A view from above the treetops: Hurricane vets assess response

Jeffrey Schweers, Tallahassee Democrat

Hurricane Hermine was Florida’s wake-up call.

Jack Nobles (top left), Nancy Argenziano (top middle), Randy Ball (top right), Jeff Kottamp (bottom left), Rick Outzen (bottom middle), Rudy Garcia (right middle) and Manny Soto.

After an 11-year lull, the first hurricane to hit Florida took aim at the Big Bend coast and Tallahassee. It tossed tons of trees over roads and power lines, caused millions of dollars in damage to homes and cars, and knocked out the city and county power grid for a week.

The Category 1 storm inconvenienced tens of thousands of Tallahassee and Leon County residents, many of them frail and elderly, disabled and vulnerable. It inflicted discomfort on rich and poor, Republican and Democrat, young and old.

Compared to Florida’s coastal areas that got hit with storm surges and even stronger winds, Tallahassee got off easy. Folks in coastal communities were forced to evacuate. Dozens lost their homes.

Many were injured. Two died in the aftermath.

A week after Hermine blew through Tallahassee, life is almost back to normal. State and local officials are already trying to figure out how to better prepare for the next storm. They’re also trying to find a way to better communicate with each other and coordinate resources to accelerate the recovery.

The Tallahassee Democrat tapped the memories of the veterans of hurricanes past, particularly those who endured the 2004-05 seasons, which remain the worst and most expensive period of Florida’s hurricane history. Nine storms in Florida. 7,000 dead and $220 billion in property damage throughout the Caribbean and U.S.

Common themes emerged.

Protect the citizens. Provide plenty of water and ice and food. Clear the roads. Restore power. Communicate clearly. Reassure folks.

Another common observation: Communications technology has advanced greatly in 11 years. Twitter and Facebook make real-time conversations with hundreds and thousands in a community instantaneous. Cell phones are smarter.

And yet. The same things that happened then happened this time. Communications break down. Resources are hard to coordinate. Tempers flare.

Also. The use of social media to get out information and receive criticism. The storm got politicized very quickly. Gov. Rick Scott criticized Mayor Andrew Gillum. His supporters chimed in. The mayor hit back at his critics. His supporters chimed in.

While thousands languished without electricity, the Internet overheated with partisan bickering.

Also, there was the unprecedented: the governor inserted himself into local recovery efforts, negotiating deals with private utilities, much to the chagrin of city officials.

Despite all that or because of all that, work got done. We recovered. And the view from the treetops is that the governor and local officials handled their first hurricane with high marks -- but we need to do better.

This was only a Cat 1. There is no hitting the snooze button and rolling over on this one.

Miami blues

Rodolfo “Rudy” Garcia. Former state legislator, 1985-2010. Republican.

Former State Sen. Rudy Garcia

In the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Rudy Garcia, then a state representative from Hialeah, remembers coming to the rescue of a beleaguered Miami with 14 semi-trailers full of food, water and other supplies people desperately needed.

“I was the cavalry,” Garcia said. “The county then was not prepared. The state was not prepared.”

Andrew struck South Florida with 165 mph winds. It destroyed 25,000 homes, damaged another 100,000 and cause $26 billion in damage. Sixty-five people died.

It was a different time. Miami was the wild west. “I was even shot at that night by snipers who wanted to take charge of our convoy,” Garcia said. “The federal police were sent down to get us in and out of the areas where the cities were fighting amongst each other rather than working with each other.”

That’s a dramatic difference from Hermine. No snipers hampered local recovery efforts.

Garcia owns a home in Myers Park. “We didn’t have power until Monday night,” he said.

The city was good about removing trees and clearing streets quickly, he said. But the city should have gotten the power resolved sooner.

“There needs to be more cooperation between the public and private sector to assure residents get power quicker,” Garcia said. “This was a Category 1 and it was still a long time for people that may need help.”

The state should also have agreements with local governments to help offset the costs of recovery so cities are not bearing the burden themselves, he said.

Storm hardening and emergency plans should be reviewed more frequently, he said. Power companies need to inspect and update their infrastructure and update with new technology.

Sen. Jack Latvala of Clearwater’s call for hearings on the storm response is a good one, Garcia said.

