Erin Hill:
Welcome to Voices of Leon, a podcast from Leon County Government. This is where we share the stories behind the services from the people keeping our community running to the programs that make Leon County a great place to live, work, and play. Each episode, we'll take you inside County operations, highlight local initiatives, and hear directly from the staff and partners making a difference every day. Today, we're taking you behind the scenes of Leon County's emergency response operations to show how the community stays prepared for hurricanes, severe weather, and other disasters. Leon County Emergency Management is the lead agency responsible for coordinating preparedness, response, and recovery. From activating the Emergency Operations Center to coordinating multiple agencies, their team works year-round to keep residents safe and informed. Joining us today are director of Community Resilience and Relations, Mathieu Cavell, and Emergency Management director, Kevin Peters, who leads the County's emergency response efforts and helps residents and neighborhoods prepare, recover, and build long-term resilience. In this episode, Mathieu and Kevin will share what it looks like when the EOC is activated and how the county coordinates with local, state, and federal partners to keep residents prepared and informed. We'll hear stories from past activations and lessons learned from real disasters. Welcome, Matt and Kevin.
Mathieu Cavell:
Thank you for having us.
Kevin Peters:
Thank you.
Erin Hill:
Wonderful. Glad you're here. Kevin, can you share your background and how it has prepared you to lead Leon County Emergency Management?
Kevin Peters:
Yeah, so in school, back in college, I had a meteorology, a bachelor's degree is what I studied. And instead of following that career path, I had an opportunity early on to join, actually, with the county's emergency management agency back in 2001. And so over time we deal with disasters and if you look at it nationally, many disasters that occur are weather-based. So having that understanding of the atmosphere and all the processes that take place really helps us in that preparedness phase and the monitoring phase - be better prepared to understand what the weather might bring. Is this going to be a weather system that could cause problems? And it allows us to communicate that clearly with our partners to help their preparedness and the community as we go out and do educational programs.
Erin Hill:
Yeah, that meteorology background is invaluable in this field, I'm sure. Mathieu, what is your role as director of Community Resilience and Relations, and how do you work with Kevin and the Emergency Management team to support residents?
Mathieu Cavell:
So my role in communications and with the County goes back to 2010 with Kevin. When I first joined the County, I worked in Volunteer Services, which is Emergency Support Function 15. When the Emergency Operations Center activates, there's a lot of different emergency support functions that come together to keep everyone safe. Now, my role has evolved over time into now being the lead for communications before and after disaster, and that really truly means that no family has ever had or ever said that they've had too much information before they've made the choice to evacuate or shelter. So our role is to ensure that people have all the information that they need to be safe before a disaster and after a disaster.
Erin Hill:
Yeah, that is so important, especially in communities in Florida that are susceptible to so many different natural disasters. But when the Emergency Operations Center is activated, what does the activation process look like from start to finish?
Mathieu Cavell:
So when we make the decision to activate the Emergency Operations Center, it's all part of our plans. So we review the emergency at hand, whether you have the opportunity to see it coming, as you do with a hurricane where you are in a five-day error cone, a three-day error cone, all those other things. The Emergency Operations Center often activates at an elevated level for our Emergency Management staff to monitor even severe weather conditions that are not hurricanes, just to ensure that we remain coordinated at the Consolidated Dispatch Agency and all of our emergency respond functions are in alignment. In the big functions such as hurricanes, the Emergency Operations Center swells to more than 100 people from emergency support functions across the community. State, City, County, and nonprofit agencies come together in the Emergency Operations Center to ensure that our community is as safe and informed as possible. So really you have the opportunity throughout the year to meet with these people individually or in small groups, and it is a rare but really a rewarding opportunity to see the collaboration when they all come together to serve our community during some of its greatest needs. That is really something that we've had the opportunity to do more than what we may want to, but the opportunity to come together as a disaster response team in the Emergency Operations Center is one of the most rewarding functions as a County employee that I've been able to have working on disasters such as Hurricane Hermine or Irma, Michael, Helene. The list goes on. Over the past nine or so years, we've had 11 federally declared disasters. So we've had the opportunity to get together with all of these response partners, but the Emergency Operations Center is the heart and the brain where all of that response for our community happens.
Erin Hill:
You mentioned that EOC activations require multi-agency coordination. Who participates in an EOC activation and what agencies and partners are typically involved?
