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BCC Minutes 09/02/2004 E (Hurricane Frances) September 2, 2004 TRANSCRIPT OF THE EMERGENCY MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida, September 2, 2004 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board( s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 3:30 p.m. in EMERGENCY SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: Donna Fiala Jim Coletta Fred Coyle (Telephonically) Torn Henning (Telephonically) Frank Halas ALSO PRESENT: Jim Mudd, County Administrator David C. Weigel, County Attorney Page 1 COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ~ EMERGENCY AGENDA September 2, 2004 3:30 p.m. Donna Fiala, Chairman, District 1 Fred W. Coyle, Vice-Chair, District 4 (via telephone) Frank Halas, Commissioner, District 2 Tom Henning, Commissioner, District 3 (via telephone) Jim Coletta, Commissioner, District 5 NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON ANY AGENDA ITEM MUST REGISTER PRIOR TO SPEAKING. SPEAKERS MUST REGISTER WITH THE COUNTY MANAGER PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE AGENDA ITEM TO BE ADDRESSED. COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE NO. 2003-53, AS AMENDED, REQUIRES THAT ALL LOBBYISTS SHALL, BEFORE ENGAGING IN ANY LOBBYING ACTIVITIES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADDRESSING THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS), REGISTER WITH THE CLERK TO THE BOARD AT THE BOARD MINUTES AND RECORDS DEPARTMENT. REQUESTS TO ADDRESS THE BOARD ON SUBJECTS WHICH ARE NOT ON THIS AGENDA MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING WITH EXPLANATION TO THE COUNTY MANAGER AT LEAST 13 DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE OF THE MEETING AND WILL BE HEARD UNDER "PUBLIC PETITIONS". ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THIS BOARD WILL NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS PERTAINING THERETO, AND THEREFORE MAY NEED TO Page 1 September 2, 2004 ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED. ALL REGISTERED PUBLIC SPEAKERS WILL RECEIVE UP TO FIVE (5) MINUTES UNLESS THE TIME IS ADJUSTED BY THE CHAIRMAN. IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO NEEDS ANY ACCOMMODATION IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING, YOU ARE ENTITLED, AT NO COST TO YOU, TO THE PROVISION OF CERTAIN ASSISTANCE. PLEASE CONTACT THE COLLIER COUNTY FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT LOCATED AT 3301 EAST TAMIAMI TRAIL, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112, (239) 774-8380; ASSISTED LISTENING DEVICES FOR THE HEARING IMP AIRED ARE AVAILABLE IN THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE. 1. Pledge of Allegiance 2. Emergency Procedures - David Weigel, County Attorney 3. Update on Hurricane Frances and its affect on Collier County - Dan Summers, Collier County Emergency Management Director 4. Adoption of Proclamation/Resolution of the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County to Declare a State of Emergency for All Territory Within the Legal Boundaries of Collier County including All Incorporated and Unincorporated Areas. 5. Adoption of Resolutions for various Emergency Actions to be take!1 in preparation for Hurricane Frances 6. Comments 7. Adjourn Page 2 September 2, 2004 September 2, 2004 MR. MUDD: Commissioner Fiala, you have a hot mike. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you very much. Yes, would you all please rise and let's say the pledge of allegiance together. Thank you. (Pledge of allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: And I'm going to call this special emergency meeting to order. Today, this is November 2nd (sic) isn't it? November 2nd -- UNIDENTIFIED MEMBERS OF AUDIENCE: September 2nd. CHAIRMAN FIALA: -- 3:00 p.m. MR. MUDD: September. COMMISSIONER HALAS: September. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Oh, it's just September. MR. MUDD: Yes, ma'am. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Time passes so quickly when you're having fun. Thank you. Mr. Mudd, would you like to tell us the situation at hand? MR. MUDD: Commissioners, this is a -- this is an emergency meeting that we're calling in response to Hurricane Frances' imminent landfall here tomorrow. And we'll have two things that will happen here today: Mr. Summers will give you an update, and then the county -- and then I'll turn it over to the county attorney after that, and he will talk about the proclamation for the state of emergency. Without further ado, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Dan Summers, the emergency management bureau director. CHAIRMAN FIALA: And Mr. Summers, before we proceed, I would like to say that we have with us Commissioner Coyle. Commissioner Coyle, are you with us? COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yes, I am here, Commissioner Fiala, thank you. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you. Page 2 September 2,2004 And I believe Commissioner Henning wants to get through. I don't know if he's gotten through yet. Commissioner Henning? (No response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, we have Commissioner Coyle with us. Do you need anything to state on that, David? Item #2 DECLARATION OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES REGARDING VOTING MEMBERS OF THIS EMERGENCY .MEEIING- AEEROVED MR. WEIGEL: Yes, I do. It will be appropriate for you three commissioners present to entertain a motion and a vote on recognizing extraordinary circumstance for Mr. Coyle so that he may participate. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: So moved. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I second. CHAIRMAN FIALA: I have a motion on the floor and a second to create an extraordinary circumstance so that Mr. -- Commissioner Coyle can participate and vote. All those in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Aye. Opposed, like sign. (No response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you. MR. WEIGEL: When Mr. Henning comes aboard, if he does, you would need to do the same exercise at that point. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you. And now Dan, I'm sorry that I interrupted you, but I wanted to make sure Commissioner Coy Ie was with us. Page 3 September 2, 2004 Item #3 RESOLUTION 2004-247A: RETROACTIVELY AUTHORIZING COLLIER COUNTY'S PUBLIC UTILITIES DIVISION TO REMOVE ALL HURRICANE CHARLEY RELATED DEBRIS ALONG RIGHTS OF WAY OF PUBLIC ROADS & PRIVATE ROADWAYS AND WAIVING SIZE AND BUNDLING RESTRICTIONS AND WAIVING TIPPING FEES FOR RESIDENTS WHO CHOSE TO SELF-DELIVER STORM MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, Commissioner. Dan Summers, director for the bureau of the emergency services and your emergency management director of record. Thank you very, very much for being here. And needless to say, it's been a little busy downstairs the last couple of days. Before we jump into Hurricane Frances, I would like to request that we go back and do some housekeeping, sort of dot the I's, cross the T's, so to speak, with Hurricane Charley under our state of emergency declaration. Let me just outline it for you and then I'll ask our county attorney to put us on the correct protocol track. One of the things that's important for FEMA to hear from you in our debris removal process from Hurricane Charley is some of the -- is some clarification from you about language where we typically deliver services. And as you know, in south Florida and the majority of Florida, we do, as part of our service delivery, do enter gated communities and private roads. FEMA typically has restrictions on those issues, because they look at what is done as a public thoroughfare. What I'm asking to you do is to read and -- to affirm and to read into record the motion that I have drafted for you, which is -- really Page 4 September 2, 2004 indicates to FEMA that we do normal service delivery on public roads -- I'm sorry, on private roads, as well as gated communities. I'll read this, if I may, for the record, and then we'll clarify. And if you would like to make any changes, we could do that and we'll get it of record. Mr. Weigel, if I could, is it appropriate for me to go ahead and review this item first? May I read this and then we'll discuss? MR. WEIGEL: That is correct. And it may be by the noise we're hearing possibly Mr. Henning may be telephonically connected? CHAIRMAN FIALA: Commissioner Henning? COMMISSIONER HENNING: Commissioner Henning is here. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Commissioner, thank you for joining us. We need to stop the meeting again and make another motion. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'll make a motion that due to extraordinary circumstances that we recognize Commissioner Henning's participation in this meeting. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I second that. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay. All those in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Aye. Opposed, like sign. (No response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: So Commissioner Henning, we also have Commissioner Coyle with us. Now all five of us are here, and I want to thank you for that. Please proceed, Mr. Summers. MR. SUMMERS: Okay. Just to bring the Commissioner on board, we're doing some housekeeping here associated with Hurricane Charley. I'm going to read a motion that I'd like for you to reactivate your state of emergency for Hurricane Charley and enter this into the Page 5 September 2, 2004 record. Again, a FEMA protocol issue. This motion is to place on record authorization for Collier County and its public utilities division to remove all storm-related debris along rights-of-way of public and private roadways. This is consistent to the level of service of current solid waste collection services, with the exception that the restriction of size and bundling are waived during the storm debris removal period. It is further recommended -- excuse me, it's further recommended the tipping fee be waived for all residents who choose to self-deliver storm-related debris directly to the landfills. This debris removal motion is an approved effort within Collier County's emergency management plan, Collier County's Phase I and Phase II emergency debris removal plan. This effort is necessary to protect public health and safety. This helps us become more in line with the FEMA guidance for reimbursement. If you have any changes or questions, I'll entertain that. I would like to have you put this on record as part of Hurricane Charley. