Evening Update on Leon County’s Recovery Activities Following Hurricane Michael for October 13

Evening Update on Leon County’s Recovery Activities

Following Hurricane Michael for October 13

 

Following is an update on Hurricane Michael response and recover activities as of Saturday evening, October 13, 2018.

Shelter Status:

As of this afternoon, 24 citizens are sheltered at Sail High School and 70 citizens remain in the special needs shelter at Florida High. We are demobilizing Sail High School as a risk shelter and transition remaining shelterees to a host shelter at Tallahassee Community College Lifetime Sports Complex this afternoon. Our partners continue to provide meals and water to shelterees at Sail in the meantime. The state has established a regional special needs shelter at Florida State University to provide care for special needs citizens from the most impacted counties; the state will make a determination regarding when to transition the Florida High special needs shelter to this regional shelter. Florida High will reopen for classes on Monday while the special needs shelter occupies the gymnasium.

Public Safety:

We have had no loss of life directly related to the storm.  Leon County EMS has returned to normal staffing as call volumes have returned to normal. The Leon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) has been fully activated throughout preparedness, response, and recovery efforts for Hurricane Michael and continues to provide security for points of distribution tonight and tomorrow. LCSO is beginning to scale down disaster operations overnight tonight, with a return to normal staffing by Sunday evening.

Road Clearing:

Public Works remains fully activated with 130 personnel working in Alpha and Bravo shifts alongside utility crews to reopen remaining blocked roads as quickly as possible. Leon County Public Works has 15 crews in the field, supplemented by 7 additional contracted crews. Leon County Public Works has made significant progress by clearing 778 blocked roads since the winds died down late Wednesday evening. All major and arterial County roads are passable by car at this time. Public Works crews are working to clear school entrances and exits and bus routes in the   unincorporated area in anticipation of schools reopening on Monday. We will continue working tomorrow to clear all remaining road blockages that have been reported in coordination with our local utility providers.

Debris Removal:

Debris collection efforts began today and will continue until all storm-related debris is picked up. Over the weekend, debris removal efforts will focus on the County’s main corridors, schools, and school bus stops in the unincorporated areas. Starting Monday, October 15, a map of debris collection activities and an update on operations will be available daily at: www.LeonCountyFL.gov/EI/Debris. We have also posted on the EIP some helpful tips for citizens on how to organize and safely place debris at the curb.

Solid Waste:

As Leon County residents continue to clean up their properties following Hurricane Michael, Leon County has extended the free of charge period for both the Solid Waste Management Facility and the Rural Waste Service Centers. The facilities will be open during their normal hours and will remain free of charge until Sunday, October 21. Hours of operation will be as follows:

• The Solid Waste Management Facility (7550 Apalachee Parkway) will be open Monday, October 15 through Friday, October 19 from 7 AM to 7 PM.

• The Rural Waste Service Centers will be open Fridays from 9 AM to 6 PM, and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 AM to 5 PM at the following locations:

O    Woodville, 549 Henry Jones Road

O    Fort Braden, 2485 East Joe Thomas Road

O    Miccosukee, 13051 Miccosukee Road

Also, Leon County and the City of Tallahassee are resuming residential and commercial garbage collection services today. Following is the updated schedule for solid waste collection:

• Wednesday customers were collected on Friday, October 12
• Thursday customers will be collected on Saturday, October 13
• Friday customers will be collected on Sunday, October 14
• Starting Monday, October 15, all customers will receive service during their regularly scheduled service

Power Restoration as of 5 pm:

Immediately following the storm, City of Tallahassee Utilities and Talquin Electric both reported outages to more than 90% of their customers in Leon County. Following are the latest reports of outages at this time:

• City of Tallahassee: 37,858 outages (69% restored)
• Talquin Electric: 13,101 outages (47% restored)
• Duke Energy: 0 outages (100% restored)

Both utilities incurred significant damage to all components of their electric grid (transmission lines, substations, and distribution circuits) from the storm and are working to repair all systems as quickly as possible with extensive support from mutual aid agencies. The City has announced a goal to restore 90% of its customers by the end of this weekend.

98% of all traffic signals are in normal operation at this time including all critical intersections.

Points of Distribution and Feeding Operations:

As we advised previously, we have established 10 points of distribution throughout the community that will be operating again tomorrow from 9 AM to 5 PM, managed and staffed by Leon County and the City of Tallahassee and complemented by the Florida National Guard. Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs) and bottled water will be available at the following locations:

• Ft. Braden Community Center – 16387 Blountstown Highway
• J. Lewis Hall Sr., Woodville Park – 1492 J. Lewis Hall Sr. Lane
• Apalachee Regional Park – 7550 Apalachee Parkway
• Fire Station #4 – 2899 West Pensacola Street
• Fire Station #1 – 327 North Adams Street
• Fire Station #2 – 2805 Sharer Road 

The following locations will be distributing water and a limited amount of MREs.

