of the Year and Best Weathercaster by the Florida Association Press in 2016, 2017, 18, 20, and 21. Brian's career first took off in Mancota, Minnesota, where he reported on a record-breaking March tornado outbreak, staying on the air for more than two hours as tornadoes touched down. While working as a morning meteorologist in Des Moines, Iowa, Brian became a storm chaser, studied these storms in the field since 2011. Brian is certified to teach nationwide courses in tornado awareness, hurricane awareness, flooding hazards, science and preparedness, coastal hazards, and climate adoption planning by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. Brian has participated in the City of Deltona's Hurricane Awareness Town Hall meetings since they began seven years ago, sharing his expertise and knowledge on what to expect and how to prepare for hurricane season. We only bring you the best. So, without further ado, I would like to bring Brian up. Don't forget to show them your, you know what I'm talking about. Okay, so here's Brian. Thank you. I'll shorten that bio next year. And update it, too. I'll be celebrating 29 years in the TV business next month. So, 29 years. Ten years here, just back in April. Can't believe I've been ten years in Central Florida. And, yes, I've got my shoes, my radar shoes, but I also have my Tropical Storm socks that one of my meteorologists gave me for Christmas. Got to get it in, too, all right? Well, appreciate you guys being out here tonight, and I know that we're coming up fast on our new season, 2025 season, and we're hoping for nothing, right? Wouldn't that be nice? All right. So, we're going to talk about being prepared, not scared. Don't be scared. Be prepared. That is our mantra at Spectrum News 13. And Central Florida storm season is about to get underway. We're your calm in the storm. Just a quick team shout-out. We are the nation's only team of dual-certified meteorologists, and that is a mouthful, meteorologists. That is an opportunity for us to show that we have the past education. We have our continuing education. We go out and do workshops. We go to conferences. We bring ourselves up to speed on the very latest in technology and research. And then we pass that education on to you. So, tonight, I'm having a great conversation with you guys on weather, and we'll answer any of your questions if I can. We did add a new meteorologist. And, by the way, I'll just quickly run through Chris Gilson, our weekend night meteorologist. Mallory Nichols, who is standing right next to me. She's on right now, and she's the one who gave me the socks for Christmas. Maureen McCann is on my other side. She's our morning meteorologist. And then Zach Covey, far right, is our weekend morning meteorologist. In the back, we have Amy Sweezy from WESH. We took her as soon as WESH, as she walked away from WESH, and she wanted to keep her feet wet in the business. And I said, come on, let's go. And she's been a great addition to our team as a contractor, and Rob Eicher in the back as well. But we just added another meteorologist. He starts on Monday. His name is Greg Bennett. He has lots of Florida ties. He grew up in Florida in Brevard County, and he's moving back to Brevard County. As a matter of fact, he just moved back Sunday. They're unpacking, getting ready for upcoming hurricane season. And he starts on air with us on May 27th. So, you have to stay tuned for the morning show on May 27th. All right, with that out of the way, 24 days, that's it, until we officially kick off the Atlantic hurricane season. It runs June 1st through November 30th. The Pacific hurricane season actually begins May 15th. So, it gets about a 15-day jump on the Atlantic season. It also runs through November 30th. And right now, models, they're all over, trying to figure out what's going on. And, of course, we get our early season spin-ups that are, we call them phantom storms. So, if you hear a little chatter on the social media sites, there's nothing brewing for us. We don't have to worry about it, at least right now. Peak of hurricane season. It is September 10th. So, as you see here in our graphic, we run all the way up to August and then see a very sharp incline in hurricane season to the peak on September 10th, and then a slow slide back out. You also notice that we can have storms in May, and we can have storms in December. It's not out of the question. It's very rare, but not out of the question. Now, with that said, the peak of hurricane season, we typically see 53% of our tropical storms during the peak of hurricane season. I like to walk back and forth, by the way. It's just TV nature. I don't have a green screen, but 61% of the hurricanes in a given hurricane season occur in the peak of hurricane season. And that actually roughly runs August 20th through about October 10th. And 73% of major hurricanes feeding off very warm ocean waters, that's usually what occurs. 73% would occur in that peak as well. So, what do hurricanes need to form? Well, they need at least 79-degree or warmer sea surface temperatures. We have that right now in the Gulf. We do not have it in parts of the Atlantic just yet, which is some good news. I'll get to that in just a second. We need to keep that storm away from the equator because the equator stops that spin. Low wind shear is ideal for hurricane development. So, what is wind shear? Well, as you're going up toward the sky, let's say we're walking up toward space, we're getting wind that's coming from our back. We'll keep going, and it's coming from our side, and it's coming from our front. And it's changing speed as well as the direction. So, wind shear is actually something that can chop off a hurricane, keep it from breathing, because that wind is actually changing direction and speed and acting like the shears that you would take for your bushes chop off the top, and that's not allowing the hurricane to breathe. If there's no wind shear, there's nothing helping to kick that thing at the top, it's going to breathe, all right? So, we're looking for low wind shear to keep development at a minimal. And we need an unstable atmosphere. It's going to provide the fuel for thunderstorms to develop. We need a system nearby, some sort of an area of low pressure that's going to develop and start to strengthen. All right, so I didn't put May in here, just because it's so rare, because the official start of season is June 1st. But here's where we would be watching June 1st through June 30th, typically out into the Gulf. We see the Northwest Caribbean and also along our East Coast. This is because we typically, at this time of year, we're still seeing some fronts occasionally drop south, cold fronts, and we get spins that may occur along those fronts. So, as we take you to the peak of hurricane season, huge difference, right? Well, typically, during the peak of hurricane season, we have very, very warm water right down through the central Atlantic. This is called our main development region, and this is where we would have all the high-octane fuel. We'd have distance to feed and provide the moisture. And then, as we curl back up off our coasts, a lot of times these things will drift across the Caribbean and into the Gulf, and a lot of times they'll take themselves up over Bermuda. And that seems to be where they were all tracking last year. Most of them were heading toward poor Bermuda. Oddly enough, they have been through so many hurricanes, but they still have a great lifestyle and really not a lot of damage that has been done in the island of Bermuda itself over the years. All right, so that takes us to this season. Right now, the only forecast out by official forecasters from Colorado State University, they are calling for 17 named storms this year. On average, we see 14. They're calling for nine hurricanes. Our average is seven. And they're calling for four major hurricanes. The average in a season is typically about three. So, with that said, they're calling for slightly above average. Now, we will wait until NOAA, National Weather Service NOAA, come out with their forecast. And we'll see if the Hurricane Center decides to go about the same. And I have a feeling they're probably going to be pretty lined up. Then they give a range. They'll probably say between 13 and 18 storms. So, they'll give it a range, whereas Colorado State just nails down a number and you go for it. But I want to tell you, right off the bat, I don't pay attention to those numbers. I really don't. Because it only takes one. That's all that matters. It doesn't matter. If they're calling for 17 storms and they all occur, they're not all going to hit us. Knock on wood. But I don't pay attention because it only takes one to really give us fits. So, early forecast is calling for a slightly above average season. But there is a lot of uncertainty because we actually have cooler, slightly cooler water in that main development region of the Atlantic Basin. So, we don't have the high octane fuel there. Last year at this time, it was about three or four degrees warmer in that part of the Atlantic, out in the central Atlantic. So, we're running slightly cooler. That's what we like to hear, right? So, sea surface temperatures in the Gulf, unfortunately, they are already warm enough to sustain and support development. But, as I just mentioned, it only takes one. And this is what it looks like any forecast season. All over the place. All right. So, I love the memes. Jim Cantore, who's a great friend, I do know that wherever I see him go, I still get a little bit nervous. And he says, people asked when is a good time to worry, and that's when you worry. If he shows up in Deltona, Jim shows up in Deltona, you know we may have some issues. But we will always rebuild no matter what, right? I'm not sure. There's several of these memes that go out. It's pretty funny. All right. So, I want you to do me one favor. And I've shared these next two slides every year just because it really hits home a point. Just ignore the hype. I told you right off the bat, we don't hype. Don't be scared. Just be prepared. We don't hype up a storm. I don't want to hype a storm because I don't want to scare. Hype does nobody any good. But here's what our former governor said. And again, it's not a political statement. All right. I'm not making any political statements. These are things that were actually said that just made me cringe. So, this is back, and I believe this is during Irma. Looks like I need to move that. Yeah. We had the collision occur over us, so it's pouring out right now. The sea breeze is right overhead. This is an unbelievably massive, destructive storm. Now, what do you think if somebody's scared to storms already? What are they thinking now? It's a killer. You will not survive all this storm surge. You're telling the residents of Florida this? And then goes on to say, Irma is bigger, faster, and stronger than Hurricane Andrew. My God, Hurricane Andrew destroyed South Florida. You know, Homestead really didn't exist after Andrew. This storm will be nothing like the state has ever seen. And I tell you what, we lived through Irma. It was nothing like he said it was going to be. We did have a lot of damage. I lost shingles. I lost some trees in my West Orange County home. But it was not bigger than Andrew. Then there's Shep Smith. I don't even know where he is anymore. But he's talking, Irma, and he says to a national audience, This moves 20 miles to the West, and you and everyone you know are dead. All of you, because you can't survive it. It's not possible unless you're very, very lucky. And your kids die, too. Imagine a family of four and the parents sitting there with two young kids, watching and hearing this, scared to death because they're telling you you're going to die. Smith spoke with a Floridian woman who didn't want to leave her home. I'll ask her why she's staying, and if she expects us to cover her funeral, yeah. Tasteless, tacky, and this is what you don't want to listen to. Don't listen to people who freak you out. They're not doing you any good. They're doing a disservice in this business. That aside, let's move on to our names for this season. The first one on our list is Andrea. Move on to Barry and Chantal. All the way down to Lorenzo. Get over to Pablo, Tanya. And let's hope we don't get to Van or Wendy. And if we get to Wendy and we move on, here's our supplemental list. You know, they used to do Greek alphabet. They don't anymore because if you think about it, you have a Greek named Storm, and it's like Andrew where they've retired it because they retire storms at a certain amount of destruction and death. They don't want those names out there because that just is haunting, and it brings back those memories, all right? So in a Greek alphabet, you've got one. You can't just change and put a different one in. You've got a list of Greek letters, but that's it. So if you retire one, then you're just eliminating from that list. And if you get all the way down to that, so they've decided to move with a supplemental list. Adria would be the first one, all the way down to Will. Again, we never get down to this, and I don't want to live in Florida. I don't want to live in Florida if we get to Will on the second list, all right? At that point, I will be in Canada. I don't know, somewhere where I'm not having to deal with two different name lists in one season. That would be insanity. Let's hope it never happens. So a quick dive into what we do behind the scenes. Seven to ten days out, we're actually looking at the pattern. We're trying to figure out, is this pattern favorable for any kind of development? Warm sea surface temperatures, low shear. What's the pattern with the areas of low pressure? Our ridges are high pressure. We watch the trends over four to seven days out, and we continue to follow those trends and just watch the model runs because some of the model runs will spit something out in one time frame, and then two runs later, it disappears or it shifts, and that's going to happen. Within two to four days, we've got timing and impacts. We're getting pretty confident at this point, especially with the technology that we have today, satellites helping us pinpoint exactly where the storm is, the eye, et cetera. So we're getting better with the timing and impacts, about two to four days out. One to two days out, we've got that forecast nailed. We're going county by county. We're telling you here in Volusia County what you can expect with wind, what you can expect with rain, and what you can expect with potential tornadoes as well. All right, so with that, we may see a tropical storm watch issue. This is when winds are sustained at 39 to 73 miles per hour within the next 48 hours. If you get a tropical storm warning, that's when winds of 39 to 73 are expected within the next 36 hours. So we're giving you time, and I'm not issuing these, by the way. These watches, the actual tropical watches coming out from the National Hurricane Center are giving you, hopefully, enough time to prepare your family and your friends and neighbors, your homes, et cetera. And you're already doing that now as we head toward the season. If a watch for a hurricane is issued, it means winds over 74 are possible within the next 48 hours. But once we're in that hurricane warning, that means we are expecting winds over 74 miles per hour within the next 36 hours. Very quick rundown. I'm not going to go through each and every line of the categories, but I wanted to give you a really good idea of what we could see in these categories. All right, so a Category 1 hurricane, winds of 74 to 95 miles per hour, minor damage, power outages. We can handle that, right? We handle it every year, it seems like. We get these Category 1s or 2s or 3s that come close by, provide us rain and tornadoes and winds. Category 2, we're building up to 96 to 110 miles per hour. This is when we start taking down even more trees. We have a lot of trees in this county. A lot of pine trees that are tall and those old oaks. This is when we could actually start seeing power outages that last days to unfortunately even weeks. Category 3, 111 to 129 miles per hour, damage to roofing and windows likely. So maybe you're boarding up your windows, you're putting your shutters out, you're not running tape down the middle in a big X. That will not do you any good. It's not going to stop glass from breaking or blowing in, all right? So don't be putting a big old taped X on your windows. So we're now moving into Category 4. And before I get to 4, Category 3 and above, Category 3, 4, and 5, those are considered major hurricanes. Major hurricanes with those severe winds have the highest impact. So 4 with 130 to 156 mile per hour winds. This is when we suffer major damage to our homes. And trees and power poles are snapped. Some homes are actually completely destroyed. Power outages last for weeks. And then we get into a Category 5. This is what Andrew was. This is what they bumped Michael up to. Michael hit Mexico Beach up in the pan. And it came ashore as a 4, but after they did more research, they found that there was damage to sustain a Category 5 hurricane just at landfall. And it was a rapidly intensifying hurricane at that. This is extensive damage. This is devastating damage with power outages that last for weeks. These are the hurricanes that also produced us, the flooding rains. And as we know too well, the St. John's River was flooding from rains out of Ian back a couple years ago. And we had flooding on that St. John's River for two months? It was beyond Thanksgiving. It was like we were still talking the holidays and that river was still up. So what can you do now to prepare? And I know that we've got some other guests that are probably going to go through some of these, but I'll just go through quickly just to give you a few ideas. Shop today. Create a hurricane kit. Avoid those lines. Don't wait until the last minute. You wait in these huge lines. You've got people who are getting angry. They're getting frustrated. They're getting scared. Get your supplies now. Not to mention plywood goes fast and you may run out. Bottle water. We saw that during Irma. Bottle water off the shelves so very quickly. Know your evacuation route. You guys don't have to worry about that. But do keep in mind if you're near a body of water or if you are at the coast here in Volusia County, you need to figure out where to evacuate. Perform an insurance checkup. You realize that your insurance doesn't include flood insurance. Policies don't here in the state. You have to make sure that you have flood insurance. I highly recommend it. You don't have to have it. I would highly recommend it. So take advantage of the sales tax holidays. I believe we have two. I don't know offhand the dates, but usually in June and then another one mid-season, there are two separate periods where you can get discounts, tax holidays. Buy and donate supplies to those who are less fortunate. We have a lot of folks who can't afford to go out and get supplies. And just kind of figure out what you need to last several days maybe without power. During a hurricane, obviously you don't want to go outside. Stay indoors, away from windows and glass. Put as many walls between you and the outside as you can. Have your safe place. Have your hurricane kit there. Have yourself a way to get alerts. Watch for rising water. I just mentioned that. And obviously have a way to watch your local news. I would love it if you watch Spectrum News. We take you through these storms from beginning to end. But whoever you trust, all right? Whoever you trust. Keep your curtains and blinds closed. I know that's kind of a drag because it's like, ah, it's so dark. But that will help if debris decides to blow in to keep that debris from coming into your house. After a storm, make sure your family and friends are safe. Check on your neighbors, those who are susceptible and cannot actually maybe get out of the house. Maybe they've sustained damage. Help them out. Just make sure they're okay. Check your property, but be mindful of debris, power lines and trees, standing water, critters in that water. We get floodwaters. We have those big old nasty snakes and those gators that can come out. And keep generators outside and away from your house, all right? You don't want that generator running inside because carbon monoxide is a killer. And we unfortunately lose lives every single year due to carbon monoxide poisoning. You use battery-powered flashlights. I wouldn't use candles. You