September 27, 2022 • 28 mins
With Hurricane Ian making its way north in the Caribbean, we’re airing a segment from a 2021 episode titled Hurricane Preparedness Part 1: No Time to Wait. In this episode, Craig Fugate, former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), discusses disaster management, the famous Waffle House Index, and hurricane preparedness and recovery. We also hear from Angie Lindsey, point of contact for the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN), as she shares information relevant to Hurricane Ian and helpful resources for storm preparation and recovery.
Resources:
https://extensiondisaster.net
https://www.ready.gov/hurricanes
https://disaster.ifas.ufl.edu/
https://www.floridadisaster.org/
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
Are you an educator? The Science by the Slice podcast aims to inform diverse audiences about important issues in agriculture, natural resources and public health. Check out our learning guides that were created as an educational tool to facilitate discussions related to the topics presented in podcast episodes. Download the learning guides here: https://piecenter.com/media/podcast/learn/
Music "Hugging" by Crowander
Available at https://freemusicarchive.org/music/crowander/bittersweet-endings-indiefilm-tv-music/hugging Under CC BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
The views, information, or opinions expressed by guest speakers on Science by the Slice are solely those of the individuals and do not necessarily represent those of the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education or the University of Florida.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ricky Telg (00:04):
This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
University of Florida'sInstitute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (00:38):
Hello, and welcome to Science by the Slice.
I'm Phillip Stokes, and fortoday's episode, we're doing
something a little different.
You see, I'm recording this onSeptember 27, 2022. And as we
speak, Hurricane Ian istraveling north in the
Caribbean, right around thewestern part of Cuba. And after
that will likely continue totravel north and most likely
(00:58):
make landfall on the west coastof Florida. Of course, hurricane
trajectories can change butthat's what their current models
are forecasting. Be sure to stayupdated if this storm will
affect you. So today, we arerebroadcasting a segment from
one of our previous episodes onhurricanes and hurricane
preparedness. For those of youlistening that are currently
(01:20):
prepping for the storm. I hopethis will be helpful
information. And I alsorecognize that some of you
listening are not in the path ofthe storm. This episode still
offers pertinent informationabout general disaster
management for natural hazards.
And first, I'm joined by Dr.
Angie Lindsey, associateprofessor in the Department of
Family, Youth and CommunitySciences at the University of
(01:41):
Florida and researcher withinthe PIE Center. Angie is the
point of contact in Florida forthe Extension Disaster Education
Network, a multistate effort byCooperative Extension Services
to improve the delivery ofservices to citizens affected by
disasters. Angie provides someinsights about Hurricane Ian and
advice for preparation andrecovery.
(02:05):
So Angie, I do want to say thetime and the date real quick,
just so everyone listening has aframe of reference. It is
September 26, Monday at 3 (02:13):
19pm.
Now 3:20. It just turned. Andwe're talking about Hurricane
Ian which currently is a littlebit south of Cuba in the
Caribbean. So we thought todaywe could just give some advice
from you on what to do beforeand after the storm. So what are
just some things you can sayreal briefly about hurricane Ian
(02:35):
and what this could be and maybe?
Angie Lindsey (02:40):
Sure I'll be happy to so we haven't had a
major hurricane in Florida since2018 with Hurricane Michael. So
so this will be one of our firstmajor hurricanes and in quite
some time. And so I think asFloridians, we get kind of
complacent a little bit like ah,this year will be like last
year, we'll have a couple ofsmall things. But this one looks
(03:02):
like it's the real deal. Thisone looks like it's going to
happen. And one of the things Imean, if we're going to say one
of the one of the bright spots,if we're going to find a bright
spot is that we do know this iscoming and we do have a couple
of days to prepare. We don'twant to wait till the last
minute obviously. We do want toprepare today and tomorrow,
(03:25):
especially for folks that are inthe Southwest Florida area. We
definitely want to on go aheadand start those preparations.
I'm sure many people havestarted them today. But I think
the the beauty of time has beengiven to us with this particular
storm because we have beenwatching this since it was
before it was even a tropicalstorm when we were just watching
(03:47):
it. And it wasn't an INVEST outthere and a system to watch. So
I think that's something thathas been a bit of a blessing
that we have been able toprepare a little bit more with
this one. And so hopefully thatextra time to in preparations is
going to help in the recoveryafterwards.
Phillip Stokes (04:07):
And you mentioned this is the first
major hurricane we've had sinceHurricane Michael. And we were
just chatting before this thatthings can change on a dime. You
know, we didn't expect HurricaneMichael to intensify like it
did. So we just we never knowfully what's going to happen.
Right?
Angie Lindsey (04:24):
Right.
Absolutely. And in fact, I wason a call earlier today that
they were talking about Well, Imean the Gulf is just a bathtub.
You never know what's going tohappen once it hits the Gulf of
Mexico because it there's a lotof uncertainty there because it
is so warm. So there is stillsome uncertainty and although
our technological and a lot ofthe meteorologists that we come
(04:44):
to rely on have done an amazingjob of being able to predict
what's going on with thestorms., it's still the weather
and sometimes the weather isunpredictable.
Phillip Stokes (04:55):
So what are some of the things we should be doing
in these uh few days if you area Floridian or somewhere in the
Gulf Coast, or even inland, whatare some of the things we should
be doing now in preparing forthe before and the during of the
storm?
Angie Lindsey (05:12):
Sure. So definitely should be following
on the guidelines within yourown county. If you haven't
already done so make sure yousign up for the alerts on your
cell phone. And you can do thatthrough floridadisaster.org.
That's through the FloridaDisaster Emergency Management.
So you definitely want to makesure you get on those lists so
they can keep you up to speed onwhat's going on within your
(05:34):
area. Definitely. And I would, Iwould say, follow your
And we were also talking aboutbefore, that the hazards don't
preparedness plan. If you haveone. If you're new to Florida
and you don't have one, thereare a lot of templates out there
that can help you in developingone. And a lot of the time it is
about what are you and yourloved ones going to do if you
are asked to evacuate? Do youhave somewhere to go? Are you
going to go to a shelter? Areyou going to shelter, of you
(05:57):
don't have to evacuate? Are yougoing to shelter at home? Do you
have what you need in order todo that? So that includes you
know, the water, the food. Nowthey're suggesting a five to
seven day supply of food insteadof just three to five. So just
making sure that you have enoughsupplies for that for that time
period. But I think it's alsoimportant to think about
(06:17):
planning for recovery. So stormpasses. Sometimes it's slow to
get power back on, we know that.
