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BCC Minutes 08/27/2005 E (Hurricane Katrina) August 27, 2005 EMERGENCY MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS NAPLES, FL AUGUST 27, 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 1: 00 p.m. in EMERGENCY SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: ACTING CHAIRMAN: Frank Halas Tom Henning Donna Fiala (Telephonically) Jim Coletta - absent Fred Coyle - absent ALSO PRESENT: Jim Mudd, County Manager David Weigel, County Attorney Page 1 --"- -^^_.._--~...._--~-,._---- COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ~ iIL~ EMERGENCY AGENDA HURRICANE KATRINA August 27, 2005 1 :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 PRESENT A TION 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. Page 1 August 27, 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 DEPARTMENT LOCATED AT 3301 EAST TAMIAMI TRAIL, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112, (239) 774-8380; ASSISTED LISTENING DEVICES FOR THE HEARING IMP AIRED ARE AVAILABLE IN THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE. 1. Call to Order 2. Updated track information for Hurricane Katrina and its effects on the citizens of Collier County, Florida (Presented by Emergency Management Director, Dan Summers) 3. Adjourn Page 2 August 27, 2005 August 27, 2005 MR. MUDD: Ladies and gentlemen, will you please take your seats. Sir, you have a hot mic. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Today we're reconvening the meeting from August 25th that was held on Thursday in regards to the emergency meeting by the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County. And at this time, I'll have Dan Summers bring us up to date in regards to what's happened. MR. SUMMERS: Commissioner, thank you, and good afternoon to everyone. And good afternoon to our commissioners that are joining us telephonically. I'm Dan Summers, director of the Bureau of Emergency Services, Department of Emergency Management. Again, as you said, sir, we're here to reconvene from our State of Emergency Declaration on Thursday. The good news is -- I guess if I can make sort of a light comment, and that is the Weather Channel is not in Collier County today. So that's kind of a relief for us, compared to what we were looking at on Thursday. We do have no activities related to the EOC ongoing today. We were able to cease those operations yesterday at around 6:00 p.m. And like you, I have scratched my head about the track of Hurricane Katrina. I'd like to take just a minute and give you a brief recap. I don't want to get too long and drawn out, but I wanted to give you a little forecast synopsis, track synopsis of Katrina, and then make a few closing remarks at the end of my brief presentation. And I believe from there we can -- it will be my recommendation just to leave your state of emergency open, but it does in fact terminate I believe within seven days. So just in case we get any residual storm tide effects or anything like that or we found something later on. But that State of Page 2 August 27, 2005 Emergency Declaration will time out and has no curfews or prohibitions in it. I'll switch to the power point presentation and go over a few points with you. This is what we were staring at on -- with the 5 :00 a.m. advisory Thursday morning. As you see, we had the storm off Broward County, and at that particular point looking at a tropical storm. Had not become a hurricane. And the dotted line there indicates that again, the National Hurricane Center and both leading commercial weather providers, Accu Weather and Impact Weather, all were consistent in their forecast track for Katrina. You see it now beginning as 1:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon, about the time we made our State of Emergency Declaration, again, all eyes were on Naples and coming across southern Immokalee for this particular hurricane event. And again, gaining some intensity here. At this point this storm was still forecasted as a Category 1. And the forecasters, via the conference call, were very quickly not to rule out a borderline Category 2 as this storm came across into Broward. 5 :00 Friday afternoon, coming across Broward and northern Dade, our forecast track shifted a little bit south, but we were well within the cone of uncertainty of this particular track. And you see the large blue circle there, indicating the depth of those 40 mile per hour winds. And at this point, too, again, reinforcing the hurricane strength coming right across Collier County. We had made a recommendation for a number of protective actions, and I'll review those with you. MR. MUDD: Dan, if you could go back for just a second. MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir. MR. MUDD: Commissioner, just let you know that around this time, on Friday, as the Manager went down to Dan Summers down in the EOC and we started talking about the storm and the intensity that we were seeing, not only here on the forecast, but we were also taking Page 3 August 27, 2005 a look at how