fall asleep, kick it, accidentally knock it over. Yeah, that's not going to be a good situation. All right. So hopefully I didn't go too fast as I'm kind of winding down here. Concluding thoughts. Everyone should be aware of our growing Florida population. We were just discussing. You guys are probably over 100,000 population in Deltona alone now. I think when I first started this with Lee, a little over 80,000. So, I mean, this population is exploding. You're seeing it. We discussed the traffic. And so just be mindful of those who have moved into the county who don't know about hurricane season or maybe they've never been through one. They're going to need some extra hand-holding, a little help. Check in with them. See what they need. Give them some ideas. I just gave you a bunch. Go through a kit and just maybe show them your kit and how to put them together and prepare for the upcoming season. And we all should be prepared for tropical and severe weather any time of year. This line that's developing will more than likely kick out a severe storm or two, probably on my drive down I-4. But we need to be prepared for this every year. And so if we do so and we prepare ahead of time, we're going to be ready for what comes. We're not going to be thinking, oh, my God, I forgot this. Oh, my God, I forgot that. So once you get into that state of mind that, hey, I'm prepared, then you won't be scared. That's why we say don't be scared. Just be prepared. And don't get wrapped up in the hype of local media and social media. I tell you, my friend keeps telling me I need to call out some of the local meteorologists who are hype mongers. I'm afraid to call them out because they are also friends. And I hint behind the scenes, but I'm like, go ahead and do what you're going to do because we do what we do. And people say, I tune in because you were calm and you weren't freaking us out. So one of these days, as I'm getting a little older, I might start calling them out. But you know who they are. Some of you know who those local hype mongers are. So this, by the way, is a snapshot of, okay, I had an image off the very top of the slideshow, and I should have told you, it was Hurricane Milton down near the Gulf, in the Gulf, near the Yucatan Peninsula. The fastest growing hurricane record went from a tropical storm to a Cat 5. And then that's what came up. Milton came up and provided us some nasty weather, including a record-breaking tornado outbreak in South Florida. This is actually Helene. This is an image of Helene. And I tell you, each of these storms that comes in just off our West Coast makes us all go, oh God, because we're on that, what they call the dirty side of the hurricane. This is where we get the tornadoes. This is where we get bands of extremely heavy rain. That was Helene providing us a glancing blow before it took on the Big Bend and unfortunately took on Georgia, South Carolina, and really, really hammered the mountains of North Carolina. They are still suffering. And now, because of drought growing, they have fires burning all over in those mountains. So now people are trying to get ready for the next hurricane season, and there's fires to concern themselves with. So don't be scared. Just be prepared. We're all going to be good. Yeah. This is a good way to end it, huh? I'd like to cancel my subscription, and I'm sure you would as well, for the Hurricane of the Month Club. I do want to take a selfie really quick. And on top of that, if you guys want to join, I'll give a quick picture of everybody. I have to, unfortunately, I have to take off. I have an early morning meeting that I have to jump on tomorrow. And it's from here to my house on the south side of Orlando is about an hour or so, especially with this. So I will answer questions as soon as I take a quick selfie of all of us. No, I think I can get everybody in. I've got everybody, except you guys. Here, we'll do the... I don't know if I can see you guys back there or not. We're going to get this side. You ready? Three, two, one. I wonder if it would be better, because you two are over there if I come to this side. Sorry, I'm particular with my selfies. There we go. Now we've got everybody. All right. Everybody ready? Got to look good. Yeah, say Hurricane. Hurricane! No. No hurricanes. No hurricanes. All right. Quick questions. It doesn't have to be hurricane-related. This is live, so it's being televised. So if you have a question, I want you to do it on... Speak on the microphone so everybody can hear your question and hear your answer. Anybody have any questions? Okay. None. Thank you. So before you leave, though, Brian, we'd like to give you something. The city has prepared a proclamation for you. Oh, wow. And it says, Brian Carrick, Chief Meteorologist, Spectrum News 13, thank you, for being the guest speaker at the City of Deltona's Hurricane Awareness Town Hall for the past seven years. Your expertise and knowledge on what to expect and how to prepare for hurricane season provides valuable education for our residents to stay safe during and after a hurricane tornado event. Don't be scared. Be prepared. Oh, wow. Thank you so much. Wow. Thank you. But something else. This is from me personally, but I need you to open it. Yeah, right? I didn't think about that one. By the way, at some point, Catherine, I'll send up our hurricane guides. They aren't printed yet, so once they're printed, we'll have some hurricane guides here at City Hall. Thank you. Awesome. Wow. Thank you. So City of Deltona, thank you, meteorologist Brian. Awesome. Oh, and be prepared, not scared. Don't forget that mantra. Be prepared, not scared, because it really does help you go into the hurricane season and you're not nervous because you're all ready to go. And I want to thank my friend, Rachel, for putting that together for me at the last minute. Thank you. No questions? I know, right? Tracia. There we go. Thank you so much. It's awesome. It's good to see you again. Good to see you, too. Next year, for sure. Absolutely. I love you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So our next presenter would be Clint Mecham from the Volusia County Emergency Management, who will discuss what the county does to prepare for hurricane season. And to us, here in Deltona, is an honor to have Clint here, because it's very rarely that we can drag the county representatives here into the city of Deltona. So thank you so much for being out here. And I know he has somebody with him who also would like to share some information on emergency shelters. Thank you very much, ma'am. Well, folks, thanks for allowing me to come and spend part of my evening with you. As I was introduced, my name is Clint Mecham. I am your Volusia County Emergency Management Director. I am a transplant. I have been here about two years now. I retired from the fire service in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. So everybody's like, Utah, what do you know about hurricanes? Well, fortunately, we didn't have a lot of hurricanes in Utah, but we did have avalanches and earthquakes and that kind of stuff. So at least hurricanes, I can see them coming. So I very much appreciate that aspect of being here in Florida. But I very much enjoyed getting to know my new friends and family here in Volusia County. I do try and get to the west side of the county as often as I can, because there's this little thing called the St. Johns River that runs down the west side of the county that we need to pay attention to, even especially during hurricane season with the closed basin. A little bit about myself above and beyond, just coming from Utah. I did spend 28 years in the fire service. I retired as a division chief with Unified Fire Authority in the Salt Lake Valley. The last 10 years of that career, I was Salt Lake County's Emergency Management Director. It was part of the fire department. Since 2000, I've also been with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Program, and I've had the opportunity to deploy to a few large incidents, Ground Zero, Katrina, Rita. Ernesto, Dean, Barry, Harvey. And I spent all of October of 2022 in Lee County for EM. So while I don't have a lot of experience on the front side of hurricanes, I have a whole bunch of experience on the back side in responding to hurricanes. So I'm going to spend a lot of time regurgitating what Brian already told you. So that's a good thing. I appreciate him doing that for me, because that means you don't have to listen to me as long. But I do want to take a minute and talk about what emergency management is. So in Florida especially, everybody thinks emergency management are those hurricane people. That's not necessarily true. We are what we call all hazards. There's actually 17 different categories of disaster that we have to play the what-if game and think about, whether they be weather-related, whether it be terroristic-type stuff, whether it be hazardous materials and transportation incidents, and the list goes on and on. Cyber is the latest and greatest one that we're having to contend with right now. Yes, wonderful, right? But we provide, in a nutshell, we provide our first responder communities, and those would be your fire, your law enforcement, your public works, your public utilities people, with the logistical and coordination support to make sure that we are all working together in lockstep to respond to and recover from any significantly impactful events here in the county. So that's what we do. I have a staff of 10 in Volusia County Emergency Management, and we serve all, at latest count, 600,000 folks in Volusia County. We also take into account the visitors that we get to Volusia County. Anybody want to take a wild stab at how many visitors we had to Volusia County last year? 10.2 million. Florida as a state had 132 million visitors last year to the state. We got 10 million of those. So we're a very popular destination space, and you folks living here close to I-4, you get the brunt of that, right? The fact that you're close to Orlando, you get the brunt of that, too. So you kind of get a double whammy on that. But we spend a lot of time thinking about what if, creating plans on how we coordinate the resources to work together at the local, the county, the state, and the federal level to essentially return you folks back to as close to normal as what was before the event as fast as we can after the event, okay? We do a lot of logistical support for our first responders. We make sure that they've got, in a military parlance, the beans, bodies, and bullets that they need to respond to whatever tactical situations that they may face. We don't tell them how to do their jobs. We make sure that they have what they need to do the job that they, the way they determine they need to do it. So that's what we do. We spend a lot of time talking with our cities and a lot of time talking with the state on how we coordinate those resources and how we get additional resources into the county in the event that we need them, okay? So that's emergency management in a nutshell. Just more verbiage, and these slides are very word-dense, and I apologize for that, but we have five mission pillars, okay? We have prevention, preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery. So those are our five mission areas, okay? Response is the one that everybody always talks about and the ones that everybody sees, right? That's 2% of our time, okay? Okay, it's the fun part, it's not necessarily where we spend most of our time. We spend most of our time in preparation and mitigation, and unfortunately, on the recovery side of things. While an incident, a storm, for example, a hurricane, may affect us for a day or two, recovery can go on for literally months, and in some cases, years. We still have one mitigation project on the books from Irma that we are contending with. So it can take a long time to get back to that normal state after we experience a significant impact. But, as I said, here's some of the things we think about. Wildfires, that's been kind of a topic the last couple of weeks, but thanks to Brian's rain dance, hopefully we're getting towards the end of that season. Yeah, exactly, and I'll give him the credit all day long. So anyway, sinkholes, anybody ever had to deal with a sinkhole? We have to worry about those too, right? Exotic diseases, and not just COVID. I know my counterparts over in Texas right now are dealing with measles outbreaks, right? So there's a lot of those kinds of things. My deputy director has told me that if we ever have to do something like COVID again, she's quitting. So, no, I'm just giving Aubrey a bad time, but we deal with that. And, as I said, 10 million visitors to Volusia County, we spend a lot of time doing special event stuff. I mean, we've already seen the 500 this year. We've seen Bike Week this year. We just got done with Jeep Beach. Anybody know what the next one rolling up here in a week is? Rockville. Rockville's next week. Coke Zero Sugar 400's coming up shortly. So that's on the books, and then Biketoberfest, and so it goes, and so it goes. On top of our just normal tourist season from having world-famous beaches on the east side of the county, right? And as I understand it, we're getting more and more tourists into the west side of the county because of the mountain biking trails. So, again, you folks are going to start seeing more and more of that kind of stuff too. So, those are some of the things we have to deal with. But getting back to a little bit more specifically about the topic tonight, we operate out of the Emergency Operations Center. It's on Tiger Bay Road, just off of International Speedway Boulevard. It was built in 2011. It is designed to withstand 180-mile-an-hour sustained winds, and we can bunker in there, and we do bunker in there before a storm, and we stay there throughout the storm until we get the all clear. It's also co-located with the Sheriff's Dispatch Center, and the Sheriff's Dispatch Center handles all the 911 calls in the entire county for law enforcement, fire, and EMS. So, we're co-located in that facility. The facility is open. If you ever want to come take a tour, come knock on the door. We'll show you around. Okay? Nothing we do is top secret. So, to kind of recap 2024, getting back to hurricanes, 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes, five majors, two impacts to Florida for majors, Helene and Milton. Okay? At landfall, Helene was a four, at least that's what the National Weather Service is telling me, and Milton was a three. Can anybody tell me the most, the strongest storm that Volusia County, level of storm that Volusia County has ever been directly impacted by? Okay. Category one. Category one. When all the storms have gotten to Volusia County, they have not been stronger than a cat one. So, while they start big, by the time they get here, they're not necessarily as strong. Right? Anybody remember, I mean, everybody remembers Milton last year. Right? Ian, a few years before that. Charlie. Those were significantly impactful to Volusia County. Right? So, when Brian says, be prepared, that is key. Because they're not anything to be scared of, but we do need to be in a position to help ourselves and help our neighbors so we can get back to that near normal state as rapidly as possible together. And it will take all of us together. And as we've seen from a lot of the storms that have affected Volusia County, it's not just, most people think, oh, it's a hurricane. The beach is going to get washed away. Well, maybe. Do you know where the highest level of rainfall was for Milton in Volusia County? DeLand and Deltona. Okay? You guys took the brunt of the rainfall for those storms, at least according to the official accounts. In some cases, we had reports of 18 and a half inches of rain up in DeLand. Okay? That's a lot. That's a 500-year storm event. Okay? A 100-year storm event's around 11-ish, I believe, if I remember my numbers correctly. So that's a recap of the 2024 season. Some of the things, and again, I'm not telling you anything you folks don't already know. Extreme wind. Tornadoes. Anybody know how many tornadoes Milton spawned? Latest official count I got was 46. Okay? St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties took the brunt of those, and we appreciate them falling on that sword for us. We really do. But, again, I've been here a short period of time, but my staff, who has been here much longer, tells me that traditionally, if we do see tornadoes coming from severe weather storms, whether they be hurricanes or thunder cells, they have a tendency to follow the I-4 corridor. So, again, I'm not trying to create a panic with anybody, but you folks are right here along it. So, again, being prepared, being ready is absolutely critical for all of you, right? Storm surge. Storm surge, we saw it during Ian. We saw it during Nicole. Worse than Ian. That's always a problem. Coastal erosion. Everybody tells me that the beaches are still not recovered from maybe what they were pre-Ian, pre-Nicole. Hey, I'm just happy to have a beach to go to. Utah didn't have a lot of beaches. Great Salt Lake doesn't count. Okay? Just saying. Okay. Utility outages, and Brian talked about those as well. Damaged infrastructure. Okay? That's one that we spend a lot of time recovering from. Water mains, sewer systems, electrical systems, gas systems, gas stations, grocery stores. A lot of that kind of stuff can take a long time to recover. Now, Florida does a really good job at a statutory level requiring various types of facilities to be more prepared. They have stipulations on gas stations that are close to freeways, having generator backup power, those sorts of things. But, again, it can take a long time to recover. And, again, Brian went through this much better than I can, so I'm just going to breeze through this fairly quick. Tropical depression, up to 38 miles an hour. Tropical storm, 39 to 73. Hurricane, 74, 73 or above. Right? Okay? I will spend a little time on this. And, again, Brian went through the categories. And, again, there they all are. But what I want to emphasize is damage levels. Okay? So, the damage incurred by these types of storms is not a linear scale. It is an exponential scale. Okay? So, if we use a Category 1 hurricane as a Level 1 damage, by the time we get up to a Category 5, it's 500 times the amount of damage to be expected than a Category 1. So, again, when we start talking escalations between categories, the potential impacts are significant. And, again, I don't say that to scare anybody, but please understand the threat that we are facing when we go even from a Category 1 to a Category 2. It's 10 times the amount of damage in that one step. Okay? Major hurricanes only account for 21 percent, or major hurricanes only about 21 percent make U.S. landfall. When it comes to FEMA payout and FEMA claims and the damages that are reported, they account for 83 percent of the damages reported in the U.S. due to natural disasters. So, again, they are significant. Sorry, Wesh is up there, Brian, not you guys. So, this is what we've been able to accrue. And, again, Brian went through this. Colorado State University has a very good hurricane research center. Why they study hurricanes in Colorado, I'm not exactly sure. But they do. And, again, there are the numbers that we got from them earlier in the season. They've updated that number a little bit, and that was reflected in Brian's slide. The National Weather Service, as Brian indicated, they will be coming out with their predictions May 22nd is the date that they've given us that they will come out with their predictions. So, again, you can see kind of where everybody's guessing, and it's a touch above normal. It's not as big as last year's predictions. But, as Brian said, it only takes one, right? Names, you've seen the names. See, I told you, he stole a lot of my thunder here, which is a good thing. One of the things I wanted to talk about, though, too, and, again, most of us here in Volusia County have experienced it, right? The rainfall event, right? Milton and Ian were not significant wind events for Volusia County. It was all about the water, right? And I believe, if I remember correctly, Spruce Creek for Ian got almost 22 inches of rain in less than 18 hours, okay? There's not a storm system in the U.S. that can handle that kind of rainfall, right? So that's why we saw the impacts. Milton was much the same. We got a lot of water in a very short period of time. So even though it may not seem