But as we try to get back tonormal, and I use that in
quotation marks, um, you know,what are the things that you are
going to need in order torecover to try to recover? And
it can be as simple as, hey, Idon't have a rake, and I know
I'm going to have a lot of yardtrash. So do I need to run out
(06:37):
real quick to one of the homesupply stores and grab a rake
and grab some extra lawn bagsbecause I know I'm gonna have a
lot of branches and a lot ofleaves in my yard. Something as
simple as that. Is there stuffthat maybe you're going to need
to possibly do your job with,you cannot get online. Do you
need to print out some phonenumbers? I know for me, I can't
(06:57):
remember a single phone numberanymore. So one of the first
things I do is print out mycontact list on my phone just in
case I can't access my phoneafterwards. So things like that,
that you know that okay, what amI going to need when the dust
settles, so to speak, you know,what am I going to need to try
to get back to normal? How whatam I going to need in order to
(07:18):
recover and help my familyrecover? So those types of
things are, are good to thinkabout not only in preparing and
the things that we know, gottago buy some bread, got to go buy
some milk and some water. Butwhat are some of the things that
maybe I'm going to need when theblue skies return? So just just
another level to think about.
(07:43):
just exist while the stormsgoing on. Sometimes there can be
hazards due to generator safetyor downed lines or trees or
different things like that.
Right?
Absolutely. In fact, on one ofthe one of the updates that I
was watching on The WeatherChannel earlier today was
talking about a lot of the a lotof the fatalities and the
(08:05):
injuries that we see are afterthe storm through some sort of
accident. So that it's veryimportant to make sure that
you're operating your generatorsafely make sure it's outside,
and that it is in an open openarea dry open area. And that
there are other things out thereto be careful of, especially in
(08:26):
working recovery after after astorm like this. And flooding.
Like they're anticipating somestorm surge and some flooding
with this particular storm. Soyou know, powerlines and water
don't mix. So, you know,thinking about things like that,
as you go out to try to helpyour neighbors or trying to
clean up your yard. Just thinkthrough some of those acts of
(08:47):
accidents that could happen.
Phillip Stokes (08:48):
Right. Yeah, that's great. No, I, I still
remember, back during HurricaneIrma in Gainesville, Florida,
which of course was beforeHurricane Michael. We were we
were one of the last groups inGainesville to get our power
back out or get our power back.
Excuse me. I think we were outfor almost two weeks and so
hoping for the best hoping notto repeat something like that.
(09:09):
But of course preparing forwhatever might be in front of
us.
Angie Lindsey (09:15):
Absolutely. Yeah.
And it's so hard. You don'trealize how much you love
electricity till you don't haveit for that long. I know.
Phillip Stokes (09:23):
That's right.
Well, Dr. Angie Lindsey, thanksso much for sharing these quick
tips with us. And we'll be sureto include some of these
resources that you mentioned inthe show notes.
Angie Lindsey (09:30):
Awesome. Thank you for having me. Stay safe
everybody.
Phillip Stokes (09:35):
And now here's a segment from a 2021 episode
titled Hurricane PreparednessPart One: No Time to Wait. In
this episode I spoke with CraigFugate, former Administrator of
the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency or FEMA, and former
director of the FloridaEmergency Management Division.
Craig and I discussed disastermanagement, the famous Waffle
(09:58):
House index, and advice forcitizens about hurricane
preparedness and recovery. We'lljoin in as I'm asking Craig
about operating during a crisis.
There's has to be so much youlearned about operating in a
crisis. And so from your times,at the Florida Emergency
Management Division and withbeing the director of FEMA, what
(10:20):
have you learned? And what wouldbe good to have our listeners
hear about operating in acrisis? And what communities can
do and what you learned in allof those experiences?
Craig Fugate (10:29):
Well, probably the most important thing I've
learned is recognizing that youneed to do something different.
And this may seem anoversimplification, but if you
think about government, wealways try to make events fit
our systems or processes. Youknow, there's one thing about
government systems is they'rebuilt for the day to day, and
then we try to adapt them to thecrisis, and it doesn't work very
(10:51):
well. And you have tofundamentally change things. And
what I found was, even though wewere in these disasters, a lot
of the day to day processesweren't adapting. They were
doing what they would have done.
If there was no storm hittin,everything from procurement to
travel to decision making, likewe needed more information, we
needed assessments. And I'mlike, why it's a hurricane, it
just hit why don't we justrespond like, it's bad, because
(11:12):
I found the most preciouscommodity and any disaster was
time. And government is notbuilt to be nimble, it's built
to be deliberate, very slow,very risk averse. You're trying
to avoid mistakes and maximizeefficiencies. And getting quick
decisions is not something it'sgood at. But yet that was the
(11:34):
demand. And so for the team, itwas important to clearly set
what the outcomes were, and thengive permission to deviate from
the norms to achieve that. LikeI told people, I said, Look, I
remember when President Obamacame into the the FEMA National
Response Coordination Center, wehad the federal agencies. And
he's telling everybody to cutthe red tape. And I had to
(11:56):
remind them, I said, but hedidn't say break the law. So
there's some boundaries there.
But unless the law specificallysays it's illegal, it's
possible. And getting people tounderstand that they got to do
something different. We need tofocus on the outcome. Don't
start with your processes, andtry to make it fit the problem
(12:19):
to find the problem and whatsuccess looks like and work
backwards and figure out howwe're going to do it. And be
willing to work in a situationwhere it's very fluid, situation
is changing decisions you makean hour ago may be irrelevant
because of new information. Butyou can't keep waiting for the
new information, you have tostart acting and adjust to that
situation. Because the time youspend trying to get to the best
(12:42):
possible answer is time that maycost people their lives.
Phillip Stokes (12:46):
I think that is such great advice. And I want to
ask you now. Okay, so you'respeaking more from an
organizational level, right fromkind of government? Well, let's
take that same advice. And let'snow talk about the households.
So how can households How canhomeowners and people in the
state of Florida and theSoutheast when they're
(13:06):
hurricanes coming when they'rein them? And then shortly after?
How can we use that advice of ofacting quickly to help the
individual at the individuallevel, if that makes sense?
