Town officials sound off on Debby response

The threat of Tropical Storm Debby loomed over Longboat Key Monday, June 25 and Tuesday, June 26, with a tropical-storm warning in effect both days throughout the entire island.

But by Wednesday, Debby was no longer a downer. She had disappeared.

The sun shone. Power was restored. The floods that closed both Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub and Moore’s Stone Crab Restaurant on Broadway were reduced to mere puddles.

But, although the long-lingering Debby spared the Key of major damage, she still made an impact throughout the island.

Debby’s winds worsened the severe erosion near North Shore Road, most likely sweeping away the last of the sand placed as part of last year’s $4 million emergency beach project.

Public Works Director Juan Florensa spent the morning of Monday, July 2 doing a preliminary drive-through of the island with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials. Florensa didn’t have an estimate of the amount of sand lost from Debby at press time. But the sand loss could put properties at heightened risk should strong winds take the island by storm again.

“Any time we lose sand, we lose protection for our beaches,” Florensa said.

Town Manager David Bullock said that Debby has prompted the town to evaluate its monitoring system for storms, rainfall and tides.

“It was largely the big tides and the effects of the rain and the storm that caused us to have the flooding, and no one hit this on the prediction side,” he said.

Acting Police Chief Pete Cumming said that the police, fire and public works departments and town manager’s office worked well together.

Police officers had difficulty accessing flooded roads in their cruisers and borrowed a Public Works vehicle for patrol of those areas.

The inability of town vehicles to access flooded areas is a factor that the town is likely to consider when it decides whether to replace vehicles, according to Bullock.

Longboat Key Fire Rescue Chief Paul Dezzi said that firefighters were briefed on the town’s severe weather policies last month but learned some of the smaller lessons of emergency response. For example, when responding to an electrical fire at a flooded home on Bayview Drive, firefighters learned to be cautious about wearing their boots in such situations because they filled up with water.

Officials also learned when they checked the beaches that many people wouldn’t heed warnings to leave the beach.

“We had many people in the water and the seas were rough,” Dezzi said.

Many beachgoers were bodysurfing or windsurfing and insisted they could handle the storm. But rip currents are unpredictable and put both beachgoers and emergency-response officials at risk, according to Dezzi.

In the absence of major storms for several years, Florensa said that his crews found a few areas in which they were “a little rusty.”

Public Works employees attempted to lower town flags in heavy winds but couldn’t lower at least one because winds were so strong. Typically, protocol requires employees to lower flags as the storm approaches, according to Florensa.

The storm also served as a reminder to the town to keep accurate records of the time it spends in its response, because many costs could be reimbursed by FEMA and the state if President Barack Obama grants Gov. Rick Scott’s request for a major disaster declaration to help counties affected by Debby.

And that time will keep accruing. Although Debby was just a distraction for most, Florensa estimates that debris cleanup will continue for the next couple of weeks.

Debris cleanup
The town requests that residents place storm debris that doesn’t fit in garbage receptacles into bundles of no more than 40 pounds or 4 feet long. For more information, contact the Public Works Department at 316-1988.