like we are going to get significantly impacted by wind, a storm may be downgraded from a hurricane back down to a tropical storm, for example. That does not necessarily mean that we will not be impacted by the water, right? Hurricane, those categories are all based on wind speed, not necessarily water. So we want to throw that out there. The other thing, and, again, Brian said the dirty side of the storm, the upper right quadrant, right? When it comes to rainfall, it can be any place. So you can see here with Fay, it went right along the track. That was where the heaviest rainfall was, right? For Irma, the rainfall was heaviest to the right of the track, which kind of follows with the dirty side of the storm, right? Ian was to the left of the track, okay? So that's on the, quote, unquote, clean side of the storm. So just because we're not in that situation where we're calling it a hurricane does not mean that we're not going to see significant impacts out of that, okay? All right, and again, I'm going to just reinforce what Brian said. So this goes back to 1851 through 2020, yet I haven't gotten an updated map on my PowerPoint since then. But this is August hurricanes, okay, going all the way back to when they started recording. That is what it looks like over the Florida Peninsula, right? Here's September, there's October. October looks like somebody barfed up a plate of spaghetti on a map of Florida, right? So October, the end of September and October are traditionally our busiest months here in Florida, and this reflects that. So again, hurricane warning, hurricane watch, right? Hurricane watch comes first. The terminology I want to reemphasize to you folks again, because that goes along with the educational piece, right? And knowledge is power when it comes to being prepared. So hurricane force winds are possible within 48 hours. Tropical storm watch is the same. Tropical form force winds are possible within 48 hours. When it switches to a warning, now they're expected within 36 hours. So please understand the difference when you hear the terms, okay? When we go from a watch, we're like, okay, we need to pay attention. Like today, I was getting watches from about noon on about the possibility of severe thunderstorms this afternoon. It went to a warning just as our little session here kicked off. That's when I kind of perked up a little bit and started paying attention a little bit more, okay? But please understand the terminology. So let's talk a little bit more about how to prepare. And again, Brian gave you a good overview. I just want to hit some additional key points. Stay informed. That is absolutely key. But I will reemphasize what Brian said. Make sure you are getting your information from credible sources. For us in the first responder world and in emergency management, we can only act on official information from NOAA and the National Weather Service, okay? So believe me, we tune into Brian and we tune into Tony and we tune into everybody else. But we can only act on the information that is provided to us by NOAA and the National Weather Service, okay? I've got a lot of staff members that watch so-and-so's weather page and somebody else's weather guests and so on and so forth, right? It's always good to see what people are saying, but we can only act on that official information. But stay informed, okay? Along with the stay informed, aside from watching the weather, there's other things you can do. Your city and the county have social media pages where we put out information above and beyond maybe what the National Weather Service is talking about. We will start talking about where you can pick up sandbags, for example, okay? We will talk about where our shelters are going to open and if they're going to open and all that good kind of stuff. We push those out through social media. So subscribe to those social media sites. Volusia County Emergency Management has an app. It's available on the Apple Store and the Android Store. And again, the National Weather Service alerts and other alerts like Amber Alerts come through that as well as additional information when we activate on additional things that we are doing. Again, sandbag events, shelter events, whatever it might be. I know the jerk that actually gets to call evacuations. Yeah, that's me. In this county. And so we will push that information out through that app, through our traditional media and through social media as well. If we close bridges. Yeah, again, I know the jerk that closes the bridges. That's me. We will also put that out that way as well. So stay informed. It gives you, put your finger on the pulse of not only what was going on, but we do our absolute level best in conjunction with your city officials on providing you with information not only about what's going on, but what you can be doing, right? An evacuation order. We issued an evacuation order for Milne. Everybody aware of that? We issued an evacuation warning for Flood Zone A. Anybody know what flood zone they're in here in Deltona? It varies. There is, you can go, if you Google Know Your Zone, you can actually go to a website that is done by the state of Florida. You can put in your address and it will tell you what your flood zone is. And we normally evacuate by flood zone. When we pulled the trigger on Flood Zone Evacuation A, there's about 111,000 residents in Volusia County that were impacted by that order, okay? So again, stay informed. Knowledge is power, okay? Brian talked about the other thing that we'll try and push out is when those sales tax breaks holidays come down the pike for preparation, okay? They haven't announced them yet because they haven't approved the budget yet, is my understanding. Traditionally, there's one the first part of June, and then there's another one in the August-September time frame. We're assuming that will happen again this year, but we don't have official dates yet. We will push that information out as well. So again, to reduce the impact as much as possible on you folks to be prepared, okay? Prepare a kit. Deltona Fire over here, your folks have done a fantastic job of showing off a very, very good kit for a household, okay? There's a bajillion variations on that kit. You can buy them commercially. You can create your own. It all is dependent on how you want to do it, but I recommend you have a kit, and we'll talk about some of the things to have in a kit here in just a minute, okay? Know your evacuation zone. We talked about that. Make a plan, okay? Does everybody know what their evacuation route is out of their neighborhood, okay? We have official ones that we don't publish until we need them because every storm or every incident that we have has a personality to it, if you will, and it can change. So we don't want people getting in the habit of going down this evacuation path if all of a sudden that evacuation path is underwater, for example, right? But know some alternative routes to get out of your neighborhood or get out of your city. Did everybody see what happened to I-95 and I-4 pre-Milton? We saw all the traffic coming from Tampa and other places. We were driving on the shoulders, legally. I've seen a lot of illegal driving on the shoulders, but that's a whole other story. And again, while we weren't necessarily in that evacuation order, we were impacted by all of that traffic, and not only were we impacted by the traffic leaving, then everybody had to come back, right? So we got it both directions. So know some alternatives when it comes to evacuation. If you have kids, grandkids that you're responsible for and they go to school, how are you going to get reattached with those people if you need to evacuate? So have a family communication plan, right? Sometimes included in that can be a family meeting point. If you can't get a hold of each other on these little nifty gizmos, and guess what the first thing to fail when something bad happens is it's these nifty little gizmos, though the cell phone companies do a very good job trying to keep them up and operating. But do you have alternative modes to contact friends and family? Do you have an out-of-state point of contact? Sometimes it's easier to call across the country than it is to call across town. So have an out-of-state point of contact where somebody can, if you can't get a hold of your friends and family here, you can at least let somebody out-of-state know. Now you've got a common contact point where you can connect and say, yeah, I've heard from so-and-so and everybody's okay, right? But that family communication plan. A lot of times, and again, coming from the Salt Lake Valley was a little different. We had a lot of no-notice events, meaning that we didn't get any warning that they were coming, meeting locations. If I can't get a hold of you on my cell phone, go to this location and we will meet there. So there's those kinds of things that you can put, tools in your toolbox, so to speak, to help you be more resilient and more resistant to the impacts that we may suffer. The other thing, look out for each other in your community. We all have friends, family, neighbors that maybe are limited in their mobility or their ability to take care of themselves, make sure that we're looking out for those folks as well. To that end, there is a special needs registry, and Carissa will probably touch on that a little bit, that you can register those folks in pre-storm, and that gives us in emergency management, the health department, our first responders, a database to go off of people that might need a little extra help and a little extra warning to help get them out of harm's way. Okay? Evacuations. There's some terminology that's kind of out there that is a little bit erroneous. Some people will talk about mandatory evacuations versus voluntary evacuations. I'm here to tell you an evacuation order is an evacuation order. Okay? You will probably not see me come out and say this is a mandatory evacuation or a voluntary evacuation. This is just an evacuation order. That means we are telling you conditions are going to be bad enough. We don't want you in that impact zone anymore. Okay? And part of that is because the situation may cause an environment that is immediately dangerous to life and health. There's a phrase that we like to use a lot. Or it may be that we can't get help to you if you pick up the phone and call 9-1-1 because you haven't left, you've gotten in trouble, we pick up the phone and call 9-1-1. Our first responders will literally kill themselves trying to get to you, but there are some situations potentially where they physically cannot get to you. And the last thing we want is for you folks to be in a situation where you pick up the phone, you call 9-1-1, and the answer is we'll get to you as soon as we can. Okay? So that's one of the things. Long-term interruption of public utilities, fresh water, sewer, electricity, gas. My experiences with hurricanes, one of the biggest problems that we see a lot of the times in debris cleanup and repopulating areas that are evacuated are what we call white waste. Unfortunately, when do most of our hurricanes occur? September, October, right? What's the temperature like in Central Florida in September and October? Okay? Now imagine your refrigerator going without power for a week in that kind of heat and what it looks like, smells like, and feels like after in Central Florida. Okay? All of that stuff comes into account, right? We've got to get you, we want you out of that dangerous situation. Okay? Down power lines, that's a big issue, right? We'll see them all over the county. We don't know if they're energized or not. Again, our utility companies do a very, very good job in trying to make sure that we're safe and everybody is safe when they move around. But we can't always tell if a line's de-energized or not. If that line happens to be down on a chain-link fence and that chain-link fence runs for two blocks, that whole fence is energized, right? So there's just environmental impacts and things that we cannot control and you cannot see that makes it dangerous for you to be in that impact zone. So that's why we issue those evacuation orders. The last thing I want to do is ask you folks to leave your homes and leave your possessions, right? Not my favorite thing to do. Trust me. Okay? I work for the government. I'm here to help, honestly. But I'll go back to the old cliche saying, stuff can be replaced, people cannot. And that's where my priority is, is making sure that you are all here after the storm to be mad at me for asking you to leave. Okay? And I'm okay with that. So those are just some of the things that we talk about. Why do we evacuate? Okay? The other thing, if we do evacuate, folks, I will ask in your patience in getting back into your homes. Okay? A lot of the times with hurricanes, and we've all seen it, right? Within a day, the storm's gone, the sun's out, it looks nice outside, why can't I go back home? Well, we are dealing with all of those impacts, including cleaning up all of those nasty refrigerators, that we have to make sure that the environment is safe before we can let you back in. So be patient with us when it comes to the repopulation side of the evacuation. We are doing our level best, and we have lots of help that is out there doing that as well, but it takes a minute. So please be patient with us. Okay? So what can we do right now? We've talked about a lot of them. Know your risk. Anybody live in a, anybody know their flood zone right now? What flood zone they're in? Okay. Know your zone will help with that. If you're in a flood zone, guess what's going to happen when a storm comes? You're going to flood. Yeah, I know. It's not rocket science, folks, or I wouldn't be here. Do you live in a manufactured or a mobile home? They're a lighter weight construction, and they have a tendency to suffer damage easier than a typically, what's now typical in this area in Florida are those block constructed homes or those block constructed buildings, right? So know what your vulnerabilities are. Have an evacuation plan. We talked about that. I always tell people, hey, you don't have to wait for me to issue an evacuation order. If it feels uncomfortable for you, leave, right? Go visit the mouse in Orlando. Go do something. Go visit friends and family in Georgia. I don't care, right? But if it's uncomfortable, go. Have two evacuation routes. Again, a primary and a backup. We've talked about notify friends and family, neighbors, out-of-state contacts, and carry with you, and we'll get into this a little bit more, a list of important phone numbers. What should be on your list of important phone numbers, folks? Friends and family. That's given, right? What else? Ah, there's the one I was looking for right there. Your insurance company. That will become huge later on, okay? That's an important number, okay? Any other phone numbers or contacts that you think you should have? Doctors? You may need to call and get a prescription transferred, adjusted, extended. Those kinds of things, okay? So think a little bit outside of the box. Play that what-if game with yourself, okay? We've talked about the family communication plan. I'll reemphasize here, too. Please consider pets if you have pets in your family. It's heartbreaking when we are forced to deal with abandoned pets. We had to do that a lot. In my experiences with Katrina and Rita down in Mississippi and Louisiana, lots and lots of animals had to be euthanized because they were left behind, okay? So please consider your pets when it comes to that. Basic terminology and notifications, right? We've talked about those. We've given you a little bit of knowledge tonight to talk about those. The next one, insurance. I know insurance is a four-letter word in the state of Florida right now. I get it. But if at all possible, please include insurance as a tool in your toolbox. Now is a good time to reach out to your agent and understand what your level of coverage is. A lot of policy, not a lot, some policies will have exceptions written into them about extreme wind, for example, right? And if there's that exception in there, guess what? They're not paying. Flood insurance is separate from your homeowner's insurance. There's water damage in most homeowner or renter's insurance policies, but not flood. They are separate. And they will tell you that when you call them and say, hey, my house flooded. Oh, it flooded? I'm sorry to hear that. You're not covered, okay? So if at all possible, make sure you know what your coverage is and you include as much coverage as possible. For flood insurance, please understand if you need to add it, you can't add it the day before a storm hits. Most insurance companies require 30 days' notice for a policy to go into effect. So that's why I'm saying think about it now, because we're inside that 30-day window to the start of hurricane season, and there's nothing that says that we won't see an early season hurricane. Again, I'm not trying to panic anybody, but I live in that what-if world, so that's what I do, okay? Some other minor things to think about. If it looks like we are going to get a storm, okay, don't wait until 24 hours before to go down to the corner gas station and fill up your car. Do it beforehand, okay? If you've got the capability of safely storing a little extra gasoline, it's never a bad idea, right? Whether it's for your home generator or whether it's for your car, it's good to have that sort of thing around. But again, make sure you're storing it safely and appropriately if you do so. So let's talk about other things in your kit for a minute. I'm going to deviate from my slides here. I can do death by PowerPoint all day long, but some other things to think about with your kit. And again, your fire department has done a wonderful job in preparing this kit. What are some other things that you think you would need to put in your kit? There's one really specific answer I'm looking for here. Important documents, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses. Insurance information, all of that stuff. Social security cards, and they need to be the originals. The reason being, if you have to apply for assistance after the fact, copies don't work, okay? They will work, but there's an additional process, right? So if you can have the originals with you, it just speeds that recovery process for you. So important documents in some sort of watertight container that you can put in your kit, okay? What else? What's that? Cash. That's the other one I was looking for. It really sucks if you go to the gas station to fill up, and they say the power's down, we're on generator power, cash only. Most of us, except in times of a storm, I don't carry cash anymore. My wife doesn't let me out of the house with cash. She says I'm dangerous with it, but that's a whole other story. Most of them will go into this cash and carry mode, right? It really sucks if you need cash. You run up to the local ATM, and the power's out. Guess what? The ATM doesn't work, okay? So I have a little cash on hand. That's never a bad idea, okay? Those are the two big things I wanted to touch on. Family communications plan. We've talked about that already. Again, more information about your disaster kit. A lot of places will say 72 hours. We recommend 96 hours. Plan on being on your own for 96. I won't steal too much of Carissa's thunder, but I will say even if you end up going to a shelter, whether it is a general population shelter or a special needs shelter, please understand those shelters that we establish are called shelters of last resort, okay? And again, I'm not trying to panic anybody. I just want to be transparent with you. Those are not what you normally see in a movie where you see a shelter set up, and there's all kinds of nice, neat little cots and lots of people running around to help and stuff like that. Normally, it's at one of our schools. It's in the gymnasium or the cafeteria, and there's no furniture. So, think about things to put in your kit that if you need to go to a shelter, that makes your stay there a little bit easier. Blankets, sweaters, chairs, okay? Et cetera, et cetera. Food, snacks, things to entertain yourself with. It really, again, most people entertain themselves with these. The power runs out. Can't always guarantee you that you're going to be able to charge it, right? I always, in my kit, I got a deck of cards, right? Just something where I can keep myself entertained. Again, just to help with that whole sheltering experience if we need to