“Don’t get caught up in the numbers, it only takes one as we saw with Ian … to have major impact on us,” Emergency Management Director Bill Litton said. “We all need to be prepared and keep our eyes out.”
Litton gave his annual hurricane outlook presentation Monday to county commissioners. The storm season starts June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.
Ian exposed the vulnerabilities to flooding in Osceola countywide after the storm left thousands of homes waterlogged for weeks. Now the county is expanding emergency response plans with help from the state and federal governments and officials are warning residents to start preparing now.
“As we’ve seen, depending on the rainfall amounts and the wind amounts that’s the key,” Litton said. “If it’s a slow-moving storm, we might have more impact from rain, but if it’s a fast-moving storm we still might have impacts.”
This year there are 14 weather stations countywide after three were added in preparation for the season. Litton said that the increase provides a clearer image of weather conditions for emergency services and residents.
This year, the emergency management office received federal funding to create two more emergency response teams. These teams will operate in underserved areas of the county where data shows historically high rainfall averages.
“We’re looking at an additional, hopefully, to total five teams in the next couple of years,” Litton said. “So it’s a force multiplier, not only for our team, but also the communities they live in.”
The National Hurricane Center issued an update this year that aims to help the county’s growing Hispanic population, he said. The agency added public advisories in Spanish — a feature Osceola has been requesting for some time.
Commissioner Viviana Janer praised the agency’s move and said the county will now be safer as every resident will be able to understand the severity of storms — a challenge during Ian.
“I’m just really happy that we’re going to have access to that information since many of our constituents prefer the Spanish language,” Janer said.
The county also sought help in locating flood vulnerabilities and was awarded $500,000 from the state to conduct a flood-risk study.
According to the agreement between the county, subcontractor, and engineering firm CDM Smith, the study will analyze historic data on land topography, rainfall, and flood zone maps to find missing data gaps. The study will also provide estimated impacts of flooding for storms with increasing intensities over 50 years.
