Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Mayors’ Hurricane Irma lessons a path to better storm preparedness in S. Florida
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board surveyed 36 mayors in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Twenty responded.
Six weeks after Hurricane Irma, a sharper picture is emerging of how South Florida could better prepare for the next big storm.
To add clarity, the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board surveyed 36 mayors in Broward and Palm Beach counties to ask what went right during Irma and what needs work. Twenty responded.
They are proud, rightly so, of the steps they took to keep people safe during the storm, but are horrified that 14 people died after being left in a Hollywood nursing home that lost air conditioning. Many remain annoyed that state and federal officials haven’t resolved the bidding war over debris pick-up. And most all believe better communication is needed between city and county governments, as well as the power company.
On considering their concerns, we encourage Broward and Palm Beach County commissioners to convene a professionally facilitated meeting with their city colleagues.
The goal should be first, to applaud what went right. And second, to actively listen and create a process that everyone agrees would work better next time.
Here are the problem spots: Evacuations: In Broward, fuzzy zones and communications
“Decisions on mandatory evacuation areas and curfews made by the county need to be made in better coordination with municipalities and with due consideration for the issues we face.” — Sunrise Mayor Michael Ryan
Some city mayors said they learned of Broward County’s evacuation order at a press conference and were never given a chance to weigh in. Not all areas east of U.S. 1 needed to be evacuated, some said, particularly neighborhoods with higher elevations.
Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief defended the county’s approach, saying, “We’ve been criticized for starting emergency preparations early, but there’s 1.8 million people in Broward that I feel responsible for and I wasn’t going to delay important decisions.”
In Fort Lauderdale, the broad evacuation order taxed city resources. Police patrols suddenly were needed in areas not expected to be evacuated. No longer could War Memorial Auditorium be considered for use as a shelter. And with trash cans and bulk pick-up out by the street, waste haulers either had to violate the evacuation order or risk leaving debris to become projectiles in high winds.
Miguel Ascarrunz, Broward’s emergency management director, said the decision to evacuate everything east of Federal Highway was made because of the potential for a direct hit from a powerful storm. It was announced early to give people time to get out. And he said evacuations were discussed in the county’s daily conference calls with city representatives.
Unlike its neighbors, Broward has just two zones — everything east of A1A for smaller storms and everything east of Federal Highway for bigger ones. Ascarrunz said the county sticks to two zones, marked by two familiar roads, to make it easier for residents to remember. Even with the two-zone approach, city leaders said the county could have issued partial evacuations, which would have helped.
Without question, there’s simplicity in saying “everyone east of Federal Highway” should evacuate, we grant you that. But if not absolutely needed, such a broad call also taxes families, highways, shelters and law enforcement. Plus, residents face arrest if they refuse to leave.
Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, by contrast, have five evacuation zones. Both ordered phased evacuations of areas most at risk.
Broward should let science, not the crazy curve of a road — as when U.S. 1 merges with Sunrise Boulevard — define its hurricane evacuation zone.
Trust citizens to learn their evacuation zones. Miami-Dade and Palm Beach offer websites that let residents enter their addresses to learn their zones. Broward’s website doesn’t. Rather, its evacuation map shows two smears of color over street names hard to decipher. New residents looking to learn their evacuation zone want clarity, not pixelation.
Recommendation: Broward should reexamine its evacuation zones with a focus on low-lying areas and FEMA flood zones, and consult with city leaders in advance of ordering evacuations. Curfews: Expand reach, end confusion
“There needs to be a more uniform response to curfews. We needed more safety controls countywide.” — Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper
Curfews are called to discourage looting and keep people out of harm’s way — including the way of emergency responders — in the days around a disaster. They should always be based on public safety concerns, not keeping people out of certain communities. And giving law enforcement emergency powers to arrest people for leaving their homes should be kept to as short a time as possible.
As Irma neared, Palm Beach County announced a countywide curfew starting at 3 p.m. Sept. 9. But Delray Beach started its curfew 13 hour earlier and Boca Raton told its residents the curfew wouldn’t begin until a day later.
In Broward County, after the countywide curfew was lifted Sept. 11, the cities of Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale and Hallandale Beach extended theirs.
With so much of South Florida carved into different municipalities, residents shouldn’t be expected to know the curfew starts at midnight in Miramar, but 10 p.m. in Hallandale Beach.