go to. But these are things, and there's some information up here at the front next to your fire department's display that I can leave here for you that's got a lot of this information in it as well, okay? And we've talked about this. And again, Brian and people talked about battery-powered flashlights and battery-powered radios. They are good. I am a fan of solar-powered or hand-cranked, okay? The reason being, I don't have to carry extra batteries, and the batteries don't go bad sitting on the shelf waiting to be used, okay? That's just a personal preference for me. If you do use battery-operated devices, make sure you've got extra batteries. We talked about the important documents. Here's the other one. Medications and glasses or contacts, right? Make sure you've got a sufficient supply because they may not be readily available. Here's some just suggestions on some of those extra funsy things. Change of bed linens, specialty items for babies and children. Nothing worse than having a kid at a shelter or on a long car trip, and you've got to entertain them, and there's nothing to entertain them with, right? So think about that. Coloring books, again, those things that don't require power. My wife's kid is 22 years old, so I don't know what the latest trend with young kids are. I don't know if a lot of kids know what coloring books are anymore, but I'm just saying, okay? Any specific personal hygiene items you might need, some extra tools, a basic set of tools is good. Here's another one that I've seen a lot. Extra keys. I swear during most major disasters, there's a little gremlin who runs around and eats keys, okay? And if you get into that, when you get into that repopulation area, one of the things that law enforcement kind of looks for is, do you have a key to the front door? Because if you do, I know you belong there, and I can let you in, right? If you don't have a key, it takes a little longer to reunify you with your, back to your home, for example, and you may suffer some additional damage, i.e. the door gets kicked in for you, to get you in, or a window gets broken, or something like that. So again, have an extra set of keys in your kit, okay? Pets. Again, I said, please don't forget your pets. Include them when you talk about water. The recommendation is one gallon per person, per day. A pet is a person when it comes to planning for that, so make sure you include that. Food, medications, special food if they need it. A lot of shelters. If you don't have a carrier or a leash, you may be asked to, you may be separated from your pet, and that pet put in a special location away from everybody else, because there's no way to contain them. Does that make sense? Okay? And that may happen anyway, just depending on what the shelter is and how it's laid out. Okay? After the storm, again, Brian talked about it, don't use candles or open flame. I won't even say I recommend you don't, I'm just going to tell you don't. It really sucks to live through a big hurricane or a big storm or a big natural disaster, and then your home burns down because you had an accident with a candle. That's really a bad day. You might even constitute a bad week, right? Take extra care with the generators. Unfortunately, we always seem to have casualties after a storm from carbon monoxide poisoning related to generator use. Drive only if necessary. If the lights are out, it's a four-way stop. Okay? And, again, all the other stuff that seems common sense, but if common sense were so common, right? Okay? Food safety. Here's another one. We talked about the refrigerators. When in doubt, throw it out. Okay? Again, health care services, emergency medical services may be delayed or reduced in their capacity to help you. So don't put yourself in a position unnecessarily that you need to use their help. Okay? Um, that's it. That's all I've got. And you're like, thank God. Can you shut up and sit down there, right? Are there any questions? Ma'am? Special needs registry. Yes. Let me do that. Oh, I'm sorry. No. You're good. Again, like I said, this is being televised, so we want everyone out there to know what the question is to the answer. When you mentioned special needs registry, how, to what degree of special needs? I have an 88-year-old mother. She's still mostly mobile. Is that, would that be like a special needs? So I'm going to turn this one over to Carissa. Carissa is my cohort in crime. She is from the Florida Department of Health. The Florida Department of Health is one of our absolute essential partners when it comes to special needs and special needs sheltering. And she can probably answer that. In general, my answer is, if she's limited in mobility in any way, or it takes her a little bit longer to do something, register her. There's no harm or foul in doing so. And I would rather err on the side of safety than not. Carissa, and I'll let you expand on that. Thanks. Yes, go ahead and have her register, or you can register her. But yes, it's important to go ahead and get her in there. Because again, sometimes things change over time, too. So it's always important to go back into that registry and get that. I have a question about bank vaults. You said to take all your paperwork with you. Yes, ma'am. Your important paperwork. If we have a bank vault, is it safe in there? Is it a vault in your home, or is it a vault in the bank? In the bank. It depends on the bank. And I'm not saying, and I'm not going to pick on any banks. Their vaults are very secure. But if it gets flooded, sometimes water is insidious, and sometimes it gets into the vault. So there's always a concern there. And then the other piece becomes, can you get to the documentation after the storm? Can you get to the bank to get it out? Okay. And my last question, and I thank you for all of this. I thank you for having all of this. About evacuations. I don't know of an evacuation route in Deltona. Okay. So normally what happens, if we issue an evacuation order, again, remember I said each storm's got a personality? We will give you recommended routes that we know are open, and that we coordinate with law enforcement, for example, and FDOT, so we have the extra capability. We have them pre-designated, but we will tell you the major routes, the major roads and stuff to use. I can't give you a specific to get out of your neighborhood to that major road. So when I say have some alternates, have some alternates on how to get out of your neighborhood to the major roads. Okay. Thank you for helping me clarify that. I probably didn't do a good job of that. Thank you. Of course. Any other questions for me? If I may add something to that question, you know, sometimes when I'm driving around, I pay attention to the signs, and I've seen some signs that says evacuation route. And again. But that would tell you, like, that's the road that you need to follow. And I guess you just keep following the signs as you keep going along. And we will give you destination points, too. We will tell you where to go. And the reason that we don't have those front-loaded for you is, again, the situation may change. And I don't want you getting in the habit of, oh, my evacuation route, I go here, I go here, and go here, and I'm driving you into a flooded road, for example. Right? So we try and be careful. But if we issue the evacuation order, we will be pushing out information about what routes are safe and where to go is safe. About the special needs, where do I register? All right. So that's it for Clint's question. Any other questions for me? And I'm going to give some time to Carissa. She's going to talk about special needs and special needs shelters. She's much more of an expert on that than I am. So thank you. Folks, again, thank you for letting me share part of your question. Thank you, Clint. Thanks, Clint. All right. So for special needs shelters, there is a way to register. Up on the table, there is a flyer for it that you can get. There's a QR code on there, and there's also the website that you can go to. What's important about the special needs shelter is the people that need oxygen are something that requires power to keep them going because it's a medical device. We will have the power. Now, we are last resort. So, again, if you have a family member, register them, even if they're not going to come to us, but just get them into the system and registered. But the best place for them to be is with the family or friends because, again, they're used to it and they're comfortable. We want them to be healthy and happy as best they can, right, because we're all under a lot of anxiety at this point. Our anxiety is going because we have this – we're trying to get this way from the storm. They're going. We also do have a room for an area that we try to put our Alzheimer's and dementia patients, so that way if they do have to come to us, we are able to handle them. And now at our shelters, we do have some nurses there. They're, you know, they're there just to kind of do the minimal, just to assist. They'll help you take your vitals if you need it, help you get your medications. But they are not what you will find in an ER or in a medical facility. These are just our nurses that we have, our health department, which are family planning nurses. But they are there to assist in that way. We also – the health department does stock up the shelters. We do have six shelters the school gives us, three on the west side, three on the east side. Now, which ones are we using? Well, that will be based on the county, Clint over there. He will then decide which ones we are opening, and they will put out that announcement on which ones will be open so you guys can get to those shelters. Special needs shelters also are pet-friendly. So if you do have a pet, you may bring your pet with you. Now, if it is a service animal, the service animal will stay with the patient while they're there at the shelter. Because, again, the service animal is providing a service. If it's just a domestic animal, they will go into an area that is set aside for pets. We have a room that we do put aside for pets. Again, if you're bringing a cat, make sure that the cat has a cage, kennel, that's big enough to fit a litter box because they do need a place to go potty. And you don't want to let them out because then there might be a – you might be missing your cat. There's more of her cats. Yeah, so – but you'll be responsible for the care of your pet. We do have an animal service individual that will be at the shelter, at the special needs shelter. But, again, that's one person, and there's going to be lots of pets, so you will be responsible for making sure you bring your animals food and water bowls, things like that. And, yes, at the special needs shelters, we do have cots there for our clients because they are usually the most vulnerable of the population. So we try to make sure that they're set. But if you have any questions about the special needs shelter, please register for those now instead of right when it happens. So that way we can make sure we have everything that is needed when you guys are there. Any questions? Thank you. So it's sort of come down outside. It was really ugly out there. I mean, I just opened the door, and I got soaking wet. It just splashed all over me. My papers are all soaking wet. But the next – I'm going to jump over a little bit. The person we're going to come up – call is the assistant chief of the fire department, Stephen Cousins. So that he can quickly give us a quick demo or information of what the fire department does and what they can do to help you. And then we'll go into the last resort to save you during everything that's been discussed, which is the insurance. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So I appreciate it. Thank you very much. My name is Steve Cousins. I'm assistant chief, and one of my roles as assistant chief is emergency management coordinator. Our fire chief, Bill Snyder, is our emergency manager for the city. And we ramp up those roles historically in hurricane season. That's typically our most active. Second most active is typically wildfire season. And then we fill everything in between special events and things like that. So to me, what stands out the most so far, coming towards the end, is there's so many resources out there. There's a lot of information, a lot of resources. The biggest thing is, is understanding the resources are there and knowing where to find them. Clint talked about the Volusia County website. It's a great place. There's a lot of resources that fit us here in Deltona as well as the county as a whole. Those resources are coordinated. They're shifted to where the largest need is, right, to meet the demands of the many. So websites are good. Just one last time, re-hit. When you look for legitimate information, I can't urge you enough to find an official government-related site, whether it's National Weather Service, NOAA, Volusia County, the city of Deltona. Those are those most trusted sites, right? Typically, if you look at Deltona, you look at the county, you will see a majority of information mirrored, right? So things like sandbag locations will be on our site, but it'll be combined countywide on the countywide site. So typically, information we have, they'll have, and vice versa. Sometimes they may be a little quicker at posting things, or we may be a little quicker, but both those sites. You want to drill down a little bit into our local level here in Deltona. You're going to get just things that are related to us. Small things that may be beneficial, looking on a bigger site as well, is sandbag locations, for example. You're in the city, but there may be a county location like right off of 415 at the fire station 36 here in Osteen. That may be a shorter drive. It may have more sand or things like that. So just get those trusted resources, and we try to keep those up to date as much as possible. So, again, drill them down at the local level. So when we have specifically hurricane-related, we'll coordinate with the county, state, NOAA, National Weather Service, all that stuff to make these determinations. And everything primarily is on a coordinated effort. So when we do stand up, the Emergency Operations Center here in the city of Deltona is in this room that we're sitting in today. We've made improvements to the structure and building to make sure it's safe and sound for us to occupy the space. And just like Clint said that they do, we eat, sleep, and work out of this building primarily right here. A lot of work goes ahead of time. Our logistics department comes in to make sure we have food, resources, cots, all those things. And as a whole, every department comes in here primarily and occupies at some level in the room. We have departments like code enforcement that help us post-storm. So they ramp up and get their things. They go home. They stay safe post-storm. They'll come in, and they'll do assessments. They'll assess at the citywide level. They'll help assess city infrastructure, city parks, facilities, and things like that to let us know what the level of damage is on some of the most critical infrastructure that we have. Super important things for us are water, roads, access, and things a little bit out of our control power. What we have control related to that is opening up roadways and assisting in opening up roadways so the power company can get in and things like that. So out of this room, you'll see water department. You'll see public works. Everybody will be in here, fire. Us, EMS as well. Sheriff's office, they have a seat at the table as well. All of our utility folks are in here. So we're up and running, and we'll do that ahead of time. And we'll run through the event until the primary response and mitigation piece is done, meaning not every single road necessarily is open, and not every power is restored to everything, every home. But as long as the majority of the assets are up and running and things are stabilized to the point that we can start getting everybody back to normal, you guys back to your homes, hopefully with power, as well as the folks that have been in here for usually several days. They get home, they get the check, and then they get back to their offices, right, the most comfortable place, most efficient place for them to work. So that's kind of our cycle through our EOC. What guides us through all our disasters, hopefully a limited number on a small scale, is our comprehensive emergency management plan. We have one on the local level. It dovetails in at the countywide level, right, as they're complementary to each other, and it outlines everything and responsibilities by department, right? We pull that out, we ensure we train annually on the plan, we stand up, and we'll set up the EOC, and make sure everything from computer connections are working, power, antennas, all those things are up and running. So at the point in time, we have to stand up and occupy this room, everything's good to go. That'll happen later on this month for us, and we'll do that and ensure everybody knows their roles and responsibilities. Staff constantly changes, so we ensure that everybody is where they need to be. I won't hit too much on the resources and things like that, right? We've had a lot of information about it, but just know if you are having trouble finding a piece of information, please call us. Just call our main number, and we'll direct you in the right place. Just like we had somebody call and ask about, hey, where do I find the special needs registry? How do I do it? We were able to sit down, talk them through it. This person needed a lecture help, so we were on the phone as they were getting online and doing it, and we walked them through. That's what we're here to do is to support you through that whole process. A few things for us, as Clint talked about, is get prepared early. Do everything from take advantage of a public's BOGO on some food and shelf-stable stuff to flood zones to anything you can do to prep, right, and know those things. Understand that at the same time you're prepping, right, at those four days and sooner, we're doing the same thing as the city. We're boarding up facilities that still need to be boarded up that don't have hurricane-rated windows. We continue to clean drainage ditches. We continue to check on infrastructure that are there. We're ordering supplies. Example, everything from adding a few extra chainsaws, some more fuel, and things like that. And the fire department, law enforcement is re-racking a schedule, bringing in additional people, setting that up. And we have to have the employees' time to fix and get settled at home so they can come in. So while you're preparing, so are we. It doesn't mean we don't have time. We're here to ensure and guide you in whatever direction you need for any of those questions that you have. Again, we're hunkered down. We're doing everything we can do to respond in the most efficient and effective manner. And we're out as soon as we can after. Both folks prior to me talked about there's going to be a point in time where we may not be able to respond or have a delayed response out. Wind is a big thing for us. We have high-profile vehicles. It sounds silly, but an ambulance struggles a little bit sooner than a fire truck, even though a fire truck oftentimes is a little bit taller. But due to its weight, it can traverse a little bit better, where ambulances have to come off the roads a little bit sooner on wind. And patrol cars are even sooner than that. So at some point in time, there may be a delay or postponement, and we won't be able to respond. So, again, finding an appropriate place. If that's home, based on what's coming, that's fine, right? That's the easiest. The next easiest, and just one more time to reinforce, is the next easiest place is with a family member or friend, right? They know you. They understand you. They have the creature comforts of the things that are there. And then, of course, the shelter is the last resort. Understand that when you evacuate or you decide to relocate, all the way back from me, I'm a native of Florida and Volusia County. I was born and lived in New Smyrna Beach pretty much my whole life. I worked there until I retired and then came back to work here in Deltona and extremely happy. It's a great place to work, just stating the truth. But one of the things through the 04 hurricanes were real simple. We saw clogs on some of those first storms on 95, hours and hours and hours and hours of not moving. You may not, depending