BCC Minutes 10/20/2005 E (Hurricane Wilma)
October 20, 2005
EMERGENCY MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
NAPLES, FLORIDA, OCTOBER 20, 2005
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 3:00 p.m. in
EMERGENCY SESSION in Building "F" of the Government
Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN: Fred Coyle
Jim Coletta
Donna Fiala
Tom Henning
Frank Halas
ALSO PRESENT:
Jim Mudd, County Manager
Dan Summers, Emergency Management Director
David Weigel, County Attorney
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COLLIER COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
~
EMERGENCY AGENDA
HURRICANE WILMA
October 20, 2005
3:00 p.m.
Fred W. Coyle, Chairman, District 4
Frank Halas, Vice-Chairman, District 2
Donna Fiala, Commissioner, District 1
Tom Henning, Commissioner, District 3
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. 2004-05, 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 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.
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October 20, 2005
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 DEP ARTMENT 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. Call to Order/Pledge of Allegiance
2. Updated track information for Hurricane Wilma and its effects on the citizens of
Collier County, Florida
(Presented by Emergency Management Director, Dan Summers)
3. Determination of Necessity of Dec1aring a State of Emergency
4. Discuss any appropriate action for the Board to take
5. Comments
6. Adjourn
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October 20, 2005
October 20, 2005
MR. MUDD: Ladies and gentlemen, would you take your seats.
Commissioner, you have a hot mic.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: The emergency meeting of the Board of
County Commissioners is now in session.
Would you please stand with me for the pledge of allegiance.
(Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
MR. MUDD: Mr. Chairman, this is the emergency meeting of
the Board of County Commissioners on the 20th of October, at 3 :00
p.m. This has everything to do with Hurricane Wilma and its effects
on Collier County.
As kind of an advertisement, WBBH Channel 2, a local NBC
affiliate, and WZVN, a Channel 7 local ABC affiliate, are
broadcasting this meeting live, and we thank them for this service to
the community.
And I'd like to turn this presentation over to Mr. Dan Summers,
our director of the Bureau of Emergency Services.
Dan?
MR. SUMMERS: Commissioners, good afternoon. Ladies and
gentlemen, thank you for being here. Dan Summers, director of the
Bureau of Emergency Services for Collier County, and I'm your
emergency management director of record.
We're fine tweaking a few audio visuals here, but in the
meantime, while -- there's a great demand on the website, by the way,
for a lot of information.
I'll change the batting order a little bit. Instead of going over the
forecast, let's go directly into some of our hurricane evacuation
discussions and timing elements first with Hurricane Wilma.
We continue to maintain good communications with the National
Hurricane Center, the State Division of Emergency Management,
FEMA and Department of Homeland Security over this particular
hurricane event.
This still is a serious hurricane storm event. As you know, it was
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October 20, 2005
historical in nature yesterday and the day before, as this storm went
from basically a tropical depression to a Category 5, just within one
night's period.
The storm is posing a little bit of challenge for the models, as you
see on the display here, with the storm's current track in how the
Yucatan Peninsula will affect this storm's behavior.
All of the hurricane guidance models have this storm turning, and
all of the models are in general consensus. One or two models have
strayed slightly to Hillsboro County, one or two of the models had
strayed just to mainland Monroe County, but the bulk of all the model
runs today from the National Hurricane Center place Naples in the
center of the hurricane track.
What has become difficult for us, and will continue to be difficult
for us over the next couple of days, is the ultimate timing of this
storm. As you know, we have -- if you saw the National Weather
Map this morning, you saw cool temperatures across the central
section of the United States. Those cool temperatures will act as a
trough that will -- are the steering currents for this hurricane event.
There could still be some anomalies in the timing of that trough as it
becomes a steering current, if you will, for this hurricane and its
ultimate compass heading.
But the models -- once this storm passes the Yucatan, the models
remain in guidance that Naples will be the impact for this particular
storm. That's unfortunate.
There is a little bit of -- there was some good news and bad news
earlier in terms of the storm's forward motion. The models today have
the storm slowing down a little bit as it comes north of Cuba. That is
somewhat of an advantage in that it gives our community more
preparation time, and it gives our community more evacuation time,
particularly voluntary evacuation time.
And then of course we see on the map here some big jumps in
time elements. And I'll run through these with you in a minute.
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October 20, 2005
Which leads us to believe that while we have gained evacuation
timing and gained additional daylight before we clear our community,
as we need to, we may also lose that time, as we see an increase in
forward motion to the north, northeast.
The difficulty with that is twofold. And let me try to explain.
The difficulty is that as good planners, we put four, six, maybe even
eight hours' fluctuation in our timing, just because of how Mother
Nature may react.
The other part of adding additional time in our component here is
the fact that the storm continues to gain in strength and in width,
overall breadth. So we have a much wider storm with this distance of
gale force winds extending farther out from the eye.
Our goal again is to have everyone secured before the arrival of
the 40 mile per hour winds. And that's why you see the concentric
circles.
Let me advance this for you for a little bit for illustration
purposes.
MR. MUDD: Dan, can you please describe what -- there's a
circle around Naples. That isn't a target. How about telling the
commissioners what that is.
MR. SUMMERS: That circle is a timing element for us that
when the arrival of gale force winds reach or come close to that circle,
that is the point at which we want to be secured from the storm.
Now, there's a little margin in there, but that is what we call our
decision arc. When the storm arc and the radius arc from Naples
meet, that's a clearance point. That's a trigger element for us. So
that's a tool that we use in our planning process.
Thank you, Mr. Mudd.
I'll move this forward a little bit. Again, the models are wrestling
with the behavior of this storm as it crosses the Yucatan. Radar
imagery earlier, just before we came here, is starting to note a little bit
of the turn.
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October 20, 2005
Then if you -- again, you'll notice that the blue line, the large
line, is an indication of these winds and its ultimate size.
We get into Saturday evening and that's where our two radii will
meet. That's a point where we know that actions need to be moving
forward.
And again, please understand that this model is going to change
at every forecast. But we're going to pick a middle of the road as a
planning assumption throughout the process so that we leave ourselves
adequate time for action and response.
I'll continue to move forward. Again, we see at 9: 00 a.m. on
Sunday we're potentially impacted by these storm force winds.
Now, rule of thumb in emergency management is that you don't
want to do evacuations or shelter operations at night; in other words,
the movement at night. We want to have as -- take advantage of as
much daylight as you can for everyone's safety. Hence, that's why we
have continued to talk in the EOC about voluntary precautionary
evacuation.
As you know, we have a lot of challenges on Interstate 75, we
have -- I'll talk more about schools in just a little bit.
But here's the bad news. The bad news is that yesterday we had a
planning assumption of a storm surge elevation between seven and 11
feet. The National Hurricane Center advises us today that in the
current planning models that we might anticipate a 16- foot storm
surge elevation.
Now, that's all subject to change, depending on the storm's
category. But at the point where if we look at seven foot of surge
versus 14 foot of surge, we are not in a position to make a change in
those planning elements one foot at a time. We're going to take the
worst case scenario and prepare for that and hope that we do better
than that. But as we all know from experience, we need to run from
the water and we need to hide from the wind. And again, that is the
case as we look at these coastal zoned areas.
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So I'll move forward a little bit for the sake of discussion.
The also -- the other thing that is challenging right now, I might
mention, is the fact that this storm has had adequate time to generate
significant wave action. So the wave action, along with the forward
movement and many other factors including barometric pressure will
have the ultimate recipe for our storm surge. Again, there are a lot of
variables, so I can't give you a concrete storm surge estimate at this
point until we get much closer to landfall. But at that point it may be
too late. So I'm going to continue to --
MR. MUDD: Dan, if you'd wait for just a second.
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir.
MR. MUDD: Commissioners, you'll note that from Saturday to
Sunday, the sustained wind speed has moved from 140 miles per hour
down to 115 right now. So it's losing strength -- or as far as a
hurricane is concerned. It might be getting wider as far as the
impacted area by that red circle in the middle; however, your wind
speed, sustained wind speed has been going down.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, sir.
Just a couple more points as we get into Sunday afternoon.
Again, we've got good daylight here, but this daylight window could
collapse on us if this storm escalates in forward motion, and then
moving on through to actual direct landfall again being Sunday
afternoon.
So these are the models. Not a pretty picture for Collier County
whatsoever. And this kind of reminds me of something we designed
for an exercise, not for an actual event. But this is certainly the case.
Let me -- let's see if I can show you just a current radar imagery
right now. If you'll bear with me, we'll give this just a second to load.
And if that bogs down, we'll move on. Okay, we have -- we've all
seen a lot of hit on some of these websites.
Any questions on this general recap of the forecast before I go
into protective action discussions?
