I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. We're going some people come and visit us through online. I just want to say good morning. Thank you for coming to this hurricane preparedness seminar. My name is Jeff Thurman. I'm your interim city manager. I'm also convinced that it's our responsibility as city leaders to inform and prepare as much as possible our community for potential significant weather events. Today we've assembled some key representatives from our emergency management community and I want to thank them for being here. We are going to hear from a special guest, Director Clinton Meckham from Volusia County Emergency Management. Thank you for being here. We'll also hear from our fire rescue, as well as our police department, Ryan Solsis from Development Services, and Sean Moroney, our interim public works director. It's vital to provide information to our community to help during storm events. I encourage you to listen carefully, take notes if you'd like, and please don't hesitate to ask questions when the floor is open at the end of our session to ask questions or clarifications that you'd like. Right now, I'd like to hand it over to our special guests. Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate that. Thank you. Are you going to advance the slides for me or do we have a I can try it? Okay, all good. Oh, absolutely. Of course. I don't have. Oh, no, I'm just kidding. Anyway, good morning everybody and again, thank you very much for inviting me out here to edgewater. I am, meekam, I am the Volushe County Emergency Management Director. I've been your emergency management director here now for about two years. A little bit about myself. You get me from the great state of Utah. Yeah, not a lot of hurricanes in Utah. I get that. But I traded earthquakes and avalanches for hurricanes and flooding. So what I really appreciate about my new home here in Volusia County is I don't have to shovel heat like I had to shovel snow back home. So I'm a retired division chief from Unified Fire Authority out of the Salt Lake Valley, 20 years in the fire service there. I've also been a member of FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Program since 2000. I've got a few deployments under my belt with them, World Trade, Katrina Rita, Ernesto, Dean, Barry Harvey. And I spent most of October of 2022 in Lee County for Ian. So I have been on the response side of hurricanes for a long, long time. So again, thank you for allowing me to share your morning with you. I'm happy to be here. Unfortunately, I don't get down to the South end of the county too much. So anytime I do get an excuse to come out and visit you folks and visit Oak Hill, I always jump on the chance. So again, thank you very much for having me. Just wanted to take a minute and go through some basic information about information about what we are potentially looking at for the 2025 hurricane season. So hey, it works. Cool. So we'll start with a recap of the 2024 season. So we had 18 name storms. 11 of those went up to the category of hurricane and five of those were major hurricanes. Of those five majors, two of the majors hit Florida, and that was Haleen and Milton, obviously. Debbie also impacted the state of Florida, but Debbie was not categorized as a major when she made landfall. So that's what we were looking at for the 2024 season, and you can see the tracks there on the screen as well. We all know what the hazards for hurricanes are, wind damage and fortunately, or unfortunately for us, Milton this last year was not a wind event for Volusia County, it was a rain event. And I know you folks here in Edgewater, love water and love rain, right? No, I'm kidding, I really, I get it. Rainfall, inland flooding is always a problem, Storm surge, especially with you folks here on the east side of the county, Storm surge is always a concern. Coastal erosion, we're actually in a project right now with our coastal engineering division to start resanding some of the areas near Ponce inlet and they're pulling sand out of Ponce inlet and they're resanding some of the beaches in the Ponsinlet and New Smirna areas with that sand. There's a big Army Corps of Engineer Project under way right now with that. Debris, that's always a problem. Whether it be green debris, white debris, anybody know what white debris is? Anybody know what a refrigerator looks like after a week without power? That's white debris, okay? Infrastructures damaged and again that's always a concern for all of our cities, especially as we get closer to the coast, where there's areas that have low lying issues with with standing water and then utility outages. So those are our big concerns. Just real quickly, just for information, information is power, tropical depression versus tropical storm versus hurricane, tropical depression wins up to 38 miles an hour, sustained, not gusts but sustained. Tropical storm is 39 to 73 miles an hour, and a hurricane is anything 73 miles, 74 miles an hour or greater. And again, those are sustained winds. We all know the categories. I just want to go over them real quick wind speed. It's all based on wind speed. Again, it's not based on rainfall. It's not based on anything other than just purely wind speed. So a category one is 74 to 95. Category two is 96 to 110. A category three, that's where we break into the major category. Anything three or higher is considered major, 111 to 129 miles an hour. Category 4 is 130 to 156. And then a category five is anything 157 or greater. And again, that's sustained wind speed. Can anybody tell me what the greatest category of hurricane that Volusia County has ever been directly impacted by while it's been over Volusia County. Category one is the most significant storm that Volusia County has ever experienced in its history. While they may have come ashore in other places as bigger hurricanes by the time they got here, they were Category one or less. Milton. Milton was barely a Category one when it got here. We had to stretch the definition a little bit because we were getting gusts up above that 74 mile an hour, but we weren't seeing sustained winds. But the gusts were coming often enough that the weather service said it's good enough for sustained winds. So Milton was barely a Cat one. E and when it hit here was a Cat one. So again, a lot of the major damage that Volusia County has seen has not necessarily been due to big huge category storms. Okay so keep that in the back of your mind. The reason I bring that up is if we do get impacted by something more significant the rating of damage or the scale of damage that we look at when we increase in category of storm is not a linear scale, it's exponential. So if we use a category one and we equate a baseline damage factor of one to a category one storm, it starts to increase exponentially. So by the time you get to a category three, you're going to see 50 times the amount of damage in a category that you'd see from a category one. In a CAT 5, you're going to see 500 times the amount of damage than you'd see in a CAT 1. So it's real important to understand why when we talk about the categories, why that's so important, because that damage again increases exponentially. So, 2025, here's the weather guessers. Here's what we've gotten so far. Colorado State University was the first one out of the gate with their predictions for this year. Don't ask me why Colorado State University studies hurricanes. You wouldn't think they get a lot in Colorado, but they do have a very, very good hurricane research center in Colorado State. They're predicting we're going to see 17 name storms. Nine of those will be category one or greater hurricanes and four of those will be category three or greater. That's their prediction. AccuWeather came out with a range, 13 to 18, 7 and 10, three and five. The National Weather Service is the information that I have to go by. I can look at everybody else's information, but I can only act on an official capacity off of official information, and that's from the National Weather Service and NOAA. Their predictions will come out in May 22nd, so we will see. A typical year for us is 14 name storms, seven hurricanes, and three majors. So this year again is a little bit higher than normal, but it's nowhere near what the predictions were for last year. The other thing that's changing is that the weather pattern is changing from what an El Nino or L'Añinia pattern to what they call a normal pattern. What that means is we will probably see more storms coming out of the Atlantic rather than out of the Gulf. So good news, bad news for us. Traditionally in Florida, when we see storms come out of the Atlantic, they have a tendency to hook to the North and they go hit the Carolinas rather than coming across the peninsula and hitting us. However, we have seen storms come out of the Atlantic. Nicole was an example. Matthew back in 2016 was an example where they come out of the Atlantic. And they don't even necessarily hit the peninsula, they do provide a major impact to the state as they stay offshore. So we're not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. Just in case anybody's interested, here's the names for 2025. If anybody's names on the list or you have grandkids or kids who might qualify as a hurricane if their names on the list that's the list for this year And then I want to talk a little bit about rainfall. I know Rainfall is a big concern flooding is a big concern down here in Edgewater Every time it we start to get a significant weather system building up and it looks like it's coming to the south end of the county I start getting nervous and I know your city leadership does too, right? You guys are in a low-lying part of the county and flooding and rainwater is a concern. We understand that. What I want to show you with this slide is it doesn't just because we get a a a a weaker storm doesn't necessarily mean that the rainfall impacts are weak. The other piece is that you want what you always hear about a hurricane is, well, if you're not in the upper right quadrant of the storm, you're okay, right? The upper right quadrant is what they call the dirty side, and normally sees the most significant impacts. But in this particular slide, the Bay is the one on the left. Bay was 2008, and it followed an interesting weather pattern in that instead of the rain being heaviest to the right of the track, it was heaviest right on the track. Going to the center one, Irma, Irma was kind of a standard hurricane, if you will, and most of the rainfall was to the right of the track. Ian is the one on the right. Ian was abnormal. Most of the rainfall was on the left side of the track. And the highest rainfall total, official rainfall total that we got out of Ian was 21.09 inches and that was at Spruce Creek. And that was in like an 18-hour period. I'm here to tell you folks, none of the stormwater systems any place I have been in the country can handle 21 inches of water in an 18 hour period. Volusia County from what the public works director tells me 11 to 15 is kind of the maximum that we're looking at in a 24 hour period. So once we start hitting that 11 to 12 inch mark it can start getting interesting really really quickly. Anybody know what our what our highest rain total was for the millen last year? Higher. She guessed 11. Our highest official rain total was 18.85 inches. Anybody want to take a gander where that was in the county? Probably felt like it. Believe it or not, it was Deland and Deltona. They got more water than the east side of the county by far and away. The edge water, Nusmurna, Daytona area, we were right around between 11 to 15 inches, depending on where you were at along the coastline. So the other thing that was of concern to us was as Milton exited and exited pretty much right over the top of You folks in New Smirna we were worried about storm surge from the backlash as it exited out We saw almost no storm surge out of Milton as well, but some of the other things to consider Not just here, but on the west side of the county along the St. John's as well. We were also at a king tide, so tides were abnormally high. The rivers were running abnormally high, so even though we had the capacity to start moving some water around, we had no place to put it. We couldn't pump it into the ocean, we couldn't pump it into the river because the rivers in the ocean were already high. And I don't know if you've ever tried pumping against