it was making landfall on the east coast, and the conversation went something like this: We'll watch this till 11 :00. And what I was debating at the time is, was the call that I made at 1 :00 in the afternoon saying that we were going to work tomorrow a good call or not based on the proj ections and what we were seeing. So at this particular juncture, I'm asking questions like hey, this thing's coming across a little stronger than everybody suggested. And about that time we watched Mr. Cantore say it was the worst hurricane that he had ever seen. And so I was having some thoughts at that juncture. So at 11 :00 we were tuned in with the EOC, calling them from my home trying to figure out is this thing going, or -- and about that time, next slide, we started seeing this show up. So, you know, at that juncture it's completely missing Collier County and all the forecasts are up in the air, because nobody expected this at all. So we monitored again till 4:00 in the morning to see if it was going to keep its present course or was it going to turn north and go into Collier County. Because that 4:00 or 4:30 from the Manager's side of the house is important. Because I've got to get a call out to the commissioners at large to tell them what my recommendation is for the next day, and get that out into the news so that our employees can either pick it up vis-a-vis TV, if the power's still on, or by radio to determine if they're going to work or not the next day. Because you really don't want employees going through or on the road if it's going to be of this magnitude that you see on your screen right now. Because if it's got a red in it, it's a hurricane still. And that was some of the dilemma that I was going through at the wee hours of Friday morning. Go ahead, Dan. MR. SUMMERS: Sir, you're exactly right there with that discussion. And just to mention, at this early phase, too, before this actually came out, anything specific at 11 :00 from the Hurricane Center, the Page 4 August 27, 2005 gut feeling with Emergency Management and even the state was we were back to another storm with a zig, a zag and a wobble. And we really didn't think we would have to use those terms again, but again we saw that activity. This is the early sign of that. Then we went into 11 :00 again and then almost saw this south, southwest activity. Again, the gold arrow there indicating that the forecasters still felt that this thing was going to come right on across Collier County at that point. But we were losing faith a little bit in the strike probabilities, based on the trends and the solid trends we were seeing in the storm's track. We still had concern at 5:00 a.m. Friday. Let me back up. I want to make one point here. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Can I interrupt you -- MR. SUMMERS: Yes, go ahead. COMMISSIONER HALAS: -- just a minute here? I want to make sure. Commissioner Fiala, are you on line here? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay, Commissioner Coletta? (N 0 response.) COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay, any other commissioners out there that may have called in? (No response.) COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay, go ahead, Dan. MR. SUMMERS: Thank you. Again, understanding that we still had a lot of concern for any spin-off activity from the feeder bands of this storm, these leading edges could have put us again back in a heavy rain scenario that we continue to talk about throughout the event. Also even spawning some tornadic activity. Obviously what happened here in sort of southern central Florida Page 5 August 27,2005 was a high pressure ridge that had an enormous amount of dry air in it. And that dry air, just that bubble, if you will, of dry air kept that storm relatively flat in terms of its impact to Collier County. And obviously the models did not pick up that ridge of high pressure and that dry air that really forced that storm somewhat south. But we even heard from the forecasters and saw to some degree just visually on the radar that even as this storm came across land to see some intensification, this storm in this scenario ironically is really drawing energy from the Atlantic, the Gulf and the Everglades. So -- and again, an awful lot of warm water there. So just -- you had a heat engine here receiving fuel from about three sides. Then we saw once again the dramatic turn, a little more dramatic turn to the south. And unfortunately this is where the folks in the Keys, if I can use the term snake bit. Monroe County did not make any particular protective action recommendations, thinking this storm would go due north and north west for them, and then all of a sudden here they are receiving the back side. And Key West probably went 12 to 14 hours with hurricane force conditions as a result of this storm, now getting back over warm water and drawing an awful lot of moisture for about 200 miles or so. Again, anticipating this east-west track here, Collier County expecting some activity. This is one of those reasons that we always