And Sarasota County is an area where
Jen Titus has been out and about,
showing us, you know,
really what Hurricane Ian was
inflicting on Sarasota County.
Hannah Deneen has been in the Emergency
Operations Center for us all day long.
And Hannah, you know,
what are they preparing for?
Come tomorrow morning.
What's next? Well, Courtney,
of course, Sarasota continues to be
under in a shelter in place order
and emergency first responders.
They are locked down here.
They're not going out because
it's not safe for them to do so.
That will be the case until 45 mile
per hour sustained winds drop.
And I was just texting Natalie and
Bobby and they say for Sarasota
County that'll be overnight.
Potentially the gusts could take longer,
but at that point when the sustained winds.
Drop below 45 mph,
a lot of things are gonna happen and
I wanna bring in the communication
director for Sarasota County, Jamie Carson.
So Jamie, what happens once those wins drop
here in Sarasota.
So Hannah it's really important
for those winds to drop because
then safe for our first responders,
our tactical first in team to go
out there and start clearing our
emergency roadways so that our teams
can respond to those 911 calls.
Also we're going to have official
county staff that are going out there
and creating those damage assessments.
You know, we're we're in the dark
right now with Hurricane Irma.
The dark, we gotta get to that morning light,
see what's out there, make those assessments.
We're also gonna be taking a
look at our our infrastructure,
our counties infrastructure.
We're starting to get some reports,
some some damage.
So we really need to take a look
at that to include our water
and our wastewater services.
It's going to take a while.
This is an essential step in our process.
We don't know how long it's going to take.
So we asked our community to Please be
patient as we go through this process.
And it's really essential, Hannah,
for everyone to stay off the road,
stay off the roads until we tell you
that it's safe to go back out there.
Give us time for our tactical first
in teams and our first responders.
Go out there and clear those roadways,
Hannah.
We're already getting calls about
people asking about reporting to work,
stay where you are, stay safe.
You know, we do have some of our teams,
our capital projects team and
our public works team,
and those individuals are going to
be reporting in at 9:00 AM to help.
Those are authorized personnel that
can be out there on the roadways.
If those individuals who aren't already
assigned an emergency evacuation center,
they're going to be reporting in at 9:00 AM.
We got to get those damage assessments in.
We've got to clear the roadways so
our community can recover from this.
Absolutely.
And
we are speaking earlier.
So that there is already a
backlog of 911 calls.
You guys are getting a
high volume of 911 calls.
Will that be one of the first
things that first responders
are out there addressing,
that backlog of calls as well?
You know, we have a very passionate
team of first responders.
They are very eager to
get out to our community.
As soon as they get that green light,
they're out there and we're
going to be taking calls.
We're going to be assisting our communities.
We ask everyone to continue to be patient.
You can make those call-ins,
the 91 ones we have the medical
director on staff for at our 911 center.
He's helping to assist over the phone.
But really until those winds
drop below 4545 miles an hour
where we have to stay in place
and we were also speaking earlier,
we're saying you have about is
it 1000 National Guard troops
that are in place just here in Sarasota
County that are ready to to act
in a multitude of ways. Yeah.
So they are poised and posture
to assist our community.
You know, we're we have a very
committed group in our area.
We're working very closely with our local
municipalities and our state officials.
Another extremely important
partner for us right now is FPL.
You know those downed power
lines you were storing you know.
Tracy, Turkey, Hannah,
we were just talking about it.
We're well over 80% without power
in Sarasota County right now
and that includes your
emergency shelters as well.
So I'm, I'm sure you're going
to be working very hard.
Everyone's been working very hard
to get things back up and running.
But but priorities are going
to be that backlog of 911 calls
and then also getting those
emergency roadways cleared
exactly so that our first
responders should get out there.
And then also we can go through
that damage assessment process.
It's really important to take a
look at our county's infrastructure.
We know that our community,
that water and wastewater.
That service, it's going to be awhile.
We don't know how long it's going to take.
So we're asking everyone to Please
be patient and we'll work with you,
hand on our other media partners and we'll
get the word out as soon as it's safe.
You know, we're going to
have boiled water notices.
We just need to have the Community
understand that there's going
to be boiled water notices once
we restore that service.
And then lastly, you've touched on this.
Stay off the roads. I mean,
what else can people at home be doing
after the worst of the storm passes
to help you out here?
So some of the things that individuals can
take is they can work on their own homes.
You know, they can look at their assessments.
One of the things that we always
advise people to do prior to a storm
coming through is to take pictures.
Take pictures of what you have
and how it looks pre storm.
So if you have solar atrocity,
start taking stock.
Take pictures all you have.
If you don't, start taking notes.
We're also asking our community.
I know our community is very eager
to begin the recovery process.
Right now is not the time to take debris,
trash and recycling to the curb.
Keep that you know focused on your family.
Focus on your home reaching out to
your friends and your loved ones.
Make sure everyone's OK.
We'll let you know it's time
to take that trash,
recycling and debris to the curb.
Jamie,
thank you so much for for keeping everyone
informed here in Sarasota County.
We really appreciate it.
We're gonna stay in touch
overnight checking in.
We'll let people know when those 45
mile per hour sustained winds drop and
when some of these actions start to be taken.
And of course, we're going to keep
everyone updated on air and online as
soon as we learn more live in Sarasota.
Hannah mean 10, Tampa Bay.
Appreciate your time tonight.
Thanks so much.
So many people kind of suffering
right now and things can't happen
quickly enough when you're without
without power and and other issues
flooding that type of thing.