the ocean, but it's kind of a losing fight. Go figure. So that was one of the reasons we saw flooding in areas part of the reasons, that we saw flooding in the areas during Milton, that maybe we traditionally hadn't seen number four. So Hurricane season starts the first of June. Goes through the end of November. Our three busiest months here in North Central Florida are August, September and October. Okay, going back to 1851 and this is through 2020. This is a track of all of the hurricanes that have crossed the Florida peninsula in the month of August. Okay. There's September and there's October. October. October looks like somebody barfed up a play just spaghetti on a map of Florida if you ask me, right? Okay. But that's what it looks like. So October is traditionally our busiest month. When, when was he in here? October. When was Milton here? October, right? So it, it, it follows. Okay. Some other terminology I wanted to give out to you folks really quick and again, information is power and we're gonna talk about some things you can do here in a minute. The difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning and this is standard for any kind of watch or warning that the National Weather Service puts out whether it's a severe thunderstorm Watch or warning or tornado watch or warning. So a watch means that hurricane force winds are possible within 48 hours That's when people like me and the chiefs and the public works director and your city manager That's when we start getting really nervous. We get nervous when we first hear about the storm and it looks like it's heading our way. This is when we start to get really nervous. Once it goes to a warning, a warning means that hurricane force winds are expected within 36 hours. This is when we start doing things, at least in my shop. This is when we start looking at evacuation plans, maybe issuing evacuation orders. Yes, I know the jerk gets to issue the evacuation orders for everybody in the shop. This is when we start looking at evacuation plans. Maybe issuing evacuation orders. Yes, I know the jerk gets to the evacuation orders for everybody in the county. Yeah, it's me. Closing bridges. I know the jerk does that too. Yeah, that's me again. So that's when we start doing that. Same kind of thing for severe thunderstorms. Same kind of 48 and 36 hour period. Tornados are a a little different. Okay. Pornados. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A watch means that they're likely anytime. A warning means that they're on the ground. So when you hear a warning, it's time to get to your safe space. Anybody know how many tornadoes we had during Milton in Florida? The official count now is 46. EF-0s to EF-2s. Fortunately, most of them were to the south of us. And we didn't see any confirmed ones here. We did see four deaths here in Volusia County during Milton, two due to debris through roofs, and two were cardiac events. So we definitely took it kind of on the chin. All right. The other thing I'll hit before we get into the how to prepare stuff really quickly is, again, the flooding issue. And I know you guys deal with flooding down here a lot. And it's not just hurricanes, right? And we'll talk about some things we can do about that and some tools you can have in your toolbox for that. But understand, water is insidious, right? We've all opted for whatever reason to live here in the state of Florida. I went from an elevation of 4,600 feet in Salt Lake down to an elevation of about 35 feet where I live in Port Orange. Water, once it's on the ground, it's insidious. It's hard to get rid of. We don't have a lot of places to put it, and it becomes very, very destructive, very, very rapidly. The FEMA classification for a destroyed structure is essentially, and it's not 100% this way, but in general, once the water level reaches the level of the plugs, the outlets in your home, your home is now considered destroyed. Okay? So that's what it takes. So it's really important that we understand why water is so insidious and the things that we can do to try and prevent it. And again, I know it's a struggle for all of us or a Port Orange got hit really, really hard during Milton. Midtown and Daytona got hit really, really hard and Orange City got hit really, really hard during Milton. And we're still, we had over 43,000 claims by private citizens for milk that are still in process with FEMA. So how do we prepare? The biggest thing that I can tell you folks today stay informed, knowledge is power, right? Again, if we have to issue an evacuation order, right? Know what your flood zone is. Anybody know what flood zone they're in here in Edgewater? Pretty much everybody's in flood zone A, just in case you were wondering. But if you Google Know Your Zone, it will take you to a state website. You can put in your address and it will go to your address and it will tell you, definitively, what flood zone you're in. We actually evacuated issued an evacuation order for flood zone A for Milton. 111,000 of our residents are in flood zone A up and down the coast and along Spruce Creek and to Mocha. So that's a lot of people that we need to potentially get out of harm's way. So the more information we can give you as rapidly as possible, good accurate accurate information, the more time you have to exercise your options. So that's what information really comes down to as being able to exercise your options. So stay informed. There's a lot of ways to do it. There's social media. A lot of people do it that way, whether it's through the city of Edgewater, whether it's through Volusia County, the National Weather Service, be a little bit Larry, if you start going outside of those official channels for information, some people like to hype things up, so they get better ratings, and don't always provide the best information. So be very careful where you're getting your information. Your traditional media, television and radio, they're always good sources of information. And then the city and the county again, we will post stuff through our websites, et cetera, to get information out. I will put a plug in right now for Volusia County's emergency management app. We actually have an app on the Android store and the Apple store. It will give you all of the alerts that come from the National Weather Service, as long as well as additional information when we identify sandbag locations, shelter locations, evacuation routes, all of that stuff. So that's available to you as well. The next thing is prepare kit and we'll talk about kits here in a minute. Know your evacuation route. We have, we know what our evacuation routes are most of the time, but each storm has its own personality, right? So we don't try and publish those and get that installed as institutional memory to everybody because it may be that you get used to going down one evacuation route and for whatever reason during that during this particular incident or storm, that of a evacuation route is not viable. So we'll push that out to you in the information. But no, you kind of know what your major routes in Lendar and that's normally what we're're talking about when we're talking about evacuations, right? We're trying to get you out of the impact zone to someplace where you're completely out of the zone, the impact zone or the impact zone is the impacts are lessened, right? You know what those major routes are? When we talk about no evacuation routes, we are not going to give you detailed information from your front door to a place of safety, right? We are going to say SR-44 is an evacuation route. What we need from you folks is you to understand what your options are to get to SR-44 from your home or wherever you might be. Does that make sense to everybody? And have a couple of alternatives for that. Make a plan, and we'll talk about some of those plans, and get involved. The only way we get through these large-scale disasters, and again, I've been through a few of them in my career, is we do it together. It's not. The city of Edwater is not by itself. Volusia County is not by itself. We have lots of cavalry coming from all over the country, but it starts at the local level. is all disasters start local and end local, right? So we all have to stay together and be coordinated. And your city officials coordinate with us. We coordinate with the state and the feds to provide you some of that framework. But again, look out for your neighbors, okay? Stay involved, help your community. Okay, we talked about evacuations. Some of the reasons we issue evacuation orders and the reason we did for Milton, for example, is we weren't necessarily worried about large-scale wind damage or large-scale flooding. What we were worried about is an impact to the utilities. We were afraid that we were gonna get hit in such a way that our utilities, you were gonna be without power, water sewer for extended periods of time, or that our emergency services weren't going to be able to get to you for whatever reason. Now, I will say the first responders across Volusia County and in our various municipalities, they will literally kill themselves trying to get to you. And that includes our public works and public utilities people. They are a finite resource and we need to protect them as much as possible. So we issue those evacuation orders. So if you are ever in a position that you call 911, you don't get the answer of we understand you have an emergency, we will get to you when we can. Because that's a bad feeling and it does happen. So the other piece again, we't know what conditions, if conditions may deteriorate over the course of the incident. So it may be that it's a storm of approaches. Hey, I'm fine. I'm good where I'm at. But maybe an hour later, now you're isolated. You've got no way out. You're surrounded by water and we can't get to you. So that's why we issue those evacuation orders. We are not trying to force you out of your homes. Trust me, that is the very, very last thing that I want to do. Okay? It's we want to try and get you back to a state of normalcy as fast as we can and evacuating folks is not how we do that. It's impactful. we get that. But my priority is life safety. I would much rather have you all here to be mad at me after the event than not here at all. And that's where I, and that's the world that I have to live in, okay? So right now, what do we do before a storm? Know your evacuation zone, we talked about that. Anybody here live in a pre-manufactured home, mobile home, anything like that here. Understand that there's risks involved in living in those kinds of structures that are different from living in a normal structure. Understand what that is. Have an evacuation plan, a plan. Friends, family, places you can go outside of the impacted area. It may be that you could go visit friends or family over in the land and be out of the impacts though. It doesn't mean you necessarily have to go to Georgia or Tennessee or someplace like that, right? But have some alternatives where you can get out of the more heavily impacted areas. And then a communications plan. Sometimes it's easier to call a call across the country during a disaster than it is to call across the city. Okay. So have some points of contact out of out of state that if you can't get a hold of your family members or your friends, they can call somebody out of state. And that out of state contact can operate as a coordinator for you to let everybody know that everybody's OK. Oops. Family disaster plan. Have a kit. We call it a go kit. Food, water, essentials, clothing. One of the things that I will, two of the things that I will emphasize in here real quickly for you folks, is make sure you have important documents and waterproof, and some sort of waterproof container. And by important documents, I mean things like birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, insurance information. Most of the time, when you go to apply for aid after the fact, they need the originals, not copies. Now copies will work, but there's a couple of extra steps involved in the process, so it can slow down getting you the aid. So have those kinds of things in your kit and ready to go with you. If you have to reproduce them after the storm because they've been destroyed, it can be a bugger. Anybody try to get a social security card lately? Yeah, okay. It's a nightmare. So the more of that stuff that you can have with you, the better. The other thing that I will mention is medications, including