

Present at the meeting were City Council Chairman, Larry Magel, Chief Murphy, Deputy Chief Dave Baer and Councilman Gerry Gibson. Chief Hunter was present as was Deputy Fire Chief Chris Byrne and Sgt. Hector Diaz.

City staff is working in an all hands on deck scenario; police, fire, public works, utilities, parks and rec and building services are all manned waiting for any eventuality that may occur. Personnel doing all sorts of things they don’t normally do, cross training, so they can work in different areas. In the parking lot outside, there is a fuel truck, to provide fuel in case gas stations didn’t have power and to keep City operations functional.

Chief Murphy, “Our motto: prepare for the worst, hope for the best. This particular storm has veered to the west. Flooding and loss of power are still a concern. One thing we would like to encourage our citizens: Do not be on the road unless necessary. If you need supplies get them now and then remain indoors. Monitor the City website, but please stay indoors. If there is an emergency, dial

Deputy Chief Baer, “From a police perspective, our call volume has not gone up drastically. We’ve used Code Red several times to keep people informed and this press conference is an extension of that effort. Interestingly, we noticed 1,500 more people signed up for Code Red alerts since the first alert went out yesterday morning. The city has a plan. It’s a team effort between the police department, fire rescue department, community development, public works, utility department, etc. We have been planning for about a week, we execute this plan according. Is it a water event? Is it a wind event? It’s a team

Gerry Gibson, “This is the third event like this I have been a part of and I really want to compliment the staff at the city on their level of preparedness. The leadership, the department managers, the Chief’s, and City Manager on their high level of preparedness, a job well, well done.”
The Emergency Operations Center is on the 2nd floor. Conference calls are being held three times per day, the next one is at 6:00 PM. Deputy Chief Baer noted all numbers are going into one call center, the 911, general information numbers, 389-5000, 389-5040 and 389-5050 are being monitored digitally.
The City will continue to monitor the storm. Typical areas of flooding are San Marco Road at Barfield, Collier Blvd. at Yellowbird and along 92A going to Goodland.
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