Pinellas DIsaster Listening Session - Jamie Neville

The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council is holding a "Pinellas Disaster Recovery Listening Session" at its Pinellas Park office from 8 a.m. to noon Thursday (8th), to talk about recovery and resiliency after Hurricane Idalia. We speak with TBRPC's Disaster Recovery Coordinator Jamie Neville.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the Newscoming up. On Thursday, the Tampa
Bay Regional Planning Council is holding alistening session to talk about Panellas County's recovery
from Hurricaneadalia and things that need tobe done going forward for the next storm.
Jamie Neville is the disaster Recovery coordinatorfor the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council
and joins us now on Beyond theNews. Jamie, welcome, Hi,

(00:23):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here and talk
about the listening session. Well,of course, Hurricaneadalia didn't devastate Panela's County
in the way that Ian devastated FortMyers, for example, but it created
a lot of problems for low lyingareas, including Showrekers in Saint Petersburg and
caused some damage to dunes on thebeaches. More than twenty six hundred residences

(00:46):
suffered some sort of damage during Idalia. Now we're looking forward and how will
this meeting help communities that are tryingto avoid that level of damage during the
next similar event. So the goalof the listening session is to really collaborate
and get all of the right peoplein the same room, and that includes

(01:10):
federal agents, that includes state agents, that includes community members and city as
well. The goal is to reallyshine a spotlight on the issues that we're
having and the continued issues that we'rehaving, and so we want to hear
from people about what their biggest fearsare when it comes to these big storms
and big disasters. At this meeting, we'll be talking about, well,

(01:34):
we'll do a round robin and talkabout these issues that we're having, and
then we will go through and talkabout the different resources that are still out
there. Although Adalia is a littlefurther in the past, there are still
funding options coming available, mostly formitigation funding right now, so unfortunately there's

(01:56):
not a lot of funding for individualuse. However, we do still want
community community members to come and tellus about their fears if their neighborhoods are
continuously continuously being flooded, because theseare topics and priorities that we can make
when we're thinking about how to fixour communities moving forward. So and we'll

(02:20):
use all of these topics that wetalk about at the listening session, all
of the resources, and we willgather and create project ideas hopefully that are
regional spanning across multiple different counties tosolve a lot of these issues. And
like you were saying before, manyof the issues involved flooding, and so

(02:43):
that's really going to be our bigfocus. We will also have housing there
and agriculture, rural development, smallBusiness Association, career source. So if
you're having any issues with housing,problems with finding careers post disaster, if
you need workers post disaster, ifyou're having workforce issues, these are all

(03:07):
topics that we're interested in hearing aboutfrom the community so that we can figure
out ways to fix these problems andprevent for future damages because yes, unfortunately
there's a price to living this closeto the beach, and it's these hurricanes
and not just hurricanes. We're seeingflooding from basic rainstorms nowadays, and people

(03:31):
that have lived in their houses fortwenty five years plus are they're seeing flooding
that they've never seen before. Sowe have a problem and we're trying to
fix it. Now. Who isgoing to be taking part from the governmental
side and what will they be bringingto the table in this conversation. So

(03:52):
it's a it's a pretty big,pretty big list so far. So for
we're going to be having the FederalEmergency Management Agency, We're going to be
having the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Florida Department of Business and Professional
Regulation, Penelas County Government of course, Florida Cultural Resources, Florida Commerce and

(04:17):
Career Source Economic Development Association, theUnited States Department of ad Agriculture and then
Department of Housing and Urban Development,Environmental Protection Agency, multiple different universities and
colleges, the Florida Housing Coalition,Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services,

(04:40):
Tampa Bay Estuary, City of tarpand strings and things like that. And
really what they will be bringing tothe table are different resources, so different
grant resources hopefully, and this grantsare coming and going constantly, So this
is a conversation that we intend tohave constantly, and so other agencies will

(05:02):
bring their expertise, so do theyhave specific solutions to these problems that we
might not have heard yet, Andso we're hoping to make those connections as
well, and then also just givingus more info on the damage in the
region. Are their industries that arebeing affected more than others, Are their

(05:23):
neighborhoods that are being affected more thanothers, and what can we do about
it? Is there money that wecan use to solve some of these issues,
same with like Career Career Source andFlorida Commerce trying to solve the problem
of workforce needs. Again, dowe have the workforce that we need in

(05:45):
order to reach the goals of thecommunity to prevent storms from completely putting us
out of commission? Yeah? Sowhat kind of input are you looking at?
Is this a meeting, what willbe the extent of public participation and
how can people input and pose theirconcerns and ask their questions. Yeah,

(06:11):
so there are different ways you canobviously come to the listening session. I
know it's an odd time, especiallyfor people that work, but you can
also go on our website at theTampa Bay Regional Planning Council and the Disaster
Recovery page and email me about anyconcerns that you may have. I know
that this listening session is really morefocused towards finding projects to help the solutions,

(06:39):
but we also do want this tobe community outreach. We want to
hear from the community and make surethat we're solving the problems that they truly
deem to be the most or thebiggest issues within their community. They're the
ones that live in these areas.They see these things every single day,
and so we want to hear whatare your biggest problem problems and so reach

(07:00):
out to us. We have phonenumbers as well, tons of contact options,
and just to reiterate and give peoplea chance to find out how to
monitor and how to listen and howto participate. What's the when and where
in specifics about the listening session Februaryeighth, on Thursday, and it will

(07:25):
be eight am to twelve pm.There will be coffee and pastries, so
come hungry. We'll give you somefood and you can complain to us about
the hurricanes and the damages that you'veincurred from past storms and try to help
solve these issues. And for thosewho want to attend in person, know

(07:46):
where are the offices and for thosewho aren't able to attend in person,
how can they connect into the meeting. The meeting will be held at the
Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council Office whichis at or thousand Gateway Center Boulevard Sweet
one hundred in Penelas Park, Florida, And there is a zoom link if

(08:09):
they would like to tune in remotelyand that can be found on the Tampa
Bay Regional Planning Council calendar page aswell. Jamie Neville with the Tampa Bay
Regional Planning Council, thank you verymuch for joining us on beyond the news.
Thank you so much for having me