prescriptions for glasses and contacts. Make sure you bring those with you as well. Communications plan we've talked about, some more information on some of the things that you can put in your kit. We everybody kind of talks about a 72 hour kit. We recommend a 96 hour kit just to make your stay or your displacement as comfortable as possible. One thing that I will say if we have to have that, if we We have to open schools for shelters, right? And we do that often. Those. as comfortable as possible. One thing that I will say, if we have to open schools for shelters, right? And we do that often. Those schools are called shelters of last resort. They are not what you normally see in a Hollywood movie when you think of a shelter, where you've got lines of cuts, all set up and stuff like that. They are literally a school cafeteria someplace and you get a piece of floor. So if you have to evacuate to one of those shelters of last resort, bring this stuff along with you to make your stay in that shelter as comfortable as possible. Things to entertain yourself, entertain kids or grandkids, extra clothing, blankets, something to sit on maybe. That's all allowed in the shelter. But understand what those shelters of last resort really are. Okay? Some other things, and I've got some information on the back table that will give you more information on what to put in your kit, for example. And now is a good time to start building your kit. Traditionally, Florida has a sales tax holiday, the first part of June, and then again in August, where you can buy most of this stuff, sales tax-free, the state has not announced those holidays yet, because they have not finalized their budget yet, so they can't announce them until they finalize their budget. So we're waiting to hear on that. But hopefully it will hold to that pattern and we'll see it again in just a few weeks. One thing I will mention here real quickly is the cache. A lot of places, when you get into a point where you've lost a lot of services or internet connectivity, it becomes a cache and carry business. And it really sucks to pull up to a gas station and they don't take your card anymore. And you go to an ATM to get cache, and there's no power at the ATM. So I have some cache on it. Okay? Please include your pets, pets or people. Make sure that you've got all of their proper foods, medications. So I have some cash on here, okay? Please include your pets, pets or people. Make sure that you've got all of their proper foods, medications, a leash, or a crate. If you're going to a shelter especially, those are requirements. But again, make sure you include your pets. During Katrina and Rita, I can't tell you how many hundreds of animals we had to put down in euthanize. We actually had to have law enforcement embedded with us as we were doing the wider research because people had left their pets behind or tied up in their front yards. So please don't. Okay. The other thing I'll say about, another thing I'll say about, just real quickly, before I get into the after the storm and honest guys this is my last slide more or less insurance insurance is a four letter word in the state of Florida right now I get it okay but it is probably one of your best tools to help you recover from something significantly impactful like a storm or a flooding event right the key to this is understanding what your insurance policy covers and what it does not. Now is a very good time to contact your insurance agent and make sure you understand what your policies are. It's an HO3 policy versus an HO6 policy if you live in a condo for example or an HO8 policy. If there's exceptions, a lot of homeowners insurance have exceptions to wind damage for roofs, for example. You got to make sure you don't have that exception on your policy. And your homeowners insurance does not cover flooding. It will cover water damage from like a broken pipe. It does not cover water damage from water coming outside from the outside of the structure to the inside. So again, think about those kinds of things now and now is a good time. If you can at all do it, we recommend that you put a flood policy on your homeowners policy. Normally they're not gigantically expensive, and they do cover that flood piece that homeowners or renters does not. Okay. Take videos of your, take videos and pictures of your property now before the storm. So you have proof after the storm of what damage occurred or what losses you may have incurred. Drive only when necessary after a storm. We've still got power lines down. Those power lines, even though they're down, they may be energized. We don't want anybody getting hurt. If you're going to operate a generator, please, please, please, please do it far away from your living quarters and outside, not inside. We always seem to have carbon monoxide dessociated with a storm afterwards, and those are tragedies that can be prevented. And then, again, be patient with us. We understand we are trying, I mean, And it's really easy after storm. Storm clears off normally. The sun comes out and things look great. We want to get you back into your homes, but there are certain things that we have to do and the city has to do in order to ensure your safety before we can let you back in. We have to make sure that the powers back on or at least there's no power lines down water sewer gas. We got to make sure the trash gets picked up. Because again, you go a couple of days in Florida heat without power, trash is a problem. So we will try and repopulate. You use fast as you can as we can. Just be patient with us. It's easy to get focused on your little piece of the world and that's what we we do, and that's normal. But please understand that there's a bigger, much bigger picture in place that we have to deal with and share our resources appropriately across the entire county. Your city does a fantastic job in responding to the needs of their residents. They really do. My two years here, I've had nothing but positives in dealing with your city administration, your police, your fire, and your public works, but they are again our limited resource. We've got help coming, but it takes a while. So please be patient with this. With that folks, I will stop doing death by PowerPoint and just say again thank you for inviting me. We will let the program continue, but I will hang around if people have questions afterwards. And if there's, you think of something even after today, our office is open Monday through Friday. We're happy to provide additional information. Come and speak at your community events, your HOAs, whatever it may be, to provide you with additional information. So again, thank you very much. I didn't steal thing I want to start off with is to brag about the fire department before we start talking about hurricane season. So I just really want to tell you a little bit about your fire department that protects the citizens every day. Edgewater Fire Rescue was established in 1948. The Department operates as a combined department, a career and volunteer fire department. We have 39 career firefighters and we have currently five volunteer firefighters. Both of our fire stations are equipped and staffed with the minimum of a fire engine and an ambulance. We are an advanced life support department, requiring that all four of our units be staffed with at least one paramedic. The operations division provides fire suppression services, including structure and wall land firefighting, as well as technical rescue capabilities, such as water rescue, high-angle rescue, and confined space response. Edge Water Fire Rescue also provides ambulance transport. In 2025, Edge Water Fire Rescue responded to a total of 4,489 incidents. And, oh, that's a typo. That was in 2024. 2,898 of those were medical calls. 1,591 were fires or other types of incidents. Edge of Water Fire Rescue ambulances transported a total of 2,130 patients to the hospital in 2024. So that's somewhere around five to six a day average. Edge water fire rescue was recently evaluated by the insurance industry, which was what helps guide the insurance industry and determine in what your rates are going to be. And we received the second highest possible score. It's a reflection of the department's professionalism and readiness. Some of the things that they look at is the equipment that we carry. They look at our training records. And they evaluate our our call volume. And they look at how we perform. They review all of our fire reports going back at least one year. In addition to emergency response, the Department's Life Safety Division plays a crucial role in community protection, they require business inspections, fire investigations and plans review. Today I was scheduled to discuss the overview of hurricane response basically what I was going to do is and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead So I'm just going to continue to talk about the Edge Water Fire Department and what we do. All right. So Edge Water Fire Rescue operates a policy that breaks hurricanes into stages. And what we do is before five to seven day forecast cone, when we reach that area, our command staff will receive updates from our county emergency management. We evaluate the, we evaluate and review scheduled vacations. A lot of the times unfortunately for firefighters, their vacations get canceled during these hurricane events. We also conduct a five to seven day station checklist, which includes things like a picture that we have all the supplies from you can imagine if we call in all of our folks at one time, we want to make that we have enough cleaning supplies, toiletry and all that stuff in case that happens. Three to five day forecasts, command staff will meet and create an incident action plan. We create an organizational chart. It lets the crews know in advance what trucks are gonna be assigned, who's gonna be assigned to assigned to what and we're going to decide who we're going to be sending out to the county emergency management of county EOC emergency operations center. During the hurricane watch, the fire chief is responsible for implementing the incident action plan. Our crews also will start taking photos of all vehicles inside outside. We take pictures of documentation of all of our fire, our fire stations and all the interior, next to the buildings and we do that because just like, just like the residents, we want to put in an insurance claim if we, if we have any damage after the fact. Operations during the storm respond. We do respond to emergency calls. We try to. We have suspended our response at times and then a lot of our emergency calls will back up. When we have sustained winds of 45 miles an hour, it's just not safe enough for us to be out there. So a lot of our call volume will back up when we have sustained winds of 45 miles an hour. We're just it's just not safe enough for us to be out there. So a lot of our call volume will back up and then as soon as we can respond then we have to jump back up there and try to catch up on all of our backlogs. Post storm operation we perform a citywide assessment and fire rescue personnel will work with other departments to open the roads. And these next two slides, I think that our county emergency management went over that in very good detail with planning before and after our storms. So I'll be ready afterwards to answer any questions you have Good morning, I'm Joe Mahoney the Chief of Police. I appreciate you being here for this meeting To my left is Captain Charles Geiger. He's gonna run through a brief presentation about what we do during hurricanes. A little bit about edgewater PD, where 34 sworn, we respond to about 30,000 incidents per year. So we're very busy, but I can tell you that we are prepared for any natural disaster, any manmade event. We are prepared to handle anything that is thrown at us. So with that being said, Captain Charles Geiger. Good morning. This chief said my name's Charles Geiger. I go by Chaz and the police captain here in charge of operations for the police department. Along with this works. Our team leadership, Jim Honey's the chief. I'm the police captain here as we already went over. Really, with the police department, we think about the worst case scenario year around. I know that's not what you guys want to hear, but we always want to be over-prepared for anything that we go to. So in April and December of each year, we meet what's called the Special Services Division within the