The 2017 hurricane season came to a welcome end Thursday, but that is no reason to forget the trepidation and troubles that tropical cyclones — especially Irma — caused in Florida.
Governments, health care providers, utilities and others have lessons to learn from the Irma experience, which affected nearly the entire state — fortunately, not as badly as feared.
To its credit, in mid-October Sarasota County government committed to assess the work of the county, school district (which provided shelters, at no small cost and with great effort) and contractors who provided (or didn't provide) services. County officials will be assisted by an emergency-management official from the state and two local government counterparts who agreed to work at no cost.
The review will be supplemented by Craig Fugate, who earned high praise as administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and as Florida's emergency management director. Fugate's work, which will offer an arms-length view, is being underwritten by two foundations in Sarasota County. A final report is due in February.
This type of local assessment is important, but not enough. The scale of Irma was so large that statewide assessments are needed.
Indeed, two reviews are underway: one by the Florida Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities; another by the House of Representatives' Select Committee on Hurricane Response and Preparedness.
This week will be pivotal for the House committee, which meets Monday and Thursday; members could vote on recommendations Thursday.
The committee and public made more than 300 recommendations. Among them: employing strategies to limit electrical outages; widening shoulders on evacuation routes to accommodate more evacuee vehicles; funding public schools, including colleges and universities, for sheltering; creating and staffing more special-needs and pet-friendly shelters; requiring nursing homes and assisted-living facilities to have generators capable of powering air conditioning (perhaps with public subsidies); accelerating debris removal; prioritizing replacement of affordable housing eliminated by storm damage; facilitating the distribution of gasoline and other fuels before and after a hurricane; allowing local governments or customers to pay an approved rate to have above-ground utility lines buried; re-examining policies on tree-trimming in power-line rights of ways.
All of these deserve serious consideration. There should also be a re-examination of state and local development policies (for example, setbacks from waterways) and an emphasis on improvements in infrastructure (such as stormwater-management systems that can mitigate flooding).
Meanwhile, the Public Service Commission continues its analysis intended to “explore the potential to further minimize infrastructure damage that results in outages.”
The PSC has taken numerous public comments, most of which focused on the length of time it took utilities to restore power. The commission sent utilities 37 questions involving: staffing; restoration times and priorities; communications with customers; wind speeds and water levels, and their effects on service; the performance of "hardened" and "unhardened" equipment; comparisons between buried and above-ground lines. The major utilities have yet to respond.
The House committee and PSC face difficult tasks and decisions. But their work is vital to ensuring that Florida is better prepared for the next hurricane season. The stakes are high.