Craig Fugate (13:17):
Yeah, we're going to talk about the public this is
it's cut and dry. First thing isfind out if you live in an
evacuation zone. And if you'renot sure what that means, if you
live anywhere along the coastalareas, certain areas inland even
particularly around LakeOkeechobee, and some of the
river systems that are subjectto severe flooding during
hurricanes, you can look up, goto your county emergency
(13:38):
management agency, you can go tothe state of Florida, you can go
to Florida, storms.org. And lookup and find out if you're in an
evacuation zone, this is the keything. If you're in the
evacuation zone, your plan is tomove to higher ground if an
evacuation orders given. Andthat means you your pets and
everything that you need to havemedications papers, and the
(14:00):
reason we evacuate is notbecause of wind. We evacuate
because these are areas wherepeople drown. And this is I
think one of the biggestproblems we see and and trying
to explain people coastal andother areas where you may need
to evacuate from a hurricane isthere's so much focus on the
wind, that the winds not the bigkiller. If you look at all the
(14:22):
data at the National HurricaneCenter, all the deaths from the
storms, the number one cause ofdeath is drowning and trauma by
water. And that's why weevacuate we don't evacuate from
when we evacuate those low lyingareas. So that's the first thing
find out if you're an evacuationzone and again, you're moving
away from water, not wind so youdon't have to get 10s of miles.
So that's the first thing ifyou're not in the evacuation
(14:44):
zone, you may still need toevacuate older homes, not well
constructed, particularly a lotof homes that were built before
codes, older mobile homes, youmay have local officials or
evacuate if you're in arecreational vehicle Park,
you're definitely going to haveto evacuate The winds will be a
problem. Apart from most otherpeople, it's really about
getting your home ready for thestorm security outside, being
(15:07):
prepared for power outages that,you know, it's not just days in
some cases is weeks in a lot ofcases, and having the supplies
on hand to get through thattimeframe. But the big thing is,
if you already know that you'rein an evacuation zone, you don't
have to think about that. Andyou can now start thinking about
where you're going to go. And itturns out that the more people
(15:28):
think about it, the better theiroutcome is, even if they did
nothing else. If they just knewin their head that okay, if I'm
if a storm surrounding mycommunity, I know I'm in
evacuation zone, I know I needto get everybody and go. If
you've just thought throughthat, you just increase the
chance of survival. Because whenthat warning comes, you've
already made the mentaldecision, you're leaving. Now.
It's just the execution of that.
So if we're going to keep theloss of life down, we need
(15:52):
people to heed those evacuationorders. And don't wait for
another forecast. And don't hopeit gets better. Don't hope it
turns because, as I tell peoplehopes not a strategy. And we've
seen people run out of time,there was a very eerie series of
911 calls I listened to in aScambia county with Hurricane
Ivan. And it was people dialingnormally one is a storm was
(16:13):
approaching the coast and thestorm surge was coming and all
that water was rushing in. Andthey were calling to get
rescued. And the 911 operatorswere telling him it was too
late. It was too dangerous. Theycouldn't get out there to cruise
couldn't go, you were kind ofleft wondering, did those people
survive? You don't want to bethat person you want you and
your family moved to higherground.
Phillip Stokes (16:34):
So I want to change things a little bit and
talk about something that youhave kind of coined the term.
It's the Waffle House index. Andso just tell us a little bit
about that. And, you know, whatare the greater implications of
of this?
Craig Fugate (16:48):
Yeah, the wolf house index came out of the 2004
hurricane seasons, we were downin Hurricane Charley. And our
day started early, and we wererunning long days and you
weren't sure because it was apretty devastated area. There
wasn't like places to go eat. Soyou tried to get breakfast
because you didn't know what therest of your day look like. And
we were staying just south ofthe area devastation. We were
(17:08):
out on the interstate and wefound a waffle house and it was
open we went in. And normally ifyou go in the wolf house, they
have these big bright plasticmenus with all this great food
on there. We walked in, sit downand the waitress handed us a
paper copy of a menu and it waslimited. And she said, Look,
this is all we've got. Webrought fresh stuff in. We lost
power. So everything in thefreezer had to be thrown out. So
this is all we got. But it wasbreakfast. It was hot. And we
(17:30):
got coffee. It was a good way tostart our day. Next morning,
similar routine, except therewas a waffle house open closer
to the disaster area. So westopped there. Same deal. My
team we were we were dealingwith so many counties. And if
you remember Charlie, it waslike a 10 mile wide tornado. As
bad as it was in CharlotteDeSoto. And Henry counties, you
had the Orlando InternationalAirport they had major damage
(17:53):
there you had hotels as thesecond or third floors ripped
off in Orlando, and it exitedout Volusia County. And the
problem we were running into somany counties had different
levels of impact that whatnormally on a routine event
would have been like thepriority County was like, You're
not even close to being badcompared to what we're dealing
with here. But nobody couldreally visualize that. So we
(18:13):
just borrowed the stoplightanalogy. And red was bad yellow
is not as bad, but you're gonnaneed help and Green was you
really need to handle what yougot, because we don't have
enough resources to geteverywhere. It didn't mean you
didn't have impacts. But itwasn't as bad as other areas.
And we started using that acrossindicators like school openings,
water systems, Power BI teamthrew in a slide on waffle house
(18:36):
and it was a the Waffle Houseindex. The Waffle House was
closed because of the disaster.
It was read. If it was openedwith a limited menu, it was
yellow. And if it was openedwith a full menu, it was great.
And the reason why if you if youknow waffle houses, they don't
close there 24 hours a day,seven days a week, and they're
up and down. Most of Florida'sinterstate system, there's
hardly an interchange, you go bythat you don't see a waffle
(18:57):
house. And the reason thisbecame something other than just
that one time slide. Was itspeeding up our response to
disasters? We weren't waitingfor the locals to go out and do
assessments. You know, Ithought, well, if we're going to
speed up our response todisaster, we need to cut out
every step that isn't adding tothe outcome. And historically,
we try to assess incident teamsand to see how bad it was. But
(19:20):
that generally meant 24 hours tothree days, we were still trying
to get information before itmade a decision to go and I'm
like, let's do somethingradically different. Let's just
assume that a hurricane makinglandfall is going to be problems
and why don't we respond basedupon the population and the
impact of that storm? Well,that's all good until you start
(19:41):
thinking about okay, I gotNational Guard, I got search and
rescue teams. I got highwaypatrol, and they're all driving
to that area of landfall. Andwell before you get there,
you're gonna start seeingdamages. You know, trees down
billboards blown over awningsripped off the gas stations The
question was, how do we knowwe're in the heart hit area yet.