police department. And what the Special Services Division is, is all the specialty vehicles and personnel that respond to anything more than just a routine patrol. So it's K9, it's SWOT, it's our target impact units, our motor unit, and these are the guys that receive the specialized training for high water rescues, swift water rescue, and really to drive all our specialty vehicles, which we'll go through. We just had that meeting there, and when we go through our meetings, we look at all our chain souls, all of our equipment, our tractors, our high water vehicles, to make sure they're operational. We do some routine operations, just to make sure that everybody's gonna drive them, still knows how to do it, and we just have a plane in place. And edge of water is unique, because we have to have a lot of different scenarios just because of how our staffing is and how the different incidents within the city, whether responding to a water event or a wind event. edge of waters unique because we have to have a lot of different scenarios just because of how our staffing is and how the different incidents within the city whether responding to a water event or a wind event we have to make sure they were prepared for anything before it happens. And then also in December of each year we recap what happened. Hopefully it's just a hey we have a bunch of vehicles with gas in and we didn't have to do anything. Where if there is a large event we see how we can do better what we did really well what other areas did so that we can prepare the next year to respond. As I said, the special services division is in charge of the emergency operations portion of it with natural disasters within the city of Edgwater. During the event, we mandate most of our personnel in to respond to emergencies. We double up our patrol resources so that we can take care of sandbag piles, traffic complaints, or any other concerns with the city. That's about 80% of our resources there, whether it's sitting at gas stations, directing traffic because of the influx of fuel or anything else. That's a really burden, a big burden on our personnel. The other half of that is our specialized units. As you can see, we bring all our specialty vehicles out. Our MRAP is built for a high water vehicles. During EIN, we did about 200 high water rescues here in the city of Vegewater, and probably about another 50 to 75 in the Southeast Fulusha County. The unique thing about the MRAAP is, it also can be driven in high wind events as well. So a lot of times on the medical side of it, when the fire department can't go out because of the high winds and it could flip the ambulance, we actually go to them as well. And that could be in the worst of the weather. They could be 80, 90 million hour winds with three feet of water and actually grab the paramedics and we go down to cardiac calls or life safety events where that person is most likely going to pass. We can still respond to it and that's a huge asset and I would say probably five to six times a storm we respond to medical calls when it's there as well or really, really, really serious police events. The next one you can see some of the highway what a rescue's there. That's actually a new vehicle that we acquired for free through the Department of Defense, a military search proletar surplus program. There was usually about $300,000 delivered. We got it acquired for free. We used seized drug money to put some really good equipment into it, but we can evacuate and yet again all this equipment I hope we never use it. I hope it there for parades and you never have to see it again let me start with that I don't want to doomsday here but we can evacuate 30 people at a time to get them to safety and get out there with that and your local police department here's a little bit unique transparently I love storms I don't like the devastation I think they're really cool when they're somewhere else but not here but we like to be prepared for them. With a lot of the other police departments, they wait for public works or something that to clear the roadways. That's not us. really cool when they're somewhere else, but not here, but we'd like to be prepared for them. With a lot of the other police departments, they wait for public works or something that to clear the roadways. That's not us. We do strike teams. We grab with the fire department and the police department, and we start clearing roadways. Public works is overwhelmed with all the water, potential water, indoor storms down, but we still have to get to those people. So we start clear roadways, we start evacuating residences, and we're out there, we're fully prepared to respond. As I said, depending on the storm event, now if it's just a tropical storm, we're not going to mandate anybody in, but if we're looking at something else, we have to be prepared before the storm comes. So we have to be prepared for the worst case scenario. So if it looks like we're going to take a category one storm, we have have all 34 guys here because once it gets bad and we realize we don't have enough resources they can't get to work So yes, where does everybody stay? Well, we clear out the police department we put cuts in there and out at the range and we literally start taking 12 hour shifts And I like the fire department, but somebody will go out there and work and they'll sleep and they don't go home for probably three to five days at a time. During some of the more serious events, their special services division has been here for 10 days straight. So doing laundry, living, everything else here at the police department to make sure that we can have our operations. And Jeff touched on it a little bit. Clint out there at the county has the county EOC. We actually have one here locally as well where all the department heads get together so we can share information and resourcefully and tactibly respond to a lot of these events. And that's at Fire Station 55 there. For normal operations, patrol cars and just training, right about that 45-mount hour sustained work, you're not going to be able to pick up the phone and say, we have a noise complaint or my neighbor's being upset or even I'm in a fight you know we can't respond to that with our normal patrol operations. So that really goes down to two assets that's our high water vehicle on our M-Rap. So just keep in mind when these evacuations orders come out you know you need to take note of that because emergency services sometimes can't get to like I said edge waters a little bit unique, but we start triage and calls. So if we have a cardiac issue that somebody's dying in its life safety, we're 100% going to send somebody there. But if you have something else going on, somebody just stole a generator or something like that, we might not be able to get to you sometimes days at a time. So keep that in mind. Response after the event. We coordinate with the Fire Department, statewide resources, national resources in different times, and what we'll do is we'll start triaging the city to see where the worst of the weather is. Obviously, we look at US1 and 442 first to make sure the emergency personnel can get through it. We utilize drones, we utilize helicopters, everything else to see where those really bad issues are. Usually, if somewhere is badly affected, obviously there's 9-1-1 call, so we can start focusing on that, but it's all about where the worst areas are. We take care of here first every single time. Once everything is safe within the city, our police department for about the past three years is the only municipal police department in Valusia County that actually responds to statewide assistance for hurricanes. So over the past three years is the only municipal police department in Valencia County that actually responds to statewide assistance for hurricanes. So over the past three years, we've been to Taylor County and we have been to Holmes Beach, which is made at T County to take over law enforcement. This for them each time we're there for about two weeks. We send two waves of guys and what that is number one, it's all reimbursed by the state or over time, all of our expenditures. They actually take care of maintenance and it's not a money maker by any means, but there's no expenditure whatsoever for the edge of water citizen. What it is though is we go to the worst of the worst weather. You're at the landfall of the category three, category four storms. when you get there there's morgues that are set up, not doomsday, me doomsday, but that's what's set up there. So we expose our officers to itomsday, but that's what's set up there. So we expose our officers to it. They know what it's like to sleep intense. They know what it's like to do these rescues. They know what it's like to work with the National Guard and see it down there, hoping that it never happens here. However, if it does, officers are ready for it. They've seen it, they've been there, know what to do and it's kind of routine. And we've noticed a drastic change since we started doing that with them as well. Clint and Jeff, beat this to everything else. The only things that I can say is if you don't leave, a really good thing here is don't evacuate states away. It's tens of miles. You hide from, you run from, you hide from wind, run from water. So it's tens of miles there. Think that in mind. Just have your plane in place. If you do stay local, the only thing that I ask that you do is don't, don't, don't go sightseeing. Please don't, don't drive down roadways. Don't go see what the damage is. There's people that are recovering its emergencies. We're going to have to get through. if you park your car in a way, we'll push it out of the way. Just know that. But yet again, we're prepared to respond, but there's 34 of us. So there is no way, we'll push it out of the way. Just know that. But yet again, we're prepared to respond, but there's 34 of us. So there is no way that we can sit at every single roadway to close it off. There is no way that we can go to everybody's house that somebody's driven down it. It takes common sense and culture and people to get their heads out of their butts to realize that this is a disaster to go. So if there's any message that's taken there, stay your home, make sure your family's okay. Wait, and it will be all be okay, but... out of their butts to realize that this is a disaster to go. So if there's any message that's taken there, stay your home, make sure your family's okay. Wait, and it will be all be okay, but going to drive and see everybody else's house is not helping anything. That's the only message that I can really hammer home there. With that being said, that's our contact information. We're gonna put everything out on our own Facebook page. We're gonna share the fire departments. We're gonna share the city stuff. It's what we're doing. It's anything else that you can be there, but that's your best source of action for there. We have people that can answer phones, but any major updates that we think is newsworthy for the public to know, we're going to put out on our Facebook page. So that's Chiefs Contact Information. that's mine as well. Look at Facebook and we look forward to questions at the end of it. Thank you. the. Part of that is the community rating system. So the more points that the city gets, the bigger the discount that we potentially can get on bigger the discount that we potentially can get on flood insurance, so the city has historically been at a class seven for since we started the program. Last year we went to a class six and our five year annual updates. So that change in insurance rates should be effective. I believe it was April 2nd. So if you look at the insurance rates now, you should see an additional 5% discount on any flood insurance policy at the city. Now you can purchase this directly through the National Flood Insurance Program, or you can call any of any real estate agent within, you know, Lulusha County, and they can help you get that policy. I will say that a lot of the city of Edgewater has been designated by FEMA as flood zone X. You know, it's not in a special flood hazard area, a hundred-year flood zone. So the policies should be cheaper than when their policies coming out of the special flood hazard area. The other thing I'll say is that with all the flooding that we have been experiencing, there's about 13,000 structures in the city of Edgewater and only 546 are insured. And that's the latest data from FEMA