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Storm Prep Without The Stress: Now's The Time! · Inside West Palm Beach

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  Welcome to Inside West Palm Beach. I'm
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  Gerry Marcelo. Everybody that calls South
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  Florida home knows this drill. Hurricane
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  season is around the corner and it's
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  time to prepare. Some folks take it to
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  heart while some don't, but there's no
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  ignoring the fact that being prepared
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  makes dealing with a storm easier and
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  less stressful. It also improves your
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  chances of getting through the storm
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  with minimal impact to both your home and
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  to your family. Today we're going to
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  talk about what you really need to be
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  ready should a storm come our way. That's
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  next on Inside West Palm Beach.
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  Joining us today is Assistant Fire Chief
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  Brent Bloomfield. Brent, welcome to the
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  show. Thank you, Jerry. You know, along
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  with your job as Assistant Fire Chief,
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  you're also very closely aligned to
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  emergency management for the city. Yeah,
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  so I am the emergency manager for the
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  city, so that means anything that
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  happens in the city that's large-scale
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  across all departments in the city that
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  falls under my purview. So not just storm
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  preparation, but just preparation
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  for big events, if there's a music event
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  or... Yeah, so all of those
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  things, you know, in the last seven years
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  it's not just been storms. You know, we
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  had an emergency with... we had water, we
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  had blue-green algae in the water. We
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  had to stand up for that. We had, of
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  course, COVID. You know, we were stood
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  up for two years for that. We had some
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  protests in the city. We help out
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  constantly with, as you know, President
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  Trump flies in and out,
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  and they can carry visits. We help with
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  that with Secret Service and the FBI.
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  On top of that, we do about 175 community
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  events a year where we write incident
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  action plans, and we have the second or
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  third, depending on who you talk to,
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  the largest boat show in the world now
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  here on our
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  waterfront. On top of that, we
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  have music festivals that are constantly
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  wanting to come here. We're getting new
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  ones every single day. This weekend, for
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  instance, we have the Collegiate PGA
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  Championship at our golf course that
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  we're having to deal with. So we do a
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  lot in our office. Wow, and it just goes
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  to show how involved
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  things are here in West
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  Palm. This is not just some sleepy little
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  town like it may have been 20, 25 years
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  ago. There is activities on a national,
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  if not global scale that you've got to
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  deal with. Yeah, so every single week it
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  seems like something new is coming, but
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  the city has grown in leaps and bounds.
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  It's something that, you know, we take
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  seriously. I grew up here, so I've
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  watched it, you know, get bigger, and on
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  top of that, I've been working here for
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  26 years, so I've
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  seen it grow since then.
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  You know, I was here before City Place
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  was here, so now that you see what's
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  going on there and all the high-rises
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  coming up, it's something that we have to
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  deal with constantly. The amount of
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  change, and you've seen it all.
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  Tremendous, and I've seen it all since
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  1977 I've been here. And during
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  that period of time, you've also seen
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  your share of storm threats and storms.
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  Yeah, so we've had several storms that
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  have made landfall,
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  Irma, Nicole. We've had,
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  we've been sideswiped by several storms.
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  We had Dorian sitting off our coast for,
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  I remember that one. You know, for 20
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  hours, and that was, we
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  were, you know, so worried
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  about that one, but yeah, it's just
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  constant. There's always things going on.
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  It's funny because my predecessor, who
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  was here, nine years he was
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  here, and he didn't get, he
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  didn't have one activation in nine years.
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  I think they were saving
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  him all up for whatever I came
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  here. So yeah, we've had a lot of
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  activations in the last seven years. Now,
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  we're hearing vibes and
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  forecasts indicating that it may be a
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  quieter season, but that does not
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  minimize the need for
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  us to prepare. Is that right? That's
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  correct. So I was here in
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  1992, whenever we had Hurricane
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  Andrew bearing down on us, similar exact
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  setup. We had an El Nino,
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  strong El Nino, expected to
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  have low, you know, a season was going to
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  be a low level season and oh yeah,
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  everybody was talking
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  about it. And, you know, we didn't have
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  our A storm until August.
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  Wow. It just happened to be
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  Andrew. So it only takes one. It takes
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  two. So you really need to be
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  prepared regardless. I think
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  we've gotten a lot better since 1992.
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  Building codes have gotten a
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  lot better. Preparation has
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  gotten a lot better. In 2004 and 2005,
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  when we had all the storms,
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  you know, we didn't have a lot,
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  none of our fire stations had generators
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  on them. City Hall didn't have a
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  generator on them. We
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  literally ran the EOC from a closet as
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  big as this room. You know, so it was
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  just, we have come a long
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  way. We've come a long way. But the most
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  important thing, and this is
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  part of what we're going to be
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  talking about today, is that the key to
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  getting through a storm safely with
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  grace, with relative
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  comfort, because it is a storm, is to be
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  prepared to get stuff
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  organized before the event takes
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  place. Yeah, that's the biggest thing is
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  if you're prepared and you do some
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  mitigation efforts at
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  your house, it really does pay dividends.
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  You know, as far as the FEMA
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  guidelines, and I'll give you
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  just as a little segue into it, but FEMA
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  says for every dollar you
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  spend getting mitigated or
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  prepared, it's $13 saved on the back end.