(20:02):
And that's where the WaffleHouse index became operational,
they would drive by and theywould check the Waffle House and
it was open and they had fullmenu. They kept going. If they
got there, and they had alimited menu, they knew there
was a lot of power outages waterproblems. But that was more than
the mass care, sheltering andfeeding operations. But for the
rescue teams, that wasn't a hardhit area, keep going. And if you
(20:23):
got to the spot where the WaffleHouse had been closed by the
disaster, you're in a hard hitarea, if there's stuff that
needs to be done, go to work. Sothat index became something that
we became operational, we beganusing, it got talked about a
lot, but also goes back to theWaffle House, the company
itself, they have a very strongmission statement about getting
(20:45):
open after disasters. And theytake a lot of steps to do that
they do this safely, but theyhave a lot of experience. And if
there's anything that's going toget open in the aftermath of a
disaster, it's it's generallygoing to be a waffle house. So
the index, it gave us a quicksnapshot, because if you get
there and it's open, and you gota full menu, that basically
means the power system, thewater system, the roads are
(21:05):
fine, because their workerscould get there, they didn't
have any disruption inutilities, if you get there. And
it's all that limited menu, it'sa very quick size up that I got
water and power problems.
Otherwise, they would be up andrunning full menu. And if
they're closed because of thedisaster, and knowing that a
waffle house will get open. Imean, basically, if they can get
(21:27):
propane or gas to their flattop, they'll open that not only
can they not workers can't getthere, they can't even get the
store open. I would tell people,it's like taking a pulse of the
community. It doesn't tell meeverything that's going on. But
if you don't have a pulse, Iknow you're in a lot of trouble.
Phillip Stokes (21:41):
I thought it was interesting. You know, at the
beginning, you said about thingsthat you learned during your
time at FEMA, and just workingwith government is you have to
do something different. Andthat's what you did you employ
those your own advice, and yousaid, Hey, we need we need to
work quicker. And so this isthis is one thing we can do that
will kind of help us assess astorm. Are there any stories or
(22:03):
scenarios where you have seencommunities respond better after
a storm, some of those storiesof success?
Craig Fugate (22:12):
Well, probably the big success in Florida has been
our building code. And for everybuilder and developer, remember,
the legislature tries to waterit down or weaken it because
they say is too much red tape.
The reality has been thedifference in how homes are
performed. And hurricanes oftencomes down to when it was built
and under what building could weknow that in adapting to climate
change and adapting to theincreased rainfall, the
(22:35):
increased damage to the stormsthat were in how we build are
the big determinants of howresilient communities are. And
so we're seeing that thebuilding codes most notably for
wind has driven down the lossesand made homes more survivable.
Phillip Stokes (22:55):
So I think today as we're kind of wrapping up, I
just wanted to ask if there wereany last points you wanted to
mention, you know, any last tipsfor hurricane preparedness as
we're coming into hurricaneseason and just next month, any
any last points you want to saybefore we close out today's
conversation?
Craig Fugate (23:14):
As we get ready for hurricane season, get with
your insurance agent, check yourpolicies, I strongly recommend
to get flood insurance. Don'tlet somebody tell you you're not
in a flood zone because we gotfeet of water coming down from a
storm you're gonna probably getwater in your home. Second thing
is, you see all the supply kitsyou got to go out and buy and
you periodically people go outand they'll buy all that stuff
(23:34):
is hundreds of dollars andpeople can't afford that. And
it's Alaska growing up inFlorida. First of all, we didn't
drink bottled water we drink tapwater perfectly fine. And we got
ready for hurricanes we wouldstore water and empty milk jugs
and soda bottles, we rent themout, clean them out filled full
of water, put them in thefreezer, leave a little bit of
space from the Expand turns out,that still works. The other
(23:55):
thing somebody recommended Ithought was genius was filled
Ziploc bags full of waterbecause it packs and better. Not
only do you now have cool wateron hot days after the power has
been out for several days. Itkeeps the things in your freezer
cold longer because it fills inall the voids and gives you more
mass there. Storms threateningpick up everything outside
doesn't cost you anything butget things that can be windblown
(24:18):
into Windows and stuff. If youcan get shutters up great, if
not plywood still works. Butanother step that is doesn't
cost anything. It turns out thatwhen the winds are really
howling shut all of yourinterior doors of your home. It
helps to have more homestrengthened and perform better.
Because what generally happenswith wind is it that it blows
(24:38):
your house down, it blows out agarage door blows out a window
and blows out a sliding glassdoor. And that creates a
pressure inside of your homethat lifts up. That's why we
have hurricane straps and allthe stuff that people say well,
you know, it costs too much andit slows down construction. But
it's all those things we do inFlorida that keeps the homes
(24:59):
together. and keeping the doorsclosed is another simple thing
to do. And then probably thelast thing is, I'm a pet owner,
I've had dogs most of my life.
And as much as you see all thehuman tragedy to me, one of the
most unexcusable cruelties I'veseen are the animals that are
chained up or kept in theircages while their family
evacuated, when the floodwaterscome in, so always plan for your
(25:21):
pets. And if you're told toevacuate, take your pets with
you. Increasingly, acrossFlorida, we have pet friendly
shelters, hotels and motels willoften relax their policies on
pets. But again, this is notsomething you want to figure out
the last minute, plan ahead andknow where you're going. And if
you need transportation, or youneed assistance, find out what's
(25:42):
available at local level. Don'twait until the storms
threatening and most of thesteps will take a lot. Then the
last thing is take your phoneand make sure you got all the
contacts for all of the folksyou need to communicate with. So
that if something happens youyou have everything there. And a
lot of times the cell systemswill go down, keep a portable
(26:04):
radio handy. Stay tuned to thelocal stations because they're
going to have the bestinformation about what's going
on in your community.
Phillip Stokes (26:12):
Craig Fugate It was an honor and a privilege
talking with you today. I justwant to thank you for being on
our podcast for this this serieson hurricanes.
Craig Fugate (26:21):
Well, thanks for having me. And, again, as we go
through this hurricane season,we always hope to avoid the
storms. But if you know what todo, we can always rebuild. We
just can't replace you. So takesteps now to protect you and
your family.
Phillip Stokes (26:38):
Once again, that was Craig Fugate, former
director of the FederalEmergency Management Agency or
FEMA. You can always go back andlisten to his entire episode. In
that series, we also had anepisode titled Hurricane
Preparedness Part Two (26:51):
How Do Buildings Feel Hurricanes? about
wind effects on residentialstructures. And of course, we'll
put resources for hurricanepreparedness and recovery in the
show notes. I'm Phillip Stokes.
Thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
Ricky Telg (27:13):
Science by the Slice is produced by the UF/IFAS
Center for Public IssuesEducation in Agriculture and
Natural Resources. Thanks forlistening to today's episode.
Subscribe to Science by theSlice on your favorite podcast
app and give us a rating orreview, as well. Have a question
or comment? Send us an email topiecenter@ifas.ufl.edu. That's
(27:36):
"piecenter," all one word, atifas, I-F-A-S, dot ufl dot edu.
We'd love to hear from you. Ifyou enjoyed today's episode,
consider sharing with a friendor colleague. Until next time,
thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
University of Florida'sInstitute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (00:38):
Hello, and welcome to Science by the Slice.
I'm Phillip Stokes, and fortoday's episode, we're doing
something a little different.
You see, I'm recording this onSeptember 27, 2022. And as we
speak, Hurricane Ian istraveling north in the
Caribbean, right around thewestern part of Cuba. And after
that will likely continue totravel north and most likely
(00:58):
make landfall on the west coastof Florida. Of course, hurricane
trajectories can change butthat's what their current models
are forecasting. Be sure to stayupdated if this storm will
affect you. So today, we arerebroadcasting a segment from
one of our previous episodes onhurricanes and hurricane
preparedness. For those of youlistening that are currently
(01:20):
prepping for the storm. I hopethis will be helpful
information. And I alsorecognize that some of you
listening are not in the path ofthe storm. This episode still
offers pertinent informationabout general disaster
management for natural hazards.
And first, I'm joined by Dr.
Angie Lindsey, associateprofessor in the Department of
Family, Youth and CommunitySciences at the University of
(01:41):
Florida and researcher withinthe PIE Center. Angie is the
point of contact in Florida forthe Extension Disaster Education
Network, a multistate effort byCooperative Extension Services
to improve the delivery ofservices to citizens affected by
disasters. Angie provides someinsights about Hurricane Ian and
advice for preparation andrecovery.
(02:05):
So Angie, I do want to say thetime and the date real quick,
just so everyone listening has aframe of reference. It is
September 26, Monday at 3 (02:13):
19pm.
Now 3:20. It just turned. Andwe're talking about Hurricane
Ian which currently is a littlebit south of Cuba in the
Caribbean. So we thought todaywe could just give some advice
from you on what to do beforeand after the storm. So what are
just some things you can sayreal briefly about hurricane Ian
(02:35):
and what this could be and maybe?
Angie Lindsey (02:40):
Sure I'll be happy to so we haven't had a
major hurricane in Florida since2018 with Hurricane Michael. So
so this will be one of our firstmajor hurricanes and in quite
some time. And so I think asFloridians, we get kind of
complacent a little bit like ah,this year will be like last
year, we'll have a couple ofsmall things. But this one looks
(03:02):
like it's the real deal. Thisone looks like it's going to
happen. And one of the things Imean, if we're going to say one
of the one of the bright spots,if we're going to find a bright
spot is that we do know this iscoming and we do have a couple
of days to prepare. We don'twant to wait till the last
minute obviously. We do want toprepare today and tomorrow,
(03:25):
especially for folks that are inthe Southwest Florida area. We
definitely want to on go aheadand start those preparations.
I'm sure many people havestarted them today. But I think
the the beauty of time has beengiven to us with this particular
storm because we have beenwatching this since it was
before it was even a tropicalstorm when we were just watching
(03:47):
it. And it wasn't an INVEST outthere and a system to watch. So
I think that's something thathas been a bit of a blessing
that we have been able toprepare a little bit more with
this one. And so hopefully thatextra time to in preparations is
going to help in the recoveryafterwards.
Phillip Stokes (04:07):
And you mentioned this is the first
major hurricane we've had sinceHurricane Michael. And we were
just chatting before this thatthings can change on a dime. You
know, we didn't expect HurricaneMichael to intensify like it
did. So we just we never knowfully what's going to happen.
Right?
Angie Lindsey (04:24):
Right.
Absolutely. And in fact, I wason a call earlier today that
they were talking about Well, Imean the Gulf is just a bathtub.
You never know what's going tohappen once it hits the Gulf of
Mexico because it there's a lotof uncertainty there because it
is so warm. So there is stillsome uncertainty and although
our technological and a lot ofthe meteorologists that we come
(04:44):
to rely on have done an amazingjob of being able to predict
what's going on with thestorms., it's still the weather
and sometimes the weather isunpredictable.
Phillip Stokes (04:55):
So what are some of the things we should be doing
in these uh few days if you area Floridian or somewhere in the
Gulf Coast, or even inland, whatare some of the things we should
be doing now in preparing forthe before and the during of the
storm?
Angie Lindsey (05:12):
Sure. So definitely should be following
on the guidelines within yourown county. If you haven't
already done so make sure yousign up for the alerts on your
cell phone. And you can do thatthrough floridadisaster.org.
That's through the FloridaDisaster Emergency Management.
So you definitely want to makesure you get on those lists so
they can keep you up to speed onwhat's going on within your
(05:34):
area. Definitely. And I would, Iwould say, follow your
And we were also talking aboutbefore, that the hazards don't
preparedness plan. If you haveone. If you're new to Florida
and you don't have one, thereare a lot of templates out there
that can help you in developingone. And a lot of the time it is
about what are you and yourloved ones going to do if you
are asked to evacuate? Do youhave somewhere to go? Are you
going to go to a shelter? Areyou going to shelter, of you
(05:57):
don't have to evacuate? Are yougoing to shelter at home? Do you
have what you need in order todo that? So that includes you
know, the water, the food. Nowthey're suggesting a five to
seven day supply of food insteadof just three to five. So just
making sure that you have enoughsupplies for that for that time
period. But I think it's alsoimportant to think about
(06:17):
planning for recovery. So stormpasses. Sometimes it's slow to
get power back on, we know that.