on flood insurance. So I really would recommend that people purchase flood insurance. And if anyone has any questions on how to go to FEMA through the NFIP or to contact a local real estate agent, and if you have any questions about the policy itself, they're all pretty standard. They only cover up to 250,000 on the home. They're all kind of flat lined and it just depends on the past history of the property as well as your flood zone. As far as post storm response, so the development services department that includes planning and building, as well as code enforcement through the fire department after a storm. My staff will typically go out and we will do a damage assessment throughout the city. We break it down into the quadrants and we inspect every property and assess it for damage and that gets uploaded to the county. Another thing that we've started to do is take the high watermarks throughout the city and that's for tracking purposes, flood depths in relation to rainfall intensities and that way we can start tracking that, especially with the model that is being produced for our stormwater master plan. Typically though, my role and the day after this storm were not there to offer emergency management services, were there to just assess the damage of the property. Obviously, when I was walking around during Milton, when I was walking up to people's houses that had water in it, I obviously asked if they needed anything, but typically what we're doing is just trying to collect the data while we're out there. But city staff always is available to get you resources and help, should you need it. And with that, that is all I have on fund insurance for the city. Appreciate it the time. All right. Good morning. Sean or only on the Interim Public Works Director. You may have heard that term thrown on a little bit lately. We are in transition from environmental services to public works to make it a little more publicly known. Most places, that's what it's known as. So we're just trying to clear up some, some gnome and creature, whatever you want to call it. But it's definitely a better name fit for us. So if you hear that name kicked around. Just want to review some of the stuff that we've done and we're doing and we do every year for hurricanes. You know, looking at an overview of maintenance, running through our systems between July and December of last year, all of our canal systems were clean. And now we're working our way back through the process. Most of our systems flow out to the river either through the 18th Street Canal or the 10th Street Canal in the North end of town. Some of it does head south through the aerial canal, which ends up down by Oak Hill. And then the western part of Florida shores and everything west of that way generally ends up in the, in the Turmbohama Calthare to the west, which is everything west of Willow, kind of that generic area. And as we're working our way through all these systems, one thing we've been doing is some of the some of the harder hit areas and even some other areas we've been doing some re-grading on retention ponds to gain volume, a big focus. Most of the area that kind of got hit was like 26 to 12th, come quad to queen. So we've done in the last two years, Let's put that note. We've hit 34 ponds and just in 2025, we've hit 15 of them to kind of open them up and create volume for, you know, trying to handle as much water as we can. You know, one thing that Clint pointed out that I would like to reiterate that there's no system out there designed to handle anything more than about 11 or 12 inches. So what we've seen as far as structural flooding has only happened as far as the major structural flooding has only happened in a Milton and E and there were above those events. So that's why we've seen some of that and it's just nice to hear from another personnel side of the city to reiterate that. You know, those are major events and maybe they're more frequent now we've seen two in in the last two years. So obviously, we gotta keep an eye out for it, but there's nothing out there designed for that. So we're doing as much as we can to open things up and create volume and find ways of getting rid of the water. As far as hurricane preparation, we are loading up our sand louts right now. we do, We always have seen available at high biscuits. Uh right there next to the firehouse south of 26th Street. We're creating a new pattern on mango tree where we're putting a double lane in with sand piles so that people can come in on mango tree and go out on 12th. And we'll advertise that later. We'll put out a map so that people know how to handle that. It's going to be a one way road in and out of there to keep it a clean process because I know last year kind of turned into a cluster where everybody was stacking up on mango and anyway we're trying to open up make it a little smoother operation. Crews are currently out even after Thursday night's rain running storm routes. We just you know for us it's just standard issue but we call it storm routes where we check all of the crossover pipes that can All is going under roads and everything makes sure everything's open and flowing. We always do that before and after storm events. You know, I actually have a crew that's out today making sure catch basins are open stuff like that. So they're just trying to do what we can to make sure everything's ready to rock and roll for her keen season. One thing we do during storm events is we have two or generally three crews out or not crews out or not crews out, but they'll be staged at their homes. Most of our employees live in Edgewater, which is a good thing because then we've got people in town that are ready to go and we'll have them either with a piece of equipment at their house or near their house and it'll be two people to a team and they can run around and either move trees or open up any kind of flooded areas. We got them in kind of three different parts of town. So we, you know, sometimes you get stuck on one side of the tracks or the other, but we've got them all over so that way we can get to anybody that needs assistance and like I believe one of the two chiefs said, we don't go out beyond 40 miles an hour, 45. Okay, but anyway, so we try to, you to, we do what we can, but once it hits that mark, we can't be out on the street because there's only limited vehicles that can actually make it in those kind of events. Trying to think of any other storm response stuff, but realistically, this is what we do every day. I mean, we maintain these systems. I know there's a lot of social media out there that says we don't, but I would love if anybody has any questions. Please feel free to contact me and I can show you what we do and where we do it. But I do appreciate everybody listening and if you have any questions, I'm sure any one of us is willing to answer. So go. appreciate everybody listening and you have any questions I'm sure any one of us is willing to answer so. Go. just wanted to again thank all of our special guests and our staff. They worked tirelessly around the year to prepare and respond. Clint just doesn't work during hurricane season. He is planning, he is preparing, training staff, coming to events like this to help get the word out. But I want to thank you Clint personally and staff. I'm so blessed to work with a group of professionals like we here here in the city of Edgewater. One thing that I'd like to also mention, we've got staff from public works with computers in the back. They're ready to take your trackies, requests, or questions. They are more than welcome willing to make that happen. I also would like to recognize three of our council people that have shown up this morning. happen. I also would like to recognize three of our council people that have shown up this morning and thank you. Councilor Rainbow, Mayor Depugue and Vice Mayor Charlie Gillis in the back. But thank you for being here. Social media, we try to use it to our advantage, leverage the medium to get the word out. But we also need you to partner with us, to tell your neighbor, tell your family that lives here in Edgewater what you learned today. And also have them check out the recording of this session online. It's going to be posted. So again, I just thank you sign up for newsletter. There's Jill in the back or PIO would love to give you more information on newsletter, how to sign up for that as well. But would love to answer any questions or have staff address if you would. We've got somebody coming around with the mic. We're doing this so people at home can hear the question and not just the answer. Well, good morning. Thank you for doing this and thank you to our tremendous staff. I just have a few questions. I understand, Sean, that you weren't the director here in Hurricane Ian in the coal. I'm just curious for the residents listening. I appreciate, you know, we spoke about how to get ready and what goes on in the city, but really, I think we need to talk about more of our plan and what we've done since Hurricane Ian. So if you could answer a few points of what you think has really changed since Hurricane Ian, whether it's our maintenance, whether it's internally staff, you know, what is a couple key things that really has changed since Hurricane Ian, and can you also talk about a couple grants that we received since 2022? Yeah, so we've got a couple of projects that we've done, like the Heart Avenue project from what we've seen that runs from basically from Connecticut to Park Avenue. That area was redone around 22, 23, kind of finished up in that time frame. That area, we used to see, it starts that whole system, starts in Shangrila. There used to be a lot of staging issues in water in Shangrila, which from what we've seen during Milton and everything, it wasn't as bad this year, so I think that system definitely helped that improvement. We currently have a $15 million grant that runs from essentially the YMCA, Marion Street, all the way up to 10th Street, kind of overlaps that hard avenue project, so we're really not touching that part again, but that's gonna help out with that whole system that ends up where people know we're Palm Edo street all they do is on the north end of town. Doing some improvements that way. That one's a double two-phase project project and that one's designed for the first phase. We're waiting on some environmental approvals and then we'll be able to put that one out a bit. I'm hoping by July and get that one rolling. As far as like I mentioned earlier, internally from a maintenance standpoint, we're opening up retention areas to gain volume. I know at least on some of the numbers I've ran we've gained at least in one area I think it was like 300,000 gallons worth of water that we're able to open up from the debris or the sediment that we've removed from some of these retention areas. Just off top of my head trying to remember some of those numbers. We've got some grants awarded out there. I know the canal armoring. I just got some good news on that yesterday where we got the transform 386. Again, it's not going to be ready for hurricane season, but it is moving along. That one, they need about two more weeks, and then they'll be able to start the procurement process and put that out to bid, and that'll help with the umbrella travelers canal and the Unity VISTA canal Some other things that we're working on, we're in design right now for the mouth of the 18th Street Canal. Currently, if you go out there by Veterans Park, you can see it where it goes and then curves off to the left because a big sand bar has been created. And we can't legally go in there and just dig it out, you know, as much as people want us just to go in there with a piece of equipment and dig it out. It's waters of the state, it's DEP, it's Army Corp engineers. So currently it's in design. I should have the design here in May and then we'll be able to go out for permitting. And it's a gray area as to whether if it's a lesser amount of volume that we's more of a amount of volume because then we'll take more out of there, but that'll take about nine months for permitting. So it won't be till next year before we can actually open that up. We did get the silver pump canal, which we already maintained. That one didn't change, but the county gave us the actual property under the silver pump canal. Is it canal that we call the 29.5 canal that goes east west just north of 30th Street from Silver Palm It goes