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Commissioner?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: What's your best guess for the
length of time that this event will be going through Collier County
from the time it hits landfall till it passes through?
MR. SUMMERS: Sir, let me run that based on the model.
We've gone through that -- let's see.
MR. MUDD: 6:00 p.m. right there.
MR. SUMMERS: 6:00 p.m. And would probably not clear us
until 2:00 a.m.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay.
MR. SUMMERS: A good six or eight-hour event minimum.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you.
MR. SUMMERS: Let me go into some general protective action
recommendations and discussions for you. I generally have this in
hard copy right now. This has certainly been real-time printing and
publishing, so bear with me as we go through this just a little bit.
I continue to recommend a voluntary precautionary evacuation.
And earlier today we had requested additional emphasis in our public
service, public safety advisory announcements that went out that we
emphasize now areas west and south of U.S. 41, Tamiami Trail.
Compliance with our voluntary evacuation has been going very
well, and we continue to encourage all affected residents and
businesses to continue with this early evacuation effort.
We did see a little bit of some fuel issues yesterday. I've been
assured by the state that they are not fuel issues state-wide, that only
because of large demand and resupply there are some sporadic
outages, but there's not a fuel shortage. And we can be thankful of
that.
We've had a lot of questions about ultimate destination. We
continue to recommend evacuation efforts should include drive time
estimates with delays as far north as Sarasota. We think that it's
important to continue to travel north because of this diagonal slice that
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the storm's going to make. That's sort of good in a way in that only a
few counties will be impacted. But we know that there will be large
demands on interstate travel and resources north of us.
Traffic is moving. There are some delays. There have been some
accidents, but we are by no stretch of the imagination close to the
parking lot scenarios that we saw on the news during Hurricane
Katrina.
Collier County Emergency Management would like to thank and
continue to request the Collier County district schools' support for
closing of schools on Friday. Superintendent Ray Baker and his team
have been most cooperative. And this is a big hardship on them on the
impact of schools. They have agreed to maintain school closure
tomorrow. Again for the -- that we think will add support to additional
evacuation clearing times. It will also assist the community in the
following: It gives individuals and families time to continue their
preparedness effort. It will also allow -- this extra time will allow for
refuel and commodity resupply in the retail sector. It will also allow
us additional time to make shelters ready, and for residents to continue
to make preparations for refuge outside of Collier County.
Let me talk about my recommendation. We've got a lot to cover,
so bear with me. Let me talk about my current recommendation -- my
evacuation recommendation at this time.
I'm recommending a mandatory evacuation of all areas west and
south of U.S. 41, Tamiami Trail. This should include the following
communities of: Marco, Naples, Everglades City, Chokoloskee, Isles
of Capri, Plantation Island and other tidal areas such as Henderson
Creek.
This recommendation -- it is my recommendation that this
become effective Friday at 12:00 noon, under the current planning
assumption of a Category 1 or a Category 2 hurricane event.
Residents who have their own transportation or who have made
their own transportation arrangements with family, friends or other
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non-governmental organizations should have their evacuation from
these areas completed by 12:00 noon on Saturday.
Essential services should complete their operations on Saturday
evening, or as directed by their local municipality.
Now, we're going to have to have a little discretion on this one,
because essential services are going to be things like grocery stores
and hardware and fuel, and so we're going to leave those exact
closings up to the municipality to deal with that.
And I have coordinated that with Marco Island. Chief Murphy
was here as their representative. I spoke with Chief Moore on
conference call just prior to this meeting, as well as representatives
from Everglades City.
Sir?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes. In your evacuation notice,
why don't you just put in there from the north Collier County line,
which is west of 41, that area also. Make it perfectly clear that from
the county line south along 41 there, west of it.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, sir. And I had that on the visual,
but I'll capture that in narrative form. Thank you.
The need for traffic control points or movement control will be
reevaluated later by local law enforcement and the Emergency
Operations Center. There are going to be those individuals that have
legitimate trips in order to make this evacuation and relocation
successful. But I think with your message and your support to
continue the evacuation process, reduce our census and reduce our
traffic counts, we'll be in far better shape to deal with those situations
on a case-by-case.
Let me also mention that emergency management needs to
prepare you and ask you to allow to us reserve the right to increase the
mandatory evacuation area further inland beyond U. S. 41. This
expanded evacuation zone could extend as far east as Livingston
Road.
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Now, I need to tell you that we're going to -- we're going to see
different fluctuations in the storm modeling. It is my general
impression that I want to make sure that folks are keenly aware that
they need to pay close attention, if they live west of Livingston Road,
and I reserve the right to do some incremental evacuation between
Livingston Road and the gulf. Okay? I'm trying not to throw a
blanket over the evacuation for this storm. I'm going to do the best I
can with the models and known geographical boundaries to error on
the side of safety as best I can without making any unnecessary
evacuation recommendations.
This expanded evacuation zone, as I said, could extend as far east
as Livingston Road and south of Radio Road to Rattlesnake Hammock
Road. Residents who are in these areas should listen to local radio and
television for additional evacuation instructions, as the storm's track
and intensity may expand the evacuation areas before Saturday
afternoon.
The goal here is we're sort of trying to do a staggered evacuation
so that we don't max out our evacuation assets. If we can do voluntary
now those that have the ability to leave, those that also have enhanced
their -- who have an understanding of their vulnerabilities can also
leave. We move into mandatory and then we move into an expanded
area, if it becomes necessary. And I think that's the best way for us to
handle it.
A couple more points. I know you of some questions, but let me
continue.
Collier County Emergency Management requests that residents
in Immokalee utilize local shelters if needed, since the area will not be
impacted by storm surge. Now, granted, we're looking at a significant
wind event, which we know that a lot of folks can shelter in place, and
we have a relatively dry hurricane event, maybe five to seven inches.
So while our inland communities, Immokalee in particular, will
have -- could expect wind damage, our greatest vulnerability is
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associated with storm surge. So we will have shelters in the
Immokalee area as well that can help address those population issues,
but our goal again is to get away from this potential storm surge.
Commissioner Coletta, I know you have some questions, and if I
may continue, bear with me.
Transportation coordination and transportation dependent
individuals will receive additional information and instructions via
local radio, television, Collier TV and other notification systems on
Friday.
Now, we have had a phenomenal increase at the last minute of
folks registering as persons with special needs, far exceeding any
capacity that we can manage at this point. We think that many of
those individuals will activate their family care plan, or their current
provider will help address their needs. We'll work very hard on those
issues tomorrow, and we'll continue to work on transportation plans.
All shelters are currently scheduled to open at 2:00 p.m. on
Saturday. And there's a reason for that in we'll have adequate retail
services. Some of those services will be available as needed Saturday,
but we're trying to minimize, or trying to save, conserve, as many of
our resources at the shelter as we can, so we'll open at 2:00 on
Saturday.
The storm's track and timing may have some bearing on shelter
openings. Residents should closely monitor radio, television and
Collier TV for detailed information.
The following shelters have been selected, with support from the
Collier County schools. They are: Palmetto Ridge, Gulf Coast High,
Golden Gate High School, Corkscrew Middle School, Oak Ridge
Middle School, North Naples Middle School, Golden Gate Middle
School, Immokalee High School and Immokalee Middle School.
Those are the facilities that we have, and we have already deployed
our supplies or are in the process of completing our deployment of
supplies to those locations.
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There are four facilities that the EOC will reserve as special
coordination facilities. That includes: Barron, Village Oak, Caloosa
Park and Sable Palm. And there are some EOC specific missions in
the event that we need some county employees or emergency workers
at those locations, just so that we can gain access to them or I can use
them for special coordination sites, in the event that we receive mutual
aid assets. So I'll hold those in reserve, and obviously if we need
those reserves for general population, we'll do that.
I do have an activation schedule. I propose that the EOC remain
with the partial activation today. All of the EOC emergency support
function folks will brief in the EOC this afternoon following this
meeting where I'll get down to some of the detailed logistics concerns
that I have for the reminder of the week.
We will continue a partial EOC staffing tomorrow from 7:00 a.m.
to 7:00 p.m. Our hurricane hotline remains open today through 7:00
p.m. tonight. And they have been in -- there's been a phenomenal
demand on their services. And I have to tell you, the men and women
in that shop have done a phenomenal job and have really helped an
awful lot of people today through some confusing times.
We will look at a full EOC activation presently, that's Saturday
morning at 7:00 a.m. And we will run continuously on 12-hour shift
rotations, or at the departmental's discretion rotation. But we'll have
coverage in the EOC throughout the terminus of this event. As well as
the Collier Information Hotline will remain open continuously in
conjunction with the Emergency Operations Center.
I might also mention that we have already identified the
fairground on Immokalee Road will be our central receiving site for
our bulks commodities in the event -- this is not a guarantee, but in the
event that we get into ice, water or tarp distribution, that will be a
central receiving point.