But as we try to get back tonormal, and I use that in
quotation marks, um, you know,what are the things that you are
going to need in order torecover to try to recover? And
it can be as simple as, hey, Idon't have a rake, and I know
I'm going to have a lot of yardtrash. So do I need to run out
(06:37):
real quick to one of the homesupply stores and grab a rake
and grab some extra lawn bagsbecause I know I'm gonna have a
lot of branches and a lot ofleaves in my yard. Something as
simple as that. Is there stuffthat maybe you're going to need
to possibly do your job with,you cannot get online. Do you
need to print out some phonenumbers? I know for me, I can't
(06:57):
remember a single phone numberanymore. So one of the first
things I do is print out mycontact list on my phone just in
case I can't access my phoneafterwards. So things like that,
that you know that okay, what amI going to need when the dust
settles, so to speak, you know,what am I going to need to try
to get back to normal? How whatam I going to need in order to
(07:18):
recover and help my familyrecover? So those types of
things are, are good to thinkabout not only in preparing and
the things that we know, gottago buy some bread, got to go buy
some milk and some water. Butwhat are some of the things that
maybe I'm going to need when theblue skies return? So just just
another level to think about.
(07:43):
just exist while the stormsgoing on. Sometimes there can be
hazards due to generator safetyor downed lines or trees or
different things like that.
Right?
Absolutely. In fact, on one ofthe one of the updates that I
was watching on The WeatherChannel earlier today was
talking about a lot of the a lotof the fatalities and the
(08:05):
injuries that we see are afterthe storm through some sort of
accident. So that it's veryimportant to make sure that
you're operating your generatorsafely make sure it's outside,
and that it is in an open openarea dry open area. And that
there are other things out thereto be careful of, especially in
(08:26):
working recovery after after astorm like this. And flooding.
Like they're anticipating somestorm surge and some flooding
with this particular storm. Soyou know, powerlines and water
don't mix. So, you know,thinking about things like that,
as you go out to try to helpyour neighbors or trying to
clean up your yard. Just thinkthrough some of those acts of
(08:47):
accidents that could happen.
Phillip Stokes (08:48):
Right. Yeah, that's great. No, I, I still
remember, back during HurricaneIrma in Gainesville, Florida,
which of course was beforeHurricane Michael. We were we
were one of the last groups inGainesville to get our power
back out or get our power back.
Excuse me. I think we were outfor almost two weeks and so
hoping for the best hoping notto repeat something like that.
(09:09):
But of course preparing forwhatever might be in front of
us.
Angie Lindsey (09:15):
Absolutely. Yeah.
And it's so hard. You don'trealize how much you love
electricity till you don't haveit for that long. I know.
Phillip Stokes (09:23):
That's right.
Well, Dr. Angie Lindsey, thanksso much for sharing these quick
tips with us. And we'll be sureto include some of these
resources that you mentioned inthe show notes.
Angie Lindsey (09:30):
Awesome. Thank you for having me. Stay safe
everybody.
Phillip Stokes (09:35):
And now here's a segment from a 2021 episode
titled Hurricane PreparednessPart One: No Time to Wait. In
this episode I spoke with CraigFugate, former Administrator of
the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency or FEMA, and former
director of the FloridaEmergency Management Division.
Craig and I discussed disastermanagement, the famous Waffle
(09:58):
House index, and advice forcitizens about hurricane
preparedness and recovery. We'lljoin in as I'm asking Craig
about operating during a crisis.
There's has to be so much youlearned about operating in a
crisis. And so from your times,at the Florida Emergency
Management Division and withbeing the director of FEMA, what
(10:20):
have you learned? And what wouldbe good to have our listeners
hear about operating in acrisis? And what communities can
do and what you learned in allof those experiences?
Craig Fugate (10:29):
Well, probably the most important thing I've
learned is recognizing that youneed to do something different.
And this may seem anoversimplification, but if you
think about government, wealways try to make events fit
our systems or processes. Youknow, there's one thing about
government systems is they'rebuilt for the day to day, and
then we try to adapt them to thecrisis, and it doesn't work very
(10:51):
well. And you have tofundamentally change things. And
what I found was, even though wewere in these disasters, a lot
of the day to day processesweren't adapting. They were
doing what they would have done.
If there was no storm hittin,everything from procurement to
travel to decision making, likewe needed more information, we
needed assessments. And I'mlike, why it's a hurricane, it
just hit why don't we justrespond like, it's bad, because
(11:12):
I found the most preciouscommodity and any disaster was
time. And government is notbuilt to be nimble, it's built
to be deliberate, very slow,very risk averse. You're trying
to avoid mistakes and maximizeefficiencies. And getting quick
decisions is not something it'sgood at. But yet that was the
(11:34):
demand. And so for the team, itwas important to clearly set
what the outcomes were, and thengive permission to deviate from
the norms to achieve that. LikeI told people, I said, Look, I
remember when President Obamacame into the the FEMA National
Response Coordination Center, wehad the federal agencies. And
he's telling everybody to cutthe red tape. And I had to
(11:56):
remind them, I said, but hedidn't say break the law. So
there's some boundaries there.
But unless the law specificallysays it's illegal, it's
possible. And getting people tounderstand that they got to do
something different. We need tofocus on the outcome. Don't
start with your processes, andtry to make it fit the problem
(12:19):
to find the problem and whatsuccess looks like and work
backwards and figure out howwe're going to do it. And be
willing to work in a situationwhere it's very fluid, situation
is changing decisions you makean hour ago may be irrelevant
because of new information. Butyou can't keep waiting for the
new information, you have tostart acting and adjust to that
situation. Because the time youspend trying to get to the best
(12:42):
possible answer is time that maycost people their lives.
Phillip Stokes (12:46):
I think that is such great advice. And I want to
ask you now. Okay, so you'respeaking more from an
organizational level, right fromkind of government? Well, let's
take that same advice. And let'snow talk about the households.
So how can households How canhomeowners and people in the
state of Florida and theSoutheast when they're
(13:06):
hurricanes coming when they'rein them? And then shortly after?
How can we use that advice of ofacting quickly to help the
individual at the individuallevel, if that makes sense?
Craig Fugate (13:17):
Yeah, we're going to talk about the public this is
it's cut and dry. First thing isfind out if you live in an
evacuation zone. And if you'renot sure what that means, if you
live anywhere along the coastalareas, certain areas inland even
particularly around LakeOkeechobee, and some of the
river systems that are subjectto severe flooding during
hurricanes, you can look up, goto your county emergency
(13:38):
management agency, you can go tothe state of Florida, you can go
to Florida, storms.org. And lookup and find out if you're in an
evacuation zone, this is the keything. If you're in the
evacuation zone, your plan is tomove to higher ground if an
evacuation orders given. Andthat means you your pets and
everything that you need to havemedications papers, and the
(14:00):
reason we evacuate is notbecause of wind. We evacuate
because these are areas wherepeople drown. And this is I
think one of the biggestproblems we see and and trying
to explain people coastal andother areas where you may need
to evacuate from a hurricane isthere's so much focus on the
wind, that the winds not the bigkiller. If you look at all the
(14:22):
data at the National HurricaneCenter, all the deaths from the
storms, the number one cause ofdeath is drowning and trauma by
water. And that's why weevacuate we don't evacuate from
when we evacuate those low lyingareas. So that's the first thing
find out if you're an evacuationzone and again, you're moving
away from water, not wind so youdon't have to get 10s of miles.
