Still recovering from ’24, Sarasota County urges residents to prep for hurricane season

Hurricane Helene damaged Barbara Katz’s home on Longboat Key last year, but last Thursday evening she took a front-and-center seat for a Hurricane Preparedness Community Conversation hosted by Sarasota County to prepare for the “next one.”

Speakers from Sarasota County, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, National Weather Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration met with community members looking ahead to the upcoming hurricane season. The Sarasota-based Climate Adaption Center predicts 17 named storms and 10 hurricanes this season, which runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.

Katz has lived on Longboat Key for 11 years, and last year she lost much of her furniture and appliances, and suffered property damage that is still in repair after Helene struck in September 2024. She was part of a crowd of at least 370 residents who gathered at Riverview High School for the event.

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“I want to do everything possible to prepare for the next storm, which I know is coming eventually,” Katz said. “If not this next season then thereafter. I think a lot of people in Sarasota have been lulled into a sense of calm and the idea that it was never going to happen here because we’ve had so many close calls over the years, and the hurricane landed somewhere else. Guess what, last year it landed here.

“People, I think, are realizing this is a pretty serious situation,” she said.

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Federal budget cuts were among key talking points during the public meeting on hurricane preparedness, with some residents expressing concern that cuts to FEMA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could negatively impact hurricane victims.

Hurricane Ian blew off part of the roof from Sarasota resident Kerrey Chaney’s mobile home near the Bahia Vista and Tuttle Road intersection. While Ian damaged his roof, Hurricane Milton hit his carport and Debby also flooded many of his neighbors’ homes, though he was “lucky.” Chaney, 73, has lived in the area since October 2001, and he said FEMA funding was important for his recovery from the storms.

“I had roof damage from Ian, and over a long stretch of time I was able to get some help from FEMA,” Chaney said. “So that enabled me to pay for the repair of my roof.

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“I live near Phillippi Creek, and for Tropical Storm Debby the creek got really high, unbelievably high. I wouldn’t have imagined that it could get so high,” he said. “…The water went under my crawl space and got maybe an inch from my flooring inside. I was really lucky.”

Katz echoed his concerns.

“We are definitely going to have damaging storms here in the future,” Katz said. “What I am especially concerned about is the way the current administration in Washington is apparently making to cut from FEMA of all things, from NOAA. They’re doing everything possible to make it less likely for ordinary people to be protected and be able to deal with future storms.”

Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie addressed the “elephant in the room” during his remarks. On April 28, President Donald Trump also appointed Guthrie to his FEMA Review Council, where he will serve as one of 13 members tasked with reforming the federal emergency management and disaster response system. Other Florida-based members include Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz.

“If your approach to disaster season is ‘FEMA give me money,’ or ‘State of Florida give me money,’ I’m going to just be honest with you ladies and gentlemen, that is the wrong mentality to have,” Guthrie said. “FEMA is not an insurance company. The state of Florida is not an insurance company.”

Guthrie and other officials urged homeowners to attain proper insurance, focus on preventative measures to mitigate storm damage, take advantage of tax holidays, understand their property building codes and evacuation zones, and follow other hurricane preparedness best practices. He said FEMA’s mission is to address emergencies, rather than to fund home repairs for residents like an insurance policy could.”

“The maximum grant that you can get from FEMA in the United States is around $84,000. How many of you could rebuild your life on $84,000?” he said. “Do you know what the average payout to Floridians over the last 10 years in the state of Florida? Max rate is $84,000, but the average payout is to a Floridian in the state of Florida is about $4,000. FEMA is not there to make you whole, FEMA is not there to be an insurance agency. FEMA is there to help the worst of the worst, those situations that are truly emergency dire situations.”

Local experts raise awareness about hurricane preparations in Sarasota County

Sarasota County conducted its largest evacuation in history last year in advance of Hurricane Milton, and Sarasota County Emergency Management Chief Sandra Tapfumaneyi said it is important that residents continue to heed calls for evacuations when necessary.

Tapfumaneyi said the county made the decision to evacuate three evacuation zones because of forecasts indicating storm surge from Milton could reach up to 12 feet, just weeks after surge from Helene buried local barrier islands in feet of sand.

“Twelve days later we had Milton,” Tapfumaneyi said of the storm that made landfall on Siesta Key. “We had just had Helene come through with 5 to 6 feet of storm surge, and the National Hurricane Center was telling us, at one point the forecast was more than 12 feet, which would have been catastrophic.

“We did end up evacuating levels A, B and C; that was the largest evacuation we’ve ever called in the county’s history,” she said. “The reason we did that is that is that … we were seeing flooding into those level C areas, as much as 6 feet was the potential. We didn’t want anyone in the homes and staying in those areas with that much flooding.”

Tapfumaneyi asked residents to continue to heed evacuations, even if the county refrains from using the term “mandatory” when they are issued.

“An evacuation is an evacuation: if we tell you to leave it means that we think its safer to leave than to stay in your home,” Tapfumaneyi said. “So you still have to make that decision for you and your family. You are not going to hear use the words mandatory but we do want you to be serious about an evacuation.”

National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jennifer Hubbard said surge is a particular challenge for because hurricanes can run parallel to the Florida coastline, producing surge even though the center may be miles from shore.

“In Florida we have kind of a unique coastline,” Hubbard said. “We see parallel storms, much like Helene and Idalia, Debby, all of those storms are kind of lifting parallel to our coastline and as a result caused storm surge issues all along the west coast − most horribly seen with Helene last year in comparison to the rest.

“You can be 100 plus miles down the coast and still see devastating impacts from surge when you have a storm that is moving in that kind of direction,” she said. “In contrast, we have storms that are coming at us in more perpendicular direction, such as Milton.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota County, emergency officials: Get ready now for hurricanes