“There are opportunities out there that should be taken and dealt with. What is the problem letting your guys in the city get some time off and bring in guys that will do things to a standard that city expects?”

Still, Garcia gave both Gov. Scott and City of Tallahassee officials high marks for how they responded.

In eye of the storm

Jeff Kottkamp, former Lt. Governor, 2006-2010, state legislator 2000-2006. Republican.

Former Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp

Kottkamp has spent a lot of time at the state Emergency Operations Center as lieutenant governor.

“Even before we took office Gov. Crist and I spent a day with Craig Fugate and his team because we knew how important emergency response is,” Kottkamp said. Now head of FEMA, Fugate ran the state's emergency operations under Gov. Jeb Bush.

Deadly tornadoes hit Central Florida the first month they took office in 2007.

The Groundhog Day outbreak killed 21 people and left 76 injured in Sumter and Lake counties. The tornadoes caused $218 million in damage.

“We flew down on Blackhawk helicopters so we could see the damage firsthand (which is critical when dealing with a crisis or catastrophe) and met with as many victims as possible (which is even more important),” he said in an email to the Democrat.

Job 1 is making sure everyone is safe, he said. “One of the things that wasn't stressed enough is that no one died in the recent storm (two people died afterward),” Kottkamp said.

After a storm, you must provide constant communication, he said. “People need information and hope that help is on the way.  You also have to establish priorities----take care of the elderly, disabled, and children first.”

Kottkamp knows what it’s like to feel helpless during a hurricane. When Hurricane Charley hit southwest Florida in 2004, Kottkamp was in a coma and his wife was eight months pregnant. Like most of Cape Coral, their house was seriously damaged. Power was out a long time.

And then another hurricane hit.

“Frankly, the devastation was so widespread there was no way to clear all of the debris in one or two weeks -- let alone restore power to everyone that fast,” Kottkamp said. “I actually watched part of the response efforts from a hospital bed at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.”

Gov. Jeb Bush gets an A+ from Kottkamp for the way he handled the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. The 2004 season was the worst and most expensive on record until the 2005 season blasted that record out of the water.  

“In the aftermath of all of the storms he was a focused and strong leader,” Kottkamp said.

After the storms, the Legislature enacted laws and policies to improve conditions for people during and after a hurricane. The state changed the building code, cracked down on price gouging, and set up an “elaborate supply system with equipment and supplies stored in Orlando and agreements with water companies to get water to people after a storm,” he said.

The state has a very sophisticated emergency operations network, too, he said. “Cities, counties and the state participate in tabletop exercises and constantly prepare for storms.  I have participated in such exercises — they are very extensive.”

Kottkamp said Gov. Scott and City Commissioner Scott Maddox performed particularly well following Hermine, “communicating with citizens and staying focused on the task at hand.”

Once power is restored and everyone is accounted for, officials can sit down and evaluate what went right and what went wrong, he said. Not during the cleanup.

“We need to get all of the facts and have an open, honest discussion about ways we can improve in the future,” Kottkamp said. “The discussion cannot be about giving credit or blame to anyone -- just making sure the citizens of the community get the best possible services from government.”

You don't beat Mother Nature

Nancy Argenziano, former Florida Legislature, 1996-2007; Public Service Commissioner, 2007-09, Chair, 2009-12 CK. Former Republican. Currently independent.

Former State Senator and Public Service Commission Chair Nancy Argenziano

When hurricanes hit her district of coastal counties, Argenziano said, “The first thing was to make sure people had water and a safe place to live.”

That meant coordinating with the sheriffs of 13 counties, many of them Democrats. People put political differences aside.

Getting power back on depends on the damage, Argenziano said.

“It’s nature we’re dealing with,” she said. “What I saw is trees kept falling on one line after another. That makes it so much harder to get transformers back up and new lines running. It’s like saying, ‘How do we beat Mother Nature?’ You don’t beat Mother Nature. If Gov. Scott thinks he can beat Mother Nature, he’s got another thing coming.”

Argenziano was appalled by Gov. Scott’s apparent surprise at the extent of the damage caused by Hermine, especially that 57 percent of Leon County lost power.

