Manatee, Sarasota experts share 'lessons from the eye of the storm'

When Hurricane Helene hit, Café on St. Armands (Cafe L’Europe then) resembled the scene from the movie “Titanic” where tables were floating around. Even the refrigerator was on the move. 

“We watched and cried, and did a lot of soul searching during that loss,” said Abby Elliot, the senior director of operations at Oysters Rock Hospitality. “What we learned from that story is that you have to heed the warning of preparation. You hear it, you talk about it, you have to do it. You have to follow up on it and make sure that everything is prepared.”  

Through a partnership with Florida Power and Light, the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance held a luncheon June 25 titled “Lessons from the Eye of the Storm” to talk about previous hurricanes and how to be prepared for the upcoming storm season. 

Last year was an active storm season with Hurricane Debby on Aug. 5, Helene on Sept. 26, and Milton on Oct. 9.

The panel discussion had four speakers — Elliot; Jodie Fiske, the director of Public Safety for Manatee County; David St. Pierre, the senior director of public safety and security at SeaPort Manatee; and Sandra Tapfumaneyi, the chief of Emergency Management for Sarasota County. 

Courtesy image

The discussion was moderated by Devaney Iglesias, the area manager of Florida Power and Light for Sarasota, Manatee, DeSoto, Hardee and Highlands counties. 

Fiske shared information about a form of debris many might not think of when it comes to hurricanes — sand. She said that 151,474 cubic cubic yards of sand were washed up into Manatee County from that single storm. She compared the overall volume to “61 1/2 Olympic-sized swimming pools, packed bottom to top.” 

Fiske said people think that sand is no big deal and could just be scooped out of their house and taken back to the beach.

“But it's not just sand,"Fiske said. "It's shards of glass and hard plastic. It's other smaller bits of debris that is left on the beach."

Fiske said if the sand is left in that condition, "My lifeguards are going to be stitching people up six ways to Sunday,” she said.

Tapfumaneyi talked about the fact that even neighborhoods that don't take a direct hit from the storm can have severe flooding.

She said flood insurance is incredibly valuable for people to have whether they are in a flood zone or not. 

She said slow-moving storms can carry a big impact, and rain waters can be particularly damaging even for homes or businesses that aren't near waterways.

Tapfumaneyi encouraged everyone to take evacuation calls seriously, even if a storm might not be predicted to be especially damaging.

Photo by Madison Bierl

“We want people to listen,” Tapfumaneyi said.

She said having severe storms right on top of each other caused people to take more notice when the next storm approaced.

 “When we told people it was going to be worse for Milton, I do feel like that more people heeded the evacuation (orders). I do feel like it saved lives from that standpoint.”

Tapfumaneyi said Sarasota County will have more technology to help predict what a storm will look like and what it's impact will be.

“(Hurricane) Debby was a good example because we knew we weren't going to have as much debris because there wasn't the wind factor that came,” Tapfumaneyi said. “(Hurricane) Helene was a bit worse and then of course Milton, we knew that there was going to be tremendous debris pickup.” 

After Milton, Sarasota County had to deal with 2.4 million cubic yards of debris. The County estimates that it cost  $144 million Milton cleanup. The bulk is debris pickup.

“It's very expensive and the county doesn't have $144 million just set aside for the chance that we might have a storm like this,”  Tapfumaneyi said. “We rely on the federal government to reimburse us.”

St. Pierre oversees emergency action planning and security operations at Seaport Manatee. He said it's important for business owners to encourage their employees to have a plan for when storms hit. 

“A challenge for those who run transportation facilities is trying to get that distribution system working again,” St. Pierre said. “For us to do that, many of our employees have evacuated with their families." 

The speakers talked about how businesses and homeowners need to be patient after storms because they could see significant delays in re-stocking. 

Patience is a key to recovery.

“We had county employees out there picking up debris,” Tapfumaneyi said. “We saw neighbors helping neighbors, bringing stuff to landfills. There's only so much that's going to happen in that short time frame.” 

Fiske encouraged the business leaders at the luncheon to visit MyManatee.org/storm. 

“That's your one stop shop for all of the resources that you need to be prepared,” Fiske said. “How to make a kit, how to sign up for alerts, and how to know your evaluation level.”