Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gov. DeSantis declares state of emergency as Florida prepares for Hurricane Dorian.
State officials plan out where to expend limited resources
Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency for 26 Florida counties Wednesday evening, including all of South Florida, as Hurricane Dorian approaches.
“Today, I am declaring a state of emergency to ensure Florida is fully prepared for Hurricane Dorian,” the governor said in a statement. “It’s important for Floridians on the East Coast to monitor this storm closely.”
At the time of the declaration, Dorian remained about five days away. But planning for the storm’s arrival had already begun days before.
It’s still too early for Florida’s Division of Emergency Management to start plotting out where to expend its limited resources, but the state agency charged with guiding us through disasters has been working on storm response since the beginning of the week, when Dorian looked to be little more than a tropical storm.
“We started looking Monday in a serious fashion,” said Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz. “Obviously a lot has changed since then, with the complete change in the track from watching the storm interact with the Dominican Republic and now seeing the storm not interacting with the Dominican Republic at all. For Florida, this is not what we had hoped. We hoped it would be weakened by the mountains.”
Instead of hitting the mountains of Hispaniola, the eye of Dorian passed just northeast of Puerto Rico on Wednesday afternoon. The storm’s likely path now takes it mostly over water, allowing it to gather strength before hitting Florida.
“I was hoping we’d get the summer off, but the Lord felt otherwise,” Moskowitz said.
Moskowitz’s time on the job has been brief. Formerly a Democratic state representative from Coral Springs, where his gun control advocacy earned him a rare F-minus rating from the NRA, Moskowitz was tapped by newly elected Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in Dec. 2018 to run the Division of Emergency Management. The decision was based in part not on Moskowitz’s legislative history, but his job outside of government as general counsel for the disaster recovery firm Ashbritt.
As division head, Moskowitz has overseen recovery from Hurricane Michael, but this will be the first major hurricane to hit the state since his arrival at the agency.
“Every storm is a new lesson because each storm brings a different challenge. You make 100 decisions, not all are going to pan out the way you hoped. It’s our job to take the experience learned from that and apply it in the next go around,” he said. “In Irma, you had a massive evacuation. In Michael, you had a Category 5 storm come up very suddenly.”
Although planning for Dorian began earlier in the week, the conversation became much different Monday morning, when it was clear the storm would strengthen much more than initially thought.
“The easiest one, we don’t have evacuation conversations for a tropical storm, but for a Category 3 hurricane, once we know where it’s going, you do have evacuation, so that’s one area of difference,” he said.
Evacuation decisions are made at the local level, and as of Wednesday afternoon, the storm was still too far away for local governments to make those decisions. It was also too early for the division to determine where to concentrate its efforts. Many decisions are by necessity made when the storm is almost upon us, to make sure resources are sent where they will be most needed.
“Right now, it’s coordination with power companies and sister agencies, logistics, prepositioning, speaking with the [Florida] Guard on potential activations,” he said. “The division’s job is to be prepared even before things happen. Especially before things happen.”
Which makes the division not unlike Floridians who are busily buying up water, nonperishable food and batteries. Money from the ATM machine. Gas up the car and get some for the generator.
According to the person in charge of the state’s emergency response, that’s the best thing Floridians can do right now.
“Make sure you have a seven days supply of food, water and medication if you need it. Know where you live, whether you’re in a flood zone. And pay constant pay to local news, Florida Emergency Management and the Florida State Emergency Response Team,” Moskowitz said. “The track on this storm has already changed significantly. You can’t rely on old information.”