talk about we're going to err on the side of safety. We had this thing right down our sight during the forecast period, and between 11 :00 p.m. on Thursday and 5 :00 a.m. Friday is not the time to try to notify folks to take additional protective actions. So I think we did the right thing with our storm track; we did good notifications with the public and the local press. And we just have to -- it was inconvenient, but let's consider ourselves fortunate with the fact that this storm dodged us the way it did. Again, these two -- the triangle here indicating what the Keys Page 6 August 27, 2005 was going through. The lightning bolt they're talking about, now we're potential for some storm surge activity. And because the storm actually picked up in forward motion to the west, our storm surge activity around Marco was around one or two feet. Incidentally, though, just during this period of Friday afternoon, that's when we picked up some additional bands, up to 77 miles per hour. So as the bands were out there picking up a little bit of energy, I believe Marco Fire Department reported a 77 mile per hour gust. And later that afternoon is when we started getting some of the intermittent power outages around Marco. Just to summarize our protective actions. I think we again put ourselves in a safe posture with the schools regarding the closing. Regardless of the wind timing, we still had very unstable activity. We did not go under a tornado watch or warning, but the Weather Service kept saying get ready for us to fire a watch or warning off at any moment. We did have a Immokalee Community well -- a good preparedness plan for Immokalee, with our partnership with Immokalee Friendship House. We had resources at Immokalee High School, as well as the American Red Cross ready to help us with shelter management. I also again want to mention, had it not been for Collier County schools who brought the additional staff in that were necessary to operate the plant, and even the cafeteria resources that were needed at Immokalee High School, again, they're just -- they're really our right arm in this disaster response. Persons with special needs, we wanted to make sure that we were in communication with those folks. We had resources and nurses standing by by telephone if that became necessary, that reminded those special needs individuals to shelter in place and activate their individual preparedness plans. We did get some calls from that population, but nobody needing services, just a little bit of Page 7 August 27, 2005 reassurance, and I was glad we were able to do that. We were very fortunate to get in an administrative work day with Collier County on Friday. Our Collier Information Center had light -- very light call volume until the Weather Channel put our seven-digit phone number on nationwide. And then the phones lit up. And the goal there was to support the general -- the Collier County public. But we did receive calls from all across the country, wanting either traffic conditions or wanting a general assessment within Collier County. However, that worked out, it's okay, we had the resources and we provided the information. And folks obviously took a little bit of action and added a little safety to the day because we had below normal call volume for Emergency Services. During the peak part of this storm, Collier County with FP &L had about 500 outages. They were relatively short-lived and sporadic throughout the community. Marco, shortly after those peak winds, did have some intermittent power outages, one or two transformers that caused them some trouble. Both organizations had huge resources staged for Southwest Florida, if it became necessary. They attacked those outages very, very quickly without delay, and it didn't take them long to refuel the trucks and move them to the east coast. Sprint and our other wireless services did check in with us and no outages. Now, again, counting ourselves lucky, this is a brief synopsis of what the east coast went through with what was Tropical Storm or Category 1 Hurricane Katrina. Four fatalities. They did have one deputy injured. Three hospitals experienced loss of power with failure of their backup generators. One hospital in particular had 30 patients on ventilators that had to be evacuated. Two hospitals closed and were evacuated again due to power interruptions. Page 8 August 27,2005 The estimates yesterday were 1.4 million without power, and anywhere from a three-day to probably a seven-day restoration period. Again, FP &L having crews all the way from the Midwest. Additional damage assessment forthcoming. I've got to get one editorial comment in here. This was a storm event where the building code officials get -- they get a gold star. The structural losses on the east coast were minimal. Their storm flood related flooding issues from 13 inches of rain in Homestead, so there are homes that are dealing with water. But structural losses all along the east coast were minimal. And we're very, very thankful of that. And that's again why we work for mitigation and