upon the circumstances, and like Clint said, every storm is different, you may not need to go out of state. You may just need to move inland, just a little bit north, just a little bit south, so you don't have to be hours. You don't have to be in Atlanta. You don't have to be in Tennessee. You don't have to be necessarily in other places, right? Typically, you want to find a place, if you have a family, friend, or relative, you want to get out of that, you know, preferably you want to be out of that category one, right, or lower situation. So if Volusia County is kind of in the main heart of it, you may be able to go just slightly farther east, an Ocala or something like that, and get out of that really significant risk area. You don't have to always be miles and miles or states away to do that, to get to a safe location. So pre-planning that ahead of time and those options, and just staying current. I'll close, because she knows I can talk all day. A lot of material has already been covered, but the biggest thing locally is that if you're struggling to get information or finding out accurate information, or you just need some guidance on, I don't know where to start, I don't know what to do, or, hey, is there a resource? Call us, stop by, and we will get you pointed in the right direction. If it's something we can handle, we will. If we can get you in contact with Clint or his staff, if it's kind of above our scale, or any of the other resources that are out there. But I can guarantee you there's more resources out there than most people are typically aware of. So, again, if you're struggling to find that, find the right answer, or you're not sure, call us, and we will either get you the answer, point you in the right direction, but we won't leave you hanging. We will always ensure that you get whatever information you need for the planning purposes that you guys have. So, I'll end it with, is there any questions? That's one of my shortest thoughts. I'm telling you, I'm giving you an award. Thank you. You know, one of the things that I have to say is, immediately after hurricane has passed and is safe, these guys are out on the road with our code compliance staff accessing the damages and making sure that all the roads are safe for our residents to travel in. And as he said, this room becomes the emergency shelter center for us. So, everything here looks different. Every department is here. The sheriff's department is here. I mean, everybody that works for the city is here. And I can tell you that probably nobody knows it, but once the county declares a state of emergency, our city manager no longer exists. The chief of the police, I'm sorry, chief of the fire department takes over the control of the city. They run the city. So, all the orders and recommendations and this comes from our chief, our fire chief. So, the next person that's going to be speaking, it's from AAA. I know that you brought her to speak, right? I left my notes. We're going to share. We're going to share, yeah. Okay. We're going to be short of being a work. I want to love you for that. So, this is the next, I guess, the most important phase in your life when it comes to hurricane, tornadoes, and stuff, which is your insurance. And hopefully, everybody does have a home insurance if you need to have one. And I have the past experience for a lot of insurance, right? I live on a hill, so I was told that if I flood, Del Tone is gone. So, I'm good with that. But if you guys want to come up and speak on behalf of your insurance, I know we have AAA. Here you go. Thank you. Hey, good evening, everybody. Mike Comento with Comento Insurance Group, and this is Jen with AAA Insurance. We're going to be kind of short and sweet because we have a fantastic group of people that have already spoken. I'm actually kind of impressed with the caliber of people that we have here in Deltona helping us. It's pretty cool. They've already touched on pretty much 90% of what I think we were going to say. A couple of things that they didn't talk about with your actual insurance policy. One, of course, know your coverage. Two, know the things that are not included in your coverage. How many people have solar panels? If you have solar panels, oh, I got my homeowner's insurance set up 10 years ago, and then I added solar panels. But I never added my $30,000 insurance panels to my insurance policy. Guess what will not be covered most likely? So, little things like that. I added a shed. I have an extensive amount of jewelry or firearms. Those kind of things typically need additional coverages with your homeowner's insurance. So, always kind of keep an eye on that. For your health insurance, which is kind of more my side of specialty, know what kind of network you have. Where can I go? If my local doctor gets flooded and I can't go there for a month, what are my backup options? Medications. Do I have enough to go through a couple of weeks? You know, if I have to leave town or whatever. Things like that. And then, I'm going to let you talk, because I think that's pretty much most of what I wanted to talk about. Thanks so much for having me, Mike. And of the city of Deltona, I just wanted to share a quick about myself. I'm Jen Canada, and I am with AAA. And we do have home insurance, flood insurance, auto insurance. We are writing new policies right now for homes in Florida. A lot of people were worried that we were not writing new home policies right now. But we do have home insurance, and we are writing new home insurance. Flood insurance is really important. It's our own product, but it is the National Flood Insurance Program. We did find out and confirm that any policies that get started between now and September, they are guaranteeing through FEMA that they will cover for the entire year. And so, I know a lot of people were worried about if FEMA was going to have the funds to be able to even back those policies. Yes, the reinsurance has been confirmed, and the National Flood Insurance is allowing us to continue to write brand new flood insurance policies. There is a 30-day wait on flood insurance, so now is the time to get with your agent. If you don't have one, I would love to do that for you. My name is Jen Canada, and I have been an insurance agent for 12 years here in Florida. I'm married to a fireman and paramedic. He's retired from the city of Orlando, and he did 25 years. So, I understand both sides is the after effect, things that happen, and also what things that you might need to protect. A lot of people just don't even know what kind of policy they have. If they bought whatever the realtor recommended, because that was the price that they needed to get their home loan, pull out that paperwork. Call your agent. Ask them to go through it with you, okay? We want to see you every year. We want to talk about what's changed in your house and in your life. Did you have a new baby? Did you buy a new car? Did you add the solar panels? Do you have a screened room off the back of the house? That's usually not automatically covered at the time of a hurricane. It needs to be included. You want to list that extra item on your policy. So, call me and let us talk about it. We want to walk through the policy line for line. Maybe you don't need all the stuff that was automatically included in there. Maybe you can save a little bit of money, and we can find that extra money that you need to buy that flood insurance. Right? So, I'm Jen Canada with Triple A. I'm out of your local Daytona office or Heathrow. I grew up here in Deltona. I actually graduated from Pine Ridge. Go Panthers. And I've been in this area for 30 years, so I do know the area, and I'm happy to help talk through your policies line by line. I am a teacher at our office. I actually teach classes for mature drivers. And so, I am really dedicated to helping you understand what you have, you know? I have some flyers here if you need them. It's Jen Canada. And my email, if you want to contact me, is jcanada at acg.aa.com. And you can contact me that way. You can reach out. You can send me a copy of your policy. You can just send me your name, your address, and your birth date. And I can reply to you with that flood quote. I can tell you how much it would cost to have that added flood insurance at your house and make sure that you're protected. Again, it's Jen Canada with AAA, and we do have new policies that we can help you with now. And it's not to sell something. It's just to make sure that you're protected. I can help you find the money for it in your policy, I bet. Pretty much it, guys. Like I said, everybody else has really covered it. Have all your documents. Put them all in one place. It's a good idea, regardless of what's going on. Oh, that was the other thing I was going to say. Before a storm comes, take photos. Don't take pictures of every single thing. You know where your couch is going to still be there. But if you have a workshop full of tools, I have a big workshop in my backyard full of tools. Every year, if a storm's coming, I go in there and take photos because I have to be able to show the insurance company, yes, I had that table saw, and I had this, that, and the other. Those are very expensive. So, yes, always take photos. You can also email them to yourself. Basically, everybody today has their phone. They have the cloud and everything. So, typically, everything's automatically backed up. Do you notice how a woman has to always be next to a man to help them out? You notice that, huh? I do. So, one of the things that I learned in one of the previous presentations was to always look at your insurance papers, and you're going to find that what your home is valued to be replaced on your papers is much less than what it's really going to cost you, God forbid, something happens to your home. That you're not really insured properly, and that you need maybe a little bit higher insurance to make sure that your home is covered completely. And I learned that from another person that I know from an insurance company. There's a standard replacement cost that you can add that will cover you if labor and lumber and materials actually are higher at the time of a loss, which, after a storm, cost of materials is higher. You know, it's hard to get that wood. It's hard to get that block. And so, you can add an endorsement to your current policy for that added extended replacement cost. Yeah, and everything is going up now these days, and hurricanes around the corner. So, you go home and look at your insurance papers and make sure that, you know, everything is covered. You wanted to ask a question? Yes. One other thing real quick I want to add on to that, because I'm sorry. I'm not as high-tech as some of our previous speakers where they had PowerPoints. I just had a little notepad. One thing a lot of people don't realize, your regular deductible for your homeowner's insurance and your hurricane deductible are two very different numbers. Typically, it goes from $1,000 to 3% of the overall cost, which can be, you know, $10,000 up sometimes. Yes, question? I know. You're a Sobel, right? Emma Rose. Emma Rose. Sobel's my sister. She's an Emma. Oh, I'm sorry, my question. Sorry. Number one salvage credit. Do you guys do HO6 policies for condos? Yes. Yes. And, this is a dumb question, but I've been asked it multiple times, so I want to ask. Flood insurance. If you live on the second floor of a condo, do you need flood insurance? Yeah, basically, you need flood insurance for anything you want to be covered for flooding. So what? Flood is not rising water? It is. No. Yes. So, your water damage, and correct me if I'm wrong, because she does more property and casualty, I do more health life. Yeah, call her. But, typically speaking, when you have water damage coverage in your policy, it's more for, like, a pipe bursting. Not a backup. That's even a separate endorsement. Well, it's, no, but water damage can be a pipe burst. Like, the roof is leaking, the plumbing's messed up, you pulled out the, you know, refrigerator to clean behind it, and you pushed it back, and the tubing broke, that can be water damage in the house. A flood is, from the outside, it has to cover at least two properties, so not just your property, but your neighbor also has to be flooding, or the street has to be flooding. So, it's two or more properties, and the water has to come up from outside. Two inches of water can cause a ton of damage. How, on the second floor, could you have damage? Your neighbor is going to get some erosion on a foundation because there's water, and then everything's going to shift a little bit and cause you to have problems, too. I know of an example, Beachside, during Ian, a storm door broke on a balcony on the 23rd floor and caused damage all the way down. So, the storm broke damage all the way down. It's not water damage, it's flood damage. The coverage that we have, so the confusion to me is, we don't have flood insurance. I'm on the second floor. There's something in there called wind-driven rain. So, there's, like, all different, so that's the stuff that needs. Lots of different scenarios where they can say no thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And my owners always, like, my owners say, do I need flood? I'm like, you're on the second floor. Like, it's not raising all the way up there, but that's the information I need to find out. Yep. Okay, so you can talk after the meeting and make an appointment, and then thank the city. We're happy to help. I just want people to understand what they have, so that they can feel confident going into it and not be like, oh, I wish that I had checked before. Any other questions? So, go home and check your policy. Make sure that you have the coverage necessary, especially now with the inflation going up and everything raised, you know. Thank you guys so much, and I apologize for the short, but you like that, right, Mike? It was short and quick. Absolutely. It's right. Okay, look at this. I have so many microphones. I don't know which one to use. So, again, thank you, everyone, from coming out, and I hope that you're walking away with something, some information that you didn't know about, and that's going to help you when you get back home. I want to give a big shout-out, and thank you to our PIO, Catherine, who actually put all this together for me, and her staff. I also want to give a shout-out to Parks and Rex, Ruben, who's stuck back there in the dark room. Let's see who else. And, again, thank you, everyone, for being here and choosing to be more educated on what's, you know, what the do's and the don'ts during hurricane tornadoes. And I just want to say something real quick about Clint when he said that the tornadoes usually like to take I-4. We know about that. The last tornado that was here was right next to McDonald's on Deltona Boulevard. So we were all hiding in our little shelter, which is, to us, is our laundry room, because that's the only place that we don't have windows and doors, and, you know, going to the outside. And the only thing to do is pass a live order in Russia. Thank you, everyone, for being here. Thank you to our fire department for taking the time. Yes, we're going to do the raffle now, but I just want to thank my staff, our staff, the city staff, for being here. You know, these guys have been working since early this morning. Kat, I mean, thank you so much. You know, she's been here since this morning as well, a poor thing. All week, we've been beating up on her for events. So, I mean, thank you so much for being here and putting all this together. This is all on you. Thank you so much. So if everybody get a raffle ticket, so these are one, actually, these are the weather radios that are recommended, highly recommended by our fire department, because all the information that comes from that weather radio comes from, what was the? National Weather Service and NOAA. Exactly. That's the ones that reports, sends the reports out through these weather radios. So we're going to be having, Clint, can you do us a favor of pulling a ticket? Do you trust me? Of course. And I'm going to tell you, I have one in my house. I don't even know it's there. But if something is coming, you know. You know. It lets you know. It's so noisy. It's unbelievable. So the ticket number, of course, is 38806. Am I getting close? One. Closer. Zero. Ah, there you go. They work with electricity and batteries. So as Clint says, always have an extra battery at home available. And you can fix it to only get reports from local sites or, you know, wherever else you want to get a report from. Okay. So the last four numbers, 06. Getting close? Five. We have two more. Okay. Next four numbers, 06. Oh, okay. That's nice of you. Thank you. Mine is like kind of breaking up. So maybe I'll pay a ticket for myself. 06. Ah, there you go. Oh, yes. Just one more. Not least. 06. Sorry. 8. 3. Oh, there you go. Again, thank you everyone for coming out. And those of you viewing from home, thank you for tuning in and watching this event. And, you know, if you want something more than what we're presenting to you, please let us know. And we'll make sure that for next year, we will have it available, information available for you, as well as the people watching from home. Let us know through emails, contact our PIO, let her know what else you would like to see. Thank you, Clint and Clarissa. Thank you so much for coming out. We are so happy to have partnered with the county coming to us and helping us with this event. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. One aspect of keeping our environment clean, and that's stormwater drains, maybe something that you don't think about all the time. Everything comes down this street and goes into these drains. Fertilizer runoff, lawn pesticides, even household chemicals as people wash their cars. All of that washes down here into the drains. We need to be more careful what goes into our stormwater drains. And then it goes into this beautiful lake out here. It's organic, but it still is a problem in our lakes, rivers, and streams that adds excess nutrients that causes algae blooms. That's why Volusia County has a stormwater drain marking event. You can go to volusia.org and learn ways to help keep these clean. But we have to work together. What matters is that we all do our part. Don't be a litter bug and pick up litter when you see it. Every litter bit counts. Keep Volusia beautiful. Like the sign says, stash a trash. Whether ashore or afloat. In Volusia County, we want you to keep it clean. Make sure it's tied down in the boat. If it flies out, go back and get it safely. Ways you can get involved is coastal cleanups. Volusia County does a great job. It has an outreach program where we do beach cleanups. We appreciate you doing that, keeping our waterways clean for our generation and future generations. You may be wondering why you should follow the fertilizer ordinance. Do you enjoy kayaking, paddleboarding, boating, fishing, or just the beautiful views? If so, do you want your waterways to look like this? Here's another thought. Do you value the local economy? Your property values? If so, we can't afford to have the waterways look like this. If you fertilize your yard, you may be contributing to these water quality problems. If you fertilize, the fertilizer can be washed off, not watered in. And then it doesn't benefit your yard. In fact, the fertilizer and your money go right down the storm drain. Once it goes down the storm drain, it flows directly into the waterways. What goes down the storm drain ends up in the waterways. And once fertilizer gets to the waterways, it does what fertilizer does. And that makes green things grow. In the water, that's algae. Once you get algae, the oxygen is depleted in the water. And then that leads to fish kills. The light is blocked. And that leads to seagrass loss and all kinds of other problems in the water. Also, the fertilizer can penetrate the soil and go down into the aquifer and into the water supply. The best thing to do is to follow the fertilizer ordinance. What that means is nitrogen-based fertilizers are banned during the rainy season, which is June 1st to September 30th. If you choose to fertilize in the spring, the ordinance also specifies to use zero phosphorus. If you look at the three numbers on the bag, the middle number should be zero. Our soils in Florida contain a lot of phosphorus, and there is no need to add any more. You also want to look for 50% slow-release nitrogen. Find the total amount of nitrogen on the bag and look and find out how much is slowly available. When you use slow-release nitrogen, it gradually releases over time, and you get extended benefits without contaminating the waterways. Also, remember to sweep off any fertilizer that may wind up on hard surfaces. If not, it could wind up in the waterways as well. Also, do not apply any fertilizer within 15 feet of any water body. Grass clippings should be blown back into the yard because they contain nitrogen. If they wind up in the street, they'll go into the waterways and cause algae. When you blow them back into your yard, that's free fertilizer for you. You also want to make sure you prevent those glass clippings from going directly into the water. And the best way to do that is to create a no-mow zone around the waterway. You can use native plants, and it will make your waterway beautiful. When you follow the fertilizer ordinance, you will protect your recreation, our local economy, your wallet, and our waterways. You will be doing your part to keep Volusia beautiful. This new system is designed to make it easier than ever for our residents to pay their water bills online. By harnessing the latest technology, we've streamlined this process to become more convenient and user-friendly. To make a guest payment, click Quick Pay. The Quick Pay option will bring you to a screen to find an account. At the top, you'll see account number and customer number. The account number and customer number will be found on your Deltano water bill. Once you find that information, you can select Find Bill. After you select Find Bill, it will bring you to the Make a Payment screen. Here, you'll see your account number, the bill's due date, the balance owed, and the payment amount. For the payment amount options, you can pay the total balance owed on the account, or you can change the amount that you would like to apply. Once you determine the amount you would like to apply, you can select Continue. When you select Continue, you'll be brought to the payment method. Here, you can enter in your email and add your card number that you would like to make the payment with. Once you're satisfied with the information or entered the correct information, hit Submit Payment or hit Cancel to void the transaction. To sign in or sign up for an account, on the main screen, click the Sign In or Sign Up button. Here, you'll be prompted to enter in your email address and password if you have an existing account, or if you need to create an account or register, you'll be prompted to enter in your email address and create a password. Once you enter that information in and you hit Accept, you'll be brought to the Add Account screen, where you'll be prompted to add your customer number and your account number, which can be found in your Deltona Water Bill. When you click the Add Account button, you'll be prompted to your Profile screen, which has some information for you to review and track your account. Immediately, you'll see Pay Now, Last Payment, Current Bill, Pay Bills, Enroll in Auto Pay, and Schedule Payment. To the left, you'll see Manage Accounts, where you can manage multiple accounts if you have so, or just the account that you're currently living at. If you click Account Details, you'll be brought to the Account Summary, where it shows who the owner of the property is, the service location, the mailing address, where you can view your bills in PDF form, metered services, and non-metered services. If you click the Transactions tab, you'll be brought to view your transaction history for the lifetime of the account. You also have the option to search for particular dates and transactions at the very top in the From and To sections by entering in a date and selecting Apply. If you click Consumption, you'll be prompted with a graph that shows your consumption history for the current and previous year. If you click Contact Preferences, you'll be able to sign up for e-billing by providing an accurate email address, continue receiving mail paper copies, set bill reminders, set auto pay reminders, all from this tab. Back at the home screen, if you click Pay Now or Pay Bills, you'll be brought to the Payment section to where you can pay the total account balance or enter in a certain payment amount that you would like to pay. If you click the Enroll in Auto Pay button, you'll be brought to the Enroll button where if you click it, it'll bring you to a tab where you can enter the credit card you would like to have entered in Auto Pay. Once you've entered the card information, hit Enroll Now and you're all set. And that was a look at your new payment portal from Delta on the Water. To help you get acquainted with this new system, we'll be hosting a workshop shortly after launch, so stay tuned for more details. We look forward to seeing you there and assisting you with any questions you might have. Thank you for choosing Delta on the Water, where innovation meets convenience. At 630, which is our start time, and I want to thank everybody for coming out. And I know that you're very interested in what we're going to be discussing here today, or at least our guest speakers are going to be discussing. And we're going to start, this has been going on for seven years here in the city of Deltona, and the first person that I want to introduce to you, I want to read a little bio on him. So, Brian is the meteorologist for Spectrum 13, and he's been working on this project with me since I was elected seven years ago, thanks to Lee Lopez, who's sitting in the back, who worked with me on this project as well and helped me put it together. So, Brian has been a meteorologist for more than 27 years, and first joined the News 13 team in 2015. Brian had dreamed of being a meteorologist since childhood and was always passionate about learning how storms form while addressing the importance of weather across a variety of climates. Brian has earned the National Weather Association's seal of approval, and the approval of Deltona, and the American Meteorological Society's CBM seal of approval. An Emmy nominee, he has also won several awards for his work, including being named the 2009 National Weather Association Broadcaster of the Year and Best Weathercaster by the Florida Association Press in 2016, 2017, 18, 20, and 21. Brian's career first took off in Mancota, Minnesota, where he reported on a record-breaking March tornado outbreak, staying on the air for more than two hours as tornadoes touched down. While working as a morning meteorologist in Des Moines, Iowa, Brian became a storm chaser and studied these storms in the field since 2011. Brian is certified to teach nationwide courses in tornado awareness, hurricane awareness, flooding hazards, science and preparedness, coastal hazards, and climate adoption planning by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. Brian has participated in the City of Deltona's hurricane awareness town hall meetings since they began seven years ago, sharing his expertise and knowledge on what to expect and how to prepare for hurricane season. We only bring you the best. So, without further ado, I would like to bring Brian up. And don't forget to show them your, you know what I'm talking about. Okay, so this is Brian. Thank you. I'll shorten that bio next year. And update it, too. I'll be celebrating 29 years in the TV business next month. So, 29 years. Ten years here, just back in April. Can't believe I've been ten years in Central Florida. And, yes, I've got my shoes, my radar shoes, but I also have my Tropical Storm socks that one of my meteorologists gave me for Christmas. Got to get it into, all right? Well, appreciate you guys being out here tonight. And I know that we're coming up fast on our new season, 2025 season. And we're hoping for nothing, right? Wouldn't that be nice? All right, so we're going to talk about being prepared, not scared. Don't be scared. Be prepared. That is our mantra at Spectrum News 13. And Central Florida storm season is about to get underway. We're your calm in the storm. Just a quick team shout-out. We are the nation's only team of dual-certified meteorologists. And that is a mouthful, meteorologists. That is an opportunity for us to show that we have the past education. We have our continuing education. We go out and do workshops. We go to conferences. We bring ourselves up to speed on the very latest in technology and research. And then we pass that education on to you. So tonight I'm having a great conversation with you guys on weather. And we'll answer any of your questions if I can. We did add a new meteorologist. And by the way, I'll just quickly run through Chris Gilson, our weekend night meteorologist. Mallory Nichols, who is standing right next to me. She's on right now. And she's the one who gave me the socks for Christmas. Maureen McCann is on my other side. She's our morning meteorologist. And then Zach Covey, far right, is our weekend morning meteorologist. In the back we have Amy Sweezy from WESH. We took her as soon as WESH, as she walked away from WESH, and she wanted to keep her feet wet in the business. And I said, come on, let's go. And she's been a great addition to our team as a contractor. And Rob Eicher in the back as well. But we just added another meteorologist. He starts on Monday. His name is Greg Bennett. He has lots of Florida ties. He grew up in Florida in Brevard County. And he's moving back to Brevard County. As a matter of fact, he just moved back Sunday. They're unpacking, getting ready for upcoming hurricane season. And he starts on air with us on May 27th. So you have to stay tuned for the morning show on May 27th. All right, with that out of the way, 24 days, that's it, until we officially kick off the Atlantic hurricane season. It runs June 1st through November 30th. The Pacific hurricane season actually begins May 15th. So it gets about a 15-day jump on the Atlantic season. It also runs through November 30th. And right now, models, they're all over, trying to figure out what's going on. And, of course, we get our early season spin-ups that are, we call them phantom storms. So if you hear a little chatter on the social media sites, there's nothing brewing for us. We don't have to worry about it, at least right now. Peak of hurricane season. It is September 10th. So as you see here in our graphic, we run all the way up to August and then see a very sharp incline in hurricane season to the peak on September 10th. And then the slow slide back out. You also notice that we can have storms in May and we can have storms in December. It's not out of the question. It's very rare, but not out of the question. Now, with that said, the peak of hurricane season, we typically see 53% of our tropical storms during the peak of hurricane season. I like to walk back and forth, by the way. It's just TV nature. I don't have a green screen, but 61% of the hurricanes in a given hurricane season occur in the peak of hurricane season. And that actually roughly runs August 20th through about October 10th. And 73% of major hurricanes feeding off very warm ocean waters, that's usually what occurs. 73% would occur in that peak as well. So what do hurricanes need to form? Well, they need at least 79-degree or warmer sea surface temperatures. We have that right now in the Gulf. We do not have it in parts of the Atlantic just yet, which is some good news. I'll get to that in just a second. We need to keep that storm away from the equator because the equator stops that spin. Low wind shear is ideal for hurricane development. So what is wind shear? Well, as you're going up toward the sky, let's say we're walking up toward space, we're getting wind that's coming from our back. We'll keep going, and it's coming from our side, and it's coming from our front. And it's changing speed as well as the direction. So wind shear is actually something that can chop off a hurricane, keep it from breathing, because that wind is actually changing direction and speed and acting like the shears that you would take for your bushes chop off the top, and that's not allowing the hurricane to breathe. If there's no wind shear, there's nothing helping to kick that thing at the top. It's going to breathe, all right? So we're looking for low wind shear to keep development at a minimal. And we need an unstable atmosphere. It's going to provide the fuel for thunderstorms to develop. We need a system nearby, some sort of an area of low pressure that's going to develop and start to strengthen. All right, so I didn't put May in here just because it's so rare, because the official start of season is June 1st. But here's where we would be watching June 1st through June 30th, typically out into the Gulf. We see the Northwest Caribbean and also along our East Coast. This is because we typically, at this time of year, we're still seeing some fronts occasionally drop south, cold fronts, and we get spins that may occur along those fronts. So as we take you to the peak of hurricane season, huge difference, right? Well, typically, during the peak of hurricane season, we have very, very warm water right down through the central Atlantic. This is called our main development region. And this is where we would have all the high-octane fuel. We'd have distance to feed and provide the moisture. And then, as we curl back up off our coasts, a lot of times, these things will drift across the Caribbean and into the Gulf. And a lot of times, they'll take themselves up over Bermuda. And that seems to be where they were all tracking last year. Most of them were heading toward poor Bermuda. Oddly enough, they have been through so many hurricanes, but they still have a great lifestyle and really not a lot of damage that has been done in the island of Bermuda itself over the years. All right, so that takes us to this season. Right now, the only forecast out by official forecasters from Colorado State University, they are calling for 17 named storms this year. On average, we see 14. They're calling for nine hurricanes. Our average is seven. And they're calling for four major hurricanes. The average in a season is typically about three. So, with that said, they're calling for slightly above average. Now, we will wait until NOAA, National Weather Service NOAA, come out with their forecast. And we'll see if the Hurricane Center decides to go about the same. And I have a feeling they're probably going to be pretty lined up. Then they give a range. They'll probably say between 13 and 18 storms. So, they'll give it a range, whereas Colorado State just nails down a number and you go for it. But I want to tell you, right off the bat, I don't pay attention to those numbers. I really don't, because it only takes one. That's all that matters. It doesn't matter. If they're calling for 17 storms and they all occur, they're not all going to hit us. Knock on wood. But I don't pay attention because it only takes one to really give us fits. So, early forecast is calling for a slightly above average season. But there is a lot of uncertainty because we actually have cooler, slightly cooler water in that main development region of the Atlantic Basin. So, we don't have the high-octane fuel there. Last year at this time, it was about three or four degrees warmer in that part of the Atlantic, out in the central Atlantic. So, we're running slightly cooler. That's what we like to hear, right? So, sea surface temperatures in the Gulf, unfortunately, they are already warm enough to sustain and support development. But, as I just mentioned, it only takes one. And this is what it looks like any forecast season. All over the place. All right. So, I love the memes. Jim Cantore, who's a great friend, I do know that wherever I see him go, I still get a little bit nervous. And he says, people asked when is a good time to worry. And that's when you worry. If he shows up in Deltona, Jim shows up in Deltona, you know we may have some issues. But we will always rebuild no matter what, right? I'm not sure. There's several of these memes that go out. It's pretty funny. All right. So, I want you to do me one favor. And I've shared these next two slides every year just because it really hits home a point. Just ignore the hype. I told you right off the bat, we don't hype. Don't be scared. Just be prepared. We don't hype up a storm. I don't want to hype a storm because I don't want to scare. Hype does nobody any good. But here's what our former governor said. And, again, it's not a political statement. All right. I'm not making any political statements. These are things that were actually said that just made me cringe. So, this is back, and I believe this is during Irma. Looks like I need to move that. Yeah. We had the collision occur over us, so it's pouring out right now. The sea breeze is right overhead. This is an unbelievably massive, destructive storm. Now, what do you think if somebody's scared to storms already? What are they thinking now? It's a killer. You will not survive all this storm surge. You're telling the residents of Florida this? And then goes on to say, Irma is bigger, faster, and stronger than Hurricane Andrew. My God. Hurricane Andrew destroyed South Florida. You know, Homestead really didn't exist after Andrew. This storm will be nothing like the state has ever seen. And I tell you what. We lived through Irma. It was nothing like he said it was going to be. We did have a lot of damage. I lost shingles. I lost some trees in my West Orange County home. But it was not bigger than Andrew. Then there's Shep Smith. I don't even know where he is anymore. But he's talking, Irma, and he says to a national audience, This moves 20 miles to the West, and you and everyone you know are dead. All of you. Because you can't survive it. It's not possible unless you're very, very lucky. And your kids die, too. Imagine a family of four and the parents sitting there with two young kids, watching and hearing this, scared to death because they're telling you you're going to die. Smith spoke with a Floridian woman who didn't want to leave her home. I'll ask her why she's staying and if she expects us to cover her funeral. Yeah. Tasteless, tacky, and this is what you don't want to listen to. Don't listen to people who freak you out. They're not doing you any good. They're doing a disservice in this business. That aside, let's move on to our names for this season. The first one on our list is Andrea. Move on to Barry and Chantal. All the way down to Lorenzo. Get over to Pablo, Tanya. And let's hope we don't get to Van or Wendy. And if we get to Wendy and we move on, here's our supplemental list. You know, they used to do Greek alphabet. They don't anymore because if you think about it, you have a Greek named storm and it's like Andrew where they've retired it because they retire storms at a certain amount of destruction and death. They don't want those names out there because that just is haunting and it brings back those memories. All right. So in a Greek alphabet, you've got one. You can't just change and put a different one in. You've got a list of Greek letters, but that's it. So if you retire one, then you're just eliminating from that list. And if you get all the way down to that, so they've decided to move with a supplemental list. Adria would be the first one all the way down to Will. Again, if we ever get down to this, and I don't want to live in Florida. I don't want to live in Florida if we get to Will on the second list. All right. At that point, I will be in Canada. I don't know. Somewhere where I'm not having to deal with two different name lists in one season. That would be insanity. Let's hope it never happens. So a quick dive into what we do behind the scenes. Seven to ten days out, we're actually looking at the pattern. We're trying to figure out, is this pattern favorable for any kind of development? Warm sea surface temperatures, low shear. What's the pattern with the areas of low pressure or high? Our ridges are high pressure. We watch the trends over four to seven days out, and we continue to follow those trends and just watch the model runs because some of the model runs will spit something out in one time frame, and then two runs later, it disappears or it shifts, and that's going to happen. Within two to four days, we've got timing and impacts. We're getting pretty confident at this point, especially with the technology that we have today, satellites helping us pinpoint exactly where the storm is, the eye, et cetera. So we're getting better with the timing and impacts, about two to four days out. One to two days