Episode Transcript
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Gordon Bird here Beyond the News.As we've seen with counties and regions around
Florida, Hillsboro County is working toidentify areas that may be dealing with more
flooding and sea level issues because ofthe weather. They're updating the county's vulnerability
assessment for the first time since twentytwenty. Troy Salisbury is the hazard mitigation,
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resiliency and Sustainability manager for Hillsboro Countyand he joins us on Beyond the
News to talk about those efforts andan upcoming meeting. Troy Salisbury welcome,
Thank you very much, Gordon,appreciate it. Well. First of all,
tell us about the kinds of informationthat you're looking for as you put
this new assessment together. Well,the vulnerability assessment really is a comprehensive evaluation
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of our community's susceptibility to various risksand hazards that we deal with throughout the
county. And those things are naturaldisasters, climate change, impact, social
vulnerability, and even economic disparities aswell. And so what we try to
do is determine the weaknesses and potentialthreats that we have within the community and
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to try to determine the community's wellbeing. So the vulnerability assessment really is
a combination of trying to determine thosehazards and incorporating our community to help us
out with this effort, because Ithink any plan that we put together,
if you don't have the community input, We're not an expert in as to
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everyone's situation. So we need theirinput in order to create this vulnerability assessment
that is useful. Now, youhave a meeting that's taking place in Town
and Country at the public Library onthe evening of April sixteenth. Tell us
about what's going to happen there andwhat kind of input you're looking for.
Certainly, Yeah, so we haveour meeting. It's on April sixteenth from
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six pm until seven thirty Town andCountry Original Public Library, And essentially what
we're trying to get from folks iswe want to we want to understand how
they deal with and some of theirconcerns about vulnerabilities that we deal within the
state and specifically in Hillsborough County.Obviously, we have a lot of increasing
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climate activity, hurricanes and the like, even our daily storm events and flooding.
We want to know about some ofthose concerns that our residents here in
Hillsborough County have, so the vulnerabilityAssessment outreach meeting that we're having is a
good opportunity to do that. It'sa good opportunity to understand what we are
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looking at, what the information thatwe're trying to gather to create this vulnerability
assessment, to understand why we're doingit, and then ultimately to get inputs
so that we can create mitigation measures. Now after this meeting, will there
be other opportunities to give input tothis vulnerability assessment. Definitely. We have
a project web page that that peoplecan go to. It's part of our
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h st Engage web page that youcan find through the Hillsboro County website and
people will be able to go therefind out where we are the whole vulnerability
assessment. That'll be able to participatethrough surveys. We'll have surveys on there
to get their feedback. There's alsoan interactive map where you can go in
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and actually put a pushpin on thismap and give your information about where you
live around where you live, whereyou see some challenges that you might face
during say daily rains where you mighthave flooding and have to deal with flooding
situations or whatever that might be,So there are definitely opportunities. We're also
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going to have other outreach meetings aswell. Now we all know of the
kinds of problems that can be regularlyencountered when there is a weather situation that
involves flooding, and you know,things like the roads being blowed to buy
trees, or power being out orissues dealing with things like flood insurance are
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are is the information that you're gatheringin this assessment potentially helpful to people identifying
problems like that and helping them dealwith them in the future proactively. Well,
I think it helps us to understandas a county where our vulnerabilities lie.
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It helps us to make a determinationon what projects are needed in order
to assist communities to where they caneither deal with those those impacts that are
that they face every year, andit also helps us to prioritize projects in
those certain areas. So ultimately itdoes help communities and it helps helps us
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our administration, our county commissioners makegood and informed decisions in order to help
the community out during these impactful events. So the time you're going to be
gathering information basically through the end ofthe year. Correct, that is correct.
Our vulnerability assessment, we're hoping tohave that close to being completed towards
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the end of the summer and submitit up to the state. And so
during that time period again we're goingto have those outreach opportunities and we'll have
information on the website so that peoplecan can definitely participate because we want them
to participate, and one of theways to do that is again through the
public meeting that is taking place Tuesday, April sixteenth. It is from six
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to seven thirty. It's at theTown and Country Regional Public Library that's on
Paula Drive, and that's in Townand Country. And again Tuesday, April
sixteenth, six to seven thirty.Troy Salisbury, Hazard Mitigation, Resiliency and
Sustainability Manager for Hillsborough County, thankyou for joining us on Beyond the News.
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Thank you very much for having me