out to the west into the into the hammock We've driven it and walked it. It's fairly open water will move through it We've gotten some prices. It's gonna cost us about about 100 grand to clear it to be able to maintain it. The one thing we can do is stick our spider in it to make sure some of the bigger stuff is moved for now. And that's the plan is in the next, I'd say, two months or so. We're going to get the spider in there just to make sure the big stuff's out of the way. So that'll help us on the west side of Florida shores. always looking for new things. I mean, the key right now is volume. Another project that I know a lot of people have concerns on is the duck lake project. That should be permitted by June. The thing with that one is. One way or the other we're going to pump like last year we pumped. Whether that systems permitted or not we're still going to pump it. So it's going to work the same this year whether the permits in place or not. But the key is is if we get it permitted then we can pipe it under the road. We're not having to block the road. If it's not permitted and it's not constructed we're just going to close the road off and pump it across the road. So that was a non issue as far as function. We will pump during that. the other thing we will do is place another public last year at Riverside and 18th Street Canal to help as that water stages up. You know, if it's open, if it's not filling up that box covered, it's not worth pumping because there's still capacity in the box cover. But once it gets above the top of that pipe, we'll pump to help alleviate whatever's not going through the pipe. So we're, you know, doing everything we can extra that we can possibly and and can possibly and viscally, as far as financially that we can do. So. Well, thank you. The other question I had was deck like some glad to hear that we're moving forward with that. That subdivision has been overlooked for quite some time. How many pumps, and this may be a question for interim city managers, well, how many pumps does the city of Edgewater currently own and do we have a pre-storm pump plan like the city of Port Orange and other cities like city of New Florida Beach? They already have that in place. If hurricane season's coming, they go ahead and start pumping down retention areas. I understand that we're title dependent, but we have several lakes around here that are not. Do we have the pumps ready to go? Do we rent the pumps? How does that work? Just for communication to the residents, I get asked that a lot. So from a pumping standpoint, I know everybody wants us to pump every lake. It's not feasible to pump normal lakes. Duck Lake's a different story. It's a semi-closed basin with no direct outfall, so you have to pump it to alleviate that area. The other ones becomes a whole engineering issue. If you can't just stick a pump in queen lake or in mangolake and pump it down, because it's just going to come back on you. And then if you dam it up to keep it from coming back on you, then the water can't flow out that would naturally flow out with the tide. So it's a pretty big engineering undertaking as far as doing a pump system. But as far as like duck lake, we will pump down pre storm and any pumping system that's permitted, like port orange and ormin, their permits are permitted for pumping pre storm. So gain volume, you don't pump during a storm because for one, it's like sticking a strontabath to a bat to, like duck lake, if you're pumping during a storm, then you're possibly flooding the people downstream to save the people that you're pumping from. So it's a double edge sword in that sense. But we are, we do have a plan that you can only pump once it becomes a declarative end as well. So we can't just sit there two weeks before and run a pump. For the most part, our ponds are groundwater fed. So if you're sitting there with a pump running for two weeks, it's just gonna fight with itself for groundwater. So what you're trying to do is hit it for probably three or four days, maybe five days before depending on whether we get declared to get that volume down. Last year we got duck lake down 15 inches and still had flooding issues in the area, but you know, we pumped it for three days before and that's what we gained. So if we could go four or five days, maybe we gained some more volume in there, but it's a limited, you know, you're fighting groundwater at that point. So it's a tough one to push back on. But we do have a plan for that. That's that and 18th Street are the only ones that we're planning on pumping. and we do have pumps, they're typically for our lift stations, we do have them available, but we're going to plan. And we do have pumps. They're typically for lift stations. We do have them available. But we're going to plan on just renting them for stormwater so that we don't take away from any issues we might have with lift stations or other utility work. Great. Thank you. The other question I have is, and I get a call all the time about water lettuce. water lettuce, a huge deal, or how do we deal with water lettuce in the city of Edgewater? Does it block the canals are they on top of the water how does water lettuce work I get a lot of calls from residents. So water lettuce is it sits on top of the water I get it there's a lot of concerns about that but water still flows underneath it. So for the most part, you're still getting your water flow, you know, the only other way to deal with the water lettuce in our issue, most of our canals are not accessible from the banks. You have to send a spider through them. So as far as the more we send that machine in there, the more those canals are rode. So you're causing more harm than good by going in there more often than not. The only other way to think about treating it is spraying it, and that's a whole other animal that you create for the people that don't want to spray in the... more harm than good by going in there more often than not. The only other way to think about treating it is spraying it, and that's a whole other animal that you create for the people that don't want to spray in the canal. So it's a fine line you got to walk. I mean, I was just, I know umbrella travelers is probably our biggest concern because we have to mo that one a little bit more and clean it a little bit more than the other canals. It seems I don't know if everybody out there fertilizes their lawn more than everybody else, but those that water let it seem to grow quicker. I mean, I sent our crew in there. and clean it a little bit more than the other canals. It seems I don't know if everybody out there fertilizes their lawn more than everybody else, but those that water let it seem to grow quicker. I mean, I sent our crew in there, took a picture right after he went through, it was clean as a whistle, and three days later it was covered in water letters. It's like a bunch of bunny rabbits out there just covering it. There's only so much you can do to control it, but water does still flow. And that's why we do run our storm routes so that when that stuff does collect at the cross streets and everything, we scoop it out as best we can. Bye. but water does still flow. You know, and that's why we do run our storm routes so that when that stuff does collect at the cross streets and everything, we scoop it out as best we can. But being that these blocks are, you know, 600 feet long, there's really not much that's going to get caught up in the middle because there's no hang-ups except for the crossover pipes that we can actually scoop from. So it's not a major issue as far as where concerned for flow. Gotcha. Well, thank you. The last question I have was anybody as far as staff or anybody in the audience, I know probably Mr. Martin's the only one here. Was anybody here in like 95, 96 and remember when the Army Corps engineers came in and did major improvements of Florida shores? Okay, one. So let me ask you a question. You know, in other municipalities, like Daytona Beach is doing a study, they reached out to Corey Mills office, they were able to get this started with the Army Corps engineers. Has anybody been in contact with the Army Corps engineers? And the other question that I have is, nobody went through like communication points of how to talk to FEMA, community and the communication points with Red Cross. If I have a, I can't get access to my number, who would I go through at the city to see if I can get the number to Red Cross to come to my home and help me out? Or do we have a FEMA representative that the city communicates to? So basically to reiterate the question, have anybody and staff reached out to the Army Corps engineers since our trouble began in 2022 to help create a plan with engineering on a federal level? Then the second question is, who is our contact point for FEMA natural disaster resources, and the Red Cross, and if I'm without communication, is there somebody in the city that I can contact to get me those resources? For the Army Corps question, the only time I would know you'd reach out to them is if you have a project, like with the 18th Street Canal, we have to go through them and get a permit. You know, I don't know, again, I'd have to find out whether you reach out to them to come help us. I don't know that that's a possibility. It's more of them issuing permits or approving what work can be done. And then maybe there's something I don't know. Maybe Clint can speak to that. As far as the FEMA stuff, I'm operations and maintenance so if somebody has information on FEMA or Red Cross, I just I don't have that. Okay, through counties and As far as the FEMA stuff, I'm operations and maintenance so if somebody has information on FEMA or Red Cross, I just I don't have that Okay, through counties emergency management so anybody can reach out through them I guess it's a question for you about the duck lake. You said that the permit will be in June. Do you have a breakdown like the timing of the project when it's going to start after the permitting and how long it's going to take and the extent of it? As soon as the permit's ready, I'll put it out to bid. I got to look and see if it's over 50 grand, we have to go to a formal bid, which will take a longer process. It doesn't seem It seemed like it would cost that much to me because it's a pipe under a road with a box and we're gonna pump to it. So, and the other things that you got asked for and all that stuff kind of adds up. So, you know, with construction these days, I got to get some estimates before I can answer that question. If it's just, if it's under 50 grand, I can probably do it by August. But realistically, if I got to put it out to bid, that's going to be a several month process. But like I said, as far as the function of it, I'm still going to pump whether that pipes under the road or not. So the function will still work this hurricane season. Nothing changes whether we get that. If I never get that permit, it's still going to function the way it'll function in the future when it's actually construction and, you know, per design. I know that our previous pump didn't quite work as well as our neighborhood would have liked as far as Regent and Bonstreet goes because we still had 12 homes flood versus 22 from Ian. Correct. So I know you have an insight on a little bit how to pump a little bit better or a little more or whatever. And you said you would like to try to start days earlier than you did. We're limited on when we can pump, but again, like I think last year we started on a Monday. I believe the declaration came on Sunday or Saturday night. We could have gained another day or so. Again, first time we've ever pumped in edge water. So learn from it, but realistically, you know, now that we know we can be ready. So if there is a declaration, we can have a pump on, we can go ahead and send one of the ones that we have and then order pumps to rent when the declaration comes. So we have them available, but I'd rather not take away from utilities resources. I can always get a pump. Pumps are readily available through rentals. I mean, there's a hundred companies out there I can rent from, so that's not an issue that way. I know people have always asked whether we bought them. Personally, I don't think it's a smart move to buy them because they sit around all year from a... So that's not an issue that way. I know people have always asked whether we bought them. Personally, I don't think it's a smart move to buy them because they sit around all year from a storm water standpoint. So for 10 months out of the year they're going to sit and dry rot and you need to maintain them and all that. I'd rather rent it for a week at a time or whatever it is. Because there's several thousand dollars. I would say an eight inch pump is somewhere upwards of 70 grand. So realistically to spend that 70 grand or rent one for five grand a week for four weeks out of the year, you know, if we've got four storms that come, I think fiscally it's smarter to not keep them on hand. When we do have a few that we could borrow until we get a rental. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I had a question for, actually something for chief Mahoney. Chief. Yes, ma'am. Yes, I want to just give you a little insight on my neighborhood's experience during Hurricane Ian. Regent Street. We have a little bit of an issue of cell service because they tell us that there is not enough towers in the area. We get excuses. And there's this wooded area right north of us, Yadayata. But during Hurricane Ian, we did not have any Wi-Fi service. We did not have any cell service. We had calf high water in the house. There was thigh high water out in the street. We did not see anybody come down the street all day, Thursday and all day Friday during daytime to check on us. And the middle of the night in dark, I don't know what time because I had no electricity because I had to turn my, we had power, but I had to turn my electricity off because I had water in my house. I do believe the high water rescue may have come into that area. There was bright lights, there was an announcement if you want to come out of the neighborhood, come out to the vehicle. I would have had to walk my 86 year old mother into thigh high water in the dark in order to get out to the vehicle, three houses it down. And later on, when we had the hurricane workshop where they were telling us what they did, somebody said, well, if you had contacted us on Facebook, we would have been able to, I know, hmm, hmm. Okay, we had no Wi-Fi. We had no cell service. Maybe the people who had landlines and people in other areas further down the street were able to make phone calls, but from 1101, 1015, 1013, and then 1005 and 1004, 1003, who were out of the water. They were high and dry, but they couldn't get out for days out of their neighborhood because they couldn't drive their little car through water that was up to here. I was unable to leave until Friday afternoon with my 86 year old mother because I owned a pickup truck and still I had water in the tailpipe as I was driving down the street in order to get my mother out of that neighborhood and back to her house which is an edgewater landings which was high and dry. Yeah, no, I understand. I'm sorry you experienced that. Your cell phone should still be able to dial 911. Did you try to, did you attempt to call 911? I did not attempt to call 911. Okay, so that would be my first option for you is to do so if you needed emergency assistance. But if you know you're in a susceptible area, and I know you don't wanna hear this, being very honest with you. Okay. If you know you're in an area that may flood and you have special needs individuals like at elderly person. I lived in very honest with you. Okay, if you know you're in an area that may flood and you have special needs individuals like it elderly person. I lived in that house for 30 years. And this was the first time we ever flooded. I understand that. So I'm not against you. I'm with you. Trust me, we don't we don't police officers out there first light. We responded like the captain told you over 200. Yes. You know flood incidents. We first bought that MRAP. We took so much political, negative input from the public, and also from politicians. Why we need something like that. And then six months after we purchased that, we rescued over 200 people. So we're prepared. I just asked that you do your part. If you know you have someone that's special needs, you need to have a plan to evacuate. It's 175 miles of roadway in edge water and there's 34 police officers. So we're there. If you were to contact an 911, we would have sent someone to you. Well, I mean, I wasn't the only one who couldn't get cell service. So I don't know if the cell was able to do 911, we couldn't even text. There was no way I didn't even realize that 911 would work when the cell phone wasn't working at all. You say, I don't know about that. You should be able to. So I'll know that in the future, but we had an entire line of houses that were saying that they couldn't get out. We were able to walk in the water to each other. We would have had to hike out of our neighborhood to mango and then wave somebody down in order to get help. But we definitely sent resources there. Yeah, there was resources that were sent for people who made phone calls. And there was a resource that sent in the middle of the night. Like I said, I tried to wave them down. I was standing in my driveway and I was told, if you want to get out, come out to the vehicle. And there was no way I was going to be able to walk my mother through all that. So I just want to make you aware that there is an issue with cell phone service on Regent Street during the storms, the same thing happened during Milton. We had no cell phone service, no Wi-Fi service, but we were prepared that time. So I just wanted to make you aware of there isn't, there's a dead zone right there. I do appreciate that. Hey everybody, thanks for coming. just wanted to thank all Thank you. Hey everybody, thanks for coming. Just wanted to thank all our emergency management services people. And everybody for a 10 I'm going to stand over here so I can see everybody. So the first thing I want to offer is my services to any police officers, family. Then he's helped during a hurricane because they're not home, they're not gone. I mean, they're gone. They're not home. I assist a lot of people with generators, sandbags. I'm out every storm in the last 30 or 40 years. I have a lot of contacts. I supply generators, help flood victims. My phone number is 386, 847, 4144. I'm blue family. My son is a disabled police officer. I have a big spot in my heart, but if anybody needs help during a hurricane, please pass it on, or anybody in here, just call me. Got a high water vehicle, and I'll be helping people if they need it, especially the families of firefighters or police officers that they can't attend because they're going on. One of the things that I learned after the last flood was how we're, how was our city monitoring canals and storm surge and you know stuff like that. And what I learned through the investigation was that there was text messages going on between Jill and some of our... So anyways, I'd like some information on how we're going to monitor storms this time, because what I understand was, and it cracked me if I'm wrong, Jill, you don't have to. I'm just saying that your nephew was monitoring the water behind your house, which the water was being pumped to. So for like practically two days, while gas-like subdivision was flooded, you were communicating asking them, please don't turn the pumps on because you don't want your garage flooded. It's in the investigation, but I'm just saying. So if we can, how are we going to monitor canals and stuff during a storm to know when to pump, know when to quit pumping? Are we monitoring with some cameras or stuff like that? How are we going to monitor the canals and the pumping if we're not out because I was out during hurricanes with the mayor and Councilman Charlotte and she was out there and we disagree with a lot of stuff on the pumping. But that's all behind us. I've seen a lot of positive work from the public works. 100% turn around for when I first met you two years ago in my neighborhood. We were trying to get stuff picked up. Thank you for your hard work now. It's and being transparent, so it means a lot of the community. And I thank you for that. But how are we going to monitor. The these events as far as canals and storm surge and stuff like that? I mean through staff like we always have I don't know any other way to say it but again being out during a storm like captain said you probably shouldn't be because there's flooded roads and everything else so trying to keep the less way cough the roads is possible and you know we're going to pump when we can pump and when we're legally able to but outside of that it's it's up to staff to make sure that they're doing the right thing. Okay, thank you. Further more, we're doing a state of emergency if the governor issues it. Can we not take a big machine like a backhoe with a long arm on it? And by the way, I'm a heavy equipment operator certified, run into piece of equipment you got. Okay, I'm also certified in hazmat removal and operations got a hazmat 40 hour haz-wapper. Can we not earn a state of emergency? Go down there to the park, get a machine, and dig that sand out of there so that can out and flow better. Is that an option? I don't think so. And I mean, it's just not being waters of the state and everything. It's there's a lot of hurdles you got across. So that's why we're trying to do it the right way. Okay. Also, one idea that I had and I had mentioned at the mayor a while back, is maybe suggest that our city manager could purchase some handheld ham radios, and that everybody in here could have some ham radios just in case everything does go down, or that you can have some private communications also if, say, you want to talk to Jeff or Jeff needs to talk to chief. That under any circumstances some handheld operators would work in the city of Edgewater. It's just an idea. We do have handheld radios. Ham radios. Okay. Yeah, I think that's an 800 megahertz. we had it when I worked at the county, but it was just an idea. I didn't know about that, but it's been a great meeting and I want to thank everybody for being here. And, Mr. Veroni, I just, I want to thank you again for the transparency. This has never been done before. People, when they come in here and out of meet, and they can see what you guys have been doing. I know you guys are short staff. I've been here since I was four years old. And I see a lot of positive things happening out there. And I know you got some big shoes to fill, but the transparency is I think what matters most to the people in the city of Edgewater now. We're seeing stuff get done. Is it enough? No, we don't have enough people. We don't have enough help, but You know, it helps come and I think the more that The further we move along The more we're gonna learn about what we've got to do Also, I'd like to offer my services with the public works department if you guys need an operator nights weekends or, during a hurricane after the hurricane, let me know, I trained people how to run that equipment. And I'll sign any way where you want. I know we have volunteer firemen, we have volunteer police officers. And for someone to give me an excuse for we're about liability, I think there's just as much liability as working in the fire little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a a little bit of a little bit of a But put everything behind us and move forward. Thank you. Hey guys, hi Edgewater. I just wanted to say that it's a new comrider city here. It's a little overwhelming. The mass of the stuff that this row of people has to handle. I was down here at the podium at a meeting. Pretty irate about a one hour storm that we had. And the last two storms we had, I've been driving around Charlotte one way, diesel over here, I'm driving around. The last two storms we've seen some good progress, you gave us personal phone number information, even if we saw something, I'm driving around and going, okay, water's starting to build, here we go. All of a sudden, the water started going back down. The one we had about a month ago, it got there. Water started coming down. The one two days ago, here we go again, water started going down. Whatever's going on, I'm sure you guys know this one thing that I did notice while driving around any of the heavier spots seem to be localized to people's property like under their driveway isn't cleared out. I know who's responsibility that is. If it's ours, that's going to be years to clear out under every driveway. But there's progress being made. I had the opportunity to ride with the chief and chas and see the facility we have. That M-Rap, they