Surprise storm works as test-run for emergency managers

Tropical Storm Emily was a surprise to most people rolling out of bed and checking TV or the internet July 31.

Without much warning, a patch of bad weather in the gulf became a tropical depression and then a tropical storm with winds of up to 45 mph. Rains came and angst built as watches and warnings were posted along the Southwest Florida coast.

But Ed McCrane, Paul Dezzi and Todd Kerkering — the three men whose job it is to worry when emergencies strike — just went about their day, certain they had things under control. Fortunately, they all had a plan.

Kerkering, emergency manager for the city of Sarasota, agreed. His 20 years in the Marine Corps helps him stay calm, but it’s also his faith that his team can handle a storm, even something much bigger than Emily.

“I don’t get excited and I don’t get stressed,” he said. “I have complete trust and confidence in the Public Works, the Utility Department and the Police Department within the city.”

On the barrier islands, that same level of calm is evident.

“Because we’ve gone through these things, it doesn’t worry me,” said Dezzi, chief of Longboat Key Fire Rescue, of storm systems such as Emily. “We feel we’re experienced in the area of emergency management.”

Emergency managers get warnings of threats before the community, in most cases. McCrane, Sarasota County’s emergency management chief, sent out an advisory to all the county’s partners on July 30, warning of potential storms coming.

By 6 a.m. on July 31, Emily was classified as a tropical storm, and by 9 a.m. managers were on a conference call with the National Weather Service. 

In hindsight, each of the three officials is comfortable calling storms like Emily a kind of test-run, to know how to react in the case of a real emergency. It gives staff members the practice they need to be just as comfortable.

“But during the event, it’s a real thing just like any other storm,” McCrane said. Each manager is in charge of evaluating the threat to his areas, communicating with other departments and the community, and organizing any relief efforts.

Each of the managers has a list of areas that he knows are flood risks, which require monitoring, often by driving out there when conditions permit. For McCrane, it’s the Playmore area. For Dezzi, it’s the north end of Longboat Key. And for Kerkering, it’s parts of Lime Street and in the Gillespie Park neighborhood.

“Really what we do in these storms — we monitor the weather, and if we feel we need to beef up our services, then we do so,” Dezzi said.

“Treat all storms as … a dry run, a practice. Discuss it with your family. Don’t turn an opportunity down to make yourself better and your family safer.”

McCrane was monitoring the weather when county staff got a call asking about sandbags. They quickly organized three points throughout the county where residents could pick them up if they needed —  in the beginning Emily was expected to bring a lot of rain over several days. By Tuesday, the sandbag stations were closed.

Much of what the managers do happens in advance of a storm’s approach.

Kerkering, for example, identifies and works to fix areas of the city that would be prone to flooding, ensures no drains are blocked and checks that the lift stations around the city are functioning properly.

All three men spend much of their time educating the public. Dezzi and Kerkering go to a lot of neighborhoods and speak to residents about how to be prepared and make sure they’re registered for the Code RED emergency notification system — something the county provides to keep residents informed about emergencies.

While Tropical Storm Emily turned into nothing more than a dry run for the real thing, Kerkering said anything above a category 2 hurricane is when he would start to worry.

“Where I would begin to get overly concerned is if you have that big Katrina-style and Ike-style where there’s 15-20 feet of storm surge expected,” he said. “If you live here, it’ll change your life for a while.”

A storm like that is the “real thing” for which emergency staffs  prepare. And  residents should, too.

“Treat all storms as … a dry run, a practice. Discuss it with your family,” Kerkering said. “Don’t turn an opportunity down to make yourself better and your family safer.”