October 16, 2024 • 5 mins
Pinellas County scheduled a virtual workshop to update its Disaster Mitigation Plan October 17th, not knowing that the county would be coming off two hurricanes in succession that caused serious damage. We speak with the county's Smita Ambadi about how to participate and what information the county needs to update its plans. It's not a forum to submit requests for assistance, but don't be surprised if that comes up.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here beyond the News. After being impacted by
two hurricanes in a row, Panella's County is holding a
workshop this week on its local disaster Mitigation strategy. It's
a virtual event taking place Thursday, October seventeenth from six
to seven pm. Smitta Embodi from the county is here
to talk about what they all cover and how these
workshops help the community and the county prepare for future disasters.
(00:23):
Smita embody welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
First of all, curiously, was this scheduled before we knew
we were getting two hurricanes in rapids fire succession.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes, it is. It's a five year update that we do,
so it's done every five years. It's just that the
deadline game around the same time when the two storms came.
So this is something that we have to do on
a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And what's the purpose of having these mitigation workshops and
working out how do they contribute to the mitigation plan?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So the mitigation workshop is a requirement. It's a part
of the LMS five year update that going through the LMS,
which is the Local Mitigation Strategy is a program that
we maintain and as a part of the maintenance of
this program, we have to do workshops every five years
and this requirement to update the plan. So as a
(01:17):
part of the program, we have a plan called the
LMS Plan. The plan has to be updated every five years,
which is a FEMA requirement, and this plan served as
a hazard mitigation plan. So when we maintain it, we
update every chapter in the plan and we do these workshops.
This helps maintain the plan, which provides which enables us
to maintain our eligibility for hazard mitigation funding. So it's
(01:39):
something that we do every five years.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So what's an example of something that would be actionable
information coming from one of these workshops? Maybe somebody owns
a business on the beach that got covered in sand
during the hurricane because of one particular thing. Is it
there to identify things that the county can fix for
future disasters?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So this plan is something you know, going back to
your earlier question, this is something that we have to
maintain regularly to be able to access the federal funding.
So actionable item, I would say. The benefit that the
people would have is to, first of all, to even
know that we have a plan in place which we
maintain on our regular basis. To get access to federal funding.
(02:20):
The plan also helps us identify So these workshops help
us identify what our risks and vulnerabilities are and that's
a huge part of the plan, the risk assessment, and
that helps us identify what kind of projects that we
can identify in the future. So although the program as
such doesn't provide it doesn't it's not meant to provide
(02:42):
immediate disaster assistance, but it is meant for long term
recovery needs, so it helps us provide access to long
term recovery funding.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So this is information that's going to be used by
the county to prepare for future disasters. Yes, all right,
tell us a little bit more about that expand on
how this information gets applied as the future as the
disaster plan, the Local Mitigation Plan is put together.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
So a big part of the LMS plan is our
risk assessment and which means identifying the county and all
its jurisdictions, vulnerabilities and risks. So this is a big
part of the input that we would expect from the
citizens to help us understand what our risk and vulnerabilities are.
Based on that, we identify what kind of projects we
(03:31):
need to focus on in the next next five years
so that we could mitigate those risks for the next
for the future storms there are. This is also like
a it's a multi jurisdictional effort. So through this program,
it's not just the county, but also all the municipalities
are a part of this. So when we get this
(03:54):
input from the residents, this input is then a part
of the knowledge of all the municipalities. We're talking about
actionable projects for mitigation. We're talking about projects for all
the jurisdictions, including the county.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
How can people participate in this virtual workshop?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So we had released a press release and which had
the link to the workshop, so they can. They can
register for the workshop for October seventeenth. It's the workshop
is from six to seven pm. They can also if
they haven't seen the press release is the link to
register for the workshop is also available on the County's
(04:31):
calendar and one day in the workshop, one pay attend
the workshop. They can. What we plan to do is
we will share an overall overview of what the plan is,
what the program is, and how it is linked to
hazard mitigation funding, and then we will give an update
on what the fire update that we've been doing so
we'll be sharing plan updates, which is which is a
(04:53):
big part of our fire update. We have to update
every chapter within the plan, so we would be sharing
the key highlights from the updates and we would ask
for input. People could also share their questions or their concerns.
I know this came around the time and we're having
these storms, so there might be a lot of questions
which are not directly related to long term recovery, but
(05:15):
they are related to immediate needs. Is there any of
those you know? We would provide our contact information they
can reach out to us.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Smitter Embodi from Panella Scouty talking about a virtual workshop
on the local disaster mitigation strategy and that just happened
to be scheduled on Thursday, October seventeenth, well before we
knew we were going to get two hurricanes in Panella
Scouty on the Tampa Bay area, Hurricanes Helena and Milton.