So that's the first thing ifyou're not in the evacuation
(14:44):
zone, you may still need toevacuate older homes, not well
constructed, particularly a lotof homes that were built before
codes, older mobile homes, youmay have local officials or
evacuate if you're in arecreational vehicle Park,
you're definitely going to haveto evacuate The winds will be a
problem. Apart from most otherpeople, it's really about
getting your home ready for thestorm security outside, being
(15:07):
prepared for power outages that,you know, it's not just days in
some cases is weeks in a lot ofcases, and having the supplies
on hand to get through thattimeframe. But the big thing is,
if you already know that you'rein an evacuation zone, you don't
have to think about that. Andyou can now start thinking about
where you're going to go. And itturns out that the more people
(15:28):
think about it, the better theiroutcome is, even if they did
nothing else. If they just knewin their head that okay, if I'm
if a storm surrounding mycommunity, I know I'm in
evacuation zone, I know I needto get everybody and go. If
you've just thought throughthat, you just increase the
chance of survival. Because whenthat warning comes, you've
already made the mentaldecision, you're leaving. Now.
It's just the execution of that.
So if we're going to keep theloss of life down, we need
(15:52):
people to heed those evacuationorders. And don't wait for
another forecast. And don't hopeit gets better. Don't hope it
turns because, as I tell peoplehopes not a strategy. And we've
seen people run out of time,there was a very eerie series of
911 calls I listened to in aScambia county with Hurricane
Ivan. And it was people dialingnormally one is a storm was
(16:13):
approaching the coast and thestorm surge was coming and all
that water was rushing in. Andthey were calling to get
rescued. And the 911 operatorswere telling him it was too
late. It was too dangerous. Theycouldn't get out there to cruise
couldn't go, you were kind ofleft wondering, did those people
survive? You don't want to bethat person you want you and
your family moved to higherground.
Phillip Stokes (16:34):
So I want to change things a little bit and
talk about something that youhave kind of coined the term.
It's the Waffle House index. Andso just tell us a little bit
about that. And, you know, whatare the greater implications of
of this?
Craig Fugate (16:48):
Yeah, the wolf house index came out of the 2004
hurricane seasons, we were downin Hurricane Charley. And our
day started early, and we wererunning long days and you
weren't sure because it was apretty devastated area. There
wasn't like places to go eat. Soyou tried to get breakfast
because you didn't know what therest of your day look like. And
we were staying just south ofthe area devastation. We were
(17:08):
out on the interstate and wefound a waffle house and it was
open we went in. And normally ifyou go in the wolf house, they
have these big bright plasticmenus with all this great food
on there. We walked in, sit downand the waitress handed us a
paper copy of a menu and it waslimited. And she said, Look,
this is all we've got. Webrought fresh stuff in. We lost
power. So everything in thefreezer had to be thrown out. So
this is all we got. But it wasbreakfast. It was hot. And we
(17:30):
got coffee. It was a good way tostart our day. Next morning,
similar routine, except therewas a waffle house open closer
to the disaster area. So westopped there. Same deal. My
team we were we were dealingwith so many counties. And if
you remember Charlie, it waslike a 10 mile wide tornado. As
bad as it was in CharlotteDeSoto. And Henry counties, you
had the Orlando InternationalAirport they had major damage
(17:53):
there you had hotels as thesecond or third floors ripped
off in Orlando, and it exitedout Volusia County. And the
problem we were running into somany counties had different
levels of impact that whatnormally on a routine event
would have been like thepriority County was like, You're
not even close to being badcompared to what we're dealing
with here. But nobody couldreally visualize that. So we
(18:13):
just borrowed the stoplightanalogy. And red was bad yellow
is not as bad, but you're gonnaneed help and Green was you
really need to handle what yougot, because we don't have
enough resources to geteverywhere. It didn't mean you
didn't have impacts. But itwasn't as bad as other areas.
And we started using that acrossindicators like school openings,
water systems, Power BI teamthrew in a slide on waffle house
(18:36):
and it was a the Waffle Houseindex. The Waffle House was
closed because of the disaster.
It was read. If it was openedwith a limited menu, it was
yellow. And if it was openedwith a full menu, it was great.
And the reason why if you if youknow waffle houses, they don't
close there 24 hours a day,seven days a week, and they're
up and down. Most of Florida'sinterstate system, there's
hardly an interchange, you go bythat you don't see a waffle
(18:57):
house. And the reason thisbecame something other than just
that one time slide. Was itspeeding up our response to
disasters? We weren't waitingfor the locals to go out and do
assessments. You know, Ithought, well, if we're going to
speed up our response todisaster, we need to cut out
every step that isn't adding tothe outcome. And historically,
we try to assess incident teamsand to see how bad it was. But
(19:20):
that generally meant 24 hours tothree days, we were still trying
to get information before itmade a decision to go and I'm
like, let's do somethingradically different. Let's just
assume that a hurricane makinglandfall is going to be problems
and why don't we respond basedupon the population and the
impact of that storm? Well,that's all good until you start
(19:41):
thinking about okay, I gotNational Guard, I got search and
rescue teams. I got highwaypatrol, and they're all driving
to that area of landfall. Andwell before you get there,
you're gonna start seeingdamages. You know, trees down
billboards blown over awningsripped off the gas stations The
question was, how do we knowwe're in the heart hit area yet.
(20:02):
And that's where the WaffleHouse index became operational,
they would drive by and theywould check the Waffle House and
it was open and they had fullmenu. They kept going. If they
got there, and they had alimited menu, they knew there
was a lot of power outages waterproblems. But that was more than
the mass care, sheltering andfeeding operations. But for the
rescue teams, that wasn't a hardhit area, keep going. And if you
(20:23):
got to the spot where the WaffleHouse had been closed by the
disaster, you're in a hard hitarea, if there's stuff that
needs to be done, go to work. Sothat index became something that
we became operational, we beganusing, it got talked about a
lot, but also goes back to theWaffle House, the company
itself, they have a very strongmission statement about getting
(20:45):
open after disasters. And theytake a lot of steps to do that
they do this safely, but theyhave a lot of experience. And if
there's anything that's going toget open in the aftermath of a
disaster, it's it's generallygoing to be a waffle house. So
the index, it gave us a quicksnapshot, because if you get
there and it's open, and you gota full menu, that basically
means the power system, thewater system, the roads are
(21:05):
fine, because their workerscould get there, they didn't
have any disruption inutilities, if you get there. And
it's all that limited menu, it'sa very quick size up that I got
water and power problems.
