Manatee County prepares for hurricane season

A hurricane or other tropical disturbance will hit Manatee County — the only question is when, the county’s emergency management chief warns.

“It only takes one, and that’s the one that we need to prepare for,” Don Hermey said Friday at Manatee County’s annual hurricane exercise.

More than 150 community leaders and government officials gathered at the county’s Public Safety Building to simulate their response if a hurricane hits the county. Friday’s exercise used a hurricane called Kimo, which was similar to Hurricane Charley in 2004 but made landfall in Manatee County.

“We actually test all of our plans and procedures that we have in place,” said Bob Smith, Manatee County public safety director. “We do it in advance of a hurricane season so that we know we’ve gotten anything that may be wrong with our plans so that we can update them before hurricane season actually gets here.”

The focus of Friday’s drill was on recovery.

“We actually started our drill after the hurricane made landfall, and how we would deal with the massive amount of damage and debris and folks in shelters and getting resources to them after the storm,” Smith said.

Sarah Brown, the county’s Animal Services chief, watched the Palmetto shelter damaged as part of Friday’s drill. During the simulation, the animals were moved to the Manatee County Fairgrounds.

“If a storm hit, we would have a really well-thought out plan and the animals would be cared for,” she said. “It is a great opportunity to really see all the different divisions and what resources you do have in the county if there is a disaster.”

Friday’s exercise was an opportunity for the county to build relationships with other partners in the community, said Sharon Tarman, the county’s emergency management officer.

“We don’t want to build those relationships then. We want to build them now,” she said.

A challenge for the county in ensuring the residents are prepared is that there are a lot more people here now who weren’t living in Manatee when the last major storm hit.

“It is a new demographics that we are starting to deal with,” he said of the change in population and greater density.

With hurricane season beginning June 1, residents should be looking at their emergency plans for their own families, Smith said. Residents should be able to take care of themselves for up to seven days.

“That’s the biggest thing right now. Focus on preparing your own families as we move into hurricane season,” he said.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Manatee County prepares for hurricane season."