Recovery and the Florida Panhandle

Author: danielkilburn 2019-02-10 0 Comments

The Emergency Management Planning cycle has four phases:

Mitigation, Preparation, Response and Recovery

This article will look at the recovery efforts in the Florida Panhandle from Hurricane Michael: October 10, 2018.

January 16, 2019 Spectrum Bay News 9 presented a look at the aftermath in their presentation of:

Hurricane Michael: Florida Impact.

This is a two-minute trailer of what the Town Hall meeting was about. Unfortunately, the entire broadcast is not available to view on the Bay News 9 website.

Emergencyactionplanning.com reached out to Bay New 9 on January 28, 2019 for information on where and how this broadcast can be reviewed and were told;

“No, unfortunately, we won’t have it available to view outside of our scheduled viewing times.”

This is unfortunate because this is a historical snapshot of what was being thought about at that time and place.

Summary;

The participants of the Town Hall meeting with one exception have no direct connection to the Florida Panhandle. They service the Counties of Brevard, Pinellas, Hillsborough and the State of Florida.

My viewing of the program has led me to the opinion that there is little to no political will and funding to clean up the damage in the affected counties. A repeatedly mentioned fact, is the population base of the affected counties is nowhere near as large as the Tampa Bay Area.

Note *** The participants all agree that a Category 4 Hurricane hitting the Tampa Bay area will be catastrophic.

They are in agreement that Insurance will play a significant role in an individual’s or business recovery process. And cleaning up the damage will be a daunting process. None of the participants could offer a plan of action other than repeating your need for adequate insurance, planning and preparation.

With that said it is your responsibility to have a plan in place to recover after the effects of a major disaster or emergency.

The most recent 2019 Hurricane Season forecast can be found here: http://www.artemis.bm/news/2019-atlantic-hurricane-outlooks-suggest-average-year-but-el-nino-adds-uncertainty/

The nice people over at lendedu.com offer a resource for small business recovery assistance at; https://lendedu.com/blog/sba-disaster-loans-fema-assistance

“If you’re currently struggling with the financial aftermath of a natural disaster, it’s imperative that you begin the FEMA and SBA application process as soon as possible to increase your access to much-needed funds. Always be conscious of application deadlines and do your best to provide thorough and accurate information through the loan process, using both FEMA and the SBA as constant resources throughout your journey.”

Jeff Gitlen

Take action and secure your copy of the State of the Unions Unpreparedness report. Discover 12 staggering facts why you need to build your Emergency Action Plan now:

For more information on Disaster Recovery resources go here: https://www.emergencyactionplanning.com/2017/09/25/13-thoughts-for-cleaning-up-the-mess/

Till next time

“Be Safe”