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  So in regards to what I
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  mean by that, and I'll just use
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  an analogy for whenever we had COVID, you
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  know, everybody, we had to
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  go to the N95 masks, right?
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  If you would have bought N95 masks before
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  COVID, let's say, and we
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  didn't, you know, nobody really
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  saw it coming, but then once it did, and
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  the masks were 65 cents a
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  piece before COVID, there was
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  $6 a piece after COVID started. So that
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  mitigation effort, that one thing would
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  have saved you so much
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  on the back end. Right. So similar thing.
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  So if you look, you know,
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  here on the table, we've got
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  multiple things here. And we'll kind of
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  start down there. And of course, you
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  know, start off with,
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  make sure you have your batteries, make
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  sure you have flashlights,
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  make sure you have a charger to
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  make sure your stuff is fully charged.
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  Make sure you have, you know, your
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  weather radio right there.
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  And there's, you know, other ways to
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  listen to weather, you know,
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  the radio, the normal radio,
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  make sure if your TV is working, listen
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  to the reports coming
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  through TV. And then of course,
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  one of the biggest ones down there, or
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  the biggest one is
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  medications. Make sure that you, you know,
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  if you if a storm is coming, or it's pre
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  season, make sure that
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  those are filled, make sure that
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  if we have a storm bearing down on us,
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  and it's a couple days out,
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  make sure that your stuff is
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  filled at least for two weeks, we would
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  like to see more like a
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  month, but two weeks is the end of
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  the minimum. And then I would say, you
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  know, if you, you know, work your way
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  around here, you know,
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  some cleaning products, it's always good
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  to have a first aid kit, I think that
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  that's one of the big
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  things too. And then of course, non
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  perishable food items, things like, you
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  know, you know, drink
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  pouches, things like napkins and
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  drinkware, but also make sure you have a
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  gallon of water per person
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  per day, up to 72 hours. I always say a
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  week now. And only reason I say that is
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  because when we were
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  up in Hurricane Michael in the panhandle,
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  you know, we weren't
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  able to get to some people,
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  we say 72 hours is usually our turnaround
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  time. But some of those people we
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  couldn't because they
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  were on an island, we couldn't get to
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  them for a week. Now, just to just to
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  clarify, oh, you were
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  talking about Michael, which hit up in
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  the up in the panhandle,
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  right? What were you guys doing
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  there? So I was deployed there through
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  the state EOC, I was running
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  as a liaison for one of the
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  desks up there. And basically what we did
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  is we were doing search
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  and rescue in that area.
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  So the search and rescue teams would go
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  into an area, we would
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  grid it off, they would do a
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  search in that complete area looking for
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  survivors. And then if we had
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  anything we could give them,
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  we would give it to them like water, ice,
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  that kind of stuff. We do
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  have points of distribution
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  in the city, where we try to do those
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  things after the storm. Sure. But that
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  takes time to set up.
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  Now go just just for a snapshot. What how
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  bad was it up for for
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  Michael? I was really,
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  it was category five. And a lot of the
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  areas that got hammered,
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  Mexico Beach, Panama City,
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  a lot of that infrastructure was built in
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  the 70s and 80s. So
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  it didn't have to get,
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  it was grandfathered in, didn't have to
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  go through the 1992 building
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  codes. And so a lot of those
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  places that were lost were because of,
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  they were built back before
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  1992. We did see some houses
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  and structures that were built later that
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  had been hardened up to
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  200 mile an hour winds and
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  were able to withstand it. There was a
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  house on Mexico Beach that
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  had been hardened, they had
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  built it brand new. And that one was
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  still standing, had generator
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  power. And the guy basically
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  had power the entire time and was good.
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  It was built on stilts. So
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  the water didn't get into his
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  property. And so it was actually worked
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  out pretty well for him. But
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  the message is, is that this is
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  not kidding around. This is not just,
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  Hey, let's have a party. It
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  can be very serious business,
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  especially when you're dealing with a
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  major hurricane. Right. So
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  I think, you know, when you
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  when you lived in, when you grew up in
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  Florida, you've been in
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  Florida and you've been here a
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  long time, you know, you when you've been
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  through several storms, you
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  it's not that you get complacent,
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  but you go like, okay, I've made it
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  through. So I should be pretty good. But
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  there's always that,
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  you know, we had Dorian sitting off our
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  doorstep. It was, that was
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  a strong category five storm
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  that had 20 foot of a storm surge in the
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  Bahamas. And if that would have came
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  ashore here, we would
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  have, we would have been, we would have
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  had some devastating things
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  happen back during Wilma. I'll
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  use Francis Wilma and Jean, or Francis
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  Jean and Wilma, should I say
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  that that's how they lined up.
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  But when we had those come through, you
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  know, I was on one of the
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  search and rescue teams that
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  went out and we had several buildings and
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  several structures and
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  houses that had been either
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  partially collapsed or collapsed. And we
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  had to go get people. And
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  that was those were category
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  two storms. So there's a pot, you know,
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  when it, so what happened
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  was, you know, it was a perfect,
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  kind of a perfect lineup where Francis
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  sat on top of us for a long time, dumped
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  water, dumped water,
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  dumped water, we were, we were inundated
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  and saturated here in
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  the, in West Palm Beach.