• Fred George Park – 4830 Fred George Road
• Miccosukee (Concord School) – 15011 Cromartie Road
• Fire Station #3 – 3005 South Monroe Street
• Fire Station #15 – 1445 Bannerman Road

Comfort Stations:

The Main Library continues to operate today and tomorrow from 9 AM to 7 PM as a comfort station, providing citizens with air conditioning, water, a place to charge mobile devices, and computer access. Another 550 citizens have visited the comfort station so far today, totaling over 1,500 citizens served since it opened yesterday morning. We have distributed an enormous amount of food and water and people are in generally good spirits and highly appreciative of the County’s efforts.  We have also established a Community Recovery Center at the comfort station for local community partners to assist citizens through the recovery process, and a representative from 2-1-1 Big Bend will also be on site to assist citizens in person. We are welcoming all visitors to the comfort station regardless of whether they have a library card or are a Leon County resident. 

The City is operating comfort stations at the following locations from 9 AM to 9 PM on today and 1 PM to 6 PM on Sunday, October 14:

• Lawrence-Gregory Community Center – 1115 Dade Street
• Jack McLean Community Center, including the pool and showers – 700 Paul Russell Road
• Tallahassee Senior Center – 1400 North Monroe Street
• Trousdell Aquatic Center, including the pool and showers – 298 John Knox Blvd.

Damage Assessments:

Our County/City damage assessment teams will be in the field again tomorrow conducting assessments to support a request for federal assistance under FEMA’s Individual Assistance program. Our local damage assessment teams are collecting information on damage to homes which will support our request for this federal assistance, and we continue to encourage citizens through our public information efforts to report damage through our online damage assessment tool on the Emergency Information Portal (EIP). Damage assessment information from our teams in the field and from citizens’ reports is being automatically uploaded into our GIS system in order to help expedite follow-up inspections that will be conducted by the state in the coming weeks. To self-report, visit: http://tlcgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/GeoForm/index.html?appid=6f338e584b9349fb889e77c8fe10b0b3

Following Hurricane Michael, we expect that the President will issue a “major disaster” declaration for the state of Florida, which provides a wide range of federal assistance programs, including assistance for individuals and households. To initiate this assistance, the Governor must submit a request to the President within 30 days of the incident, which will specify the types of assistance requested for each affected county. Should Individual Assistance be authorized for Leon County, a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center will be opened in the County, with phone numbers and websites for citizens to contact a FEMA representative and file for federal assistance. If Individual Assistance is authorized for Leon County, we will be coordinating a comprehensive public information campaign with FEMA, as we did following Hurricane Hermine.

Cellular Service:

OEV continues to coordinate with the State EOC as well as our telecommunications and mobile providers to find any available solutions to help restore mobile/cellular service and determine providers’ anticipated timelines for full service restoration. At this time, the state and mobile providers are prioritizing service restoration in the hardest hit counties, many of which remain entirely without service. However, today Verizon delivered mobile tower connection points to help alleviate coverage issues in Leon County. Verizon customers should turn their phones off and back on in order to establish connection to these connection points. Our mobile providers are advising that mobile coverage should improve in areas affected by outages as primary power is restored to cell tower sites.

County Facilities:

Facilities staff conducted checks of all County facilities and reported no damage. County offices will re-open on Monday, October 15. Branch libraries will reopen on Tuesday, October 16 (as they are normally closed on Sundays and Mondays).

Permit Fee Waiver:

To help the community rebuild after Hurricane Michael, Leon County will waive building permit fees for storm-related repairs. Citizens and contractors may begin storm related repairs immediately and apply for the necessary permits afterwards and removal of storm-damaged trees. Starting Tuesday, October 16, those interested in the waiver should contact Leon County Development Support and Environmental Management at (850) 606-1300 / www.LeonPermits.org.

To be eligible for the waiver, the person performing the work must be the homeowner or a licensed contractor.

EOC Status:

Our EOC remains fully activated during today’s daytime shift. Starting tonight, we will begin partial activation at the EOC for overnight shifts with representatives from all essential agencies until operations are complete. Our regular conference calls have concluded at this time, although the EOC continues to serve as the central hub of coordination for all organizations and agencies involved in continuing operations.

Emergency Management Assistance to Other Areas:

Also, the State EOC has requested assistance specifically for Liberty County Emergency Management and we are deploying our Emergency Management Coordinator to assist with their response and recovery operations. As our EOC operations continue to scale down in the coming days, we will evaluate our capacity to send additional personnel and resources to assist other impacted counties if requested.

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