out, we've got that forecast nailed. We're going county by county. We're telling you here in Volusia County what you can expect with wind, what you can expect with rain, and what you can expect with potential tornadoes as well. All right. So with that, we may see a tropical storm watch issued. This is when winds are sustained at 39 to 73 miles per hour within the next 48 hours. Get a tropical storm warning. That's when winds of 39 to 73 are expected within the next 36 hours. So we're giving you time, and I'm not issuing these, by the way. These watches, the actual tropical watches coming out from the National Hurricane Center, are giving you, hopefully, enough time to prepare your family and your friends and neighbors, your homes, et cetera. And you're already doing that now as we head toward the season. If a watch for a hurricane is issued, it means winds over 74 are possible within the next 48 hours. But once we're in that hurricane warning, that means we are expecting winds over 74 miles per hour within the next 36 hours. Very quick rundown. I'm not going to go through each and every line of the categories. But I wanted to give you a really good idea of what we could see in these categories. All right. So a category one hurricane, winds of 74 to 95 miles per hour, minor damage, power outages. We can handle that, right? We handle it every year, it seems like. We get these category ones or twos or threes that come close by, provide us rain and tornadoes and winds. Category two, we're building up to 96 to 110 miles per hour. This is when we start taking down even more trees. We have a lot of trees in this county, a lot of pine trees that are tall and those old oaks. This is when we could actually start seeing power outages that last days to unfortunately even weeks. Category three, 111 to 129 miles per hour, damage to roofing and windows likely. So maybe you're boarding up your windows, you're putting your shutters out. But you're not running tape down the middle in a big X. That will not do you any good. It's not going to stop glass from breaking or blowing in. All right. So don't be putting a big old taped X on your windows. So we're now moving into category four. And before I get to four, category three and above, category three, four, and five, those are considered major hurricanes. Major hurricanes with those severe winds have the highest impact. So four with 130 to 156 mile per hour winds. This is when we suffer major damage to our homes. And trees and power poles are snapped. Some homes are actually completely destroyed. Power outages last for weeks. And then we get into a category five. This is what Andrew was. This is what they bumped Michael up to. Michael hit Mexico Beach up in the pan. And it came ashore as a four, but after they did more research, they found that there was damage to sustain a category five hurricane just at landfall. And it was a rapidly intensifying hurricane at that. This is extensive damage. This is devastating damage with power outages that last for weeks. These are the hurricanes that also produce us the flooding rains. And as we know too well, the St. John's River was flooding from rains out of Ian back a couple years ago. And we had flooding on that St. John's River for two months. It was beyond Thanksgiving. It was like we were still talking the holidays and that river was still up. So what can you do now to prepare? And I know that we've got some other guests that are probably going to go through some of these. But I'll just go through quickly just to give you a few ideas. Shop today. Create a hurricane kit. Avoid those lines. Don't wait until the last minute. You wait in these huge lines. You've got people who are getting angry. They're getting frustrated. They're getting scared. Get your supplies now. Not to mention, plywood goes fast. And you may run out. Bottle water. We saw that during Irma. Bottle water off the shelves so very quickly. Know your evacuation route. And you guys don't have to worry about that. But do keep in mind if you're near a body of water or if you are at the coast here in Belusha County, you need to figure out where to evacuate. Perform an insurance checkup. You realize that your insurance doesn't include flood insurance. Policies don't here in the state. You have to make sure that you have flood insurance. I highly recommend it. You don't have to have it. I would highly recommend it. So take advantage of the sales tax holidays. I believe we have two. I don't know offhand the dates. But usually in June and then another one mid-season. There are two separate periods where you can get discounts, tax holidays. Buy and donate supplies to those who are less fortunate. We have a lot of folks who can't afford to go out and get supplies. And just kind of figure out what you need to last several days maybe without power. During a hurricane, obviously you don't want to go outside. Stay indoors, away from windows and glass. Put as many walls between you and the outside as you can. Have your safe place. Have your hurricane kit there. Have yourself a way to get alerts. Watch for rising water. I just mentioned that. And obviously have a way to watch your local news. I would love it if you watch Spectrum News. We take you through these storms from beginning to end. But whoever you trust, all right? Whoever you trust. Keep your curtains and blinds closed. I know that's kind of a drag because it's like, ah, it's so dark. But that will help if debris decides to blow in to keep that debris from coming into your house. After a storm, make sure your family and friends are safe. Check on your neighbors, those who are susceptible and cannot actually maybe get out of the house. Maybe they've sustained damage. Help them out. Just make sure they're okay. Check your property, but be mindful of debris, power lines and trees, standing water, critters in that water. We get floodwaters and we have those big old nasty snakes and those gators that can come out. And keep generators outside and away from your house, all right? You don't want that generator running inside because carbon monoxide is a killer. And we unfortunately lose lives every single year due to carbon monoxide poisoning. You use battery-powered flashlights. I wouldn't use candles. You fall asleep, kick it, accidentally knock it over. That's not going to be a good situation. All right. So hopefully I didn't go too fast as I'm kind of winding down here. Concluding thoughts. Everyone should be aware of our growing Florida population. We were just discussing. You guys are probably over 100,000 population in Deltona alone now. I think when I first started this with Lee, a little over 80,000. So, I mean, this population is exploding. You're seeing it. We discussed the traffic. And so just be mindful of those who have moved into the county who don't know about hurricane season or maybe they've never been through one. They're going to need some extra hand-holding, a little help. Check in with them. See what they need. Give them some ideas. I just gave you a bunch. Go through a kit and just maybe show them your kit and how to put them together and prepare for the upcoming season. And we all should be prepared for tropical and severe weather any time of year. This line that's developing will more than likely kick out a severe storm or two, probably on my drive down I-4. But we need to be prepared for this every year. And so if we do so and we prepare ahead of time, we're going to be ready for what comes. We're not going to be thinking, oh, my God, I forgot this. Oh, my God, I forgot that. So once you get into that state of mind that, hey, I'm prepared, then you won't be scared. That's why we say don't be scared. Just be prepared. And don't get wrapped up in the hype of local media and social media. I tell you, my friend keeps telling me I need to call out some of the local meteorologists who are hype mongers. I'm afraid to call them out because they are also friends. And I hint behind the scenes. But I'm like, go ahead and do what you're going to do because we do what we do. And people say, I tuned in because you were calm and you weren't freaking us out. So one of these days, as I'm getting a little older, I might start calling them out. But you know who they are. Some of you know who those local hype mongers are. So this, by the way, is a snapshot of, okay, I had an image off the very top of the slideshow. And I should have told you it was Hurricane Milton down near the Gulf, in the Gulf, near the Yucatan Peninsula. The fastest-growing hurricane record went from a tropical storm to a Cat 5. And then that's what came up. Milton came up and provided us some nasty weather, including a record-breaking tornado outbreak in South Florida. This is actually Helene. This is an image of Helene. And I tell you, each of these storms that comes in just off our west coast makes us all go, oh, God. Because we're on that, what they call the dirty side of the hurricane. This is where we get the tornadoes. This is where we get bands of extremely heavy rain. That was Helene providing us a glancing blow before it took on the Big Bend and, unfortunately, took on Georgia, South Carolina, and really, really hammered the mountains of North Carolina. They are still suffering. And now, because of drought growing, they have fires burning all over in those mountains. So now people are trying to get ready for the next hurricane season. And there's fires to concern themselves with. So don't be scared. Just be prepared. We're all going to be good. Yeah. This is a good way to end it, huh? I'd like to cancel my subscription, and I'm sure you would as well, for the Hurricane of the Month Club. I do want to take a selfie really quick. And on top of that, if you guys want to join, I'll give a quick picture of everybody. I have to, unfortunately, I have to take off. I have an early morning meeting that I have to jump on tomorrow. And it's from here to my house on the south side of Orlando is about an hour or so, especially with this. So I will answer questions as soon as I take a quick selfie of all of us. No, I think I can get everybody in. I've got everybody, except you guys. Here, we'll do the – I don't know if I can see you guys back there or not. We're going to get this side. You ready? Three, two, one. I wonder if it would be better, because you two are over there if I come to this side. Sorry, I'm particular with my selfies. There we go. Now we've got everybody. All right. Everybody ready? Got to look good. Yeah, say Hurricane. Hurricane! No. No Hurricanes. No Hurricanes. All right, quick questions. It doesn't have to be Hurricane-related. We'll be there as it's live, so it's being televised. So if you have a question, I want you to do it on – speak on the microphone so everybody can hear your question and hear your answer. Anybody have any questions? Okay. None. Thank you. So before you leave, though, Brian, we'd like to give you something. The city has prepared a proclamation for you. Oh, wow. And it says, Brian Carrick, Chief Meteorologist, Spectrum News 13, thank you, for being the guest speaker at the City of Deltona's Hurricane Awareness Town Halls for the past seven years. Your expertise and knowledge on what to expect and how to prepare for hurricane season provides valuable education for our residents to stay safe during and after a hurricane tornado event. Don't be scared. Be prepared. Oh, wow. Thank you so much. Wow. Thank you. But something else. This is from me personally, but I need you to open it. Yeah, right? I didn't think about that one. By the way, at some point, Catherine, I'll send up our hurricane guides. They aren't printed yet. So once they're printed, we'll have some hurricane guides here at City Hall. Thank you. Awesome. Wow. Thank you. So City of Deltona, thank you, Meteorologist Brian Carrick. Awesome. Oh, and be prepared, not scared. Don't forget that mantra. Be prepared, not scared, because it really does help you go into the hurricane season and you're not nervous because you're all ready to go. And I want to thank my friend Rachel for putting that together for me at the last minute. Thank you. So, no questions? I know, right? Trey, Jay. There we go. Thank you so much. It's good to see you again. Good to see you, sir. Next year for sure. Absolutely. I like my friend. Okay. So, our next presenter will be Clint Mecham from the Volusia County Emergency Management, who will discuss what the county does to prepare for hurricane season. And to us here in Deltona is an honor to have Clint here, because it's not very rarely that we can drag the county representatives here into the city of Deltona. So, thank you so much for being out here. And I know he has somebody with him who also would like to share some information on emergency shelters. Thank you very much. Well, folks, thanks for allowing me to come and spend part of my evening with you. As I was introduced, my name is Clint Mecham. I am your Volusia County Emergency Management Director. I am a transplant. I have been here about two years now. I retired from the fire service in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. So, everybody's like, Utah, what do you know about hurricanes? Well, fortunately, we didn't have a lot of hurricanes in Utah. But we did have avalanches and earthquakes and that kind of stuff. So, at least hurricanes, I can see them coming. So, I very much appreciate that aspect of being here in Florida. But I very much enjoyed getting to know my new friends and family here in Volusia County. I do try and get to the west side of the county as often as I can, because there's this little thing called the St. John's River that runs down the west side of the county that we need to pay attention to, even especially during hurricane season with the closed basin. A little bit about myself above and beyond, just coming from Utah, I did spend 28 years in the fire service. I retired as a division chief with Unified Fire Authority in the Salt Lake Valley. The last 10 years of that career, I was Salt Lake County's Emergency Management Director. It was part of the fire department. Since 2000, I've also been with FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Program. And I've had the opportunity to deploy to a few large incidents, Ground Zero, Katrina, Rita, Ernesto, Dean, Barry, Harvey. And I spent all of October of 2022 in Lee County for EM. So while I don't have a lot of experience on the front side of hurricanes, I have a whole bunch of experience on the back side in responding to hurricanes. So I'm going to spend a lot of time regurgitating what Brian already told you. So that's a good thing. I appreciate him doing that for me, because that means you don't have to listen to me as long. But I do want to take a minute and talk about what emergency management is. So in Florida especially, everybody thinks emergency management are those hurricane people. That's not necessarily true. We are what we call all hazards. There's actually 17 different categories of disaster that we have to play the what-if game and think about. Whether they be weather-related, whether it be terroristic-type stuff, whether it be hazardous materials and transportation incidents, and the list goes on and on. Cyber is the latest and greatest one that we're having to contend with right now. Yes, wonderful, right? But we provide, in a nutshell, we provide our first responder communities, okay? And those would be your fire, your law enforcement, your public works, your public utilities people, with the logistical and coordination support to make sure that we are all working together in lockstep to respond to and recover from any significantly impactful events here in the county. So that's what we do. I have a staff of 10 in Volusia County Emergency Management, and we serve all, at latest count, 600,000 folks in Volusia County. We also take into account the visitors that we get to Volusia County. Anybody want to take a wild stab at how many visitors we had to Volusia County last year? 10.2 million. Florida as a state had 132 million visitors last year to the state. We got 10 million of those. So we're a very popular destination space, and you folks living here close to I-4, you get the brunt of that, right? The fact that you're close to Orlando, you get the brunt of that, too. So you kind of get a double whammy on that. But we spend a lot of time thinking about what if and creating plans on how we coordinate the resources to work together at the local, the county, the state, and the federal level to essentially return you folks back to as close to normal as what was before the event as fast as we can after the event, okay? We do a lot of logistical support for our first responders. We make sure that they've got, in a military parlance, the beans, bodies, and bullets that they need to respond to whatever tactical situations that they may face. We don't tell them how to do their jobs. We make sure that they have what they need to do the job the way they determine they need to do it. So that's what we do. We spend a lot of time talking with our cities and a lot of time talking with the state on how we coordinate those resources and how we get additional resources into the county in the event that we need them, okay? So that's emergency management in a nutshell. Just more verbiage. And these slides are very word-dense, and I apologize for that. But we have five mission pillars, okay? We have prevention, preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery. So those are our five mission areas, okay? Response is the one that everybody always talks about and the ones that everybody sees, right? That's 2% of our time, okay? It's the fun part. It's not necessarily where we spend most of our time. We spend most of our time in preparation and mitigation and, unfortunately, on the recovery side of things. While an incident, a storm, for example, a hurricane, may affect us for a day or two, recovery can go on for literally months and, in some cases, years. We still have one mitigation project on the books from IRMA that we are contending with. So it can take a long time to get back to that normal state after we experience a significant impact. But, as I said, here's some of the things we think about. Well, wildfires, that's been kind of a topic the last couple of weeks. But thanks to Brian's rain dance, hopefully we're getting towards the end of that season. Yeah, exactly. And I'll give him the credit all day long. So anyway, sinkholes. Anybody ever had to deal with a sinkhole? We have to worry about those, too, right? Exotic diseases and not just COVID. I know my counterparts over in Texas right now are dealing with measles outbreaks, right? So there's a lot of those kinds of things. My deputy director has told me that if we ever have to do something like COVID again, she's quitting. So I'm just giving Aubrey a bad time. But we deal with that. And as I said, 10 million visitors to Volusia County. We spend a lot of time doing special event stuff. I mean, we've already seen the 500 this year. We've seen Bike Week this year. We just got done with Jeep Beach. Anybody know what the next one rolling up here in a week is? Rockville. Rockville's next week. Coke Zero Sugar 400's coming up shortly. So that's on the books. And then Biketoberfest, and so it goes, and so it goes. On top of our just normal tourist season from having world-famous beaches on the east side of the county, right? And as I understand it, we're getting more and more tourists into the west side of the county because of the mountain biking trails. So, again, you folks are going to start seeing more and more of that kind of stuff, too. So those are some of the things we have to deal with. But getting back to a little bit more specifically about the topic tonight, we operate out of the Emergency Operations Center. It's on Tiger Bay Road just off of International Speedway Boulevard. It was built in 2011. It is designed to withstand 180-mile-an-hour sustained winds, and we can bunker in there, and we do bunker in there before a storm, and we stay there throughout the storm until we get the all clear. It's also co-located with the Sheriff's Dispatch Center, and the Sheriff's Dispatch Center handles all the 911 calls in the entire county for law enforcement, fire, and EMS. So we're co-located in that facility. The facility is open. If you ever want to come take a tour, come knock on the door. We'll show you around. Okay? Nothing we do is top secret. So to kind of recap 2024, getting back to hurricanes, 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes, five