I have already identified state emergency management personnel,
forestry personnel and National Guard folks who will help me in the
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receipt or the bulk warehousing operation in Immokalee. From there
the goods will be broken down and taken into various distribution
points. We will identify those distribution points once we see how the
storm is going to behave and make sure that those distribution points
are in fact functional. So we will announce that on radio and
television at a later date and time.
I will tell you that we have made plans for an alternate
emergency operations center, if it becomes necessary. We will use the
water treatment plant on I-75 and 951. We have communications in
place. They're certainly not as elaborate as we have here, but we have
the basics there, should we need to move our operation there for
everyone's safety.
I believe -- well, I know our solid waste department folks have
been in touch with our debris removal contractors for some advanced
planning and staging, if necessary. Again, we wanted to do that early
because I think every debris removal contractor, at least in the
Continental U.S., has missions currently in Mississippi, Alabama or
Louisiana. So some of those resources will have to be pulled off.
And as I understand, I believe it's tentative right now, for trash
collection to continue up until 12:00 noon on Saturday. That's been
confirmed, 12:00 noon on Saturday.
As we get to the resolutions, right now I have -- for the
resolutions, I have no curfews or prohibitions recommended for you at
this time. That's certainly subject to change throughout the event.
I would request your approval to have CAT bus waive any fares,
if necessary, to facilitate our evacuation. And I have a time element
and I'll pencil that in at the appropriate point. As well as I would like
some discretion with EMS not to charge for evacuation, if it becomes
necessary. Again, that's coordinated on a case-by-case special needs
basis, so that we can get those folks out without any undo harm.
And I would like to stress that our Collier Information Hotline at
774-8444. The cooperation that we've had from the media on getting
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this information has been outstanding.
That's a mouthful. Let me stop right there and let's see what
concerns you might have.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Coletta?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you. I do appreciate it.
Dan, I noticed that when you showed us the model, unlike
models I've seen in the past that show the wind speed, do we have any
kind of prediction with what we've got now as far as what the wind
speed will be once it hits the coast and progresses inland?
MR. SUMMERS: Rick is going to pull up one additional graphic
there that might help you. We do have some graphics that will help
you there. We'll see if we can share that with you in a model.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Let me go on and ask some
other questions while we're waiting for the setup on that.
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Let's make it absolutely clear to
the public out there, we're encouraging evacuation in the coastal area
up to Livingston Road voluntarily. It's going to go mandatory over a
period of time. We're not encouraging mass evacuation for the east of
951 or parts of the Estates or the other side of Livingston Road, that
for the most part people are recommended to remain where they are if
they live in a house?
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir, that is correct. If they are in a
position where they can shelter in place, they need to do that.
Understand again we will have the power interruptions. Or they can
certainly go to our shelters that are available to them.
And again, the best thing right now is to -- particularly if you
don't want to be inconvenienced with the loss of essential services
such as possibly electricity or water, sewer, depending on where you
are, those type of things, even if you are outside of that 951, you
might want to go north with family and friends. If that's not practical,
understand that we have shelters in good locations throughout the
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county. All of the shelters are outside of these storm surge inundation
zones. So you have the option of sheltering in place or going to a
public shelter, or going to another hardened facility that you are aware
of within your community.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I think this would be a good
time to make sure that the public realizes that they can't depend upon
government to be the answer-all for what's taking place out there, that
they ought to take a look and see, the people that live near the coast
that need the help, that need the shelter, or if you leave inland, provide
shelter for your friends, your fellow workers, people from your
churches, your fraternal organizations.
It's time now for the public to step up and get on the phone and
start to make arrangements to lessen the burden that will take place at
the shelters. The shelters are going to be a necessary place to be if
you have no other place to go and you live along the coast. But
they're not going to be a comfortable place. They're going to be
crowded, there's going to be limited facilities and it's going to be a
very taxing situation.
So if you do have room within your homes, you live out in the
Estates, you live west of Livingston Road and you do have friends that
live along the coastal area, now is the time to make that phone call and
invite them into your home.
I'll ask some more questions after the commissioners are through.
MR. SUMMERS: Sir, may I elaborate on another point there for
you? Good point. And I thank you for bringing those comments
forward.
I need to restress, and I'm guilty of remembering this as an
assumption and not stating it, and that is our manufactured housing.
Again, if you're in the manufactured housing, if you're in smaller
trailers, not current code, fabricated -- help me, Mr. Mudd. Or modular
homes.
MR. MUDD: If you're in modular homes, pre-constructed,
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October 20, 2005
you're in a trailer, a mobile home, per se, if you take a look at the slide
that's in front of you, you're talking about our average winds miles per
hours are anywhere from 116 to 121 all through the county, at
different times with gusts in the 140 plus range. It's not the time when
you're in your mobile home, you look out there and it starts to shake
and you say well, I should be in shelter. It's probably a little too late.
You probably need to get your important papers and things together
and think about going to a county shelter or going north past Sarasota,
as Dan had mentioned earlier, as far as evacuation is concerned.
MR. SUMMERS: The forecasters continue to remind us that we
must stay alert for tornadic activity as this comes through. So we need
to pay close attention, monitor local AM and FM and NOAA weather
radio for those updates.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Dan, would you please reiterate in
regards to what people need to take with them at shelters? I think it's
very important. And to have the realization that we're not there to
supply all the needs that they need. They're required to bring things
with them. Please?
MR. SUMMERS: Commissioner, thank you. It's a very
important point as to what to bring with you to a shelter. You must
come as an individual and as a family as self-sufficient as possible.
We have a very small limited -- in proportion to this event, a limited
supply of things such as cots and blankets. You should bring a pillow,
a bed roll, quiet toys for the children. Bring canned goods or basic
staples. Don't forget the water, the medicine, the baby foods, all of
those type of things that you might need to be self-sufficient and
contribute to a health and safety shelter environment.
So again, remember those things that you need to take with you
that are essential to travel light. Your basic papers, emergency
information and records, those type of things. And please bring those
things so that you can be self-sufficient in these buildings for some
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October 20, 2005
period of time.
Now, I do -- I really do think that hopefully when the storm gets
through and if the damage is not too bad, the bulk of our concern will
be the coastal area in terms of impact. But we have all the resources
of the state at our disposal to get back on our feet, and we'll do that
professionally and methodically as fast as possible.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, just a very basic question.
When you say mandatory evacuation, there are many things that go
with the mandatory evacuation. Would you please let everyone know
what is involved with the mandatory evacuation.
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am. The goal and concern -- and
again, we continue to address this issue on a national level, but let's
make no mistake that the mandatory evacuation means, number one,
to remind you that you could be without all of the essential services:
Water, sewer, power, gas and telephone communications, number one.
Number two, that mandatory evacuation is designed to get you
out of harm's way. And that harm could in fact be wind, flood, debris,
et cetera.
It also means that I am not in a position under some
circumstances to affect a rescue. So if you don't take personal
responsibility to move yourself out of harm's way, and I don't mean to
be heartless when I say this, I'm not going to jeopardize the lives of
responders to come in and effect a rescue that puts undo risk on them
because of your failure to take personal responsibility to heed this
mandatory evacuation order.
There are always some certain situations that our municipalities
will have to deal with. Our law enforcement communities know how
to address that. But again, we are addressing this issue mandatory for
an individual and family's personal safety.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Now, let me just go on to say, do
you -- when you tissue a mandatory evacuation, do you then tell
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October 20, 2005
FP &L or whomever to shut off the water and electricity?
MR. SUMMERS: No, ma'am. We do not close any of those
services. We do not do that. Mother Nature will do that for us in due
course.
There are safety systems in place, obviously, if high winds affect
transformers and substations and that type of thing. So we're not
going to terminate those services as a means of moving people out.
That's -- we just don't do business like that anymore.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Will the police be activated or the
sheriffs office be activated to forcibly remove people?
MR. SUMMERS: We will review that situation on a
case-by-case. But the law enforcement and the Sheriff and the chiefs
and I have not had a chance to brief, so I'll defer a part of that to you.
But we cannot force you out of your home. However, we will do
our best to make sure that we've had as thorough a notification process
as we can. You know, there's lots of wives tails out there about, you
know, do we want the name of a closest family member, or do we
want you to write your Social Security number on your arm. We're a
much more mature organization and community than that, and we
think that -- we hope that common sense and good recommendations
will prevail.
We know that our law enforcement will pay attention to lights
that are on. We know our fire districts will survey their areas, if
necessary. I think that we will deal with that lack of compliance on a
case-by-case basis.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Have you been working with the
school system as far as school buses?