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Any questions, Commissioners? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes, if I could, please, would you one more time give the definition of private roadways? Would this be such roads as Rock Road, areas that are outside of the county road maintenance system? MR. SUMMERS: Sir, I'd like to address that. I'll clarify with Mr. DeLony, but the -- anywhere where we typically provide normal public services, such as trash removal, police and fire protection, et cetera. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I can't tell you how pleased I am to hear that. Thank you. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Yes, David? MR. WEIGEL: I will mention that as Mr. Summers indicated, the intention is for the board to consider and approve this. Obviously you will, if you choose to by motion, and vote, and then county Page 6 September 2, 2004 attorney office would reformat this into a resolution format. It would then have a resolution number and be suitable for transmittal to FEMA and the state and any other organization. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I make a motion for approval of this. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And I'll be happy to second it. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, fine. I have a motion on the floor by Commissioner Halas, second by Commissioner Coletta. Any discussion? Commissioner Coyle or Commissioner Henning? COMMISSIONER COYLE: No questions. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay. There's a lot of background noise from one of your telephones, by the way, that we're hearing here in the audience. COMMISSIONER HENNING: And that's my phone. I'm on an airplane and we're delayed, and I'd be happy to hang up if it bothers -- CHAIRMAN FIALA: No, no, no. No, we want you there in case -- we didn't realize it was something like that. We want you here, background noise or no. All those in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Aye. Opposed, like sign. (N 0 response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: That's a 5-0. MR. SUMMERS: Very well, Commissioners, thank you. Okay, let's jump to our next hurricane. Let's go to Hurricane Frances. I think my preference would be to go ahead and bring you up to date on actions. As you know, we've been very busy. Then I believe, as -- I Page 7 September 2, 2004 believe our state of emergency is somewhat understood, but I'll have you declare that for a record at the end of my briefing, if that's appropriate. Well, let's move on. First of all, let's go into our weather discussions. And I think we've been able to go high tech here just a little bit, so I'm going to get to the mouse and bring you up to date here just a little bit. What you're seeing is what we call Huri-Vac. It is the hurricane evacuation model. You saw the illustrations that we put on the visualizer last time. We've been able to bring that to the podium to you at this point. And what I'm doing is just basically zooming in to give you some perception as to the county and to the size of the storm. I will also, at -- I'm going to -- let me just bring up a block here so that you can see just a little bit, help you just a little bit here with timing elements. The dotted line that you see there is the forecast track from the National Hurricane Center. And based on their marine -- what they call the marine advisory, the marine forecast, I'm going to do some clicks here, and I'm going to animate this storm as it approaches Florida. The blue line, if you'll recall, is our 30 mile an hour winds, our yellow line is our 58 mile per hour winds, and the red line is 74 mile per hour winds or greater. As we move forward, based on the current forecast track, you will see that Palm Beach and Miami are expected to start receiving the first band of winds at approximately 3:00 p.m. on Friday. That's tomorrow afternoon. Now, having said that, let me just tell you that we have some very sophisticated terms in the Emergency Operations Center such as zig, zag, wobble and oscillation. But I will tell you that we have continued to see this storm continue to show its track both north and south. What I want to do is I want to show you what we would call a Page 8 September 2, 2004 what if. And in this what if scenario, I can actually manually redirect this track to Collier County. And the reason I think it's important that you see that -- and again, this is a simulation, not an actual track. I want you to see that there's less than 60 miles difference, once again, like the 60 miles that you heard with Charley, in this forecast track and how it will affect Collier County from Palm Beach to Miami. So just a slight dip in the storm is going to simulate the following: It brings us into Friday afternoon at approximately 8:00. Now, let me also tell you that this model is static in terms of the forward motion of the storm. We have seen anything from nine to 16 miles per hour in forward motion. Obviously as the speed increases, our safety envelope of time compresses. If the storm in fact slows down, we gain some time. We had to make a tactical decision yesterday as to -- we had to take the -- we had to split the middle of these various models and corne up with one planning assumption in which to operate our EOC on. We used what -- our critical point is tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. And tomorrow at 8:00 p.m., it's my request that we have Collier County in a safe haven posture, okay? I may be off by four hours ahead, I may be four hours late, but I'm going to split the difference and ask that at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow we be in a safe haven posture within Collier County because of the fluctuation in the forward motion. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Would you make it clear to me, please, what safe haven posture is? MR. SUMMERS: I want everyone who is medically frail in the appropriate shelter or hardened structure. I want those who are in mobile homes out -- I want them in safe locations, such as public shelters or other locations. And I want the general population -- and I'll go in the details of that on the map shortly -- primarily those who are west of 951 are to shelter in place in their homes. There is such a limited amount of shelter space, and as you could imagine, we're being inundated by evacuees from the east coast. So there's a timing Page 9 September 2, 2004 Issue. And again, back to the simulation, we are again looking at some wind field scenarios. Ifwe see this storm drop to the south at 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning, we'll move that up just a little bit, we'll say 7 :00 a.m. Saturday morning we're on the fringe of the hurricane force winds. Now, one of the rules in emergency management is that you don't try to do these critical shelter safety issues in the dark. We need to do as much of that in the daylight as we can, hence we're doing as much prep work today, primarily at our shelters. And we want to thank the Collier County schools for their adjournment, for their half day session today, because it helps us not only prepare Collier County, but to receive visitors from the other counties, or evacuees from the other counties, and gives us a full day tomorrow to continue to be in the preparation mode. So this is the what if scenario, again puts us at Saturday morning. The storm does -- we do have some degradation in the storm, but I have to tell you, we're only going from Category 4 to Category 3. This still remains a storm of historical proportion and remains a storm unprecedented in terms of crossing the Peninsula of Florida as a Category 4, potentially a Category 3. So you need to be aware of that. And again, you're looking at the worst case. Now, I'm trying to paint the picture here, because we have so many variables in which to work with. This happens to be our model that we use from the commercial weather service. And the commercial weather folks, again usually complimentary to the National Hurricane Center in terms of the forecast products, have this storm more entering Fort Lauderdale with an exit at Fort Myers. And we have to be prepared for this type of north-south -- or north-south type deviation in the track. Again, their timing scenarios are a little bit different, but at 9:00 p.m. -- I'm sorry, 10:00 p.m. Eastern time, 10:00 p.m. Eastern time Page 10 September 2, 2004 tomorrow night, for example -- let me give you -- let me just tell you that they are still reporting potential winds at 150 miles an hour with gusts to 180. So again, very, very serious, slightly different in that impact. I need to again stress to you that we have still not a guaranteed landfall location. We have a very larger error of -- very large margin across the State of Florida. More importantly is that we see that this storm may make a dual landfall as it approaches Tallahassee and again goes up the Mississippi and -- I'm sorry, the Alabama/Georgia line. So let me go back to some additional information. We'll reserve this for some follow-up. So that gives you an idea of the weather discussion. We're taking all the actions that we can and in a nutshell we want to make sure that we're in a safety posture, where we have terminated our preparedness activities and we're in safe haven by 8:00 tomorrow night. Let me also tell you that this is not a storm surge event. Since this storm is corning from the east coast to the west coast, totally unlike Charley, we do not have storm surge. We would have to see a significant change in track to pick up some storm surge at Everglades and Marco Island on the back side of the storm. But that's not the case. Now, with a storm of this size, the current weather forecast, the fact that when the storm comes close to us its forward motion is going to decrease. The other thing that is of noteworthy here is that the rain -- the precipitation forecast went from 12 to 14 inches to 20 inches of rain is in the forecast at some point during this storm over central Florida. So again, no storm surge, heavy rains, and our concept still holds. We want you to hide from the wind but run from the storm surge. So we're -- our focus here and our priority is to have folks in a tornadic type posture in Collier County, again west of 951. So I'll corne back to the shelter details in just a