majors. Two impacts to Florida for majors, Helene and Milton. Okay? At landfall, Helene was a four. At least that's what the National Weather Service is telling me. And Milton was a three. Can anybody tell me the most, the strongest storm that Volusia County, level of storm that Volusia County has ever been directly impacted by? Category one. Category one. When all the storms have gotten to Volusia County, they have not been stronger than a cat one. So while they start big, by the time they get here, they're not necessarily as strong. Right? Anybody remember, I mean, everybody remembers Milton last year. Right? Ian, a few years before that. Charlie. Those were significantly impactful to Volusia County. Right? So when Brian says, be prepared, that is key. Because they're not anything to be scared of, but we do need to be in a position to help ourselves and help our neighbors so we can get back to that near normal state as rapidly as possible together. And it will take all of us together. And as we've seen from a lot of the storms that have affected Volusia County, it's not just, most people think, oh, it's a hurricane. The beach is going to get washed away. Well, maybe. Do you know where the highest level of rainfall was for Milton in Volusia County? The land in Deltona. Okay? You guys took the brunt of the rainfall for those storms, at least according to the official accounts. In some cases, we had reports of 18 and a half inches of rain up in Deland. Okay? That's a lot. That's a 500-year storm event. Okay? A 100-year storm event's around 11-ish, I believe, if I remember my numbers correctly. So that's a recap of the 2024 season. Some of the things, and again, I'm not telling you anything you folks don't already know. Extreme wind. Tornadoes. Anybody know how many tornadoes Milton spawned? Latest official count I got was 46. Okay? St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties took the brunt of those. And we appreciate them falling on that sword for us. We really do. But, again, I've been here a short period of time, but my staff, who has been here much longer, tells me that traditionally, if we do see tornadoes coming from severe weather storms, whether they be hurricanes or thunder cells, they have a tendency to follow the I-4 corridor. So, again, I'm not trying to create a panic with anybody, but you folks are right here along it. So, again, being prepared, being ready is absolutely critical for all of you, right? Storm surge. A storm surge, we saw it during Ian. We saw it during Nicole. Worse than Ian. That's always a problem, coastal erosion. Everybody tells me that the beaches are still not recovered from maybe what they were pre-Ian, pre-Nicole. Hey, I'm just happy to have a beach to go to. Utah didn't have a lot of beaches. Great Salt Lake doesn't count. Okay? Just saying. Okay. Utility outages, and Brian talked about those as well. Damaged infrastructure. That's one that we spend a lot of time recovering from. Water mains, sewer systems, electrical systems, gas systems, gas stations, grocery stores. A lot of that kind of stuff can take a long time to recover. Now, Florida does a really good job at a statutory level requiring various types of facilities to be more prepared. They have stipulations on gas stations that are close to freeways, having generator backup power, those sorts of things. But, again, it can take a long time to recover. And, again, Brian went through this much better than I can, so I'm just going to breeze through this fairly quick. Tropical depression, up to 38 miles an hour. Tropical storm, 39 to 73. Hurricane, 74, 73 or above. Right? Okay? I will spend a little time on this. And, again, Brian went through the categories. And, again, there they all are. But what I want to emphasize is damage levels. Okay? So the damage incurred by these types of storms is not a linear scale. It is an exponential scale. Okay? So if we use a Category 1 hurricane as a Level 1 damage, by the time we get up to a Category 5, it's 500 times the amount of damage to be expected than a Category 1. So, again, when we start talking escalations between categories, the potential impacts are significant. And, again, I don't say that to scare anybody. But please understand the threat that we are facing when we go even from a Category 1 to a Category 2. It's 10 times the amount of damage in that one step. Okay? Major hurricanes only account for 21 percent, or major hurricanes, only about 21 percent, make U.S. landfall. When it comes to FEMA payout and FEMA claims and the damages that are reported, they account for 83 percent of the damages reported in the U.S. due to natural disasters. So, again, they are significant. Sorry, Wesh is up there, Brian, not you guys. So this is what we've been able to accrue. And, again, Brian went through this. Colorado State University has a very good hurricane research center. Why they study hurricanes in Colorado, I'm not exactly sure. But they do. And, again, there are the numbers that we got from them earlier in the season. They've updated that number a little bit, and that was reflected in Brian's slide. The National Weather Service, as Brian indicated, they will be coming out with their predictions May 22nd is the date that they've given us that they will come out with their predictions. So, again, you can see kind of where everybody's guessing, and it's a touch above normal. It's not as big as last year's predictions. But as Brian said, it only takes one, right? Names, you've seen the names. See, I told you, he stole a lot of my thunder here, which is a good thing. One of the things I wanted to talk about, though, too, and, again, most of us here in Volusia County have experienced it, right? The rainfall event, right? And Milton and Ian were not significant wind events for Volusia County. It was all about the water, right? And I believe, if I remember correctly, Spruce Creek for Ian got almost 22 inches of rain in less than 18 hours, okay? There's not a storm system in the U.S. that can handle that kind of rainfall, right? So that's why we saw the impacts. Milton was much the same. We got a lot of water in a very short period of time. So even though it may not seem like we are going to get significantly impacted by wind, a storm may be downgraded from a hurricane back down to a tropical storm, for example, that does not necessarily mean that we will not be impacted by the water, right? Hurricane, those categories are all based on wind speed, not necessarily water. So we want to throw that out there. The other thing, and, again, Brian said the dirty side of the storm, the upper right quadrant, right? When it comes to rainfall, it can be anyplace. So you can see here with Fay, it went right along the track. That was where the heaviest rainfall was, right? For Irma, the rainfall was heaviest to the right of the track, which kind of follows with the dirty side of the storm, right? Ian was to the left of the track, okay? So that's on the, quote-unquote, clean side of the storm. So just because we're not in that situation where we're calling it a hurricane does not mean that we're not going to see significant impacts out of that, okay? All right, and, again, I'm going to just reinforce what Brian said. So this goes back to 1851 through 2020. Yet I haven't gotten an updated map on my PowerPoint since then. But this is August hurricanes, okay, going all the way back to when they started recording. That is what it looks like over the Florida Peninsula, right? Here's September. There's October. October looks like somebody barfed up a plate of spaghetti on a map of Florida, right? So October, the end of September and October are traditionally our busiest months here in Florida. And this reflects that. So, again, hurricane warning, hurricane watch, right? Hurricane watch comes first. The terminology I want to reemphasize to you folks again because that goes along with the educational piece, right? And knowledge is power when it comes to being prepared. So hurricane force winds are possible within 48 hours. Tropical storm watch is the same. Tropical form force winds are possible within 48 hours. When it switches to a warning, now they're expected within 36 hours. So please understand the difference when you hear the terms, okay? When we go from a watch to a watch, we're like, okay, we need to pay attention. Like today, I was getting watches from about noon on about the possibility of severe thunderstorms this afternoon. It went to a warning just as our little session here kicked off. That's when I kind of perked up a little bit and started paying attention a little bit more, okay? But please understand the terminology. So let's talk a little bit more about how to prepare. And, again, Brian gave you a good overview. I just want to hit some additional key points. Stay informed. That is absolutely key. But I will reemphasize what Brian said. Make sure you are getting your information from credible sources. For us in the first responder world and in emergency management, we can only act on official information from NOAA and the National Weather Service, okay? So believe me, we tune into Brian and we tune into Tony and we tune into everybody else. But we can only act on the information that is provided to us by NOAA and the National Weather Service, okay? I've got a lot of staff members that watch so-and-so's weather page and somebody else's weather guests and so on and so forth, right? It's always good to see what people are saying, but we can only act on that official information. But stay informed, okay? Along with the stay informed, aside from watching the weather, there's other things you can do. Your city and the county have social media pages where we put out information above and beyond maybe what the National Weather Service is talking about. We will start talking about where you can pick up sandbags, for example, okay? We will talk about where our shelters are going to open and if they're going to open and all that good kind of stuff. We push those out through social media. So subscribe to those social media sites. Volusia County Emergency Management has an app. It's available on the Apple Store and the Android Store. And, again, the National Weather Service alerts and other alerts like Amber Alerts come through that, as well as additional information when we activate on additional things that we are doing. Again, sandbag events, shelter events, whatever it might be. I know the jerk that actually gets to call evacuations. Yeah, that's me. In this county. And so we will push that information out through that app, through our traditional media, and through social media as well. If we close bridges, yeah, again, I know the jerk that closes the bridges. That's me. We will also put that out that way as well. So stay informed. It gives you, put your finger on the pulse of not only what was going on, but we do our absolute level best in conjunction with your city officials on providing you with information not only about what's going on, but what you can be doing, right? An evacuation order. We issued an evacuation order for Milton. Everybody aware of that? We issued an evacuation warning for flood zone A. Anybody know what flood zone they're in here in Deltona? It varies. There is, you can go, if you Google Know Your Zone, you can actually go to a website that is done by the state of Florida. You can put in your address, and it will tell you what your flood zone is. And we normally evacuate by flood zone. When we pulled the trigger on flood zone evacuation A, there's about 111,000 residents in Volusia County that were impacted by that order. So, again, stay informed. Knowledge is power. Brian talked about the other thing that we'll try and push out is when those sales tax breaks, holidays, come down the pike for preparation. They haven't announced them yet because they haven't approved the budget yet, is my understanding. Traditionally, there's one the first part of June, and then there's another one in the August-September timeframe. We're assuming that will happen again this year, but we don't have official dates yet. We will push that information out as well. So, again, to reduce the impact as much as possible on you folks to be prepared. Prepare a kit. Deltona Fire over here, your folks have done a fantastic job of showing off a very, very good kit for a household. There's a bajillion variations on that kit. You can buy them commercially. You can create your own. It all is dependent on how you want to do it. But I recommend you have a kit, and we'll talk about some of the things to have in a kit here in just a minute. Know your evacuation zone. We talked about that. Make a plan. Does everybody know what their evacuation route is out of their neighborhood? We have official ones that we don't publish until we need them because every storm or every incident that we have has a personality to it, if you will, and it can change. So, we don't want people getting in the habit of going down this evacuation path if all of a sudden that evacuation path is underwater, for example. Right? But know some alternative routes to get out of your neighborhood or get out of your city. Did everybody see what happened to I-95 and I-4 pre-Nolton? We saw all the traffic coming from Tampa and other places. We were driving on the shoulders, legally. I've seen a lot of illegal driving on the shoulders, but that's a whole other story. So, and again, while we weren't necessarily in that evacuation order, we were impacted by all of that traffic. And not only were we impacted by the traffic leaving, then everybody had to come back. Right? So, we got it both directions. So, know some alternatives when it comes to evacuation. If you have kids, grandkids that you're responsible for and they go to school, how are you going to get reattached with those people if you need to evacuate? So, have a family communication plan. Right? Sometimes included in that can be a family meeting point. If you can't get a hold of each other on these little nifty gizmos, and guess what the first thing to fail when something bad happens is? It's these nifty little gizmos. Though the cell phone companies do a very good job trying to keep them up and operating. But do you have alternative modes to contact friends and family? Do you have an out-of-state point of contact? Sometimes it's easier to call across the country than it is to call across town. So, have an out-of-state point of contact where somebody can, if you can't get a hold of your friends and family here, you can at least let somebody out-of-state know. Now you've got a common contact point where you can connect and say, yeah, I've heard from so-and-so and everybody's okay. Right? But that family communication plan. A lot of times, and again, coming from the Salt Lake Valley was a little different. We had a lot of no-notice events, meaning that we didn't get any warning that they were coming. Meeting locations. If I can't get a hold of you on my cell phone, go to this location and we will meet there. So, there's those kinds of things that you can put tools in your toolbox, so to speak, to help you be more resilient and more resistant to the impacts that we may suffer. The other thing, look out for each other in your community. We all have friends, family, neighbors that maybe are limited in their mobility or their ability to take care of themselves. Make sure that we're looking out for those folks as well. To that end, there is a special needs registry, and Carissa will probably touch on that a little bit. You can register those folks in pre-storm, and that gives us in emergency management, the health department, our first responders, a database to go off of of people that might need a little extra help and a little extra warning to help get them out of harm's way. Okay? Evacuations. Evacuations. There's some terminology that's kind of out there that is a little bit erroneous. Some people will talk about mandatory evacuations versus voluntary evacuations. I'm here to tell you an evacuation order is an evacuation order. Okay? I will probably, you will probably not see me come out and say this is a mandatory evacuation or a voluntary evacuation. This is just an evacuation order. That means we are telling you conditions are going to be bad enough. We don't want you in that impact zone anymore. Okay? And part of that is because the situation may cause an environment that is immediately dangerous to life and health. There's a phrase that we like to use a lot. Or it may be that we can't get help to you if you pick up the phone and call 911 because you haven't left, you've gotten in trouble, we pick up the phone and call 911. Our first responders will literally kill themselves trying to get to you, but there are some situations potentially where they physically cannot get to you. And the last thing we want is for you folks to be in a situation where you pick up the phone, you call 911, and the answer is we'll get to you as soon as we can. Okay? So that's one of the things. Long-term interruption of public utilities, fresh water, sewer, electricity, gas. My experiences with hurricanes, one of the biggest problems that we see a lot of the times in debris cleanup and repopulating areas that are evacuated are what we call white waste. First, unfortunately, when do most of our hurricanes occur? September, October, right? What's the temperature like in central Florida in September and October? Okay? Now imagine your refrigerator going without power for a week in that kind of heat and what it looks like, smells like, and feels like after in central Florida. Okay? All of that stuff comes into account, right? We've got to get you, we want you out of that dangerous situation. Okay? Down power lines, that's a big issue, right? We'll see them all over the county. We don't know if they're energized or not. Again, our utility companies do a very, very good job in trying to make sure that we're safe and everybody is safe when they move around. But we can't always tell if a line's de-energized or not. If that line happens to be down on a chain-link fence and that chain-link fence runs for two blocks, that whole fence is energized. Right? So there's just environmental impacts and things that we cannot control and you cannot see that makes it dangerous for you to be in that impact zone. So that's why we issue those evacuation orders. The last thing I want to do is ask you folks to leave your homes and leave your possessions, right? Not my favorite thing to do. Trust me. Okay? I work for the government. I'm here to help, honestly. But I'll go back to the old cliche saying, stuff can be replaced, people cannot. And that's where my priority is, is making sure that you are all here after the storm to be mad at me for asking you to leave. Okay? And I'm okay with that. So those are just some of the things that we talk about. Why do we evacuate? Okay? The other thing, if we do evacuate, folks, I will ask in your patience in getting back into your homes. Okay? A lot of the times with hurricanes, and we've all seen it, right? Within a day, the storm's gone, the sun's out, it looks nice outside, why can't I go back home? Well, we are dealing with all of those impacts, including cleaning up all of those nasty refrigerators, that we have to make sure that the environment is safe before we can let you back in. So be patient with us. When it comes to the repopulation side of the evacuation, we are doing our level best, and we have lots of help that is out there doing that as well. But it takes a minute. So please be patient with us. Okay? So what can we do right now? We've talked about a lot of them. Know your risk. Anybody live in a, anybody know their flood zone right now? What flood zone they're in? Okay. Know your zone will help with that. If you're in a flood zone, guess what's going to happen when a storm comes? You're going to flood. Yeah, I know. It's not rocket science, folks, or I wouldn't be here. Do you live in a manufactured or a mobile home? They're a lighter weight construction, and they have a tendency to suffer damage easier than a typically, what's now typical in this area in Florida are those block constructed homes or those block constructed buildings. Right? So know what your vulnerabilities are. Have an evacuation plan. We talked about that. I always tell people, hey, you don't have to wait for me to issue an evacuation order. If it feels uncomfortable for you, leave. Right? Go visit the mouse in Orlando. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something. Go do something.