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am. We've been -- again, our right
arm and our response to the community is our school system. We
have coordination in place with our CAT buses, as well as the
transportation assets of the Collier County schools.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. The last question is: If you
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October 20, 2005
declare a mandatory evacuation to Livingston Road, after you've once
done -- I mean, I guess today we're here just to do south of U.S. 41.
But if you decide then to go up to Livingston Road, does that mean
then that's when you evacuate the emergency situation center as well?
MR. SUMMERS: I will look at that. I have a lot of variables
there, depending on what we see with the storm's track, what we see
with the storm's surge. But without a doubt, if I'm moving Livingston,
this campus has a level of vulnerability.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can we go back to the map and
zoom in on it? The evacuation map.
Well, that picture's much clearer. Now I can see it. It was --
MR. SUMMERS: I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No, I think that was just
technology. It was shaded.
I just want to say, the nation's eyes are going to be on Collier
County to see how we perform. And I think it's prudent that we hear
from the administrators to tell us how they're going to perform in their
certain duties, such as lift stations, water supply, things of that nature,
traffic.
MR. DeLONY: Good afternoon. Jim DeLony, public utilities
administrator.
Let me see if I can describe for you the best scenario with regard
to both our response and where we stand as far as preparation.
First of all, with regard to preparation. We're ready. Our
chemical status is excellent. The needs that we would have for a
period of six days plus are on hand or underway to be replenished
today and tomorrow. This is at both the water and wastewater
treatment facilities throughout the county.
With regard to solid waste, we are going to continue to maintain
our level of service through noon on Saturday. At that time we will
Page 19
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October 20, 2005
zip up that landfill, get those drivers from Waste Management as well
as our county staff hunkered down, and we will then resume our
operations. Probably focus first on emergency route clearing and
debris removal, to establish those routes of communication and
mobility. And we will move through our normal operations with
regard to debris removal.
And we're prepared to do that with a combination of in-house
staff from road and bridge, as well as contractors that we've already
prestaged and already have existing agreements with with regard to
emergency operations planning.
With regard to water, wastewater services during the actual storm
itself, we will keep the water -- we will keep the wasterwater moving,
as long as we're able.
With regard to water, we're 100 percent redundant with regard to
electricity. We can keep the pressure up and we can continue to
produce it. Storage levels will be maintained, as well as pressure,
until such time that there is a breach. At that time there will have to
be a decision made as to how we isolate and what services will have to
be curtailed to preclude compromising the entire water system.
Wastewater is much more problematic. In Collier County there's
well over 600 public lift stations and well over 200 private lift
stations. They are very dependent on FP &L to provide the power to
those lift stations.
We have a good idea with regard to where our vulnerability
points are. We have a number of generators, as well as staff, to man
those generators at critical lift stations and continue to provide the
flows that are necessary to move it to the plant.
Obviously 800 plus lift stations is a difficult task. And we will
man those generators, as well as have trucks which have pumps on
them that will drain them down. And we will do everything in our
power to make sure that we have no spills of wastewater within the
county. I believe I speak also for my fellow utility operators across
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October 20, 2005
the county in that regard. We will be watching closely and working
with the EOC and other first responders with regard to sighting these
problem areas, and we will respond appropriate to those events.
We were very successful in Charley. We had a significant
outage. We did very, very well. We are rehearsed is what I'm trying
to pass on to you, sir. We have a good plan. But the size of this
event, it could be staggering, it could be very difficult.
Again, as long as we're able to maintain services, we will. And at
the time that those services are not able to be provided, we will curtail
it to preserve that infrastructure so once this storm is passed we can
again restore those services that everyone in this county comes to
expect.
Sir, did I answer your question?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That was beautiful. Well
prepared.
MR. DeLONY: Thank you, sir.
MR. MUDD: Mr. Chairman, if I could say one thing real quick.
For the folks out there, as Jim's sitting there, he talks about sewer,
the water keeps flowing. As long as the water keeps flowing, the
toilets keep flushing and all those other wonderful things, there's some
things that the folks out there can do to help Mr. DeLony and this
county get through this trying time.
If the electricity goes out, he works for them, we work with the
Florida Power & Light folks and the Lee County co-op folks in order
to bring on those lift stations and bring power to them so that we don't
have to move so many things portably from one station to the other to
draw them down.
I would ask the folks out there, the day that the hurricane hits is
not the time, if you decide you have electricity, to do your laundry.
Please do that on Saturday before the hurricane gets here and have
enough for five days ready to go so that you don't put the burden on
the system while we're trying to recover from it.
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October 20, 2005
Just be -- everybody needs to have their head in the game as we
go through this, because it will be a trying time for Collier County.
And we will recover as fast as we can, but we need everybody's help
as we try to do this. Just some good common sense on everybody's
part. If they're in their house, it isn't time to do your laundry, okay? It
really is a time for Mr. DeLony to be worrying about products, bodily
function productions that you're going to have. And he'll do his best
to get that stuff moving. But let's try to alleviate the demands for that
particular service as -- after the hurricane. Give us a couple of days to
get things back on before you decide to do your laundry and your
dishwasher and things like that.
MR. DeLONY: Thank you, Mr. Mudd.
Y '?
es, SIr.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you. No, this was not a question
for you.
MR. DeLONY: All right, sir. If there's no further question for
me, I will stand down.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you very much.
I'm going to ask that the County Manager schedule a briefing
tomorrow to cover a number of other things that I think it's premature
to try to cover today. But certainly transportation issues and the plans
for our transportation department to handle whatever conflicts occur
as a result of evacuation orders, what streets might be designated as
one way out of town, and those kinds of plans would be appropriate, I
believe.
I believe it's also necessary that we, when we apply the
mandatory evacuation order, that we do check on those people who
simply must be evacuated as early as possible, including the special
needs people, the nursing homes, the medical facilities that are in
harm's way. And I think I'd like to hear a briefing as to how we're
going to check on that to make sure that the evacuations have occurred
and are taking place.
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October 20, 2005
And the other point is that we're trying to make sure that we
evacuate the people from the most vulnerable areas as early as
possible. But doesn't that imply that we should require a mandatory
evacuation for those people who live in structures that are not capable
of sustaining this event, no matter where they are located in Collier
County? And we might want to consider including those guidelines in
the mandatory evacuation order.
So Mr. Summers, I don't know if you want to take all that time
today or you'd just rather have a special time tomorrow to brief
everybody on that as this event gets a little closer.
MR. SUMMERS: Let me give you the abbreviated vers -- let me
help you there just a little bit, sir, if I may. And that is, first of all, we
do have one full-time staff member that deals strictly with just
registration of those persons with special needs.
Unfortunately, the last -- the pre-event compliance with that
registration with the public is weak at best. Weare struggling a little
bit with our persons with special needs, but on the same vein I will tell
that you that we always -- that's a part of the function of the Collier
Information Hotline is to communicate with those people, help coach
them. We will add additional staffing to what I call a special needs
task force, which are just some additional phone banks to help coach
those folks to their needs, and then of course we will do our best to
accommodate them.
I am prepared, and our partner here is health department in
running this special needs shelter. And our hospital are also are
partner there for those that absolutely have the highest criticality in
their scenarios. We will deal with that. We successfully dealt with
that during Charley with very significant numbers. And the
transportation is a component of that.
Again, these communication hotlines that are open, I will tell you
that we are at maximum capacity addressing those issues, but we are
addressing those issues.
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October 20, 2005
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay, I understand that you're
identifying those people, and you say you're stretched fairly thin doing
that.
I'm concerned about taking it to another step. We can coach
people by telephone, we can advise them what to do. What are we
going to do to make sure that when this event gets very, very close
that those people are gone?
MR. SUMMERS: One of the -- there's several options, sir. And
let me comment on what the options -- let me tell you what the tricks
are in Dan's bag. And the tricks in Dan's bag are in addition to the
regular telephonic notification, radio, television. I can also interrupt a
cable broadcast.
Now, the other part I can do is request that our fire service use
their emergency vehicles to use their public address system, again, to
raise awareness. What happens after that is that if we get specific calls
or specific issues, we would ask -- and based on availability -- our fire
districts to specifically go and seek these addresses and do what we
call a health and welfare check. Now, we have to balance those health
and welfare checks with the actual emergency response traffic needs
that may come in.
But we have a number of agencies that we can touch in any
combination, whether it's public safety or human services, who
collectively we work with that can go out and there's a number --
everybody has a different client base. Some places there's overlaps,
some there's only one agency making contact. My job in the EOC is to
coordinate with those human service agencies to make sure they're
fanning out. And where one agency has a client, another agency may
have another, we've touched the agencies who will do their best to
reach their clients.
I think if we get good communication and we continue with this
current time line, I think we'll do a good job with our special needs
population.