minute. Let me talk to you about accomplishments and issues that we have completed Page 11 September 2, 2004 so far since the EOC's been activated. We had great cooperation from the schools with the half-day closing. That was echoed by the Governor's executive order, which allows the state coordinating officer to force or trump the closing of schools. The state did echo that request late last night, so it is now a state request that Collier County schools be closed. Our disaster response trailer units, the package of cots and other supplies, which unfortunately I've tried several times for you to see before we actually had to use them, but all of those units are being deployed to the appropriate shelter locations. We have acquired -- we have rented and acquired some additional variable message signs that will go on the interstate for the influx of traffic on Interstate 75, as well as a low-power AM traveler's radio station that's being established that's giving shelter or refuge information for evacuees from the east coast in English, Spanish and in Creole. We have -- our GIS department and our county information technology department has printed up 5,000 maps of Collier County and made them available at the rest areas so that the inbound traffic will have some traffic -- have a good location where to go to take shelter for those who are migrating tonight. Our civil air patrol and med- flight both have been doing aerial reconnaissance on Interstate 75 to keep us posted of traffic counts. The state's mobile command unit currently on station in Charlotte County is going to relocate to Collier County late tonight or tomorrow morning. That is beneficial. That's tactically appropriate for them to do but also is helpful to us if we lose communications, there's satellite communications on that vehicle that we can utilize. Our fire service has identified five to 10 additional strike teams that will be corning into the area. We will use Thomas -- we'll use Edison Community College to stage those fire service support teams. That includes forestry. And we'll also have available to us just outside Page 12 September 2, 2004 our region urban search and rescue teams in the event of structural collapse. Nursing homes, rest homes and congregate care facilities that we had difficulty with during Charley, site visits were made by EMS and the fire code official of record for that particular nursing home to check on the status of their supplies and the operational reliability of their generator. All of that -- all of those inspections took place and were completed by noon today, and we have very favorable reports on those facilities. Churches and other organizations that we would consider available for nontraditional public building sheltering are being contacted. Many churches this afternoon are starting to open their doors for support to the evacuees from the east coast. We will announce those facilities and availability on local radio and television. Local government will not be providing any direct support to those private organizations, but we will be communicating and coordinating public and private efforts to work with them. The curfew issue does not need to be taken up tonight; however, I have not spoken with the Sheriff this afternoon, but I'm sure we'd like to address curfew items as an open item for tomorrow. We're utilizing both Collier -- both CAT and Collier County public schools transportation resources, and we'll be able to make one pass in these mobile home areas for possible evacuation transportation. Those routes are being coordinated as we speak. The chamber of commerce and the visitors bureau folks are in our Emergency Operations Center helping us coordinate local government efforts, along with the private sector. I might also add that we've been in close coordination, as we have been since Hurricane Charley, working with the public utilities division. There will not be any trash pick-up on Saturday. Conditions warrant, they will reopen on Sunday, and that will include the landfill, the recycling center, and their customer service number will still be Page 13 September 2, 2004 available on Saturday, as I understand, conditions allowing, for customers to inquire for any additional information. That number is 403-2380. N ow let me talk to you -- MR. MUDD: Let me interject for a second. MR. SUMMERS: Yes. MR. MUDD: Normal garbage pick-up tomorrow, okay? There will be no garbage pick-up on Saturday. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Could you give that number again? MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir. 403-2380. They have done a wonderful job in helping take some of those calls away from the Collier information center so that we can address some of the health and human service needs, and we thank them for that. Let me talk to you about the priorities that I've given to the EOC staff today. Operational priorities. And I will show you in a few minutes my concern with the wind fields in the area of Immokalee. But outreach to Immokalee is a priority today. Addressing the shelters that might be needed in Immokalee is apriority. We want to continue to work hard for county-wide readiness. We're working very hard with media releases that are going out, trying to get as much information out on radio and television as possible. And we have set the stage if necessary to activate the emergency alert system for what is called a civil emergency message. So you may have a NOAA Weather radio activate or a local radio or television station may in fact hear our voice for a civil emergency message that might override a weather radio or a weather emergency. I shouldn't say override, will compliment a weather message. We want to make sure -- we're trying to work very, very hard to address any multi language outreach efforts for the purpose of safety. The Emergency Operations Center and Collier information center will be on 24-hour operational status until further notice. Our other goal is once our house is secure is to make available all Page 14 September 2, 2004 available resources to Charlotte and Lee County because of -- if this storm in fact crosses their counties, right now between the two of them they have 32,000 structures under tarp. So now let's talk a little bit about in-county residents. In-county only at this point. And I wanted to preface this under evacuation, relocation, shelters, and shelter in place. The wind fields of this storm are expected to have significant impact on the northeast sections of Collier County. We're requesting your support for the evacuation of mobile homes and persons with special needs in the Immokalee area of Collier County. This is to begin tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Evacuation of all mobile homes in Collier County beginning tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. All residents west of 951 should shelter in place today and tomorrow, unless they are medically frail and are without a caregiver, and preferably if they have registered with our special needs program. Residents within Collier County should be prepared for an extended shelter-in-place event, placing themselves within the interior corridor of their homes in the same fashion that one would take cover for a tornado event. There are no recommendations for Everglades City or Marco Island in the vicinity, except for mobile home residents. Nothing formal for those, nor the City of Naples. No formal evacuations, strictly a shelter-in-place guidance, unless you're a mobile home, unless you're medically frail. Now, let's talk about out-of-county residents. We know that there's going to be mass migration or evacuation from the east coast. We've already heard the horror stories of Interstate 95, that it is clogged up at this time. Out-of-county residents, and we're starting to see them now, those that are mass migrating from the east coast, will be directed today -- I'm sorry, will be directed this evening to either Gulf Coast Page 15 September 2, 2004 High School or Pine Ridge Middle School, which will be open later this evening and staffed by the American Red Cross. This information will be posted on variable message signs along Interstate 75 and be placed on low power AM traveler's radio stations that are being configured as we speak on the interstate. Now, let's talk about the shelter locations and the shelter facilities globally within Collier County. Barron Collier, as in Hurricane Charley, remains our primary special needs shelter. It will open tomorrow. Our schools that we -- our shelters that we have coordinated with the schools are as follows: Lely High School, Gulf Coast High School, Golden Gate High School, Corkscrew Middle School, Immokalee High, Irnrnokalee Friendship House, and Village Oaks Elementary. Now, let me again stress that our host shelters for out of county are Oak Ridge Middle School and Gulf Coast High School for this evening. So the inbound from out of county who have been on the road for some time, we will make some provision for them in those two buildings, again, Oak Ridge and Gulf Coast, for tonight. The power's on, the facilities are available, the cots and supplies are minimal, at best, but we don't have wind and we don't have rain and we've got power and air conditioning, and we have parking lots and we have R V locations. So for tonight, everybody is in pretty good shape. We're going to have to be very flexible tonight with the inbound. As you know, there's not any hotel rooms left in the east coast, central or west coast of Florida that we know of. Here are my action items for you today: I would like to ask as part of your state of emergency declaration that we activate our CAT transportation system without any fee or charge; that EMS would waive any special needs transports, particularly in the evacuation or relocation. There should be minimal EMS transport convalescent special needs in this event, in this scenario, again, unlike Hurricane Charley. Page 16 September 2, 2004 We do need for you to open up a new appropriation for Collier County, as we did during Charley. There'll be budget amendments obviously forthcoming, but we're going to ask you for a resolution or approval to open up a new emergency measures account with a $50,000 starting base. Weare working closely with FEMA. Our expenses with Charley were some -- very reasonable, I might add, probably around 3.2 million for Charley, and we're working on that reimbursement. But we need to segregate Hurricane Charley bookkeeping from Hurricane Frances, so we need to open up a new ledger item there. And again, as a closing action item to review with the Sheriff and emergency management tomorrow of any issues associated with curfews or prohibitions or restrictions. That's a mouthful. There are obviously many more details that the EOC has been working on, but I think that gives you a general summary. Let me stop and see what questions you might have and we'll seek further guidance. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Questions, Commissioners? COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes, I have some questions. Dan, the local radio frequencies, do we have a list of stations that hopefully are going to carry some update? If you could give the call letters and the frequencies, whether they're AM or FM, I think that would be beneficial. CHAIRMAN FIALA: May I ask, if you mean local, like right here in Collier County, rather than hearing it from Fort Myers, right? COMMISSIONER HALAS: That's correct. That's exactly right. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you. MR. SUMMERS: We in fact put all of the local radio stations on our GIS map. In fact, I believe I might have that for you here. I will tell you that we have addressed it. I'll give staff a second to pull that up. Here we go, thank you. Let me put this on the map, on the visualizer. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Yes, and I hope anybody who's watching Page 1 7 September 2, 2004 this on TV can take some of these numbers down. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Take notes. CHAIRMAN FIALA: If they could read them. MR. SUMMERS: It's a little small there, but let me just tell you that in the mapping scenario that we provided on the interstate, these radio call signs are actually on the map where you can tune to AM and FM, are there as you're inbound into Collier County. We're again getting good cooperation from the local media, but frankly, I think they're probably saving more of their operational resources for tomorrow. But if Mr. Torre -- I'm not sure if Mr. Torre is here and would like to address the interface with the radio. But Mr. Torre does serve as the leadership role in our public information for the EOC, so let me defer to John for some clarification. John? MR. TORRE: Yes, Commissioner, we're already starting hourly updates on AM 1660, which is the news radio station. Tomorrow evening we'll be doing twice an our updates, at 10 past the hour and 40 past the hour on WINK and WNOG AM, 1200 and 1270. And we also have commitments from WSGL and WGUF FM, once the weather turns bad, to do regular updates there also. And also Collier television, you know, is out there providing updates at the same time. COMMISSIONER HALAS: One of the problems is that out in the rural areas of Collier County, a lot of people don't have cable, so we want to make sure that we have updates on the radio for them so they can somewhat keep informed on what's going on and have more of a warm fuzzy feeling, if you can say that. MR. MUDD: Commissioner Halas, if I could interject just a tad. When you lose electricity, sometimes those antennas and transmitters go out, too. And we had times when you couldn't get a radio signal and you couldn't get a TV signal for about 18 hours. And so for the viewing audience out there that are listening today, be patient, we're trying to make sure that we have a number of stations that we can get the message across so that you can flip from one to the other in case Page 18 September 2, 2004 one's affected adversely, the other one is still open. And we'll get those out in press releases and whatnot will so that they have all the stations and the times that the updates will transpire. Now, I will also say, as far as our appreciation of the radio stations compared to the last event, Charley, this is a significant improvement in the response. And I believe those radio stations heard the public outcry and the commissioners' voices, along with the city council persons' voices as far as the lack of radio coverage in trying to get that message out. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, thank you. And Commissioner Coletta? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes. Also, too, is there information, detailed information on our website? MR. TORRE: Yes. And we're going to create -- and it should be up and running shortly -- a special web page that if you click to the main page, it will take you to a hurricane update -- COMMISSIONER COLETTA: How about some -- MR. TORRE: -- page. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- detailed instructions possibly putt in' (sic) on the visualizer too so that we might share it with the public -- MR. TORRE: Absolutely. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- and the media. MR. TORRE: And back on the radio point, Commissioner, on one of the radio stations in town, WCNZ, which is at 1660, is licensed 10,000 watts daytime but only 1,000 watts at night. But they've indicated that they will make the effort to maintain 10,000 watts during the evening tomorrow night, if the conditions warrant it. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay. MR. TORRE: And we're also working very, very closely with the Spanish media. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I have a serious question -- Page 19 September 2, 2004 CHAIRMAN FIALA: Let me then ask Commissioner Coyle first if he has anything to ask. Commissioner Coyle? COMMISSIONER COYLE: No, I have no further questions. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, fine. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Do you have -- this is to Dan. Do you have storm wind projections? And what do we -- I guess you covered that already, but if you could cover that again in the areas of Collier County. Is it going to be more intense in the northeast and the north areas of Collier County versus the southern portions of Collier County? MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir. In fact, I have produced a graphic to illustrate to you what my concerns are. As. You look at the storm coming across, if you can just sort of visualize a compass heading from -- and we'll take north of Miami-Dade, for example, and exit at Fort Lauderdale. Again, my concern is our northeast corner of Collier County. Now, anything is subj ect to change at this point, but the difference here is that most of the models have been consistent with everything west of -- north and west of 951 in the current model run. And again, I have to sound very, very -- I have to be vague, I just have to be, because of the forecast. We're seeing wind models in excess of 92 miles per hour. So that means we could go from 92 up to even maybe 125 miles per hour with that path. Now having said that, that's the reason for the shelter in place. In the rest of the county, in the event that we see as much as a 20-mile deviation in this storm, we could have winds in excess of 100 miles per hour, let's say all the way from 41 east. And as you know, 41 is close enough to the coast that it's really sort of a moot point. COMMISSIONER HALAS: And how long do you anticipate these winds to last? What's the duration as your best guess? MR. SUMMERS: Sir, my major concern right now is that this Page 20 September 2, 2004 may -- again, depending on the change in the forward motion of this storm -- and I hate to be an alarmist here, but I can visualize through and extrapolate with the models that this could be an eight-hour event. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Eight-hour occurrence. MR. SUMMERS: An eight-hour occurrence. COMMISSIONER HALAS: And when do you anticipate the impact of the hurricane winds to enter into Collier County at the northeast section? MR. SUMMERS: I'm looking at -- COMMISSIONER HALAS: Your best guess. MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir, best guess right now, and again, the models are subj ect to change. But again, my goal is to have everyone safe at 8:00 p.m. We may see the early effects by 11 :00 p.m. Again, we may get some early bands of the storm, we may see the dynamics of the geometry of the storm change, and again, we may even fire off severe thunderstorms or tornadoes on the leading edge of the storm. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Could you also tell us when you expect it to exit back out into the Gulf, what time again? MR. SUMMERS: Let me pull that model for you, sir. I believe I would. Eight-- MR. MUDD: 9:00 on the 4th. MR. SUMMERS: 9:00 on the 4th. COMMISSIONER HALAS: In the morning, 9:00. That's military time, 0900 hours? MR. SUMMERS: That's correct. CHAIRMAN FIALA: So that's when you expect it to end, did you say? MR. SUMMERS: That would be -- yes, the storm itself has a width in excess of 125 miles. If you actually put the storm over Florida, it is wider than the peninsula of Florida. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I got one more. The concerns of the landfill. I know our neighbors to the north, Page 21 September 2, 2004 when they were impacted with Charley, they have -- they got a monumental problem. How are we going to address that so we don't overfill the landfill? MR. DeLONY: For the record, Jim DeLony, public utilities administrator. We're not going to do that. All the yard waste debris, all the C&D or structural material will be hauled away from the landfill. We may have a period of time where we have to stockpile, but the intent is not to go onto our hill, but as prior board guides, that is to be diverted and trucked out of here. We turn the curve on more going out than in I believe on Tuesday of this week in recovery to Hurricane Charley. So we've reduced those piles from Charley; We're in pretty good shape corning into this. We'll continue to work very hard up until about 5:00 tomorrow. We will shut down the landfill and begin to put it into safe mode until the storm passes. As soon as we're able to get back in there, we'll start those hauling operations as soon as we safely can do that. It will have to be somewhat dependent on the ability of Waste Management to move that to the other -- to the receiving landfill areas, or their contractors. But we're going to work very hard. But I just want to assure that the impact to our landfill will be temporary as opposed to permanent in terms of taking away our air space. Did I answer your question, Cornrnissioner? COMMISSIONER HALAS: I think you did. Could you maybe elaborate? Do you have any proposed sites that you're going to have a staging area for? MR. DeLONY: Right now I do not anticipate a need for staging areas. We will continue to pick up debris as we get it within the county, and move it and evacuate, as we did with Charley, to the landfill. The only exception of that, during the Charley, we did put a temp -- have a temporary debris pile that was put in place in Marco by Page 22 September 2, 2004 the City of Marco to help them in their right-of-way clearance. And that was the only temporary pile we do. Our estimate is to anywhere between 6 -- 6,000 tons is what we got in Charley . We could go as much as 12 in this one. I think we can manage it without temporary debris piles, but I reserve the right to come back to the board with a different recommendation, should I need to do that, sir. MR. MUDD: Commissioner Halas, just to let you know, he does have a plan with all the open places in the county all surveyed, okay, with the Phillips and Jordan plan that they did several years ago. And if we get a catastrophic event where it becomes more than what a Charley event was where we have major trees and poles down on our roadways, whatnot, and major structural damage to our buildings, then he will open up those particular temporary sites in order to have safe haven, so to speak, to get the major thoroughfares opened up again and then start hauling that stuff to Okeechobee. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I got one more question and I'll turn it over to my commissioners; I don't mean to take up all the time. On the transportation needs with CAT and getting people out of Immokalee, is there going to be a staging time so that people that don't have transportation, that they can -- there's a point, pickup point for them so that we can transport them to some place of safety? And maybe you can corne up if you have -- maybe you don't have that information yet, or do you? MR. SUMMERS: No, we're working very, very hard. What we're trying to do is blend some routes and some resources between Collier County public school's transportation as well as CAT. So the staff is working with Patti Clemens, our special needs planner, and they're addressing that and they're corning up with a routing configuration. We'll make that available on radio and television. We'll also have a number where people can call. Our safety organizations tomorrow will have the opportunity to patrol that area. Page 23 September 2, 2004 They'll have that information as well. And again, I think we can do a good job of gathering those folks safely. And we have a little bit of time, but all of the coordination is being done now, and we'll be ready to warm up buses between 8:00 and 10:00 tomorrow morning. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Commissioner Coletta? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes, thank you. With the Chair's permission, I'd like to address my questions to Clarence Tears, director of the Big Cypress management area. If you don't mind, Mr. Tears. I'm quite concerned about the 20- inch rain event. Of course this is an act of God and whatever the consequences are, they're going to be. Can you give us an idea if the worst scenario falls true, as far as 20 inches, what we could expect throughout all of Collier County? MR. TEARS: Clarence Tears, director of Big Cypress Basin, South Florida Water Management District, for the record. Currently the canal system is in fairly good shape. Parts of the system are actually below opening stage, but we have the majority of the system open. Ifwe get 20 inches of rain in, say, a 24-hour period, that's a lot of rain, and you will see, you know, localized flooding. The system will be maxed out, depending on tides, but it should drain fairly quickly. But the areas that don't have direct access to the canal, those areas will take longer to drain. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: But for the most part, residents could expect probably to be in their homes for a couple of days? MR. TEARS: Yes. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay, I just wanted to make sure -- MR. TEARS: It really depends too also on the debris, the impacts to the storm, the swales and just, you know, how quickly we can clean those up so it can drain properly. I see in most storm events we have more problems in the neighborhood systems because the swales aren't being maintained by Page 24 September 2, 2004 the neighborhood associations. You know, curb and gutters, everybody cuts their leaves and puts them by the drains. You know, you need to look at the systems within your community and make sure everything's open, and that way the system works as a whole. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: So this is something that those neighborhoods should be doing tomorrow to prepare -- MR. TEARS: They should be doing that-- COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- for the storm? MR. TEARS: -- today, not tomorrow. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And they could call your office if they have any questions? MR. TEARS: Yes. I would suggest they call the county's EOC, because I will be in the EOC and that's the best way for me to handle the situation. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you very much, Mr. Tears. MR. TEARS: You're welcome. CHAIRMAN FIALA: And what is that telephone number, please, for the record? MR. TEARS: 774-844-- MR. SUMMERS: There's a gen -- we don't -- right, 744-8444 is sufficient. We'll get the message. Those lines are staying busy, so I encourage you to redial, if necessary. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, 774-8444. The lines will be busy, but you encourage people to continue to call, to redial until they get through. MR. MUDD: Yeah, we're getting -- we've got about 12 operators that are working through that, and we're picking phones up as fast as we can. So if it is busy, redial and we'll get you back in. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you. MR. TEARS: And also, just as another phone number, I'll give my cell number. Page 25 September 2, 2004 CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay. Cell phone number-- MR. TEARS: It's 22 -- CHAIRMAN FIALA: -- for Clarence Tears. MR. TEARS: 229-7257. So if there's an emergency issue, they can try to get me on my cell phone. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Say it one more time? MR. TEARS: 229-7257. CHAIRMAN FIALA: 7257. 229-7257 is Clarence Tears' cell phone number. MR. TEARS: That's it. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you Clarence. MR. TEARS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, any other questions? MR. MUDD: I will also tell you, Commissioner, just for the folks that weren't here last time, cell phone service went out for a period of time; it was very difficult to get through. Especially when electricity goes out and you have one that's got a battery recharge and it really gets tough when the battery goes down. But the land line phone works pretty good as long as it does have a battery in. So you need one of those durnrny phones in the wall to have that -- to get service. A lot of these high techs, you take the phone away from it, the battery goes out, it doesn't work, so a dummy phone with the old cords, just like we used to have, work. And that emergency operation number will be fully manned all the time. Again, 774-8444. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you. Okay, any other questions, Commissioner Coletta? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'll wait till Commissioner Coyle -- MR. MUDD: You had a question about public transportation-- COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes. MR. MUDD: -- and I pulled Ms. Flagg up here so we -- MS. FLAGG: Cornrnissioners, Diane Flagg, for the record. Page 26 September 2, 2004 F or the CAT routes tomorrow, the CAT routes are all going to be operating tomorrow. But in addition to those routes, we're going to be running a shelter shuttle so that when they -- they can get on any CAT route. At the transfer station we're going to have a shuttle bus and it will shuttle them to a shelter that will commence at 2:00 p.m. For the areas that do not have a CAT route, specifically the Everglades City area, we're sending two buses to Everglades City to work in conjunction with the fire department in Everglades City. They're going to go to every single mobile home park, pick up the folks that need a ride, take them to a shelter there and come back. And they've allocated the hours in order to do that. The same thing with Irnrnokalee. Immokalee has three buses assigned to them. They'll be working with the Immokalee Fire Department, and they will be provided a shelter shuttle throughout the City of Immokalee. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I have a question. When the people -- oh, go ahead. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Well, go ahead. COMMISSIONER HALAS: When the people -- when the people get on board the bus, what are they allowed to bring with them to go to the shelter? MS. FLAGG: They can bring what is contained within -- and that's going out in a press release. But what you need to take to a shelter, they can take -- that's what they need to take with them on the bus. CHAIRMAN FIALA: So medications, any type of medications they're using, and if they have a little bit of water that they wanted to bring. MS. FLAGG: Right. Food, water, yes, pillows. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Pillows, bedding? MS. FLAGG: Yes, uh-huh. So basically the reason we've kept the CAT routes up and Page 27 September 2, 2004 operating, because they use the CAT routes to go get their hurricane supplies if they're going to shelter in place. So what we've done is created this supplemental shelter shuttle so that both systems can operate at the same time. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay. If they bring children, then we want baby food and bottles and diapers, right? MS. FLAGG: Correct. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay. MS. FLAGG: And that all begins at 2:00 p.m., because the shelters are opening at 2:00. So we'll begin the shuttles at the point that the shelters open. MR. MUDD: What time do you close down? MS. FLAGG: We will continue those routes operating until we -- until there's not a need for them any further. But generally the routes close at 6:00. But if the drivers -- if the bus drivers are still seeing people on the routes, they will continue to pick them up. I will tell you that the CAT is not going to operate on Saturday. The CAT will be shut down on Saturday. Normally CAT will not oper -- does not operate on a holiday, Monday, but we are opening CAT to operate on Monday. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you very much. Dan, I had a coup -- one question in particular, and that is with Marco Island, Goodland, Isles of Capris and Everglades City, what -- you had said something about getting into safe mode. Is there anything else that we can advise these islanders to do? MR. SUMMERS: Again, we're fortunate not to have a large storm surge scenario. So those -- we want to take the tornadic posture, as we mentioned, with a single-family home. Those that are in high-rise buildings, for example, we don't want them any higher than the fourth floor. So they could be from the first finished floor up to the fourth floor. So there should be a vertical evacuation, if you will, because as you know, those wind speeds at the higher elevations are Page 28 September 2, 2004 compressed and are stronger, so our high-rise residents need to bunk with a friend at a lower level or maintain a tornadic posture in interior hallways and corridors. Again, hopefully that we don't have to deal with any storm surge, but if you are low lying -- and we have addressed the mobile home issue already, that's inclusive. But if you're low lying and you know that your home or your situation does poorly with these elevated -- estimated elevated rainfall events, then by all means, you need to move to higher ground and to a more reinforced structure. CHAIRMAN FIALA: On Marco Island, I know they have a lot of sewer -- or rather stormwater problems right now. Have they been able to improve them to a point where the stormwater is able to leave these streets, or are they going to have a difficult problem there? MR. SUMMERS: We do expect a difficult problem, because we can't gauge will this be an intermittent rainfall or will it be a continuous rainfall. One thing that we typically see in a hurricane is an intermittent rainfall. So we may have a period of a couple of hours with -- when the bands corne through, it may taper off. That gives the system an opportunity to catch up. But we're also bracing our emergency vehicles in such a fashion that if we need high clearance vehicles to go into storm water areas, as long as the winds are not there to effect a rescue, then we are able to do that with reasonable -- with good judgment on behalf of our responders. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, thank you. Any others-- MR. MUDD: Madam Chair, you are going to get local flooding if we get 20 inches of rain in an eight-hour period -- CHAIRMAN FIALA: Yes. MR. MUDD: -- of time, okay? We're probably going to get a little bit more than local where we're going to have some issues. And especially when it gets at the high tide period. Bordering that period of time it doesn't drain very well, and then low tide we start getting good draining. Page 29 September 2, 2004 CHAIRMAN FIALA: When do we expect high tide in the next couple of days? MR. SUMMERS: I've run so many models, I've lost track of the tide. I'll have to pull that for you separately. Again, it's been -- and it's very early. I think we can have the tide models based on some -- when we see consistency in forward motion tomorrow we can tie that to the tide. But our tide is not going to be an issue except for the rain - water drainage, not for the storm water -- storm surge drainage. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Right. I just wondered if the tide -- I know that it's more difficult if the tide is in, so I was just wondering like if we expect to be hit sometime from 8:00 p.m. tomorrow night till 9:00 p.m. the following morning, if you knew when the tide was corning in around then. MR. SUMMERS: I have not pulled that. And I'll be glad to have that tomorrow when the forecast track has been better refined. CHAIRMAN FIALA: So when can people -- do they tune in to find that information out, or will we be meeting again to give that information? How will they pick that information up regarding tide? MR. SUMMERS: Well, we'll be continuous with that emergency public information ongoing -- CHAIRMAN FIALA: On the 1660, did you say? MR. SUMMERS: Well, not only that, but the news releases that we'll send out, we'll put a tide scenario with the news release, what we call a protective action recommendation, a news release. We did 40 to 50 of those during Charley. We can also use those, update them for Frances and get those out. So we'll do our best to disseminate all that information to the local media, and if we do have a local media report here to the EOC -- I'm sorry, to our commission chambers where we will do our -- any remotes that the radio stations do, we'll make sure that that gets promoted. MR. MUDD: Plus your local weather channels, when they do their TV broadcasts, tell you when the highs and low tides are going to Page 30 September 2, 2004 be every night. So-- CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay. MR. MUDD: -- they'll also get that tomorrow night before they go to bed. MR. SUMMERS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Commissioner Coyle, did you have any other questions? COMMISSIONER COYLE: No. MR. MUDD: Cornrnissioner Henning? CHAIRMAN FIALA: I think we lost him. MR. SUMMERS: And Commissioners, I need to clarify one point on the record. I misspoke on Pine Ridge school. Pine Ridge is not a shelter. I misspoke. Oak Ridge. And I believe -- I intended Oak Ridge and I said Pine Ridge. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you very much. Commissioners, any other questions? (No response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: We have a speaker. MS. FILSON: Yes, ma'am, Tarnrny Nemecek. MS. NEMECEK: Good afternoon. Tammy Nemecek, executive director for the economic development council. And we're all kind of running around right now, trying to figure out where this storm is going. But we've learned a lot from Charley and I think that we can take that advice from other counties that have dealt on the business side of the house to prepare our businesses here locally, and that's what we're here to talk about today, as far as opening of a business assistance center, should the need arise, if Hurricane Frances does corne through Collier County. And what we learned with dealing with Charlotte County, we had some of our staff folks go up there and participate in the business assistant center can help us develop this center here. And one of the things that I think will help is a pre-notification to the businesses of Page 31 September 2, 2004 where the center will be located, what will be available there, and how they can access it. The business assistant center is designed as a one-stop center where businesses can apply for federal emergency management assistance, assistance through the small business administration, bridge loans through the office of tourism trade and economic development, and disaster unemployment assistance through the Florida Agency for Work Force Innovation. We have identified International College as the location for this business assistance center. We have sent out notifications for volunteers to be ready to go at the center. Our EDC staff will staff it as well. We've communicated with all the nonprofit agencies here in Collier County so that they could get notices out to their individual members of their organization so that they could be prepared to notify the businesses when the center -- when and if the center needs to open. We will work with the county staff. We've been working with County Manager Mudd and the emergency management folks and particularly Bleu Wallace, who when they send out their disaster teams to identify the damage that's been done, they will have fliers in hand that they can pass out to business folks so that they know where the center is and what assistance is available. If the hurricane does corne through Collier County and it's identified that we need to activate the center, we will open it up probably Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m. at International College. We have identified a phone number, although we won't go ahead and release it until we know actually that we're going to have to activate the center. And again, the center will be located at International College, which is located at 2655 Northbrook Drive, which is at the corner of Immokalee Road and Interstate 75, behind Bob Evans. And again, we're looking for -- one of the things that we learned Page 32 September 2, 2004 when Hurricane Charley came through and working with the businesses up in Charlotte County was the fact that a lot of the businesses lost their financial records. And their CPA's where their financial records were stored, their businesses were lost as well. So it's very important that businesses keep in a safe location at least three years worth of financial records for the business, as well as their Internal Revenue records. They can be accessed, but it delays the process in applying for those loans. And at the center we'll have -- EDC staff, which will help walk them through the initial part of the application process, but we'll also have bankers there that will help finish up those applications to FBA and the State of Florida for disaster funds. Again, to remind everybody, this is the business side of the house. There's a separate center which deals with the residential aspect of it. This is particularly just for the businesses to help them get up and operational. We have Mike Davis on call to send a letter to the Governor to request implementation of the bridge loan program, which provides up to $25,000 in funds to companies to get them through that process before their insurance dollars come in, or SDA funds come in, to help them with recovering from the business. And those are zero interest loans for 180 days. So those have been very active in Charlotte County. Of the $4 million they were allocated for Hurricane Charley, they've already gone through $3.1 million. So we're hoping that those funds again become available and that we'll have enough to go around with businesses that may be potentially impacted here in Collier County . CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you very much, Tammy. Any questions from the commissioners? Yes, Commissioner Halas. COMMISSIONER HALAS: We -- in your scenario, Dan, you said anybody west of 951 just hunker down, because we don't have the Page 33 September 2, 2004 area or we don't have enough storm shelters. What about people east of 951, what's that scenario for? MR. SUMMERS: That scenario again is -- and we'll go to the visualizer, if I may. Again, mapping those wind fields that I -- again, this is not science. This is an approximation of what the average we're seeing of the various model runs. And our concern here is again with the storm headed in this direction -- with the storm headed in that direction, the area that I want to concentrate evacuation, primarily because of the housing types in that area, mobile home, other structures, et cetera, that's the area that I want to focus in on those folks going to the shelter, focusing on mobile homes or construction sites that may date 1992, as an example. So again, my biggest concern is there. As I look closer to the Gulf, I see stronger, maybe newer construction in most cases. And I also see where there are more wind breaks potentially as the storm crosses. And there is a fair amount of mileage there. So again, my initial response, my area of concentration, is grided off here, but we'll call it Immokalee and vicinity. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you very much. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: If I may, too, we might want to express the urgency of the situation. We really haven't quite identified the area that's going to be evacuated at this time, but it will be happening shortly. When it does happen, I'd like to make an urgent appeal to the residents of Collier County that are out of harm's way to step forward and open their hearts and their homes to those people that they've befriended over the years, to being co-workers, church, to fraternal organizations, or however, to extend an invitation to those people in harm's way, to move in with them. Out shelters are going to be crowded, we're going to need every bit of help that we can get. We have to pull together as a community should pull together at a time like this. MR. SUMMERS: Sir, I could not agree with you more. We-- Page 34 September 2, 2004 although we were certainly frightened by Charley, I want to tell you that you can take all of those problems and magnify them times four and really in terms of what we may potentially expect in Collier County. And we certainly want to keep in our prayers our friends in Charlotte and Lee if in fact they get a second direct hit. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Mr. Summers, you've mentioned so often one of your main concerns is the Immokalee area. Do you have a contact, or regular contacts with the Spanish and the Haitian radio stations so that they can get their messages out? MR. SUMMERS: Let me ask Mr. -- the answer is yes, and I believe Mr. Torre can elaborate. John? MR. TORRE: Commissioner, we've been aggressively doing outreach in the Spanish and Hispanic radio stations, starting this morning. And we've been providing regular updates to W AFZ, which is 92.1 FM. So we've been doing our best to get the word out. We've been using county employees that are fluent in Spanish to help us out with that. CHAIRMAN FIALA: What about the Haitian station? MR. TORRE: We have. We have sent -- they're all on our distribution list for press releases, faxes, e-mails, so we have -- they have been receiving our information. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, very good, thank you. MR. MUDD: Commissioner, if there's no more questions, I'd like to get Mr. Weigel to read the resolution and get you to vote on the state of emergency, and then after that's over to take some motions on those particular items that Mr. Summers brought up about no fees for CAT and some things like that, and we'll go down those after you've declared this emergency. Mr. Weigel? Item #4 Page 35 September 2, 2004 RESOLUTION 2004-248: DECLARING A STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR ALL TERRITORY WITHIN THE LEGAL BOUNDARIES OF COLLIER COUNTY INCLUDING ALL MR. WEIGEL: Yes, and Jim, you're exactly correct, it looked like three elements that Mr. Summers brought up can be handled and should be handled separately by motion of the board for the record, so that will be just fine. The proposed proclamation/resolution reads as follows: Proclamation of the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County to declare a state of emergency for all territory within the legal boundaries of Collier County, including all incorporated and unincorporated areas. Now, this proclamation is very similar to the one for Charley, but it reads as follows: WHEREAS, Hurricane Frances has the potential for causing extensive damage to public utilities, public buildings, public communications systems, public streets and roads, public drainage systems, commercial and residential buildings and areas; and, WHEREAS, Collier County Emergency Management officials are recommending that a state of local emergency be declared due to the current and potential path of Hurricane Frances; and, WHEREAS, Chapter 252.38, (3)(A)(5), Florida Statutes in Collier County Ordinance Nos. 84-37, 2001-45 and 2002-50, codified as Sections 38 through 56 through 38 and 70 in the Collier County code of laws and ordinances, provide for a political subdivision such as Collier County to declare a state of local emergency and to waive the procedures and formalities otherwise required of political subdivisions by law pertaining to. And there is a list to follow: One, performance of public work and taking whatever prudent action is necessary to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the community. Page 36 September 2, 2004 Two, entering into contracts. Three, incurring obligations. Four, employment of permanent and temporary workers. Five, rental of equipment. Six, utilization of voluntary workers. Seven, acquisition and distribution with or without compensation of supplies, materials and facilities. Eight, appropriations and expenditure of public funds. It goes on to say: NOW THEREFORE, it is resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County, Florida, in special session this 2nd day of September, 2004, that Hurricane Frances poses a serious threat to the lives and property of residents of Collier County, that voluntary evacuation is encouraged and that a state of local emergency be declared, effective immediately, for all territory in the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Collier County. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of County Commissioners hereby exercises its authority pursuant to Collier County Ordinance Nos. 84-37,2001-45 and 2002-50, and waives the procedures and formalities required by law of a political subdivision as provided in Chapter 252.38 (3)(A)(5), Florida Statutes, including authorization for purchasing director to waive existing purchasing card limitations during the declared emergency. The last clause I read is new to this proclamation from the proclamation for Hurricane Charley. We have learned that in fact we can be facilitated by the purchasing cards which have -- or credit cards that have $500 limitations; that this will board would be authorizing hereby that Steve Carnell, purchasing director, could in specific purposes provide for the extension beyond the 500 limitation, $500 limitation for individual purchase. Because sometimes individual purchases of a particular piece of equipment may go over the $500 mark. Additionally, it says: BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of County Commissioners hereby declares that during an emergency, it shall be Page 37 September 2, 2004 unlawful and an offense against the county for any person operating within the county to charge more than the normal average retail price for any merchandise, goods or services sold during the emergency. The average retail price, as used herein, is defined to be that price at which similar merchandise, goods or services were being sold during the 30 days immediately preceding the emergency, or at a markup, which is a larger percentage over wholesale cost than was being added to wholesale cost prior to the emergency. Additionally it states: The waiver and reimposition of the state gas taxes shall not factor as to gasoline/petroleum products sales pnces. This sentence is added because based on the timing of this emergency, we are in September, the state gas tax waiver is over, and perhaps at first flush it would appear that gas prices have gone up inappropriately pursuant to the price gouging aspects of state law by virtue of the reimposition of the tax. The tax is not a price and that's what this makes clear here, the tax is the tax. Ultimately then this proclamation/resolution adopted after motion, seconded and a majority vote favoring same by the commISSIoners. That is the proclamation for declaration of local emergency that you have before you. And if you have any questions or additions, I'll be happy to respond to your questions. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Motion to approve. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Second. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, I have a motion to approve by Commissioner Coletta, a second by Commissioner Halas. Any discussion on this proclamation? (No response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: All those in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. Page 38 September 2,2004 COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Aye. Opposed, like sign. (N 0 response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: Very good. We have four commissioners voting in favor. Item #5 RESOLUTION(S) 2004-249 & 2004-250: REGARDING EMERGENCY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN PREPARATION FOR MR. MUDD: Commissioner, then I'd like to turn to the first item and that's a declaration that no fees for CAT transportation -- COMMISSIONER HALAS: Motion to approve. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Second. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, we have a motion to approve no fees for CAT service during this storm event. All those in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Aye. Opposed, like sign. (N 0 response.) MR. WEIGEL: Jim -- pardon me, Madam Chairman, but Jim, for what time period is this motion just approved to entail? MS. FLAGG: Friday. MR. WEIGEL: Commencing when and terminating when? MR. MUDD: It's basically all day Friday, tomorrow. MR. WEIGEL: Okay. I just wanted to make sure it was clear in Page 39 September 2, 2004 the record. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you. MR. MUDD: And then depending on how we're recovering, we'll make a decision if -- you know, what day that's going to be for the next particular issue. I'll try to get it fine tuned on that tomorrow for our meeting. MR. WEIGEL: Thank you. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Very good. Thank you very much for clarifying that. MR. MUDD: The next item is EMS transports for special needs should be minimal, and would request a waiver of transport fee for the transportation of safe refuge in the county. And that's basically one way to get them to the shelter, just like we did in Charley. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Move for approval. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Second it. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, moved for approval by Commissioner Halas, seconded by Commissioner Coyle. Any discussion? (No response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: All those in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Aye. Opposed, like sign. (N 0 response.) MR. MUDD: Commissioner, the next one is to concur with the state emergency appropriation of $50,000 to open an emergency measures fund for the emergencies services bureau. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Motion to approve. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Second. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, I have a motion to approve by Page 40 September 2, 2004 Commissioner Coyle, a second by Commissioner Coletta. Any discussion? (N 0 response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: All those in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Aye. Opposed, like sign. (N 0 response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: That's a 4-0. MR. MUDD: Commissioner, you did an earlier motion for debris, for storm debris, and you did it for Hurricane Charley. I'd like you to also have a motion to have this effective for Hurricane Frances. And this motion is to place on the record authorization for Collier County and its public utilities division to remove all storm-related debris along rights-of-way of public and private roadways. This is consistent to the level of service of current solid waste collection services, with the exception that the restrictions of size and bundling are waived during this storm debris removal period. It is further recommended the tipping fee be waived for all residents who choose to self-deliver storm-related debris directly to the landfills or the recycling centers. This debris removal motion is an approved effort within Collier County emergency management plan and the Collier County's Phase I and Phase II emergency debris removal plan. This effort is necessary to protect public health and safety . COMMISSIONER HALAS: So moved. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Second. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Halas to approve the resolution, same resolution that we had for Hurricane Charley, and second by Commissioner Coyle. All those in Page 41 September 2, 2004 favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Aye. Opposed, like sign. (No response.) MR. MUDD: The next issue I'd like to discuss is the review with EM and sheriff curfew issues for tomorrow, and determine any additional meeting time. And I'd like to bring that back to Mr. Summers. MR. SUMMERS: I believe with the forecast scenarios that we have, it will be a very, very busy day tomorrow, but I think it would be very important that I have the opportunity to brief with you around 3:30 tomorrow at your convenience. MR. MUDD: Afternoon. MR. SUMMERS: 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. CHAIRMAN FIALA: 3:30 tomorrow afternoon here. Okay, Commissioners -- COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Do you need a motion on that? MR. MUDD: No, when you adjourn, don't terminate this meeting. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Recess. MR. MUDD: Recess it for the emergency for -- CHAIRMAN FIALA: So at 3:30 tomorrow. MR. MUDD: -- tomorrow. At 3:30 tomorrow. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, and we'll get the public notices out. MR. MUDD: Yeah. And is there a sheriff representation -- representative that wants to talk about curfew, or we'll do that tomorrow, ma'am, depending -- tomorrow we'll do that. That's all the items that we have on the agenda, Madam Chair. David Weigel has something further. Page 42 September 2, 2004 Item #6 COMM.ENI&.lliS. JSSED MR. WEIGEL: Thank you. Before you adjourn to the time certain of 3 :30 p.m., September 3rd, Friday afternoon, I have one more note to put on the record for you, if I may, and I appreciate that. And that is that I, the county attorney, pursuant to Section 286.011(8)ofthe Sunshine Law, announce to you all my desire for you to have a special closed session meeting relating to the Aqua-port cases, to discuss the negotiation of settlement and litigation strategies; this meeting to be held hopefully at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 9th, the half hour period prior to the budget hearing to be heard at -- to be held at 5:05, September 9th. We have provided appropriate notice pursuant to law to go out; I'll be providing one to the record here today. I tend to guild the lily and therefore provide you this notice at this point in time a week ahead of time and would request that we could in fact have that meeting, a brief meeting just prior to the budget meeting on Thursday, September 9th. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Very good. Commissioners, do you have any problems with that? COMMISSIONER HALAS: I don't. COMMISSIONER COYLE: No. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, very good. Would you let all of our secretaries know so that they can get it on our schedule. MR. WEIGEL: I sure will. And this requires no act of you at the present time, other than in essence the nod that you've given, and I will proceed then to make sure that everything is ready for the meeting. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, thank you very much. Commissioner Coletta, you look like you want to ask a question. Page 43 September 2, 2004 COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Not so much a question, but I think it would be very important at this point in time for our emergency management director, Dan Summers, to reiterate the severity of this particular storm. You've been through how many hurricanes now? MR. SUMMERS: Sir, I'm afraid to tell you. This will be the 14th. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: So he's -- wherever he goes, he attracts hurricanes. Of course that's a little bit of an inside joke, I understand. But come back again with the severity of this storm compared to other ones that you've seen in the past. And let the audience know out there exactly what they're up against. MR. SUMMERS: Sir, I will tell you that this -- of all the storms I have done in coastal North Carolina, what I witnessed in the Charley scenario, what I see in Hurricane Frances is at the top of the chart. It is the most severe, it is the largest, it is the most well organized. Its eye wall is perfect, which means the chemistry, the thermodynamics that are running this storm are historical in perspective. I think we really want to stress to everyone to take personal responsibility for individual and family action preparedness, understand that all government and community resources are strained for our own community, as well as we're doing the very best that we can for those evacuees from the east coast. Please take this seriously. The death toll from Hurricane Charley was almost unbelievable. And if we overlay some of those issues with the intensity of this storm, I am very much afraid that we have -- we're looking at a very serious lethal scenario for southern Florida. CHAIRMAN FIALA: I wish they would have gotten it -- I hope some of the TV guys got that, but it doesn't look like they're filming right now. That should have been on our -- on television tonight so that people are warned of this thing. Thank you very much for -- MR. SUMMERS: Thank you for your help. And I'd like to thank Page 44 September 2, 2004 our EOC team who have been phenomenal all day. And they have a long road to go. Thank you. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I would just like to say to Dan and your staff, I want to thank you very much for your leadership. It's outstanding in times of need like this. Thank you. MR. SUMMERS: Thank you very much. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Thank you. Any other comments from commissioners? (No response.) CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, Mr. Weigel? MR. WEIGEL: All you have to do is make a note on the record of an adjournment until 3:30 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, September 3rd. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Is it adjournment or recess? MR. WEIGEL: Actually, adjournment works. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, Mr. Mudd, do you have any comments before we close? MR. MUDD: No, ma'am, I'll see you tomorrow -- the county is open, the county manager's agency tomorrow all day. If I see something on projection as far as speed picking up with wind velocities, I will make a determination tomorrow if it's going to be a partial day or a completely full one, but for right now it's a full day for the county manager's agency. All the offices will be open. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, fine. And Mr. Summers, any last words? MR. SUMMERS: No, ma'am. CHAIRMAN FIALA: Okay, fine. Then we will adjourn until 3:30 tomorrow. Thank you very much. **** Page 45 September 2, 2004 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 4:52 p.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD (S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL. ~ dut~ DONN~ FIALA, Chairman ATTEST: DWIGHT E. IJROCK, CLERK ..,<1' c;:ÿr'!;'9" .-&' ~~;.<..~:;"" "!-¿' ~.>_._...."./,¡ ~:-. '"'.{~.,-..;'" ¡':'b~', - - . --..,.'''' "'i'" AIM¡Jt . a;i~~f~ ' ; · ,'........ .1t~:::~~::.\iii¡,;i\.:~ ,"'.':; [~,ì;~,-· ""(}:: /I¡ . ",~!';' ~ These minutes approved by the Board on Q~ /1-. ZØf;'1 , as presented v or as corrected TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. BY CHERIE' NOTTINGHAM. Page 46 ,···,o_"·_·__"_'~_'·· ,'.