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  And then what happened is here comes Jean
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  afterwards with strong
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  category two warren there,
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  because we were so inundated and
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  saturated with that, it kind of weakened
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  some of the structures.
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  And then next thing you know, some of
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  them are going down. So not
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  to be messing around with don't
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  take, don't take anything as just being
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  just a little blow. You have
• 1:09:55
  to be real serious about it.
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  If we go back to last year, we had a
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  storm that didn't directly hit us,
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  Milton, it hit on the West
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  Coast and went way north of us. But the
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  spread on that storm was
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  so, so wide that it threw it,
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  we kind of knew this tornadoes were going
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  to be a possibility in the
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  morning when we got on the
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  calls with the National Weather Service.
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  And they said, Hey, listen,
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  there's a strong possibility
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  we're getting tornadoes today. And we
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  watched them drop in
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  Broward first. And then next thing
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  you know, they're here in Palm Beach
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  County, they're in our
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  backyard. So it just because a
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  storm is coming in, doesn't mean if we
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  don't get directly
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  impacted, we can't be indirectly
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  impacted, which we were with Milton. I
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  think a lot of people don't really
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  realize that when you're
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  talking about a tropical storm, when
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  you're talking about a
• 1:10:38
  hurricane, that it's almost
• 1:10:39
  guaranteed there will be a risk of
• 1:10:42
  tornado activity in
• 1:10:44
  those storms. And they may be
• 1:10:46
  small, but they still could be very, very
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  powerful and very
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  devastating. Yeah. So I mean,
• 1:10:50
  anytime you, we just had some storms roll
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  through two days ago with
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  60 mile an hour wind gust.
• 1:10:56
  You know, when you live in a tropical
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  weather state like Florida,
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  you expect that we're going
• 1:11:01
  to get tropical weather and it doesn't
• 1:11:03
  have to be a full on
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  category three or four or five storm
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  to do the damage that a storm that sits
• 1:11:10
  on top of us for, let's just
• 1:11:11
  say it sits on top of us for 36
• 1:11:13
  hours. It's a tropical storm, but it
• 1:11:15
  gives us 12 to 14 hour inches of rain
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  over a 24 hour period.
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  That can be devastating. Well, let's,
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  let's jump back to our
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  first little group here. We were
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  talking about being prepared and starting
• 1:11:26
  to gather things prior
• 1:11:27
  to the storm. Obviously,
• 1:11:29
  everyone's used to having batteries and
• 1:11:30
  flashlights. I think one
• 1:11:33
  of the things that people
• 1:11:34
  start forgetting is that even though your
• 1:11:37
  flashlight may be US
• 1:11:39
  USB capable and you can
• 1:11:40
  plug it into the wall, there's not,
• 1:11:42
  there's a good chance
• 1:11:42
  you're going to be out of power.
• 1:11:44
  And so, yeah. So yeah. Yeah. So the
• 1:11:47
  biggest thing is making sure
• 1:11:48
  all your things are charged,
• 1:11:49
  making sure that your batteries are up
• 1:11:51
  there, up and ready to go and that
• 1:11:53
  they're within date and
• 1:11:54
  those kinds of things. It's good to
• 1:11:55
  change them out the
• 1:11:56
  beginning of hurricane season.
• 1:11:57
  Part of the other thing is they do have
• 1:11:59
  the battery packs now
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  where you can store it, store
• 1:12:02
  battery for a phone or, you know, even
• 1:12:06
  like, you know, tablets and
• 1:12:08
  stuff like that. Yeah. So you
• 1:12:09
  can have those things and those work
• 1:12:11
  really well too. So it's just
• 1:12:13
  a matter of you could be out of
• 1:12:15
  power for up to, you know, I mean, in the
• 1:12:18
  past two, three weeks, maybe more
• 1:12:21
  depending on infrastructure.
• 1:12:22
  But FP&L has also hardened their system
• 1:12:25
  really well. And, you know,
• 1:12:27
  we're not, even when we had,
• 1:12:30
  you know, Irma come through, our power
• 1:12:31
  was back on pretty quickly.
• 1:12:33
  Some of the power lines that go
• 1:12:34
  down, we, you know, in the older parts of
• 1:12:36
  the city, in the south end
• 1:12:37
  and the north end, we have a lot
• 1:12:38
  of old growth trees. Sometimes they take
• 1:12:41
  the power lines down. But
• 1:12:42
  FP&L has been really great about
• 1:12:44
  getting those up and running quickly.
• 1:12:47
  They have it pretty much down now. I
• 1:12:48
  mean, after, you got to
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  remember, they cover the entire state of
• 1:12:51
  Florida. And then over in
• 1:12:53
  the last decade, we have had
• 1:12:54
  storm after storm after storm, not only
• 1:12:56
  on our coast, but on the
• 1:12:57
  west coast and in the Panhandle.
• 1:12:59
  So they're getting very used to being
• 1:13:00
  able to go out and get
• 1:13:01
  stuff back up pretty quickly.
• 1:13:03
  Now let's talk a little bit about the
• 1:13:04
  weather radio. It almost sounds like
• 1:13:06
  antiquated technology.