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.",-.~,_._-",-_...,._~,._-_.__..._...__.......,.,.._....~... -.,.-....,
October 20, 2005
I might add, that if we have to bring them out of Collier County,
we have 27 states at our disposal to bring resources, under the
emergency management compact. And I'm very -- that was one of the
reasons I went to Atlanta to work with FEMA was to help broker
those resources.
So mutual aid from surrounding counties will not be an issue, if it
becomes necessary. And again, we don't want to go that road if
necessary, but we have many, many assets at our disposal, should it
become closer to a catastrophic event.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: My concern, Dan, is that I don't want to
find out after the hurricane hit that we've got a lot of persons with
special needs sitting in homes that are flooded and completely cut off.
Now, it seems to me that we have to coordinate with those
agencies and make sure we have a by name, by address count of
where those people are and what we're doing and make sure that you
will know, you will be informed by a certain time that those people
are out of here. And I feel uneasy about using emergency responders
to do that unless these really are truly emergency issues.
MR. SUMMERS: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: And if we could find some ways to help
you with additional resources to do that, I would --
MR. SUMMERS: We will spend as much effort on what I call
emergency equipment and dump trucks, because we do human service
outreach. And that's kind of a stereotypical description.
But as far as I'm concerned, if we're not addressing the victims'
needs first, the rest is noise. And that's our first priority. That will be
our policy, that will be our mission statement throughout the event.
And we will be creative and innovative and we'll manage our
resources to do a good job with that.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: If you get those people out early, you
reduce the number of victims that you're likely to have.
MR. SUMMERS: Absolutely, sir. And we are stretching here a
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October 20, 2005
little bit with being a little bit early. And I will take the criticism for
being early as opposed to being too late.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: I agree.
Commissioner Coletta or Halas, who was first?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I believe I was.
I'd like to get a little site specific. One of my biggest concerns, of
course the coastal area is probably more serious there than it is any
place in the county. But I'm very concerned about Immokalee with all
the substandard houses and trailers in the community.
And I see where you have the high school and the middle school
planned for evacuation. Is there some backups if we start to have --
run into full situations with those schools? Will we go to another one
or another one? Do we have--
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir, we do. We have a couple of options.
We obviously will still at someone point have a handle on
transportation assets. We can come on into Palmetto, we can come
into Gulf Coast, if it becomes necessary.
We monitor these census of these shelters every hour. And when
we get those reports back, if we see a trend in the census of those
populations -- I'm sorry, a trend in the census of the campuses, we will
start making additional plans. And we're very capable of making that
shift.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Do we have any kind of
numbers of how many migrant laborers are in Immokalee at this point
in time? I know we're not quite at full season.
MR. SUMMERS: We have heard some different numbers.
There are a couple of church organizations that have called us and
expressed concern. We have not had anything firm in terms of
numbers. There's been speculation in excess of 5,000. I can't confirm
that at this point; however, we will work with the state and be
prepared to address that, if it becomes necessary.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you, Mr. Summers.
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October 20, 2005
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I just want to make sure that people
out there in the audience realize that we have a very good emergency
management plan. We've gone through it a number of times. We've
had a lot of dress rehearsals, and I'm very confident that we have the
leadership and the staff to take care of most of the concerns that will
arise if this event should come before us.
So I just want everybody to remain calm. I think we've got
everything under control. And we've looked at everything and I think
we've got it all covered.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Just one final clarification. I'm not really
sure I know what the mandatory evacuation applies to and at
specifically what time.
MR. SUMMERS: Okay. Let me clarify one additional point for
you as well.
Weare making this evacuation recom -- mandatory evacuation.
And it's a recommendation to you until you enact it in the emergency
declaration. But it's my recommendation to you to make that effective
on 12:00 noon on Friday. And for those efforts to be completed, we're
trying to give everyone a clearance time as of 12:00 noon on Saturday.
I mentioned to you that I've got a very small -- a little bit of room
in that. But that room again, a couple of hours in terms of what we
know from our models. But again, we could lose that, depending on
the storm's progress.
Also, I mentioned that I won't open shelters until 2:00 Saturday.
Now, I've asked for completion at 12:00, but I'm opening shelters at
2:00. And I'm doing that in order to conserve resources at the shelter
for a longer period of time. There'll still be power, there'll still be
day light.
Folks need to lunch before they come to the shelter. And again,
there will be a little flexibility built in there, but the goal of this early
mandatory time is that those with transportation resources can again
Page 27
October 20, 2005
reduce some of the impact on our roadways and we've got adequate
time with a good early start on Saturday to get our folks sheltered
before the arrival of these storm winds.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay, so they've got 24 hours roughly to
get out.
MR. SUMMERS: That's correct. Plus at the time -- the actions
that we hope they'll take this afternoon.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Now, I'm presuming that you don't want
those people to go to the shelters, because the shelters aren't going to
be open.
MR. SUMMERS: That is correct.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: You want those people to leave the
county.
MR. SUMMERS: That is correct.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: It's a real good time to take a vacation in
the northern part of the state this weekend, right?
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Now, with respect -- now, we've been
clear that this includes the area identified on this map, which is
roughly everything east of 41, east (sic) and south of 41.
MR. MUDD: West.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: I'm sorry, west and south of41.
But again, how about the structures, the trailers and other
structures that will not stand up to this wind? Why are we not
extending this mandatory evacuation order to those structures also
throughout the county?
MR. SUMMERS: Sir, there will be situations and anomalies
within the storm where entire neighborhoods won't lose a shingle.
There'll be other anomalies in the storm, maybe a downburst or
tornadic activity, where they'll take very large hits.
The trouble that we have of course is really giving everyone
specific guidance on their housing stock.
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October 20, 2005
It's my recommendation that we will -- we'll get out some public
service announcements related to this. But one way that comes to
mind immediately would be if your home was built after Hurricane
Andrew and you came under the new building codes. If you came
under the new building code, 1994, and if in fact you're out of the
potential storm surge inundation area, you could possibly shelter in
place. But that -- and shelter in place means sheltering in your home.
And as you know, we've done hundreds of community workshops on
individual and family hurricane protection and how to protect the
envelope of your home. Many folks have done that, some have not.
So if they've not taken mitigation steps at their own home and
they have identified their vulnerabilities or have identified their issues
associated with loss of essential services, they should have the
information at hand to determine their need to evacuate.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Should we be advising people who live
in structures that are not likely to withstand this wind force to
evacuate?
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir. And that is part of our mobile home
message, our modular home message. Again, depending on the date
of construction. Part of that message that we will continue to refine
will be if you are vulnerable to rising water, albeit storm water
flooding or storm surge flooding, we will continue to enhance that
message with our media partners to help eliminate some of that
confusion.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, I'd also -- when he starts talking
about the newer building codes after Andrew, you know, they were
substantially improved in the entire State of Florida. And those homes
and those businesses, commercial, everything else that were built
afterwards, have basically stood some tests in the State of Florida with
a series of hurricanes that have come across and hit Florida since
1994.
If you live in a home that's been constructed prior to that and you
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October 20, 2005
haven't taken things, examples from Andrew; i.e., you haven't got
your roof strapped down to the rest of the house, where in Andrew the
winds came in and the roofs left because they weren't strapped down,
tied in with the rest of the structure, you might have a tendency to lose
your roof during this particular event.
I would suggest that those folks, even though they're not in a
mobile home, would take seriously our recommendation of the Board
of County Commissioners, and then your decision afterwards to
evacuate. Because with those winds that we put up on the previous
slide, it's the best that we can get out of the National Hurricane Center,
again, you're going to be in 120 miles an hour wind. And if your roof
isn't strapped down to your building, you could lose it. And if you
lose it, everything else, and if you're sitting in the middle of it, then
you're going to be thinking about why didn't I go to a shelter or why
didn't I evacuate, and it's too late then.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: There are also municipalities included in
this area that are making their own decisions concerning what the
evacuations are.
And Mayor Barnett is here. Mayor Barnett, would you like to
brief us on what we're doing in the city?
MAYOR BARNETT: Thank you. And good afternoon, fellow
commissioners. It's nice to see you.
We basically are going to follow your lead. I certainly, and on
behalf of the city and city council don't have any intention of being
arbitrary in that if you say we're going to have or we're recommending
mandatory evacuation tomorrow starting at noon and we hope that the
residents will heed it and be out by noon on Saturday, we're certainly
going to go along with that.
However, I would ask for a point of clarification. And the word
mandatory, as Mr. Summers knows, has bothered me for many
hurricanes.
Would you be kind enough to explain the word mandatory? I
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October 20, 2005
know, and I've said it many times before, that when I was growing up,
if someone, if my parents said it's mandatory you're in this house at
8:00 at night, I knew I had to be in there or else.
We seem to have people that are confused by the word
mandatory. We know what it means, it means we really want to you
get out; however, if they decide no, we want to stay, what happens?