"If he wants to help get all underground utilities, that would be great,” she said. “But that is not always the fix. You have to understand that the electricity will be down. What does the man think? The guy has no clue. Don’t waste time tweeting.”

Having most of the power restored within a week is a vast improvement in the years before storm hardening, Argenziano said, when people went without power for weeks on end.

“We want things ‘Johnny-Come-Quick’ but it never turns out that way,” Argenziano said.

Argenziano said she was disgusted by the political bickering during the cleanup effort. Rumors started flying that the city was playing favorites with who got power first, and rejecting assistance from the line crews of private utility companies because they were non-union.

When you have hurricanes and tornadoes, she said, you put aside politics and focus on policy.

“You didn’t hear Jeb say we never have to have this again,” Argenziano said. “He said to the PSC and the utilities that we have to shore up the best we can, trim branches when they are near power lines and institute into law that this management must occur.”

Trees grow, hurricanes prune them

RANDY BALL, state legislator from legislator from Mims, from 1994 to 2002, appointed as public safety coordinator under Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist. First to resign after Gov. Scott got elected. Very conservative, quit the Republican Party in 2011 in disgust.

Former State Rep. Randy Ball

Ball was public safety coordinator for Gov. Bush during the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. “We had these two giants back then,” Ball said of both Bush and Fugate.

Prior to Hurricane Charley, Ball recalled, Fugate said he had just briefed a lot of Florida leaders.

“He told us that he didn’t want to tell state leaders what the models themselves predicted or it would have scared everyone to death,” Ball said. “They knew they were going to have a scary hurricane season. And he told everybody you better get ready.”

Ball didn’t remember any backbiting or politicking. “I don’t remember communities feeling like they were shortchanged,” Ball said.

People would complain they had no power because a member of their family had epilepsy, or had their ice cream melting. “We told those people you were told to evacuate, and that we must give priority to hospitals and sewer lift stations,” Ball said.

When a community goes 10 years without a hurricane, he said, “You will have the power stay out awhile. The branches grow back. Hurricanes prune them.

“It’s very normal when you go this long without a hurricane for power to be out awhile,” Ball said.

A combination of human nature and budget shortfalls due to the economic slump of the last decade could have impacted state and local government tree-trimming efforts, Ball said. “You can’t blame the city and state governments for not doing more to prune trees and such,” he said. “The idea of a massive statewide tree trimming operation is optimistic.”

As far as the complaints on social media about the city’s progress or lack thereof?

“I don’t know about the backbiting. It is very unprecedented, but typical in this age of Clinton and Trump,” Ball said.

Pounded in Pensacola

Jack Nobles, former Pensacola city councilman.

Former Pensacola City Council member Jack Nobles .

Despite his position on the Pensacola City Council, Jack Nobles and his wife went without power for 13 days after Hurricane Ivan hit the Florida Panhandle in 2004.

“Most of Pensacola was without power nine days to two weeks,” Nobles said. “That is not abnormal.”

Of course, people are always going to complain when the power goes out, he said.

“People get disgruntled when they don’t have air conditioning or ice,” Nobles said. “We are a spoiled society and love our luxuries.”

He wasn’t happy living without power for 13 days, either.

“But that is the price you pay for living in paradise,” he said. “California has wildfires and earthquakes, the middle of the country has their floods. If we have to hunker down once in awhile, that’s what we do.”

In the 14 years he was on the city council, Nobles helped coordinate disaster response activities for four hurricanes.

After Ivan, Nobles oversaw the Enterprise Operations Committee. His group was responsible for the airport, port, gas company and library. It was a time-consuming task, made easier by department heads who knew their jobs.

Utility companies from all over the state came to help, coordinated by Gulf Power, Nobles said. Not the city.

Local governments have to be careful accepting outside help, he said. Coordinating so many different agencies and corporations can be difficult, he said. “They all know their job but don’t know the community,” he said. “That has to be coordinated through the municipal government.”

He said it was unusual that Gov. Scott took such an active role in the city’s disaster management activities. “I believe in local authority,” he said.

Pensacola had a similar form of government to Tallahasseer, Nobles said.  The coordination and communication work better when all minds are in sync, meeting daily to work through the day’s challenges, and having all those discussions coordinated by the city manager, he said.