• 1:13:08
  Why would I bother with the radio? I've
• 1:13:09
  got, I got my cell phone.
• 1:13:11
  What are the chances of a cell
• 1:13:12
  phone not working the way you expected
• 1:13:14
  to, the rainstorm? Yeah. So,
• 1:13:16
  you know, that was one of the
• 1:13:18
  things that we saw in the Panhandle as
• 1:13:19
  well, is once the storm started rolling
• 1:13:21
  through it, did knock
• 1:13:22
  out a lot of the towers. So cell phone
• 1:13:27
  coverage was pretty sporadic.
• 1:13:29
  We have a little bit more of
• 1:13:30
  a hardened system down here in South
• 1:13:31
  Florida. However, you could,
• 1:13:34
  you know, you could lose cell
• 1:13:35
  phone signal. So it is good to have
• 1:13:36
  something like a weather
• 1:13:37
  radio. If you have access to,
• 1:13:40
  still have access to TV, if you're still
• 1:13:42
  able to watch it, it's
• 1:13:43
  good to have it. But you want
• 1:13:44
  those weather updates constantly. Because
• 1:13:46
  if you get a tornado
• 1:13:47
  warning or a tornado watch or,
• 1:13:49
  or if you get something with wind gusts
• 1:13:51
  that could be certain, you know, levels,
• 1:13:53
  even after the storm
• 1:13:54
  pushes through, because we're still, you
• 1:13:56
  still, you know, we're
• 1:13:57
  still getting this feeder bands
• 1:13:58
  that are coming through even after,
• 1:13:59
  before and after the storm.
• 1:14:01
  So you want to be able to know
• 1:14:02
  what's coming. And a lot of these radios
• 1:14:04
  will have the ability to
• 1:14:05
  listen to TV bands as well.
• 1:14:06
  So you can tune in to local stations and
• 1:14:09
  see what's happening
• 1:14:10
  specifically in our area. And
• 1:14:11
  that's another point. A lot of people
• 1:14:13
  will tell you, Oh, well,
• 1:14:14
  you know what? I'm watching
• 1:14:15
  the weather channel, the national
• 1:14:17
  channel, or I'm watching
• 1:14:18
  Miami, or I'm watching, you know,
• 1:14:20
  perhaps Orlando. The idea is if you're
• 1:14:23
  living in West Palm, it
• 1:14:24
  might be smart to stay with the
• 1:14:26
  local affiliates that are here serving
• 1:14:27
  this area. Right. Because
• 1:14:28
  there's a lot of information that
• 1:14:30
  goes out over the local affiliates that's
• 1:14:32
  put out by Palm Beach
• 1:14:34
  County Department of
• 1:14:34
  Emergency Management by us at City of
• 1:14:36
  West Palm Beach Emergency
• 1:14:37
  Management. There's a lot
• 1:14:38
  of information that comes out and a lot
• 1:14:40
  of times we feed it to them
• 1:14:41
  so that they can put it out so
• 1:14:43
  everyone can hear. So it's always better
• 1:14:45
  to listen to your local news
• 1:14:46
  source than it is to listen to
• 1:14:48
  somewhere else in the state or national.
• 1:14:50
  What's your opinion about
• 1:14:51
  social media? There's a lot
• 1:14:52
  of times people are listening to their,
• 1:14:54
  looking at the Instagram or
• 1:14:55
  their TikTok or whatever for
• 1:14:57
  information. What's your take on that?
• 1:14:59
  Well, I think a lot of
• 1:14:59
  young people, especially a lot
• 1:15:01
  of people now are, that's how they're
• 1:15:02
  digesting their news. They're
• 1:15:03
  not going to local affiliates
• 1:15:05
  or watching it on WPTV or WPEC or any of
• 1:15:08
  those channels. They're
• 1:15:09
  literally getting it now from
• 1:15:10
  social media. So I think it's a really
• 1:15:13
  good tool for us to be able
• 1:15:14
  to use. I would say the only
• 1:15:15
  thing is make sure you're either going to
• 1:15:18
  a local news source or
• 1:15:19
  you're following like us, like
• 1:15:21
  City of West Palm Beach or West Palm
• 1:15:23
  Beach Fire or WPB Fire or
• 1:15:26
  the City and make sure that you
• 1:15:28
  have those in your feed because we do put
• 1:15:30
  out information in those
• 1:15:31
  constantly. Yeah, and actually
• 1:15:33
  I'm glad you brought it up because the
• 1:15:34
  City website at WPB.org as
• 1:15:37
  well as TV18 and all our,
• 1:15:40
  we're streaming on various platforms.
• 1:15:43
  We'll be doing our very
• 1:15:44
  best to keep information that's
• 1:15:46
  specific to West Palm Beach available. So
• 1:15:48
  that's a great way to stay
• 1:15:50
  informed along with listening
• 1:15:51
  to National Weather Service, along with
• 1:15:54
  taking a listen to the local affiliate
• 1:15:56
  television stations.
• 1:15:57
  And that'll keep you informed so you know
• 1:15:58
  what's going on during
• 1:15:59
  those types of storms.
• 1:16:02
  We're talking a little bit here about
• 1:16:03
  moving on to this section here about
• 1:16:06
  first aid kits. I mean,
• 1:16:09
  I think people don't realize how easily
• 1:16:11
  you can become injured in a storm.
