PANAMA CITY — A two-month process that will determine what grant money flows in over the next five years for projects that lessen the impacts of natural disasters began Wednesday with a kick-off meeting.
Bay County is updating its “Local Mitigation Strategy” plan, which looks at natural disasters that have occurred in the past and tries to prevent the same kind of damage from happening again through mitigation measures.
On Wednesday morning, a consultant took public input at one of several meetings scheduled in the coming months. The next workshop is scheduled for Feb. 25, when floodplain management strategies will be discussed.
The audience of more than 20 people at the Bay County Government Center included a few citizens who live in flood zones on Panama City Beach, as well as officials from city, county and state agencies, and floodplain consultants.
“This effort is going to help improve our flood prevention and flood loss policies and could ultimately have an effect on residents’ flood insurance premiums,” said Bay County planner Wayne Porter.
Joy Duperault, a staff planner with Arcadis, a Tallahassee consulting firm that is helping with the plan update, led the discussion at the meeting, where current natural hazards were reviewed and goals and objectives were discussed.
“How can we reduce future losses — that is what this plan is all about — reducing future losses from natural disasters, so you set up some goals and some objectives,” she said.
The projects identified in the plan — such as drainage and building retrofitting — receive state or federal hazard mitigation funding, which often requires a local match.
From 2004 to 2009, 58 mitigation projects were identified and more than $32 million in funding was awarded. Many of the hazard mitigation projects outlined in the plan that have received state and federal funds over the years were designed to make buildings that had been damaged by storms studier.
The intergovernmental strategic plan, which is updated every five years and was last done in fiscal year 2009-2010, is aimed at avoiding damages caused by disasters based on historical impacts for a given geographical area.
“Historical experience has demonstrated that the county and its municipalities can be affected by flooding, winds associated with tropical storms/hurricanes, tornados and wildfires,” the executive summary of the latest draft of the plan adopted in 2010 states.
It adds that the plan proposes appropriate hazard mitigation to reduce damage or impairment to homes, businesses, schools and government offices.
“So mitigation kind of comes in as recovery is starting,” Duperault said. “We don’t want to just build (a structure) back the way it was, because look what happened to it. It got flattened. We want to build it back better. We want to elevate that house. We want to acquire these properties that flood over and over and over again.”
Ralph Harris, who lives on Panama City Beach, said he had the good fortune to receive grant money to elevate his home after floods. He said he saw the benefit in this planning exercise.
“We had our house get flooded three or four times,” he said. “There was a lack of response on a county level until I approached emergency management, and they were able to get me involved in some programs that would mitigate the problem. You have to be an advocate for your process. I think with meetings like this it is going to put a little bit more of the burden on the county to seek out the people that are in need.”
Harris said in the last year there has been a lot of drainage ditch work in his neighborhood.
“They’ve created more areas for water to shed in the last year than I’ve ever seen,” he said. “So some of the money has been appropriated to the county to do those things. Obviously, they are getting serious about it or you wouldn’t be having this lady come down and do what she’s doing today.”
Mell Smigielski, the administrator of the city of Mexico Beach, said he attended because he felt it could help the city get some “projects on the map” to deal with natural disasters.
“We’ve had some damage to our pier,” he said. “It would be nice to get that on the map for some rehabilitation. We have canals that need some rehabilitation. We have a lift station that leaks and has filtration (issues) we need to take care of, which a storm would definitely impact.”
He said the city also has a lot of questions to answer when it comes to natural disaster response.
“I asked the question (to staff): In the case of a hurricane or natural disaster, where do we go?’” he said. “The answer was, ‘No where on Mexico Beach.’ ”
The final meeting will be March 18 when the final draft of the plan is up for review. The draft of the plan update will be forwarded to the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Hazard Mitigation Division for review, and then considered for adoption by every local municipal government and the Bay County Commission.
How To Comment
- Comments should be addressed in writing to Sid Busick, local mitigation strategy deputy chair, 700 Hwy. 2300, Panama City, FL 32409-5090 or by email at sbusick@baycountyfl.gov or, call (850) 248-6043. Include a return contact so questions or concerns may be addressed.