Scott should have coordinated his information through the mayor and city commission and worked through them. “But direct involvement? I’m not sure he should be doing that. You can assist, but the local folks know their community and citizenry better than the governor does.”

Not battle-tested

Rick Outzen, former Gulf Breeze City Council. Publisher, the Independent News.

Independent News Publisher Rick Outzen

Finding a good damage assessment as quickly as possible is key to a successful hurricane recovery plan, said Rick Outzen.

“With Ivan, in particular, we knew we were going to be down for weeks,” he said. “The community that could mobilize the quickest could get ice and water to their people quickest.”

The community had a sense that Gov. Bush was he was there to offer whatever services were needed and worked hand in hand with the county and city emergency operations centers, he said. “We had several bridges knocked out. We had a lot of isolation as far as getting supplies to different parts of the county.”

Gulf Breeze was without power for three to four weeks, Outzen said. And he insisted on having his power turned on last, after every other citizen had theirs turned on.

“To my wife’s criticism, we held out,” he said.

Waiting five to seven days for the lights to come back on doesn’t seem that unusual, he said, particularly with the amount of trees and limbs that blew down on power lines.

“A hurricane cleans out a lot of vegetation and it’s difficult to work when streets like y’all have with beautiful trees have lot of limbs falling all around it,” Outzen said.

Outzen was surprised that Hermine seemed more of a challenge for Gov. Scott than the 2014 flooding in the Panhandle.

“He was over right away. The state responded quickly,” he said. “Why is it that two years later they’re having problems with a hurricane? They’ve dealt with natural disasters before. It must have been the overall magnitude of it.”

When Ivan struck the Panhandle, it had been almost a decade since Escambia County had a hurricane, he said. There was a lot of angst. A lot of learning to do things as they were reacting to the storm.

“It’s hard to keep your EOC fine-tuned, particularly when you don’t have the same crews you had in 2004 and 2005. They’re not battle-tested.”

Flip a switch

MANNY SOTO, longtime Emergency Manager for the City of Orlando.

Orlando Emergency Manager Manny Soto

During a six-week window in 2004, Orlando was hit by hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne.

“Orlando was in the cross-hairs of all three,” said Soto, the emergency manager for the City Beautiful.

For Soto and the mayor, it was the first time they dealt with a major hurricane impact.

While they were picking up from Charley, city officials monitored the progress of Frances and Jeanne as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean and bore down on Florida. On the ground was lots of debris, damaged roofs, weakened trees and downed cables that could make a bad situation worse.

“Every hurricane was different,” Soto said.

Charley brought in a lot of wind and rain. Frances and Jeanne dumped mostly rain, and not a lot of wind. “We had street flooding, produced because of the debris clogging the drainage,” he said.

Power was sporadic and spotty. Some neighborhoods had power back in a couple of days, while others went seven to 10 days without it. A lot depended on the damage by trees. They replaced cables in areas where large trees knocked down lines.

Gov. Bush “didn’t second guess what we were doing,” Soto said.

Soto and his team monitored Hermine’s progress noting the similarities between what Leon County and Tallahassee experienced and what Orlando went through 11 years earlier.

“We had the same things happen here. Significantly, we had trees going down and the power outage, and the decision to close schools,” Soto said. “It was very reminiscent of what we experienced here (in Orlando).”

Again, the most important role for the city was communication. “One thing we didn’t have in 2004 and which was a significant force multiplier is the utilization of social media to keep citizens, agencies and businesses informed,” he said. “It is a great tool for local government to push out information on social media. We used it after the Pulse shooting.”

Social media also provides a place to vent, a two-way street for citizens to push back and report problems, he said.

The best relationship between state and local governments should be one of collaboration, not disparity, he said.

“When the sun is out is the time to figure out who brings what to the table, not when clouds are still overhead,” he said.

The biggest lesson learned from 2004 is to be prepared, Soto said. To practice scenarios through a series of tabletop exercises and to be proactive.

“They have to be able to flip a switch to go from normal day to day operations to go to emergency operations very quickly.”

CORRECTION:

This article originally included incorrect death tolls and damage totals for Florida's hurricane seasons. The article should have stated the totals were for the entire 2004-2005 Atlantic Hurricane seasons.