• 1:16:15
  Yeah, so you know, it only takes you
• 1:16:16
  walking outside and
• 1:16:17
  stepping on something to, you know,
• 1:16:20
  maybe even a nail through your shoe or
• 1:16:21
  even if you have shoes
• 1:16:22
  on or anything like that.
• 1:16:23
  It's very easy to get injured and you
• 1:16:26
  know, we, so in the fire department,
• 1:16:28
  whenever you call 911 and
• 1:16:30
  it's during a storm, there is a certain
• 1:16:31
  time where police and fire
• 1:16:33
  are not going out because we're
• 1:16:34
  not going to, we're not going to risk
• 1:16:35
  that because if we get first
• 1:16:38
  responders injured, then we
• 1:16:40
  definitely can't help you. So we want to
• 1:16:42
  make sure that you have
• 1:16:43
  the ability to possibly take
• 1:16:45
  care of yourself because we will cue
• 1:16:46
  those calls for a certain amount of time
• 1:16:49
  and then once it gets
• 1:16:49
  to a certain, you know, wind mile per
• 1:16:52
  hour or it gets clear
• 1:16:53
  enough, we will start going out and
• 1:16:54
  running calls, but they're queued up.
• 1:16:56
  There may be a hundred deep and we're
• 1:16:57
  going to try to get to like
• 1:16:58
  the biggest stuff first. So if you have,
• 1:17:01
  you know, an injury that
• 1:17:03
  you can try to treat yourself,
• 1:17:04
  you want to make sure that you're able to
• 1:17:06
  do that first aid kit is
• 1:17:07
  a perfect way to do that.
• 1:17:09
  The other thing I will say is if, you
• 1:17:11
  know, if you're in a
• 1:17:12
  house or if you're in,
• 1:17:13
  you know, a property with multiple
• 1:17:15
  people, it doesn't take much
• 1:17:17
  to get, to get the next person
• 1:17:19
  sick. If somebody's already sick or
• 1:17:21
  getting ready to become sick. So that's
• 1:17:23
  where stuff, you know,
• 1:17:24
  sanitizer and cleaning products come in
• 1:17:26
  really handy because the
• 1:17:28
  last thing you want to do is
• 1:17:29
  get camp crud. We call it camp crud,
• 1:17:31
  right? Running around in a house and then
• 1:17:33
  what happens is, is now
• 1:17:34
  everybody's sick and now you're dealing,
• 1:17:36
  now you're dealing with
• 1:17:36
  the aftermath of a hurricane.
• 1:17:38
  You're dealing with sick people as well.
• 1:17:40
  And boy, howdy, you're going
• 1:17:41
  to have a house. You're going
• 1:17:42
  to have to win. You have to have the
• 1:17:43
  windows open because there's no AC.
• 1:17:45
  There's no one's getting
• 1:17:46
  the bad, a proper bath. Well, that's a
• 1:17:48
  kind of drag. So you get cleanliness is
• 1:17:51
  very, very important
• 1:17:52
  in these types of things. Yeah. And we
• 1:17:53
  also talked about, you
• 1:17:54
  know, kind of off air about
• 1:17:57
  tubs, you know, about filling your tub
• 1:17:59
  with, that was the old adage
• 1:18:00
  when I was growing up is fill
• 1:18:01
  your tubs with water so that you have
• 1:18:03
  water. And that was, you
• 1:18:04
  know, that was, that was before
• 1:18:06
  there was a lot of bottled water. There
• 1:18:08
  wasn't a lot of that back
• 1:18:09
  in those days. So basically,
• 1:18:11
  you know, you can use that one or two
• 1:18:13
  ways. You can use it for, you
• 1:18:15
  know, like we're talking about
• 1:18:15
  like baths. Yeah, you can use it for
• 1:18:17
  like, you know, take the water and kind
• 1:18:18
  of do a wipe off bath.
• 1:18:20
  You can use it to flush the toilets, you
• 1:18:21
  know, use the water for
• 1:18:22
  that. And then if you had to,
• 1:18:24
  you could also use potable water. I would
• 1:18:26
  just say you want to make
• 1:18:27
  sure that you, you try to boil
• 1:18:29
  it before you ingest it. Absolutely. So
• 1:18:31
  yeah, I mean, so there is
• 1:18:33
  an important thing to store
• 1:18:34
  water that can just keep things running,
• 1:18:36
  keep general, you know,
• 1:18:39
  hygiene in place, because it
• 1:18:41
  might be a long run. It might could be a
• 1:18:43
  couple weeks before things
• 1:18:44
  get turned back on again.