We’re not saying a single curfew is appropriate for days on end in counties as big as ours. On the more-vulnerable barrier islands, for example, curfews may be needed sooner or extended longer.
Still, South Florida needs a better strategy for curfews, one with bigger boundaries, so people know when to stay off the roads.
So, too, must communications improve. Some city mayors said they learned about county curfew decisions when they were announced to the public.
That said, we also heard praise for the county’s daily emergency management calls before and after the storm. These conference calls provide a good foundation, not just for announcing county decisions, but also for stoking discussions that lead to consensus.
Recommendation: Counties should guide the reins on curfews, but better collaborate with cities and consider their differing needs. Sheriffs and police chiefs should be at the table, too. Also, cities should ensure their mayors, city managers or other decision-makers participate in the county’s daily conference calls — not just staffers who report back. Power outages: Where’s FPL?
“Our biggest challenge was communicating with FPL. I personally called, emailed and texted our representative all day long for a week on behalf of my residents with power outages. My greatest frustration was when FPL would “ping” their smart meters and report that power was restored and it was not. FPL needs to assign a field manager for each city to work with … to coordinate vegetative removal to restore power.” — Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie
“FPL should provide hourly maps of where power is being restored during the evening hours so that the cities — including our police and fire-rescue departments — can more efficiently and effectively allocate our resources and personnel.” — Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler
Florida Power & Light upped its game after Irma, restoring power to 99 percent of East Coast customers within a week, compared to three weeks after Hurricane Wilma in 2005. But mayors said FPL could have avoided extensive outages by trimming more trees around power lines before storm season, and letting them know about problem trees nearby. Neither did FPL make clear that post-storm, it would need an army of tree crews to clear paths for linemen. City tree crews could have helped, they said, but offers were declined because city crews are not certified.
After the storm, FPL’s website couldn’t keep up. It would tell customers crews were on the way, when they weren’t. Or power was on, when it wasn’t. So mayors heard from people who checked out of hotels, or bought groceries, only to return to darkened homes. FPL CEO Eric Silagy has assured us the website problem will be fixed.
Also post-storm, mayors complained of difficulties in learning when the power might be restored to critical facilities like nursing homes and water treatment plants. And they said FPL was reluctant to provide information about which city neighborhoods lacked power and when they might be restored. This complicated plans for deploying police patrols to darkened neighborhoods and managing staff schedules.
Recommendation: With the cities, FPL should assess what worked and what didn’t, explore certifying city crews for post-storm tree clearance, and give cities a more granular grid of where the power is out and when
restoration is expected. Nursing homes: What cities can do
“We didn’t have problems like Hollywood because we sent paramedics and police to all the (assisted living facilities) to make sure they had power.” — Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell
“Hurricane Irma highlighted the need to make sure that nursing homes and assisted living facilities have the resources needed to ensure the safety and well-being of residents before, during and after a storm.” — West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio
That 14 people died after Irma knocked out the air conditioning at a Hollywood nursing home is an indictment of government’s commitment to protecting our most vulnerable citizens.
Gov. Rick Scott quickly responded with an emergency order that requires nursing homes to have generators that can power air conditioners. Congress and the Florida Legislature now are considering proposals to make this order the law of the land. But cities shouldn’t wait for higher-ups to address the threat in their backyards. They should make their own daily post-storm inspections. Doing so could help avoid a repeat of the nightmare that happened at Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills. Some cities already do. After Irma, Plantation made twice-daily checks of assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Coral Springs checked in, too. And after an alert from state Rep. Katie Edwards, a Sunrise crew hooked up two generators at a nursing home without power for three days.
Recommendation: City crews should take a firsthand daily look at elder care facilities after a storm knocks out power. And like West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Boynton Beach, cities should explore tougher building codes to safeguard vulnerable residents. Debris pick-up: fixes needed up and down the line
“The governor should establish a prestorm standardized rate for debris removal to eliminate the cannibalization among cities of debris removal resources to the highest bidder.” — Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein
“If there were better intergovernmental cooperation, the debris … would have been picked up much faster.” — Lauderdale-bythe-Sea Mayor Scot Sasser
Irma left tons of debris across Florida, not long after Hurricane Harvey did the same in Texas. Together, these storms created unprecedented demand for wastehauling services largely provided by companies national in scope.