could pull up, you could be on your roof, they could pull right up to your car, you step right on the top of that thing, that truck, we have the stuff, the knowledge is here and I'm pretty confident that we know what we're doing. We could house, seeing that Volucha County comes to our facility to train edge water hell yeah. These guys have in the last six years have come a huge way right. Jeff, great rating. We know what we're doing. We got some obstacles. Me and Chuck and the mayor in full disclosure. We went to the end of 18th and that's the first thing we noticed. That's Bar of Sand. That's like a cork partially in the wine bottle. Nine months, that's the thing. The legislature seems to be, they wanna take plats away from us. They wanna get rid of, there's bills out there to get rid of agricultural zoning. That's a whole different battle. We got nine months really. We need help above the county level it seems and I just my main point of this is we've made progress. It was very great to see. That water started going down. Whatever is being done, we know what to do. You got to unbelievable undertaking on your hands. You not only got to deal with what these people do, but you got to deal with them and the people up there. No. But we need some awareness is great Between it seems like underneath people's driveways is gonna be a big Because you only have it'll go down between your house your neighbor's house and that house And that's where that big pile of water isn't and down there they're dry. I don't know how we get that accomplished But guys we, we're doing great. Let's get better. Whatever you need. I know it's budget time coming. We only have 34 police. We can house them though. That your facilities, unbelievable, the capabilities that we have. That truck can handle how many people can fit in the bag of that truck? So we could take We could take the duck Lake airing just get everybody out of there if we really had to It seems to be a communication problem as we learn But I'm pretty confident that we're on the right path and getting all this done We got citizens that don't have to do this out there putting our eyeballs on. We need to know, though folks, all you people out there watching, we need to know. I get a couple emails from some citizens, I get it to Jeff, Jeff gets it to them. If we don't know, we can't fix it. So edgewater, you know, but we're doing good guys. I got some confidence brewing here. Hey everybody, this is real important. And our director picked up on it over here. Hurricane Shelters. Okay. He talked about schools. So my question is, and I've talked to Miss Charlotte Gillis about it, is there any way, because as of now, we've never had, as far as I know, any hurricane shelters in Edgewater, we have two schools that, by the way, have never flooded. I helped put the roof on the new school at Dending River Elementary School, about four years ago, I worked with Maxime Crane Service, and the YMCA understands it's got a new roof. So in Edgewater, we need our own hurricane shelter, just like the director said, what's our plans on that? All the hurricane shelters are run through the county and they're done through the school board. So it's not a decision that Edgewater makes. There's no individual city that I know of that has their own hurricane shelter. It's all through them. Okay, so how do we go about, where everybody's here? I mean, you guys are here, you're here, you're here. We need hurricane shelters here in Edgewater. I understand that YMCA is partnered with Edgewater. So, deflaracy fire chief. So, one of the issues that we, that comes into the play when you start determining shelters is storms can change in their paths. And one of the concerns that we would have if we turned, for example, the YMCA to a shelter, which we had done one time. And the concern is, is if the path of the storm changes, we're just too close to the coast. And that's one of the things that the school board takes into consideration when they pick a school. They pick it because of the location, the capabilities of the school, the size of the school, and there's a capacity for bathrooms, for example. All that stuff is taken into consideration when they pick these shelter locations. So one of the disadvantages we have is having our own shelter, which would be difficult to do anyhow, but it's too close to the coast. We would, that's why a lot of the emergency management tries to put shelters inland, and that's why those are selected. But for us, for example, for us to build a shelter, we would have to determine who's gonna staff that shelter. Who's going to man that shelter? It wouldn't be just for our citizens either. And what would we do for special needs? There's a lot to go into sheltering on the that's why the county emergency manager is responsible for that decision. What we can do is help him for example, we only have one animal control officer But if I had to I'm gonna free up one of those two to go to that shelter that takes animals That's where we can all work together how that's how the city of Edgewater can help operate some of those shelters. We're just kind of small right now. We just don't have those resources to help, but we try, you know, but those are the things that we do do for our for our citizens that do have to go to those shelters, but something so close to the coast, I would be very scared to put a shelter so close to the coast. And we have a change in path. It's just, that's why schools are used. They have the emergency backup power. They have large lunch rooms. They have the staffing to staff those shelters. That's why that happens. That's why going to say that cities with their own shelters. Just a comment to this also the first year I was elected mayor we got together I got together with Glen Erby our city manager at the time and we spoke about not having a shelter. One of the visions that I had, and we put in a state level, was to have a safe center. Half of it would be our new police station, and the other half would be acted as a community center. When the community center is not in use, it would be acted as a hurricane shelter. It received no support at all on a state level. Typically, what we ran into is the governor always vetoes an emergency operations center unless it's county oriented. In the county, I think just got some state funding this year for their ESC center. Nothing's final through the budget. The governor has to sign off on it, which there's a bunch there to talk about. But anyway, we tried, we didn't succeed. And I think in the future, as Jeff said, yes, we're close to the coast but our future city hall property Could potentially locate that kind of shelter. It's already gone through a few studies And I think that if something is we move forward in a vision plan that we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on that we need to be Included in it. So we've tried before we're gonna I think we're gonna try again and it's just it's not come to fruition. It's come to a dead end. So as far as the council and goes we're always for public safety and we've tried. Jeff and I have met about it before the chief and I have met about it before as well and we tried we didn't succeed and this year they only wanted to do stormwater projects. Okay, thank you for that, Mr. Mayor. As far as the pumps go with 42 years of experience in public works, solid waste, building sewage treatment plants. I'm gonna have to disagree with you Mr. Moroni, with the millions and dollars and grants that we can afford a couple pumps. And basically you could just fire them up a couple times a year and run them because the last time the investigation showed that you guys were having a rough time finding pumps and you had to go all the way to Orange County to rent a couple pumps and then I guess one of them failed. That's not acceptable for us the taxpayers in the city of beds water. We need to buy a couple pumps and maintain them. So we have them. When we need them and. So that's about all I want to say with that we we can afford a couple of pumps. You know coming from a taxpayer and I think. Other taxpayers would agree and. I would like to hear the hear the mayors input on that, Mr. Mayor. Well, I can't input to that. I mean, that would be a whole council thing. I think we're coming through budget cycle, but I mean, as far as that goes, I mean, we can always talk about budgetary items and what the council recommends I mean I think that we should always have our own or at least rent local So I guess I got to respectfully disagree with Chuck but You know we could have pumps on hand that could break just as easily as the one that we rented. The alternator went, but it was quickly replaced. That could have happened to one of ours that sat around all year waiting to be used. So I don't see a big advantage there of spending the $70,000 rather than four or five grand a rent one. And whether it came from Orlando or not, it got here just as quick. So I don't, I don't have any concerns that way. It was cheaper, it saved us some money. You know, we go out and get three quotes like any other time coming from Orlando was not an issue. You know, we can get them from anywhere. You know, Thompson Pomp, we went to three local places and this one just happened to be the least expensive. So fiscally, why would I spend more money just rent one locally? But as far as letting them sit around and create maintenance issues for my fleet department, I don't want to put that burden on them to let them sit around. So, again, from a rental standpoint, it doesn't seem like an issue. And again, that's an operational decision. It's not a, honest, it's not a council decision. It's, you know, we're here to do what we do. and that's an operational decision, it's not a, I'll be honest, it's not a council decision, it's, you know, we're here to do what we do, and that's an operational decision that I've made. So if anybody else has questions, I'm more than willing to answer them, but that's just, to me, it's a smarter move to not go out and spend that kind of money. I've got other things I could be spending money on. Well, if they're yes. Microphone. And if I'm not mistaken, a lot of our, a lot of our grants are earmarked. We can't just go and take that money. It's for this and this only correct. Correct. Do you have to get a grant specifically to buy pumps? And again, I'd rather reach out for a grant for something else that you know, maybe a little bit harder to get versus just something That's readily available from any rental company within a hundred miles For instance, it would be nice for our police to have a helicopter But we're not not going to use it. But we have support, we have resources support, just like our pump vendors, their resource support for us, so we don't have to have the costs of owning them. I want to thank again all of our presenters or special guests, valuable information. A lot of what we've heard before, but it's fantastic to have a refresher reminder of resources and reminder of the support that our professionals give us. We come away with anything today I just this is preparedness is key information is power and we don't know what this year holds 17, 9, 4 major, both both projection agencies. We don't know, but we can be prepared. We can be informed and that we can be as ready as we can be. Again, your departments work tirelessly before, during an after an event year round, it's not a seasonal thing. They work year round. They sacrifice, sleep, they sacrifice time with their families, they often sacrifice protection over their own homes and property for our residents. Again, I want to thank our elected officials that are in the room that came out as well. We have staff in the back to take trackies. Trackies is our system within the city that takes service requests, complaints and compliments electronically. We also have phone numbers to contact through our website. We use social media. I also want to do the shameless plug for our Volusia County Emergency Management app. It get a new tool. I'm going to be using the tool to help you to get a new tool. I'm going to be using the tool to help you to get a new tool. I'm going to be using the tool to help you to get a new tool. I'm going to be using the tool to help you to get a new tool. I'm going to be using the tool Let's partner together. Sign up for our newsletter sign up as a follower on our Facebook Instagram Just let's partner together to be safer again. Thank you