• 1:18:46
  You mentioned something about going to be
• 1:18:47
  moving on to food here in
• 1:18:48
  a moment, but you mentioned
• 1:18:49
  something about perhaps, you know, if you
• 1:18:51
  need to make water
• 1:18:52
  drinkable, you got to go ahead and
• 1:18:54
  bring it to a boil for a certain amount
• 1:18:56
  of time. Let's talk about cooking and
• 1:18:58
  heating things while
• 1:19:00
  you're in a situation. I guess the
• 1:19:01
  mindset is you're basically
• 1:19:03
  camping now. Yeah, so basically,
• 1:19:05
  that's what you're doing. You're camping
• 1:19:07
  inside. If you have no
• 1:19:08
  power, you're kind of camping
• 1:19:09
  inside your house. So if you have a
• 1:19:11
  grill, or if you have some
• 1:19:13
  other type of heating source that
• 1:19:14
  runs on gas, those usually are usually up
• 1:19:17
  and running still. And
• 1:19:18
  if you have a propane,
• 1:19:21
  it makes it easier because you have,
• 1:19:22
  whether you have an in-ground propane
• 1:19:24
  system or whether you
• 1:19:25
  have the 20 pound cylinders or however it
• 1:19:28
  is, and you can still use
• 1:19:29
  it, that's a great heating
• 1:19:31
  source. One of the things is, I would
• 1:19:33
  say, is do not, if you have
• 1:19:34
  a generator, great, you know,
• 1:19:37
  then you can run some of your appliances,
• 1:19:38
  you can run some of
• 1:19:39
  the stuff in your house,
• 1:19:40
  but never bring in a portable generator
• 1:19:42
  either in the garage or the house because
• 1:19:44
  then you're spreading CO, which could,
• 1:19:47
  you know, carbon
• 1:19:48
  monoxide, which could eventually,
• 1:19:50
  honestly, kill you. So you don't want to
• 1:19:52
  do that. We have seen that
• 1:19:53
  in the past in the city where
• 1:19:54
  people have brought their generators in
• 1:19:57
  and it never ends well.
• 1:19:58
  So I would say, you know,
• 1:19:59
  make sure that you have a plan for that.
• 1:20:02
  The biggest thing with
• 1:20:02
  all of this is make sure you
• 1:20:04
  have a plan. Make sure you have a plan
• 1:20:06
  for any of the stuff that we have up
• 1:20:08
  here. Make sure you have
• 1:20:09
  a kit. Make sure that you have an escape
• 1:20:11
  route. If you have to get out of the
• 1:20:13
  house, make sure you
• 1:20:13
  have a meeting point with your family.
• 1:20:15
  Make sure that you have all of these
• 1:20:17
  things in place before
• 1:20:18
  the storm. You just said something that I
• 1:20:20
  think is fascinating that a
• 1:20:22
  lot of people don't think about
• 1:20:23
  as part of planning. I know that I will,
• 1:20:26
  you know, put shutters up on
• 1:20:27
  my windows and barricade the
• 1:20:29
  doors and effectively I'm trapped inside
• 1:20:32
  my house. Right. You really need to
• 1:20:34
  develop. You've got to
• 1:20:35
  have a plan if something really goes
• 1:20:37
  south, a way to get out.
• 1:20:38
  Correct. You got to have an escape
• 1:20:40
  plan. You got to be able to, you know, no
• 1:20:42
  matter where you're
• 1:20:42
  staying in the house, you got to,
• 1:20:44
  you got to have at least one or two means
• 1:20:46
  of egress from anywhere
• 1:20:48
  and it can't be, you know,
• 1:20:49
  only one in the house. It's got to be,
• 1:20:52
  you got to have a means of
• 1:20:53
  egress either in the front of the
• 1:20:55
  house, in the back of the house, but you
• 1:20:57
  got to have at least two.
• 1:20:58
  Right. Well, let's talk a little
• 1:20:59
  bit about food here. Now, obviously
• 1:21:02
  you're going to want to buy food that can
• 1:21:04
  be stored dry and for
• 1:21:06
  a long, a longer period of time. Right.
• 1:21:08
  You got to plan on losing pretty much
• 1:21:09
  everything that's in
• 1:21:10
  your refrigerator. Yeah. Well, I mean,
• 1:21:12
  you know, and that depends. Yeah. Yes. If
• 1:21:14
  you have a generator,
• 1:21:15
  you can sometimes you can run your
• 1:21:16
  refrigerator. It does draw a
• 1:21:17
  lot of power for a portable
• 1:21:19
  generator, but you can, but yeah, you can
• 1:21:21
  just plan on, Hey, we may
• 1:21:22
  not be using the food in
• 1:21:23
  the refrigerator. We want to make sure
• 1:21:24
  that we use things that are
• 1:21:26
  non-perishable. Peanut butter is
• 1:21:28
  always good. Absolutely. Bread, crackers,
• 1:21:31
  like these things up here,
• 1:21:32
  soups, top ramen noodle. The
• 1:21:34
  only thing with this one is you got to
• 1:21:35
  boil water or get hot water.
• 1:21:36
  Yeah. But I mean, and make sure
• 1:21:37
  you have a can opener, not a, not a
• 1:21:40
  electrical one. Make sure it's a, it's a
• 1:21:42
  hand one, you know. I
• 1:21:43
  mean, all of these things are great to
• 1:21:45
  think about, but it has to,
• 1:21:47
  you should have a stash of non
• 1:21:49
  perishable stuff. Sure. Stuff like, you
• 1:21:51
  know, a can of spaghetti or
• 1:21:53
  whatever. And a lot of times
• 1:21:54
  they'll come with a pop top and then
• 1:21:57
  sweat that. So that's a really good
• 1:21:58
  thing. But amounts that
• 1:22:00
  can be eaten at the same at one time, not
• 1:22:03
  because you're not going to
• 1:22:04
  be able to store anything.