building code situations there, to prevent that damage-repair-damage-repair cycle. Just a couple of storm notes. Again, we saw a little intensification. The storm drew energy from all sides. There was a fair amount of tordanic activity in the Keys, and they're continuing to do that damage assessment today. And just by the fact that we had that curtain of dry air over us really cut our rainfall dramatically. Because we were talking 16 inches of rain during part of our discussions. For this evening we've had several calls. We've been in touch with the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service in Miami to monitor our coastline for heavy surf. Right now our predictions are one to feet above normal tide. And again, nothing we're calling a tidal surge. But you might see something hit the top of the seawall this evening, but I think we'll be in good shape. We're monitoring very closely requests for mutual aid, if that becomes necessary. And we want to honor that with -- whenever possible. I'll coordinate that with the County Manager, if we get any requests for fire, EMS or any other emergency management resources. We want to offer that opportunity to help our neighbor, and, to be quite frank, it's an excellent training opportunity to assist those other communities as well. Today we're planning on restocking and restaging our supplies Page 9 August 27, 2005 and equipment. We have a fair amount of resources tied up on the county campus. We'll start Monday on restaging those and either putting them up in their long-term storage or making sure they're ready as we look at anything else that might be brewing in the tropics. Again, we missed a hurricane by about 60 miles. And Collier County maintained high strike probabilities throughout the event from the National Hurricane Center. I just want to thank our team. I want to thank our response partners. A lot of agencies were there with us just on auto pilot ready to go to work. And the citizens, from the excellent cooperation that we received. And I'm available to answer any questions. And I ~ant to thank you, Commissioners, for your support. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Just before we take questions I want to put on the record that I want to thank Tom Henning for sitting in for all the Board of County Commissioners when we were out of town. And today I'm sitting as the Chair, acting as the Chair. And I'm a vice chair, and so therefore, that's why I'm sitting at this table. I think we wanted to put that on the record. Is there any questions from the commissioners in the synopsis that was given by Dan Summers? COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, I have no questions. I just want to say that my son is over there in Fort Lauderdale without electricity, so I could very well tune into everything that Dan was saying. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Commissioner, do you have anything further to say? COMMISSIONER HENNING: Nothing. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Is there any other business that we need to address at this time? I'll turn this over to the county -- MR. MUDD: I don't have anything as county manager. Mr. Weigel? MR. WEIGEL: No, there's nothing at this time. If the board does not determine to take any further action, thens Page 10 August 27, 2005 the meeting can adjourn in the normal course of things, if you wish. COMMISSIONER HALAS: The only other question I have is that as I came back in town yesterday from the conference, I noticed that there was a large majority of garbage cans that were sitting out along the road. Did we take all efforts to try to get the information out to the public in regards that we weren't going to have trash pickup on Friday? MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. And we went through another public release on Friday afternoon that basically said please, because of the isolated bands that were coming through and some of the strong winds, please don't put your garbage cans out on Friday night. Please do it Saturday morning. They picked up trash today. We had no spills, no incidents. Everything's going great as far as the garbage collection is concerned. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Now, the people that normally have pickups on Friday, they will not get their recyclables or other garbage picked up until next Friday; is that correct? MR. MUDD: It will go to their next day. They get picked up twice a week, so their next scheduled pickup will be when that trash gets picked up. COMMISSIONER HALAS: We have no further business, we're adjourned. Page 11 --,-- August 27, 2005 ***** There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 1 :27 p.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL. ~~~:,-"" FRANK HALAS, Ice-Chairman ATTEST: DWIGHT E. BRO.GK, CLERK - ' ~,~,a-~rW-D [)(' <.Att!J,~, a"'¢l N'nMft S L It...... eM' 1- These minutes approved by the Board o~ ~. dì , aM S- as presented ~ or as corrected . TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. BY CHERIE' NOTTINGHAM. Page 12