And as far as I know, unless there's been some corrections,
there's nobody going to come and drag them out of their house. That
they are at risk. Once everything gets shut down, there are no police
and emergency fire services, ambulance services, et cetera. And I
think that really needs to be made clear. Because no matter what,
you're going to have people that are going to say hey, we're not
leaving our home.
And in the same light, another question for you to consider,
because I would sure like to resolve this is, there are many restaurants,
as you know, on Fifth Avenue South. Now, basically what you're
declaring and saying, okay, we want mandatory tomorrow at noon,
everybody out by Saturday. That means that technically the
restaurants need to close down, they will not be serving customers on
Saturday night, which of course poses a problem.
I know that I followed as much as I could as this event came over
here, that the storm, at least as far as I know hasn't turned yet. I'm
wondering what your thoughts are as far as that goes as well. I
certainly would rather error on the caution side than I would see what
happened to our neighbors.
So I'll stop there for a second.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Why don't we let Mr. Summers address
the issue of the mandatory evacuation, and then we have a couple of
commissioners who might want to weigh in on this.
MR. SUMMERS: And the Mayor's right, we've had some good
communication on that issue. And we did in fact pull the statutes from
the State of Florida and the evacuation order powers that the Governor
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October 20, 2005
has.
The Governor is the one that actually has actually more
enforcement power on the mandatory. However, that mandatory, if
you will, is a blanket discussion for every county in the State of
Florida and in terms of evoking and enforcing that mandatory
evacuation.
We have left it with you in that we make it mandatory and leave
it at that. It's well within your power to make it mandatory and add
additional enforcement powers, as well as additional civil fines
associated with that mandatory.
I think the friendlier approach is a little bit better in using the
term mandatory. But if the Governor in fact invokes a mandatory
evacuation order, which is well within his power, it also becomes a
civil offense against the state and therefore the state can enforce that
mandatory with whatever penalties are referenced in statute or that the
Governor may be allowed to invoke. And then I'll see if the -- and
again, I don't have the statutory reference. I believe it's in 252. But
we could be glad to research that and make it available to you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Mayor Barnett, did that answer your
question? It's mandatory. There are not currently any fines or
enforcement criteria, although we would do everything we can to
convince people to leave, but that's pretty much where it is.
MAYOR BARNETT: Yeah. Yes. And Chairman Coyle, I
knew that. But I wanted it clear to those that are watching, and your
input is so important on that, that the word mandatory really is
somewhat ambiguous, and it's subject to interpretation.
And I certainly understand what Mr. Summers said. We would
like people to heed it to leave their homes, and especially if this storm
starts to even turn, head out.
Now, my next question was the question about the restaurants on
Fifth. Then I realize that it's our -- and we could make a call on that
and say stay open Saturday night, serve customers, even though there's
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October 20, 2005
a mandatory evacuation, and then, you know, Sunday you're definitely
closed. When you close down Saturday night, that's it. Because I
think we learned from New Orleans about the food and it's best to use
up as much food as they have, food in your freezers, et cetera. So I
would like your input or guidance on that as well.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: We can update this even tomorrow
morning. If it appears that Mr. Summers finds that the event has
slowed down and there is additional time, then we can update this
thing tomorrow, if we wish to.
But the important thing that is we must have adequate time and
daylight to accomplish the evacuation. And that's what Mr. Summers
is trying to do is to make sure that we have adequate time to do that.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, one of the things staff
recommended was that -- the mandatory evacuation was essential
commercial services should complete their operations on Saturday
evening or directed by their local municipality. And that was in the
mandatory area. And I think it hits to the Mayor's particular issue.
And one of the other things that I would like to make a
recommendation, and you talked about having an additional meeting.
We probably could do that. I think it would be good if we had one
Saturday morning. And this way we can get you up to speed on
everything that's transpired so far through Friday. And then if this
storm does some crazy thing like it goes out through Mexico, that I've
been praying for, okay, and if it goes out -- and I don't mean to jinx
anybody, but I would really like it to go away. And if it does, then we
can stand down, which would be just absolutely wonderful. And if we
could get that information out at the earliest possible time. So I'd like
to make a recommendation that at 9:00 on Saturday morning we
reconvene this board and then bring the commissioners and the
community up to speed on everything. And then if it looks like it's
still coming, then we could bring everybody up to speed on where it is
and go through --
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October 20, 2005
CHAIRMAN COYLE: How does that sound to the
commissioners? We've got three nods here for Saturday morning
briefing? Okay.
Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Mayor, I understand where you're
coming from. What we're trying to impress upon the community, and
I say the community, not only Naples, but all of Collier County, and
that is you are in a coastal high hazard area. And when we say
mandatory, we're trying to make it as strong as possible so that we
make sure that all the residents that are in this particular area get out of
there. We're looking at the potential of a storm surge of 16 feet, sir.
That's what our biggest concern is. It's not we want to drag people out
of their house, it's that we want to make sure that people understand
the urgency of this particular problem. And we're just saying we're
going to make it mandatory, not to drag you out of the house, but hey,
16 feet I don't think any of us can swim.
MAYOR BARNETT: No. And I understand that, and so do our
citizens, but I just wanted to make that -- just clarify that point.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes, sir, I understand. And believe
me, we're not here to make things difficult. We're trying to make sure
that we take care of people and we can save lives.
MAYOR BARNETT: We're all in the same boat here for sure.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Coletta?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you.
Mr. Summers, a lot of people out there have pets. I know there's
going to be concern about what they're supposed to do. Of course the
people that evacuate leave their -- take their pets with them. But how
about people going into the shelter; what provisions are there?
MR. SUMMERS: Sir, like in almost every other county, we're
wrestling hard with the pet issue. There are virtually no resources left
at our domestic animal services for boarding pets. The only capacity
remaining left is part of the pet partnership that we have with those
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October 20, 2005
persons with special needs, because we want those people to evacuate.
We don't want them not to evacuate in the absence of pet care. And
we have some small capacity left for those persons with special needs.
As we have mentioned and is usually the case in many
communities, that folks need to consider their -- part of their
individual family planning to address their pet needs. And there are
options out there. There's a very limited supply of private kennels and
veterinarians that are able to house.
We do know that through AAA, the American Automobile
Association, as well as many of the motels and hotels make exceptions
for small pets that are properly in the portable kennels, properly
kenneled, during states of emergency. They will make a waiver with a
pet deposit. That's all that we have available to us in Collier County.
There are some counties that do have some pet friendly shelters,
but they are typically designed or specifically re-engineered facilities
to address that. So for example -- and we're not pushing our pet
population to Germain arena. That's Lee County's facility and Lee
County residents' facilities. But they have room there to address the
public health issues associated with pets and the kennel and the waste
issues, as well as have a separated area to -- for their evacuees.
Weare still researching that, trying to find what alternatives we
have. But like the majority of the communities in the State of Florida,
that pet responsibility with your disaster planning does come with the
evacuee, not with the shelter resources we have. I can assure you that
we're working on trying to come up with some additional options.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'm sure you are.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: There's a gentleman who would like to
make a statement. If you'd come to the microphone, please. You'll
have to fill out afterwards a registration seat.
MR. DeBOHN: I'm John DeBohn (phonetic), a retired airline
pilot.
You gentlemen are doing a good job, don't get me wrong. But
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October 20, 2005
there's one slight thing you made a mistake on. We're talking about a
storm coming. And it circles to the left. It creates a low pressure area.
And you people that are going to seal up your houses completely,
take your car and close the windows completely, we're sitting here --
standing here in 14.5 pressure scare inch, but when the storm comes, it
creates a low pressure area and it creates problems. And this is the
reason -- this gentleman just mentioned about the surge, the water
comes up. It's because when the storm is circling, the pressures come
up, it's a low pressure area, and causes us problems.
Your homes should be cracked -- windows should be cracked
open so you let the pressure, when the storm hits your home or hits
your area, it doesn't blow the roof off. And that's what causes this.
Am I clear to explain it at all to you?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: That's my understanding.
MR. DeBOHN: Everything is perfect that you're doing. You're
doing a damn good job. But this little bit about pressurization is very
important, and nobody ever talks about it.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Mr. Summers?
MR. SUMMERS: Commissioner, we have dealt with that issue
with the wind scientists, and I personally have been involved with a
project at Clemson University involved in that engineering.
It's rare that we would see -- the gentleman is correct in terms of
the change in the low pressure. It's rare we see that sudden pressure
jump to the point where a home can't equalize, where there's not some
gap between the attic and the crawl space, the -- I'm sorry, the eaves
that are vented.
And I don't know if any of us at least in this climate that has a
home that's necessarily buttoned up quite that tight. So I do think that
__ a very valid point, something we used to address. But we now have
ventilation in our homes that does allow for some pressure change.