• 1:22:05
  You can't, you're not going to have a
• 1:22:06
  refrigerator. So buy things that are
• 1:22:08
  small or at least large
• 1:22:09
  enough that you can share, be done with
• 1:22:11
  it and throw the can away
• 1:22:12
  and get it out. You do make
• 1:22:14
  a good point. We have to continue
• 1:22:16
  thinking about hygiene or
• 1:22:18
  you could easily introduce
• 1:22:20
  some pretty nasty little sicknesses into
• 1:22:21
  the. Yeah. You don't want
• 1:22:22
  to, you don't want to get
• 1:22:23
  to a point where you're, you're
• 1:22:26
  introducing any type of bacteria or, or
• 1:22:30
  things that can spread or,
• 1:22:31
  or mold that can grow. Because what
• 1:22:33
  happens is, is when you start eating on
• 1:22:34
  that or drinking from
• 1:22:35
  that, you can get sick. And the last
• 1:22:37
  thing you want to do is be sick during
• 1:22:38
  the middle of a storm
• 1:22:39
  or after a storm. Now, the entire thing
• 1:22:41
  that we have here in front
• 1:22:42
  of this is sort of predicated
• 1:22:44
  on people staying within their homes. But
• 1:22:46
  I would argue that there's
• 1:22:47
  going to be a discussion long
• 1:22:49
  before the storm where people will say,
• 1:22:51
  should I stay or should I
• 1:22:53
  go? As far as evacuating,
• 1:22:56
  let's talk a little bit about that. So we
• 1:22:57
  have evacuation zones that
• 1:22:59
  we, we have on our website
• 1:23:01
  at wpb.org front slash hurricane. And
• 1:23:04
  then there's also the Palm Beach County
• 1:23:06
  has it, but we all kind
• 1:23:07
  of live in the same thing where we have
• 1:23:09
  these evacuation zones in
• 1:23:10
  the county. And when we tell
• 1:23:12
  you to evacuate, you should evacuate.
• 1:23:15
  That's, that's bar none.
• 1:23:16
  Now, if you're outside of those
• 1:23:18
  evacuation zones and you don't feel
• 1:23:19
  comfortable and you want to
• 1:23:20
  evacuate, that's, that's on,
• 1:23:22
  you know, that's your decision. And we're
• 1:23:24
  not going to knock you
• 1:23:25
  for that, of course. But,
• 1:23:27
  but if you are in evacuation zone,
• 1:23:30
  absolutely should
• 1:23:31
  evacuate. And if we tell you, hey,
• 1:23:33
  we're evacuating A or B or C and we'll
• 1:23:37
  show maps of those areas. And
• 1:23:39
  we'll tell you, and usually we
• 1:23:40
  send up PD and fire to tell people like,
• 1:23:43
  Hey, you're in an
• 1:23:44
  evacuation zone. You probably need
• 1:23:46
  to leave. So, and also if you do decide
• 1:23:48
  to evacuate, I would
• 1:23:49
  assume that you need to get
• 1:23:50
  started a little early because it's going
• 1:23:52
  to be you and a whole lot
• 1:23:53
  of other people trying to,
• 1:23:54
  trying to leave the area. Could be. Yeah.
• 1:23:57
  I mean, we have seen it in
• 1:23:58
  the past. We saw it with several
• 1:23:59
  storms where people were evacuating the
• 1:24:01
  area and that you, you run
• 1:24:02
  into multiple things there,
• 1:24:03
  right? You run into, could there be a gas
• 1:24:06
  shortage? Are you going to
• 1:24:07
  be able to fill your car up?
• 1:24:08
  Is 95 going to be packed? Is the term
• 1:24:11
  pipe going to be packed? Am I
• 1:24:12
  going to be able to go where
• 1:24:13
  I want to go? You know, it's kind of
• 1:24:15
  funny because several
• 1:24:18
  years ago, and I can't remember
• 1:24:19
  which storm it was now. There has been so
• 1:24:21
  many, but basically we
• 1:24:22
  thought we were going to get
• 1:24:23
  direct hit and we had people and it was
• 1:24:26
  going to be a strong storm. I can't
• 1:24:28
  remember what it was,
• 1:24:28
  a four or five, or it was coming. It was
• 1:24:30
  coming this way. And
• 1:24:31
  basically we had a bunch of people
• 1:24:33
  go to the west coast of Florida. And then
• 1:24:35
  what happened is that
• 1:24:36
  storm kept heading south when
• 1:24:38
  right around the bottom of the state and
• 1:24:40
  came right around through
• 1:24:41
  the west coast. And all those
• 1:24:43
  people that left to go to the west coast
• 1:24:45
  suddenly a storm. Yeah. Got
• 1:24:46
  it worse than the people that
• 1:24:47
  stayed on this side. So it just, you
• 1:24:50
  know, I would say if
• 1:24:51
  you're in an evacuation zone,
• 1:24:53
  1 million percent, if we give you the
• 1:24:54
  evacuation orders, you
• 1:24:56
  should evacuate. If you're not and
• 1:24:58
  you feel like you want to evacuate,
• 1:25:00
  evacuate, but try to go somewhere where
• 1:25:02
  the storm is probably
• 1:25:02
  not going to be. Right. What about
• 1:25:04
  options like staying in a shelter, local
• 1:25:07
  shelter? Yeah. We have
• 1:25:08
  those options. The county opens those
• 1:25:10
  shelters. Whenever they see
• 1:25:12
  fit at what point they want to
• 1:25:14
  want to do it depends on the storm and
• 1:25:15
  the path and a lot of
• 1:25:16
  other factors. But they do open
• 1:25:18
  shelters and then they usually like, once
• 1:25:21
  again, we put it out on
• 1:25:22
  local media or we put it out on
• 1:25:24
  our websites or we put it out on social
• 1:25:26
  media. So all of those
• 1:25:28
  things. And then once again,
• 1:25:29
  that's why you should be listening
• 1:25:30
  because if it is a possibility that you
• 1:25:32
  have to go to a shelter,
• 1:25:33
  you want to go. The other part of a
• 1:25:35
  shelter is if you have a special needs
• 1:25:38
  shelter or a pet shelter,
• 1:25:39
  you should go on the website for Palm
• 1:25:41
  Beach County Emergency Management. Right.
