Severe Weather Awareness Week - Trey Lawson

This is Florida's Severe Weather Awareness Week. The idea is to get Floridians up to speed on how to deal with various hazards, including lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes. There's also a tornado drill happening Wednesday (4). We speak with Trey Lawson of Hillsborough County Emergency Management. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. This is Severe
Weather Awareness Week across Florida. Trey Lawson is Emergency Manager
coordinator too for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and the Office
of Emergency Management, and he's here to talk with us
about it. Trey Lawson, welcome, thank you, thank you, thank
you for having me today. Now as we record this,
it's on Tuesday. The theme there are five themes all week.

(00:23):
The theme today is marine hazards and rip currents, and
that's something where a lot of us are familiar with.
Tomorrow is thunderstorms and tornadoes and those can come up
quickly and you need to be ready to act quickly.
What are you recommending as far as getting up to
speed on thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Basically getting up to speed tornadoes is just understanding that
they can appear to be similar as far as the
initiation of thunderstorms. Sometimes the tornadoes once they come, you
don't realize they're here because they're covered by the rain clouds,
so they exist well with see them. So just understanding

(01:04):
that when thunderstorms come about, whether there's a tornado to
follow or not, take yourself into safety find shelter, find
a safe place until everything blows over, because we never
know what the outcome will be.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Now, as it happens, we're having a state wide tornado
drill Wednesday, and if you happen to be hearing this before,
then tell us how we can take part in that drill.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
So the Florida De Palm Division of Emergency Management is
really encouraging everyone to practice in tornado drill for tomorrow.
It's something as simple as getting your loved ones, your coworkers,
your employers, employees, anyone together and come up with a
plan on what we're gonna do if a tornado is

(01:49):
a strike, find shelter windows, get into safe spaces. So
just practice that. Just go to those motions. Just get
yourself familiar with what happens in case that comes. Because
we don't want a tornado to come. And now we're
trying to rack out brands about what should They're really
encouraging everyone to participate in this drill tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
So it's a matter of getting the procedure down so
it becomes muscle memory. Now. The HCFL Alert is also
part of that tornado drill as well, and there are
other ways as well to get messages telling you one
to take part in the drill because receiving that information
in real time is a vital part of a tornado prep.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
That is absolutely correct, and with our ACFL alert, it
helps out in tremendous ways. It provides alerts dealing with
natural disasters, to weather alerts, major role closure events like
county events, county closures. It deals with so much and
if you can register for ACFL Alert, you can be

(02:55):
the first to know any and everything that's going on
within this county.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
And one of the things that you can find out
from each CFL alert is sandbag distribution when there's a
preparation going on for a hurricane or flooding. Now, Friday's
topic is something actually Thursdays and Friday's topics are things
that we've had a lot of experience with unfortunately in
recent years, hurricanes, flooding, and temperature extremes.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
That is absolutely correct. And Thursday's topic with hurricanes and
flooding is one that we're really really pushing because there
becomes a sense of complacency. We didn't have any major
storms to hit our state last year, so a lot
of people they put their guards down so they don't
plan and focus as much as they should, because hurricanes

(03:44):
are just as predictable as anything else. So we're just
making sure that everyone keep their mind open and continue
to build or start to build their disaster preparedness. Kids
getting things together so if anything was to happen later
on during hurricane season, you're already prepared and you're not
going through the hustle and bustle of the stores and

(04:06):
trying to get items while everyone else is getting But
also with the flooding portion of it, a strong rainstorm
can bring the flooding. The flooding doesn't only come during
hurricane season, so we really want everyone to really focus
and think about what you can do. Remember your evacuation
routes if you don't know them, find them out, Get

(04:27):
stack supplies, stock supplies like you will normally do for
a hurricane in case you can't go out. Have electric
vehicles to make sure you know what to do with
electric vehicle if flooding was to occur. So there's so
many things that we really want our residents and even
our visitors to focus on when it comes to hurricanes
and flooding. But to speak on their stream temperatures right

(04:50):
now tonight, we'll be on Day eighteen of Cold Weather Shelters.
The weather is hitting record temperatures now in our county
and our state, so we're really, really, really encouraging individuals.
If you have outdoor pets, bring them aside or put
them in some warm shelter area. If you have sensitive,

(05:12):
cold sensitive plants outside, cover them up, Utilize safe heating
resources indoors. No burning up grills or devices that can
cause daily carbonbon outside. Just really really think about what's
what's best, what'sn't the best interest of your safety, the
safety of your family, and the safety of your neighbors

(05:34):
and our visitors.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Tray Lawson with Hillsboro County Fire Rescue in the Office
of Emergency Management and if you want to find out
more and sign up for HCFL Alert, the website addresses
HCFL dot gov slash stay Safe. Trey Lawson, thank you
very much for joining us, and thank you for having
me