Pasco County Administrator Mike Carballa provided an update on local response to hurricanes Helene and Milton during a Dec. 16 county commissioners meeting. His remarks have been edited for clarity and space.
What a month the end of September through October was for the county.
I think (Hurricane) Helene actually sent a lot of warnings to citizens in terms of the dangers of storm surge and we had very few evacuees during that first storm, unfortunately. It really put our first responders into the thick of it.
Between the two storms, over 1,200 water rescues we made during that period of time and actually you’ll see some of our appropriations requests I think will support some of that response.
During the second storm, when Milton came through barreling down as a strong Category 4, even as a Category 5 at one point in time, folks heeded the warnings and we had a tenfold increase in those folks that investigated and went to our shelters. Having places to shelter folks, as well, was important.
We were actually concerned even operating out of our emergency operations center at one point that we were going to have to relocate inland. That’s just how dangerous these storms were.
Since I’ve been an administrator, I can tell you this is my third go-around in terms of a full-on activation with realistic threats. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to become the norm rather than just just an outlier.
But we continued after the storms to set up – I call it an encampment but really an area for those that were displaced to live. We call it Pasco Hope. Actually used an opportunity to get pallet homes installed as well as trailers from the state.
The partnership with the state during the response was absolutely fantastic. We asked for things, we got things. Folks really pulled together on that.
I want to say we’re probably about 60% to 70% full on that. These are temporary housing for folks that literally lost housing and we’re seeing more of that as we come through doing the recovery, which is the substantial damage issues. Because as you know, FEMA in order for us to maintain you know certain levels here – reimbursements and things – you got to kind of play by their rule book – and while our federal delegation has been … working with us to help move things along, sometimes the federal rules are tough.
It’s coming to areas where you know we’re having to make decisions. Folks are having to make decisions on where we go from our housing here and there. So we’re seeing more and more folks kind of saying, ‘You know what? I think we’re leaving,’ and so they’re coming to these areas but then again we’re also helping folks get through things and rebuild.
On the debris front, I’m happy to say that we’re probably three-quarters of the way through. The state and the federal government gave us an extension. They mentioned December I think. That deadline’s gone all the way into February in terms of debris pickup. We’ve completed our first pass in the county. Pasco County started ahead of everyone else and we have continued to lead. So out of 1.4 million cubic yards of debris, we’re definitely over a million at this point and continue to clock in and pick up debris.
We estimated probably about $50 million to $60 million and fortunately we did receive our first check from the federal government in terms of helping our cash flow on that of about $24 million. So we’ll continue to roll there.