Tri-City Emergency Preparedness Fair

Florida’s hurricane season is June 1–November 30. This year is also predicted to be quite active. NOAA is forecasting a range of 17-25 total named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher). Of those, 8-13 are forecast to become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 4-7 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher). Forecasters have a 70% confidence in these ranges.

It is therefore fitting, that on June 15th, coinciding with a fourth straight day of constant rain in the area, the Village of Pinecrest, the Village of Palmetto Bay, and the Town of Cutler Bay held a fair to help residents get the latest knowledge about how to prepare for a hurricane emergency.

Residents and officials flooded (pun intended) into Pinecrest’s Community Center for the three hour fair where related Miami-Dade County departments and officials were on-hand to talk about the best ways to prepare for a storm.

The presentation started with Pinecrest’s Parks Director, Robert Mattes, and Palmetto Bay’s Parks Director, Fanny Carmona. Both were excited to be able to use their combined efforts to bring the best of the best.

Oscar Celorio from Miami-Dade County’s Office of Emergency Management explained how his office can assist during storms and how they help train people to prepare. “There’s definitely a lot that we still need to pay attention to,” explained Celorio. “We need to heed the advice of public officials, including any evacuation orders. Your safety is the most important thing.” Post-storm, we need to do smart things. Thankfully, we now have solar and safer generators. But we also must remain safe. There are many post-storm hazards that can lead to casualties.

In an age of technology, I still found it amazing how the important a simple printed door tag (like they have in their preparedness guide) can be a still be a lifesaver. The tag either reads HELP (on a red door tag) or OK (on a green door tag). Pretty simple, but very effective for an at-a-glance assessment. You can get the guide at: https://www.miamidade.gov/global/emergency/hurricane/home.page. I highly recommend downloading the app MiamiMDC for hurricane alerts and tips.

Cutler Bay Mayor Tim Meerbott remarked, “I am here to make sure that residents know that hurricane season is already upon us and the key to success is preparation. The more knowledge you have, the better prepared you are, the better life’s going to be.” Palmetto Bay’s Village Manager Nick Marano said, “We’re prepared as a Village and if you look around here we have State agencies, County agencies and emergency experts all ready to provide information and checklists so we can all be best prepared.”

It is through the Miami-Dade County League of Cities’ Mayors Coalition that this event was combined. In years past, each town would do things on their own and this year’s event proved that there is strength in numbers. Nearly 400 residents visited the fair sometime during the 3-hour duration. All left with a handful of helpful information and more confidence about how to prepare.

The fair also had around a dozen businesses who could help you with storm-related issues. There were insurance companies, roofing contractors, impact window installers, flood cleanup companies, and more.

One of the vendors at the fair was Emergency Sandbag Response. This company can be hired by a city to roll a truck on location and deliver filled sandbags to residents in order to protect their property from water damage. The impressive part is the automation. “Instead of 5 people breaking their backs to fill sandbags, their system does about 1500 sandbags an hour,” explained Rosie Sotero. “This is about 20x faster than manual labor.” Pinecrest is already a customer, and other municipalities plan to follow suit.

Another important vendor was Cutler Bay Solar Solutions. Locally-owned and established more than 11 years. Besides many successful installations, owners Denise & Raul Vergara, have tirelessly fought for the solar cause and have been to Tallahassee for solar rights throughout Florida and beyond. They showed off a new lithium phosphate battery technology that is colbalt-free. This makes it significantly safer and with just 3-5 battery packs, you can power the whole house. “Most important is when the power knocks out the grid, your power stays on,” explained Raul. “In South Florida, we’re going to have storms. We keep you prepared.”

One of the tips I picked up was having a Go-Bag. This would include the critical medicines, money, critical documents and food/clothes for a day or two should you need to run at a moment’s notice. In short, it is better to be safe than to be sorry.