Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on hurricane recovery spending:
Hillsborough okays $1.25 million in Hurricane Irma-related spending with more to come
Steve Contorno, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 20, 2017 11:19am
TAMPA — Hillsborough County commissioners approved $1.25 million in expenses related to Hurricane Irma on Wednesday with many more costs expected to come.
The county will spend $750,000 on overtime for employees who worked throughout the storm and another $500,000 for disaster-related emergency equipment.
The money was pulled from a $3 million fund set aside for emergencies. It doesn’t cover other expenses from the aftermath of the storm like debris pickup, flooding and damage.
There’s more than 1 million yards of debris to pick up, public works director John Lyons said, which is about what the county normally collects in one and a half years. It may take four weeks or longer to get to all of it, he said.
About 35 waste water pumps that were without power overflowed during the storm and it’s not yet clear how much sewage may have spilled out.
An early assessment found about $9 million in damage to homes and businesses. About 290 single family homes and 140 mobile homes were damaged or destroyed, said emergency operations director Preston Cook.
The damage would have likely been much worse had Hurricane Irma followed its projected path through the heart of Tampa Bay, county leaders acknowledged. Nevertheless, the event was a live test of the county’s emergency protocols, including the new emergency operations center that opened this year.
At its height, Hillsborough had 45 shelters opened servicing 30,000 residents.
“It was scary, it was big and we really took it seriously,” Cook said.
Commissioners and county staff lauded efforts by TECO to restore power to customers swiftly, noting the prolonged outages many Duke Energy customers experienced in Pinellas and Pasco counties.
“If it was a competition with Duke Energy, you definitely won,” Commissioner Sandy Murman said.
With nine weeks left in hurricane season, County Administrator Mike Merrill said his staff is assessing improvements that can be implemented immediately in case another storm hits.
Murman said the county needs to do more to ensure there are enough shelters for pets and cooling stations for seniors. She added that she hopes Gov. Rick Scott can pressure nursing homes to ensure power at their facilities during a severe weather event. Commissioner Stacy White said he wants to explore weather the county can require generators at assisted living facilities and nursing homes.
Commissioner Victor Crist said the county must also ensure that schools that served as shelters are left in better condition, noting that some faced problems from damage and theft.
“We didn’t dodge a bullet but we dodged a bomb,” Commissioner Pat Kemp said.