I've not experienced anything in the automobile environment in
terms of any testing. But our homes will typically stabilize, unless
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October 20, 2005
there is some reason for a big change.
We do -- and he brings up another good point, and that is that
yes, we do have a lot of wind pressure dynamics that generate lift or
may have microbursts. We've learned now that we have microburst
downforce winds that give the appearance of a home's implosion or
explosion, but as we go back, and research now tells us that most of
that is due to an isolated wind event. But I think it's a good point to
monitor.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay, thank you very much, sir.
Commissioner Henning?
MR. DeBOHN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I move that we move the
proclamation/resolution 200-363 and include waiving the fares for the
CAT buses for this event and EMS limited fair waivers.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'll second it.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second it.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay, motion by Commissioner
Henning for approval of Resolution No. 2005-363, with revisions as
stated. Seconded by Commissioner Coletta.
Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Are we also going to put in there
that anybody that's in mobile homes be also included in this
emergency evacuation to go to shelters or to get out of town?
MR. SUMMERS: Sir, when we address residents, we're
assuming any housing stock. And we'll emphasize that with our other
messages, if you'd like.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Please do.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, before you vote on it, I think we
need to read it.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: The whole thing?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. I think you need to read it, just for the
record. We have in every emergency declaration before. I know you
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October 20, 2005
have, but they haven't out on the outside, okay, and it has some things
about price gouging and things like that in this resolution.
This proclamation/resolution number -- if it's okay with the
board, I'll read it -- 2005-363. It's a 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 area.
WHEREAS, Hurricane Wilma has the potential for causing
extreme damage to public utilities, public buildings, public
communication 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 predicted path of Hurricane Wilma; and
WHEREAS, Section 252.38(3)(A5), Florida Statutes, and Collier
County Ordinance No. 84-37, 201-45 and 2002-50, codified as
Section 38-56 through 38-70 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.
1. Performance of public work and taking whatever prudent
action is necessary to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the
community.
2. Entering into contracts.
3. Incurring obligations.
4. Employment of permanent and temporary workers.
5. Rental of equipment.
6. Utilization of volunteer workers.
7. Acquisition and distribution with and without compensation
of supplies, materials and facilities.
8. Appropriation and expenditure of public funds.
Page 38
October 20, 2005
NOW THEREFORE, it is resolved by the Board of County
Commissioners of Collier County, Florida, in special session this 20th
day of October, 2005, that Hurricane Wilma poses a serious threat to
the lives and property of residents of Collier County 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 No. 84-37, 2001-45 and 2002-50 and waives the
procedures and formalities required by law of a political subdivision
as provided in Section 252.38(3)(A5) of the Florida Statutes, including
authorization for purchasing director to waive existing purchasing card
limitations during the declared emergency.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Board of County
Commissioners hereby declare that during an emergency, it shall be
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.
The proclamation/resolution adopted this 20th day of October,
2005.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: All in favor, please signify by saying
aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Aye.
Page 39
October 20,2005
Any opposed, by like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: It carries unanimously.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Move that we approve
Resolution 2005-364, and further state, if needed, may be admitted
(sic) by the Board of Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second that motion.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay, a motion to approve by
Commissioner Henning with modifications as cited, and seconded by
Commissioner Fiala.
Any further discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Anything else to read?
MR. MUDD: No, sir, this is basically the board authorized the
opening of a new appropriation Fund 003 for the emergency disaster
reserves with $50,000 starting base for emergency services during
Hurricane Wilma.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay, all in favor, please signify by
saYIng aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: It passes unanimously.
Now, I would like, as a closing comment, to emphasize
something that has been said several times during this meeting by Mr.
Summers, the County Manager and members of this board.
This hurricane has the potential to have a devastating effect upon
Collier County. Every person in Collier County must accept their
responsibility for the safety of themselves and their family.
Weare asking you to heed our warnings about evacuation and
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October 20, 2005
take appropriate precautions. We probably have one of the best
organized and best qualified emergency operations centers in this
nation. All of the governmental agencies work very closely together
here: Collier County, our fire departments, our Sheriffs department,
the school district, the emergency medical personnel. We will also
have the National Guard representatives here and assets; we will have
Department of Defense assets; FEMA; we will be in contact with the
state government and the federal government; we have primary,
secondary and backup communications systems.
Our people have done everything they can to anticipate the needs
of this community in the event of this potential catastrophe.
They do not have the capability to rescue people who fail to take
responsibility for their own safety, who fail to heed our warnings
about the seriousness of this event. We do not have the resources to
mount rescue operations over an extended period of time, and we urge
you to please listen to our cautions and take personal responsibility for
your safety, and if possible, leave this area for at least the next four or
five days. Thank you very much.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, don't --
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay.
MR. MUDD: David?
MR. WEIGEL: Thank you.
Well, Jim did a great job reading the resolution, but I wanted to
make sure that the record was clear that there's some additional
language that will be in the revised resolution approved by the board.
Commissioner Henning's motion, which was seconded and voted
upon, included elements relating to EMS transport and I believe also
CA T transport. And language akin to this will appear in that
resolution. I'd like to read that in the record, too, if I could, and there
may be a point of clarification for starting time.
First is that the board waives the base fee or fees for convalescent
transports by Collier County EMS by evacuations only to approved
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October 20, 2005
shelters pursuant to EMS practices and procedures for, quote,
registered special needs, closed quote, persons.
And then additionally, and this may need a little further
clarification of the board, the board waives the fees for CAT -- that's
the county transportation service -- for CAT service from blank time
on October date, 2005, through blank time on October something,
2005 to aid in the evacuation of residents.
And it appears to me that based on the discussion of
implementation of mandatory evacuation that you may be talking
about noontime tomorrow. And I don't know how long this is going to
continue, because to a certain extent the elements may prevent a
period ( sic) from going.
But Mr. Summers talked about a 2:00 time of opening of certain
facilities, and it may be that from that time to some point later on the
CAT services would continue to be available. So either Mr. Summers
or the board, brief discussion, can fill in that starting and potential
ending time there.
And then the third element relates back to discussion you had,
and particularly Commissioner Halas, relating to the mandatory
evacuation itself, which is not included in that part of the resolution
that Jim read but will be included in the resolution as revised.
And again, the mandatory evacuation appeared to be -- declared
by the board to initiate at 12:00 noon tomorrow, Friday, October 21st,
and will continue.
Typically in these resolutions we indicate areas where that
applies. And again, Mr. Halas had talked about a point north -- from
the county line north going south.
Again, Dan may wish to assist a little bit. We often include
communities in this case such as Copeland, Everglades City,
Chokoloskee, Isles of Capri, the City of Naples. It's not necessarily
mentioned by may be mentioned, if we're talking about all those areas
such as shown on your visualizer east -- excuse me, west and south of
Page 42
October 20, 2005
41, we can include that language in there. But I just want to make
sure that we're heading that direction so that the document that's
signed will be distributed to the law enforcement agencies and
municipalities in unincorporated areas, and we'll all be clear in that
language.
Dan, I don't know if you and the Commissioners would want to
talk a little bit about the CAT service.
MR. MUDD: We'll talk about the CAT particular issue.
Our recommendation is the CAT fees be waived starting at noon
on Friday, tomorrow, October 21 st, and continue through October
24th, which is Monday.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: You know, I don't have a problem with
that, but it's still unclear to me where you're going to evacuate the
people to. You're not opening the centers until Saturday at 2:00.
You're going to be evacuating them from Friday at noon until
Saturday at noon. Where are you going to take them with the CAT
system?
MR. SUMMERS: Sir, good point. Let me clarify just a little bit.
Again, we are initiating this mandatory evacuation for those -- for all
parties, but we are -- but this time element, this first element before
2: 00 are those individuals with their own transportation resources
capabilities.
Saturday morning, as we run our CAT routes -- and I have a
visual here even, if you need to see it -- we'll get that information out.
As CAT runs, our concept here is anyone that would go to the transfer
station at V 0- Tech as their stopping point, there we will provide the
transportation to the various shelters.
So our CAT routes are ideal. And obviously the folks that use
the CAT bus are the ones that may need this assistance, as well as
others. But we'll get the information out via the media on the CAT
bus.
Their interim destination is the transfer station. Their ultimate
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October 20, 2005
destination by additional transportation assets throughout that day will
be to the shelters. And if we need to adjust the time a little bit on
Saturday, we'll do that.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: We also have a contract with the
transportation company to administer -- to provide transportation to
people with special needs. Are they going to be pressed into service
to provide transportation for people who we have identified that need
to be evacuated from their homes?
MR. SUMMERS: We will use all available assets. We typically
go to our school transportation assets first. They have been able to
accomplish that job very well with their handicap lift buses and their
radio coordination with our special needs coordinator.
