As Hurricane Idalia made its approach toward Florida, Pasco County officials ordered residents in coastal areas, flood-prone areas and mobile homes to evacuate.
They also urged residents in other potentially dangerous areas to evacuate voluntarily.
As it turned out, many residents ignored the county’s orders and requests.
The Pasco County Commission is now exploring what more the county can do.
“I’m concerned about the amount of people who did not evacuate. You know, we were lucky that we didn’t have loss of life,” Commissioner Kathryn Starkey said, during the county board’s Sept. 5 meeting.
“If this had turned just a little bit, it could have been far more serious. And, once again, we have people who don’t evacuate and our first responders have to go out. It’s dangerous for them.”
Commission Chairman Jack Mariano agreed: “The evacuations, that’s something we definitely need to address.
“If this storm had hit us at 7 to 9 feet (storm surge), as originally projected, we would have just seen devastation everywhere,” Mariano said.
Starkey asked if the county can increase its messaging.
County Administrator Mike Carballa responded: “We continue to message. We continue to push out through the various platforms.
“I don’t think what you saw here in Pasco was necessarily an anomaly to anywhere else in the state of Florida. People tend to think that it won’t happen.
“I think, when you saw a lot of the water rescues that were going on in the early morning hours, after the storm had passed to the north, I think that water started to come in and you had a lot of scared people.
“I think Chief Perez (Pasco County Fire Rescue Chief Tony Perez) told me the number was upwards of over 150 folks that decided that was the time they needed to evacuate. I am glad we got them out, got them to safety. But to your point, had that storm wobbled, like we see a lot of storms wobble to that right, it could have been collecting fatalities, which we don’t want to do.”
Starkey said she was disturbed by the fact that many rescues involved elderly people, whom, she noted, “wouldn’t have had a prayer to be able to swim out.”
Mariano said he understands that some people had the mistaken notion that the projected storm surge would be just a foot high and they figured they could handle that.
He’d like the county to take an aggressive stance in the county’s Evacuation Zone A, which is the area of highest risk.
He advocates turning off the water and electricity in that zone, when a hurricane is threatening.
If that can be done, he said, “that’s going to increase dramatically the number of people who want to evacuate, or have to evacuate.”
Mariano suggests turning off the water and power for about eight hours, so people could evacuate to a safer place and then return once the storm passes.
Starkey suggested looking into whether the county can employ the types of signs that the Florida Department of Transportation uses to issue amber alerts and the county uses to alert motorists to road projects.
The county administrator said he wants to meet with the county’s team and emergency officials to get after-action reports before bringing recommendations back to the board.
Overall, “the county’s emergency response went very well,” Carballa said.
Pasco County has been declared a federal disaster area, which allows individuals eligible for compensation for damage, as well as providing assistance to county government, he said.
“FEMA is deployed now and they are setting up support throughout the county to support our citizens,” Carballa said.
“As far as the recovery goes, it’s ongoing. I did extend our local state of emergency and will probably continue to do that on a weekly basis until we’re done expending funds. It’s a necessary item, in order to receive reimbursement.
“To date, our solid waste and public works teams were out — collected over 400 tons of storm-related debris, thus far. We have waived tipping fees through Sept. 11 to help our citizens who are cleaning things out and trying to bring stuff in,” he said.
“Our building construction services, right, folks need to rebuild, so we’re waiving fees for certain types of damage and getting folks back on their feet quicker.
“We’ve extended our service hours and actually have some exclusive hours — both at the end of the day, and over the weekends, for those specifically impacted by the storm. So, we can get their questions answered and get them on their way.
“(We’re) actually even looking so far as having team members in home improvement stores on weekends, too, to have them answer questions,” Carballa said.
He also noted that the county’s emergency management team has been deployed to Suwannee County, at its request for Pasco’s team to help in its response efforts.
Published September 13, 2023
