Hurricane Season Is Here

Over the years, we have continued to redefine operations for all types of storm events. Hurricanes, obviously, involve wind and flooding. For years, I have always told residents that winds are concerning but flooding is what scares me as your mayor. Many homes in Florida are now hardened for windstorms. Flooding is a worse threat. I am sure many of our residents agree and lose sleep over it this time of year. Flooding does not just cause property damage it actually can be deadly.

If you are new to South Florida, it is critically important that you visit our website and research what you need know and how to prepare. If you are disabled, we encourage everyone that has Special Needs to pre-register at a Hurricane Shelter.

When residents are told to evacuate, they need to heed that call. The minute winds get in excess of 40 miles an hour everything gets shut down and our Emergency Response Teams are also not going to be on the road. You will literally be on your own. Even after the storm it may be a long time before roads are accessible.

There is different evacuation zones and different times to evacuate. For Category 1 and 2 Hurricanes, which is considered plan A, residents east of the Intracoastal waterways are advised to evacuate. For Category 3 and higher Hurricanes, Plan B, all areas east of US -1 is included in the Evacuation Zone. All mobile home residents are required to evacuate no matter what level the storm is.

If you are sheltering in place, it is recommended that you have at least three days of nonperishable food and water per person. It is, however, highly recommended to have about 7 days. The rule of thumb is a gallon of water per person per day. For water that does not need to be consumed it is recommended to fill a tub in your bathroom this will assist in being able to flush toilets.

As our City continues to fine tune our response to flooding it is critically important that people realize to not enter any roadway that is flooded. We have set up a plan to deploy barricades on road ways prone to flooding. Obviously driving into a flooded road will put your car at risk but more importantly you and any passenger. Water can rise extremely quickly. If you get stuck and try to get out of your car there maybe currents that can pull you under. It is extremely important that no one actually goes into a flooded area.

Every year during a flood there is always someone that decides to drive through. Please do not create wakes. If you go into these areas and are found creating wakes and additional damage to people's property you can be fined.

Hopefully, your home has been secured with Hurricane Shutters or windows. It is a little late now to start getting windows or shutters but please know our Community Redevelopment Agency has implemented a citywide program to help offset the cost of hurricane shutters and windows. You can find out more at: www.COHBCRA.org.

I was happy to see local news stations are starting to address waterproofing homes. We have discussed the sandbag program here in our community. Sandbags, while helpful, are exceedingly difficult to deploy as well as implement at single family homes and businesses. There is new modern technology that will help you if you are in a flood prone area. There are tubes that can be filled with water and reused. There are also solid structures that can dam garages as well as front doors.

As the City we continue to address flooding. Our Flood Master Plan rewrite will be presented to the Commission shortly. This will give us a full blueprint of what needs to be addressed through increased Infrastructure improvements. This plan will be both costly and extensive and will not be able to be rolled out overnight.

As your mayor, I have discussed looking for some type of public private partnership to expedite any improvements. We have also discussed a government obligation bond. This type of revenue is critical and establishing a fund to begin work. We continue as well to address costs through grants and federal appropriations. Broward County also is a great resource: https://www.broward.org/Hurricane/Pages/abouthurricane.aspx

And next week’s article I will review how we are going to move our Stormwater Fee onto the Property Tax Roll. Stormwater is not based on consumption like Water and Sewer. It is directly tied to each property. We are in the process now and shortly all of our users will be receiving vital information to understand this process.

As always, I am available anytime for your questions, concerns, and ideas to make our City a better place on my Phone/Text at: (954) 632-5700. Or you can email me at: jcooper@cohb.org. Please visit me on my Facebook page at: Mayor Joy Cooper. Like! Follow! And share!