After that, we will certainly entertain the aspects of our private
sector, and of course if we expend with our private sector and we are
declared, that's a reimbursable cost.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Mr. Summers, if we're waiving
it Friday at noon, the CAT service doesn't run at night, so you're
telling us that you're going to open up the shelters on Friday at some
point for these people that have to utilize the CAT service.
MR. SUMMERS: Saturday, sir. Saturday is the --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, why are we waiving the
fee on Friday? Why don't we waive the fee on Saturday?
MR. SUMMERS: Sir, we could move that till Saturday. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: That makes sense.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, I just throw -- I don't want to throw
a wrinkle in, but, you know, if somebody could use -- somebody could
be in this flood prone area, okay, that we're talking about having a
mandatory evacuation problem and have family and friends someplace
in the interior part of Collier County that they're basically going to
stay with and basically weather the storm, so to speak. You know,
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October 20, 2005
that still gives you the opportunity, not necessary to shelter, but it does
give them another avenue.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, this storm event is not
going to happen until Sunday.
MR. MUDD: As it stands right now, sir, if it stays in its present
speed and present course, that's true. It was going to hit us yesterday
at 7:00 on Saturday. So hopefully we're gaining some time and it's not
going to pick up in speed.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: What did we decide? Are we going to
start --
MR. MUDD: You want to do it Saturday? We can start it
Saturday, first thing on Saturday morning and run it through close of
business on Monday.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: That makes sense to me. That's okay
with me. You got three nods, I think.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes, David, you had mentioned
wording you'd like to use. And in that wording you mentioned
certified special needs people. I'm just thinking of two people that I
know of just that leap to my mind. One who just fell recently and had
to have 18 stitches in the back of his head. His wife didn't even wake
up because she wasn't right with it. But that was just a few weeks ago,
and they're not even registered and wouldn't have thought of it.
And then another one who can't drive and can't get himself
anyplace, but he's felt he's kind of self-sufficient. But he can't really
go anyplace either. Cannot walk to a bus station or anything.
What do you do about those who are not certified? Is there a
way that you could word this so that those who have just become
incapacitated by some means or another and haven't registered still
qualify for transportation?
MR. WEIGEL: Excellent question.
Page 45
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October 20, 2005
The term that is used is registered special needs. And as you
indicated, there may be people of delicate condition who are not
registered. And if you don't have that criteria in there, I would again
have to defer to Mr. Summers and the County Manager as to a way for
them to administer the program with the efficiencies they would hope
to achieve.
MR. SUMMERS: Commissioner, that's a good question. Let me
clarify just a little bit. And again, bear with us, we work with these
individuals every day. Let me put this in front of you.
First of all, we qualify those persons with special needs as those
individuals that absolutely have no other resource, number one, for
transportation, are typically homebound and/or bed bound; have a
marginal associate caregiver, which could be a -- who has marginal
mobility resources, okay, as a caregiver, a husband or wife or friend.
Also, those individuals who are required to be on oxygen and those
individuals who are electrically dependent.
Beyond that, if someone else has family, friends, or are currently
receiving home care from another provider such as a home health
agency, they work with those individuals to develop their own disaster
plan. And we're certainly in communication with those individuals.
Now, there are always very hardship situations. And our Collier
Hurricane Hotline, 774-8444, are in tune to those requests for help and
will take that information on a case-by-case basis.
Now, obviously we -- as I mentioned earlier, we are at the
maximum of our capacity right now. But as we know that we rely on
our public private partners to help out, we have churches, we have
other organizations, so those numbers come down. The ones that we
actually have to take care of have no other options.
What we are able to do is help a number of these people process
all this information and process a plan. So while we have 12 or 1,400
currently registered, it is my hope that everyone will work out their
personal initiatives or their other health care provider, their other
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October 20, 2005
friends and associates and those that do not have any other community
resource or community network are the ones that we will assist in the
transportation and temporary relocation.
So there -- if I could use the term triage, there's a step-by-step
process that we will go through. And again, those that we are able to
serve, which is a limited number, are those with the greatest need and
fewest options.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: But if there are people who need help
and are not otherwise registered, they can call that number and you
will find an agency that will help them --
MR. SUMMERS: Sir, we will absolutely--
CHAIRMAN COYLE: We're not going to leave people
stranded.
MR. SUMMERS: No, no, no, no, no.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: And so if Commissioner Fiala would
give you those names and telephone numbers, you could contact them,
right?
MR. SUMMERS: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you.
Commissioner Coletta?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes, one item that came up that
I looked at and realized there could be a problem, you said we're going
to stop garbage collection at 12:00 on Saturday. So that means
wherever the trucks are at that point in time, the residents will have to
know to go out and get their garbage; and if it hasn't been picked up,
to bring it back and store it in the garage, that's what we have to do.
MR. DeLONY: For the record, Jim DeLony, public utilities
administrator.
Sir, what we're going to try to do a quick sweep on Saturday
morning. We hopefully will have a small number of people that will
require the service. Given the fact they'll start that route early in the
morning, we should be able to complete that route and be through by
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October 20, 2005
noon on Saturday. So I think that that will take care of it in terms of
just trying to get the refuse use up and out.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: If it's any help to you, as one
Commissioner, I would have no problem with you starting way early
in the morning and forget the 6:00 start time, and even go at maybe
3:00 in the morning to get this done. I mean, this is an extraordinary
circumstance. I know our ordinances and laws say that you start at, I
believe, 6:00.
MR. DeLONY: Somewhere around there, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I for one would like to see that
relaxed so we can get these cans. You can't leave them outside. You
have to put them in the garage. If they're full of garbage, it's going to
be a problem.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Here's the problem with that:
People have an idea when the service is going to be around, the
garbage truck is going to be around. And I for one, if you're going to
come to my house at 3:00 in the morning, I'm not going to have my
garbage can out.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Well, if you knew the night
before and just put it out in the evening, that's the kind of notice you
can get.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: If we make that decision, fine.
But I can tell you that the service area that they're going to do is the
minority and speaks or understands little English.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Commissioner Henning, that
represents the Estates that they're going to be servicing on Saturday.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I was thinking about
Golden Gate City.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I think we can communicate to
them quite well. I was just thinking about full garbage cans have to be
stored over the weekend, because we stop at 12:00. And if we start at
6:00, it may not be completed. And so it's a concern.
Page 48
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October 20,2005
MR. DeLONY: Sir, we'll do our very best to begin at daylight so
we're safe operations and we'll get those cans up. We would ask the
residents, in deference to the considerations I've heard, to put their
cans out as best they can the night before. We can put that in a press
release and try to get that dissemination that we will run early morning
garbage -- garbage collections services on Saturday. I think I really
would like to get out early as best I could and provide that service that
Commissioner Henning is speaking to.
But I agree with you, sir, it would be -- I'm thinking about the
drivers, to be frank with you. I'd like to get those trucks off the road
so they're not cluttering up roads that could be congested at that time
from people making last minute preparations to evacuate.
So I'd like to get that done early and be through as best I can by
noon. If we miss a few folks, I'm sorry for it, but I really appreciate
the indulgence --
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: The only thing you need to do is
get the word out, the fact that don't leave the garbage cans out if they
haven't been collected. Get them in your garage, get them to storage,
or we're going to be picking them up all through the Estates and
Immokalee for years to come.
MR. DeLONY: Understand, sir.
Sir, did I answer all your questions?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes.
MR. MUDD: Mr. DeLony didn't say, one of the last things he
needs to do with the last garbage truck is close the face of the landfill.
So that what you just picked up doesn't end up all over Collier
County .
MR. DeLONY: We'll zip it up tight Saturday night.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Now, the County Attorney has clarified
our last motion. Do we need to ratify that clarification?
MR. WEIGEL: Well, I think that that would be fine.
And then the last thing that I mentioned was that the mandatory
Page 49
October 20, 2005
evacuation will include -- for instance, all areas -- from the north of
the boundary line of the county southward to all areas west of 41.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: That's correct.
MR. WEIGEL: We will also include for additional emphasis,
those typical areas for Copeland, Everglades City, Isle of Capri,
Chokoloskee, and there are probably others in there as well.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: All in favor of that clarification of the
motion, please signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Any opposed, by like sign.
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Passes unanimously. And there being no
further business --
MR. MUDD: We want to leave that we will reconvene Saturday
at 9:00 a.m.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Yes.
Page 50
October 20, 2005
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County,
the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 4:43 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL.
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FRED COYLE, Chai an
ATTEST:
DWIGHT E. BROCK, CLERK
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BY:,""
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Thesé h1:ipul~s-~roved by the Board on -1JDUtmber:dq . ðÐc;6fs
presented v or as corrected .
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TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT
REPORTING SERVICE, INC. BY CHERIE' R. NOTTINGHAM.
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