And that's taking place virtually from six to seven pm
and you can find out more at the Panellas County website.
(05:44):
SMITTERA Embodi, thank you very much for joining us on
Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Thank you so much.
Gordon Bird here beyond the News. After being impacted by
two hurricanes in a row, Panella's County is holding a
workshop this week on its local disaster Mitigation strategy. It's
a virtual event taking place Thursday, October seventeenth from six
to seven pm. Smitta Embodi from the county is here
to talk about what they all cover and how these
workshops help the community and the county prepare for future disasters.
(00:23):
Smita embody welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
First of all, curiously, was this scheduled before we knew
we were getting two hurricanes in rapids fire succession.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes, it is. It's a five year update that we do,
so it's done every five years. It's just that the
deadline game around the same time when the two storms came.
So this is something that we have to do on
a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And what's the purpose of having these mitigation workshops and
working out how do they contribute to the mitigation plan?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So the mitigation workshop is a requirement. It's a part
of the LMS five year update that going through the LMS,
which is the Local Mitigation Strategy is a program that
we maintain and as a part of the maintenance of
this program, we have to do workshops every five years
and this requirement to update the plan. So as a
(01:17):
part of the program, we have a plan called the
LMS Plan. The plan has to be updated every five years,
which is a FEMA requirement, and this plan served as
a hazard mitigation plan. So when we maintain it, we
update every chapter in the plan and we do these workshops.
This helps maintain the plan, which provides which enables us
to maintain our eligibility for hazard mitigation funding. So it's
(01:39):
something that we do every five years.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So what's an example of something that would be actionable
information coming from one of these workshops? Maybe somebody owns
a business on the beach that got covered in sand
during the hurricane because of one particular thing. Is it
there to identify things that the county can fix for
future disasters?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So this plan is something you know, going back to
your earlier question, this is something that we have to
maintain regularly to be able to access the federal funding.
So actionable item, I would say. The benefit that the
people would have is to, first of all, to even
know that we have a plan in place which we
maintain on our regular basis. To get access to federal funding.
(02:20):
The plan also helps us identify So these workshops help
us identify what our risks and vulnerabilities are and that's
a huge part of the plan, the risk assessment, and
that helps us identify what kind of projects that we
can identify in the future. So although the program as
such doesn't provide it doesn't it's not meant to provide
(02:42):
immediate disaster assistance, but it is meant for long term
recovery needs, so it helps us provide access to long
term recovery funding.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So this is information that's going to be used by
the county to prepare for future disasters. Yes, all right,
tell us a little bit more about that expand on
how this information gets applied as the future as the
disaster plan, the Local Mitigation Plan is put together.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
So a big part of the LMS plan is our
risk assessment and which means identifying the county and all
its jurisdictions, vulnerabilities and risks. So this is a big
part of the input that we would expect from the
citizens to help us understand what our risk and vulnerabilities are.
Based on that, we identify what kind of projects we
(03:31):
need to focus on in the next next five years
so that we could mitigate those risks for the next
for the future storms there are. This is also like
a it's a multi jurisdictional effort. So through this program,
it's not just the county, but also all the municipalities
are a part of this. So when we get this
(03:54):
input from the residents, this input is then a part
of the knowledge of all the municipalities. We're talking about
actionable projects for mitigation. We're talking about projects for all
the jurisdictions, including the county.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
How can people participate in this virtual workshop?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So we had released a press release and which had
the link to the workshop, so they can. They can
register for the workshop for October seventeenth. It's the workshop
is from six to seven pm. They can also if
they haven't seen the press release is the link to
register for the workshop is also available on the County's
(04:31):
calendar and one day in the workshop, one pay attend
the workshop. They can. What we plan to do is
we will share an overall overview of what the plan is,
what the program is, and how it is linked to
hazard mitigation funding, and then we will give an update
on what the fire update that we've been doing so
we'll be sharing plan updates, which is which is a
(04:53):
big part of our fire update. We have to update
every chapter within the plan, so we would be sharing
the key highlights from the updates and we would ask
for input. People could also share their questions or their concerns.
I know this came around the time and we're having
these storms, so there might be a lot of questions
which are not directly related to long term recovery, but
(05:15):
they are related to immediate needs. Is there any of
those you know? We would provide our contact information they
can reach out to us.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Smitter Embodi from Panella Scouty talking about a virtual workshop
on the local disaster mitigation strategy and that just happened
to be scheduled on Thursday, October seventeenth, well before we
knew we were going to get two hurricanes in Panella
Scouty on the Tampa Bay area, Hurricanes Helena and Milton.
And that's taking place virtually from six to seven pm
and you can find out more at the Panellas County website.
(05:44):
SMITTERA Embodi, thank you very much for joining us on
Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Thank you so much.
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