• 1:25:44
  And because there is
• 1:25:44
  some paperwork, if you fill it out
• 1:25:46
  beforehand, it just helps with the
• 1:25:48
  process later. And there's
• 1:25:50
  also, there are also special places that
• 1:25:52
  if you have a member of
• 1:25:54
  your family, which requires
• 1:25:55
  physical assistance or medical
• 1:25:57
  assistance, that you can
• 1:25:59
  know where these places are,
• 1:26:01
  get on their list early. Correct. And get
• 1:26:04
  taken care of that way as
• 1:26:05
  well. Yes, that's exactly.
• 1:26:06
  And that's all county. Yeah, that's all
• 1:26:08
  through the county. Correct.
• 1:26:10
  Very good. So we've covered
• 1:26:11
  a lot of ground here. What have we
• 1:26:14
  missed? What are the main messages we
• 1:26:16
  want to deliver to folks
• 1:26:17
  who live here, getting them ready for a
• 1:26:19
  possible storm? Yeah, I
• 1:26:20
  think the biggest message is make
• 1:26:21
  sure you have a kit available. Make sure
• 1:26:23
  you have a kit ready.
• 1:26:24
  Make sure that you prepare
• 1:26:26
  for the storm season coming up, not six
• 1:26:28
  months from now, not, you
• 1:26:29
  know, not during storm season
• 1:26:31
  now. So we're getting ready to go in
• 1:26:32
  storm season in June. Now's
• 1:26:34
  the perfect time. I remember
• 1:26:36
  when I, when hurricane Nicole was coming
• 1:26:38
  through and it was a category
• 1:26:40
  one storm, we were, you know,
• 1:26:42
  we weren't expecting too much, but we did
• 1:26:43
  get a lot of flooding in a
• 1:26:44
  lot of areas. So people weren't
• 1:26:46
  able to get out. But I remember driving
• 1:26:48
  into work for that hurricane
• 1:26:49
  and it was just a couple of
• 1:26:50
  years ago. And there's an Aldi's down the
• 1:26:53
  street on the way in the
• 1:26:54
  work. And I saw the line and
• 1:26:55
  it's the day of, and they're wrapped
• 1:26:58
  around the store. Oh my God.
• 1:26:59
  And that's just not a good way
• 1:27:00
  to get ready and prepared. The best way
• 1:27:04
  is to do it now. Do it
• 1:27:05
  now. And the other message for
• 1:27:07
  2026 is it only takes one. It only takes
• 1:27:10
  one. So I know that everybody's
• 1:27:11
  predicting it's going to be
• 1:27:12
  an El Nino and it's going to be a slower
• 1:27:14
  season, but 1992 was the
• 1:27:17
  same exact season. And we got
• 1:27:19
  Andrew and the rest of the season wasn't
• 1:27:21
  bad. It was one storm that
• 1:27:24
  devastated South Florida.
• 1:27:26
  Brent, thank you so much. We appreciate
• 1:27:27
  you being here. Let's hope we
• 1:27:29
  don't need to have to do any
• 1:27:30
  of that. Let's be prepared for anything
• 1:27:32
  that may be coming our way. Absolutely.
• 1:27:34
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 1:27:35
  And thank you for joining us for Inside
• 1:27:37
  West Palm Beach. We may have a new name,
• 1:27:39
  but we're close to completing our third
• 1:27:41
  full year of production.
• 1:27:42
  We've got many past podcasts
• 1:27:44
  available for your listening pleasure.
• 1:27:46
  We're available on all
• 1:27:47
  major podcast outlets. Just look
• 1:27:49
  for the city of West Palm Beach and
• 1:27:52
  you'll find our shows both past and
• 1:27:53
  present. If you have
• 1:27:55
  comments or ideas for other topics,
• 1:27:57
  please feel free to write us at podcast
• 1:28:00
  at wpb.org. This has
• 1:28:03
  been a production of the City of West
• 1:28:04
  Palm Beach Communications
• 1:28:05
  Department. I'm Jerry Marcello.
• 1:28:08
  We'll see you next time.