Most South Florida communities had signed contracts with debris companies before hurricane season, at rates approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which handles disaster aid. But after Irma hit, those that didn’t — Miami-Dade County, in particular — began offering higher rates to lure away subcontractors, leaving those who’d prepared in a lurch.
City leaders called on Gov. Scott to ask FEMA for a declaration of special circumstances, a step needed to justify paying more in a bidding war. They also wanted the governor to clarify the allowable rate for reimbursement. With cleanups costing millions of dollars, they didn’t want to leave their cities on the hook, yet wanted the piles picked up.
At the same time, haulers who honored their contracts — and who are paid by the load — began complaining of long hauls to county dump sites and back-ups once there. At one point in Lauder-dale-by-the-Sea, clean-up crews had to drive more than 20 miles to a dump site, which hurt their ability to pick up many loads and make more money. Fort Lauderdale agreed to let these crews, as well as those from Wilton Manors and Lazy Lakes, use its staging sites.
We don’t pretend to know all the answers here. But we know communities that follow the rules shouldn’t be penalized because others didn’t. And it would help if Gov. Scott would publicly communicate more.
We’re told FEMA can’t simply waive its rules, that Congress must change the Stafford Act. But the state certainly has cards to play, since it distributes federal disaster funds and chips in state money, too. And despite the reimbursement red tape for temporary dump sites, counties simply must offer more.
Recommendation: Florida’s congressional delegation should pursue federal fixes to disaster aid for debris pick-ups. Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran should ensure his task force on Irma challenges addresses the debris clean-up bidding war. And to help cities clean up, counties should identify more convenient staging sites for temporarily dumping debris. Trees: More trimming, smarter planting needed
“FPL should work closely with cities on initiatives that can help strengthen our power grid to ensure electricity can be restored in a timelier manner after a storm. This should involve evaluating and assessing our tree canopy, power lines and poles, infrastructure, equipment, and FPL’s concerns about same before hurricane season.” — Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler
“As a city, we will be exploring regulations requiring trimming of vegetation on power lines on private residential property, as well as having the discussion of undergrounding the last mile of distribution.” — Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie
Toppled trees and storm-tossed branches took the blame for Irma’s extended power outages. To avoid a repeat, more frequent tree trimming and more sensible tree planting must become a higher priority.
Also, before hurricane season, FPL should do more to help cities identify problem trees. The company flies drones to assess damage after a storm. How about using them more often to spot hazards beforehand?
Residents bear responsibility, too. We must trim our trees more frequently and welcome FPL crews that trim those close to power lines. Yes, we’re talking to you, Coral Gables.
Plus, we must be more mindful of what we plant where. Bamboo is a bad call anywhere. Better that we plant native trees, like live oaks and sabal palms, which are naturally inclined to withstand hurricaneforce winds.
Recommendation: FPL should help cities identify hazards before hurricane season. Property owners must take personal responsibility for trimming trees. Absent that, cities should pass ordinances that enforce standards. Shelters: more needed, including for pets
“There were insufficient shelters had this storm been worse.” — Sunrise Mayor Michael Ryan
“We have got to plan better for this.” — Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell
South Florida officials who urge people to evacuate must ensure more safe places to go. We got the sense they were scrambling.
Broward initially opened just 16 shelters, but pushed that to 28 as demand grew. By comparison, Miami-Dade opened 43 shelters. Yes, Miami-Dade has more people, but not that many more.
And Broward’s one pet shelter filled up so fast that three more were opened on the fly — hardly the best way for people with pets to plan.
The region faced challenges with shelter workers, too.
As Miami-Dade County opened more shelters, there weren’t enough Red Cross workers to run them. The Red Cross said it expected to staff only eight.
In Palm Beach County, school and county employees now largely run shelters, which are mostly housed in schools. But some workers told the Palm Beach Post they didn’t feel properly trained to deal with the difficulties, including fights and power outages. Some schools had too few staffers to keep evacuees from causing mayhem in classrooms.
In Broward, because of concerns about evacuees bringing in drugs and weapons, officials are considering the need for more on-site law enforcement.
There are always lessons to be learned from hurricanes. But the rush to open, staff and manage more shelters, including petfriendly shelters, was cause for concern in Florida’s most populous region.
Recommendations: For Irma-size storms, it’s better to open shelters that may not get used than risk insufficient room for people and pets who need safe harbor.