Otherwise, they would be up andrunning full menu. And if
they're closed because of thedisaster, and knowing that a
waffle house will get open. Imean, basically, if they can get
(21:27):
propane or gas to their flattop, they'll open that not only
can they not workers can't getthere, they can't even get the
store open. I would tell people,it's like taking a pulse of the
community. It doesn't tell meeverything that's going on. But
if you don't have a pulse, Iknow you're in a lot of trouble.
Phillip Stokes (21:41):
I thought it was interesting. You know, at the
beginning, you said about thingsthat you learned during your
time at FEMA, and just workingwith government is you have to
do something different. Andthat's what you did you employ
those your own advice, and yousaid, Hey, we need we need to
work quicker. And so this isthis is one thing we can do that
will kind of help us assess astorm. Are there any stories or
(22:03):
scenarios where you have seencommunities respond better after
a storm, some of those storiesof success?
Craig Fugate (22:12):
Well, probably the big success in Florida has been
our building code. And for everybuilder and developer, remember,
the legislature tries to waterit down or weaken it because
they say is too much red tape.
The reality has been thedifference in how homes are
performed. And hurricanes oftencomes down to when it was built
and under what building could weknow that in adapting to climate
change and adapting to theincreased rainfall, the
(22:35):
increased damage to the stormsthat were in how we build are
the big determinants of howresilient communities are. And
so we're seeing that thebuilding codes most notably for
wind has driven down the lossesand made homes more survivable.
Phillip Stokes (22:55):
So I think today as we're kind of wrapping up, I
just wanted to ask if there wereany last points you wanted to
mention, you know, any last tipsfor hurricane preparedness as
we're coming into hurricaneseason and just next month, any
any last points you want to saybefore we close out today's
conversation?
Craig Fugate (23:14):
As we get ready for hurricane season, get with
your insurance agent, check yourpolicies, I strongly recommend
to get flood insurance. Don'tlet somebody tell you you're not
in a flood zone because we gotfeet of water coming down from a
storm you're gonna probably getwater in your home. Second thing
is, you see all the supply kitsyou got to go out and buy and
you periodically people go outand they'll buy all that stuff
(23:34):
is hundreds of dollars andpeople can't afford that. And
it's Alaska growing up inFlorida. First of all, we didn't
drink bottled water we drink tapwater perfectly fine. And we got
ready for hurricanes we wouldstore water and empty milk jugs
and soda bottles, we rent themout, clean them out filled full
of water, put them in thefreezer, leave a little bit of
space from the Expand turns out,that still works. The other
(23:55):
thing somebody recommended Ithought was genius was filled
Ziploc bags full of waterbecause it packs and better. Not
only do you now have cool wateron hot days after the power has
been out for several days. Itkeeps the things in your freezer
cold longer because it fills inall the voids and gives you more
mass there. Storms threateningpick up everything outside
doesn't cost you anything butget things that can be windblown
(24:18):
into Windows and stuff. If youcan get shutters up great, if
not plywood still works. Butanother step that is doesn't
cost anything. It turns out thatwhen the winds are really
howling shut all of yourinterior doors of your home. It
helps to have more homestrengthened and perform better.
Because what generally happenswith wind is it that it blows
(24:38):
your house down, it blows out agarage door blows out a window
and blows out a sliding glassdoor. And that creates a
pressure inside of your homethat lifts up. That's why we
have hurricane straps and allthe stuff that people say well,
you know, it costs too much andit slows down construction. But
it's all those things we do inFlorida that keeps the homes
(24:59):
together. and keeping the doorsclosed is another simple thing
to do. And then probably thelast thing is, I'm a pet owner,
I've had dogs most of my life.
And as much as you see all thehuman tragedy to me, one of the
most unexcusable cruelties I'veseen are the animals that are
chained up or kept in theircages while their family
evacuated, when the floodwaterscome in, so always plan for your
(25:21):
pets. And if you're told toevacuate, take your pets with
you. Increasingly, acrossFlorida, we have pet friendly
shelters, hotels and motels willoften relax their policies on
pets. But again, this is notsomething you want to figure out
the last minute, plan ahead andknow where you're going. And if
you need transportation, or youneed assistance, find out what's
(25:42):
available at local level. Don'twait until the storms
threatening and most of thesteps will take a lot. Then the
last thing is take your phoneand make sure you got all the
contacts for all of the folksyou need to communicate with. So
that if something happens youyou have everything there. And a
lot of times the cell systemswill go down, keep a portable
(26:04):
radio handy. Stay tuned to thelocal stations because they're
going to have the bestinformation about what's going
on in your community.
Phillip Stokes (26:12):
Craig Fugate It was an honor and a privilege
talking with you today. I justwant to thank you for being on
our podcast for this this serieson hurricanes.
Craig Fugate (26:21):
Well, thanks for having me. And, again, as we go
through this hurricane season,we always hope to avoid the
storms. But if you know what todo, we can always rebuild. We
just can't replace you. So takesteps now to protect you and
your family.
Phillip Stokes (26:38):
Once again, that was Craig Fugate, former
director of the FederalEmergency Management Agency or
FEMA. You can always go back andlisten to his entire episode. In
that series, we also had anepisode titled Hurricane
Preparedness Part Two (26:51):
How Do Buildings Feel Hurricanes? about
wind effects on residentialstructures. And of course, we'll
put resources for hurricanepreparedness and recovery in the
show notes. I'm Phillip Stokes.
Thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
Ricky Telg (27:13):
Science by the Slice is produced by the UF/IFAS
Center for Public IssuesEducation in Agriculture and
Natural Resources. Thanks forlistening to today's episode.
Subscribe to Science by theSlice on your favorite podcast
app and give us a rating orreview, as well. Have a question
or comment? Send us an email topiecenter@ifas.ufl.edu. That's
(27:36):
"piecenter," all one word, atifas, I-F-A-S, dot ufl dot edu.
We'd love to hear from you. Ifyou enjoyed today's episode,
consider sharing with a friendor colleague. Until next time,
thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.