Kevin Peters:
Yeah, so Matt hinted at that when he talked about our emergency support functions. We try and through our planning process, we break those different functions that would have a response role. It spans 20 different functions and from things such as transportation, which might be StarMetro with the City or FDOT from the State to firefighting response to animal control services led by Leon County's Animal Control Division all the way out through ESF 20, which is cybersecurity response, which is managed by our internal IT department. So it's a broad spectrum and we try and group the different agencies that have similar functions for response or that will work very closely in teamwork effort to these different support functions. And then when you're in the Emergency Operations Center itself, the physical space, the way that our workspace is set, our command center is set, we have the different emergency support functions seated in work group little pods, about eight to 10 seat group pods. So there's very close coordination. So as items or issues come in, whether it's a new update from the National Weather Service or maybe we receive calls from the public from our Citizens Information Line or we get information from Consolidated Dispatch Agency about information that's coming in through 911, we can easily route it to the group that needs to deal with the issue, they can respond to the issue in a coordinated and efficient fashion to help meet the demands of the disaster and try and bring resolution and bring that sense of resiliency as we transition from an emergency to a recovery situation.
Mathieu Cavell:
And just a little bit to add to that, too. If you just imagine that you place a call to the Citizens Information Line, which the County operates, which is 850-606-3700, that's activated during any emergency, whether that's a no-notice disaster like a shooting or whether it's a notice disaster such as a hurricane with a long lead time, you place that call to the Citizens Information Line to say, "Tree's down on my road. I'm trapped. I don't know what's going on." The huge opportunity that the Emergency Operations Center presents is we have a division there at the EOC that takes that call, then they just walk several feet to give it to an agency who's responsible for checking the tree. So you might have public safety like a deputy or TPD officer go and check that tree. They may make the determination that the tree is down and it's entangled with power lines. And then all of that can be then communicated to another desk and another desk and that face-to-face interaction expedites our response for emergency. And that's really a critical thing to understand about the Emergency Operations Center. Sure, I mean, we're in a day and age where you could handle all this on your phone from your couch in some ways, but think about the communications disaster resiliency that we have at the PSC, that Public Safety Complex where we operate the Emergency Operations Center where it has generators that can operate for days at a time, where it has all the maintained infrastructure to keep everything going, to ensure that the emergency operation, no matter the scale of the disaster, continues to operate continuously and with alignment. And all of that happens because of that physical interaction. So it's really an incredible part of that process, that physical proximity, because again, it makes sure that we respond quickly, effectively and well for our community and we do it the way we've proven it again and again.
Erin Hill:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that breakdown. It sounds like the EOC and activation is akin to a beehive working all day long. So now we'll hear more about Leon County services and events.
Ross Brand:
Did you know your library offers more than just books? With the Library of Things from the Leon County Public Library System, you can borrow useful items for projects, hobbies, and everyday needs. From tools and technology to creative equipment and more, it's a great way to try something new without buying it yourself. Explore what's available and start borrowing today at LeonCountyLibrary.org/Things.
Lauryl Phinney:
Not sure how to dispose of household hazardous waste? The Leon County Hazardous Waste Center offers free and safe hazardous waste drop-off options year round. Hazardous items like fuels, batteries, and more can harm the environment or become flammable in unstable conditions. If you are not sure if something is hazardous, the experts at the Hazardous Waste Center are here to help. Learn more about what is accepted at LeonCountyFL.gov/HHW.
Erin Hill:
And we're back with Kevin and Mathieu. Can you walk us through the types of decisions and coordination that happen inside the EOC during a disaster?
Kevin Peters:
Yeah, so it doesn't just start when the disaster happens. Part of our preparedness program that goes on all year long, it involves pre-disaster training, educating ourselves and our partner agencies on what steps need to be taken when certain disaster scenarios present themselves. Then we go through another process where we do simulations or exercises and we test ourselves on our decision-making process. So when it does occur, when there is a challenge that threatens our community, hazardous weather, for example, we've had the training, we've had some experience with it, and that helps facilitate that decision-making process. And some of that, that's going to involve assessing the hazard. If it's a weather hazard, what is it? Are we facing severe weather, hurricanes, flooding, whatever the situation is? That's the first part, what could happen? And then what are the impacts working with our partners at the National Weather Service to understand the magnitude? Will it be tornadoes possible or are we talking about heavy rainfall? Could that lead to flash flooding? If it's tropical weather, would it be a hurricane and the high winds and the heavy rain and possible tornadoes? We assess the hazard, understand the magnitude and impact, and that allows us to make decisions, what should happen? How do we communicate with the public? When do we start that process to raise public awareness? That's part of it. Would we need to take any preparedness actions before a storm like activating sandbag distribution sites? That might be a process based on the amount of rain we could expect and preceding conditions. Or if we're talking about hurricanes, what's the timing and arrival of tropical storm force winds so we can create a window for evacuation and shelter operations to begin? So there are a lot of layers to the decision-making process, but it's all rooted in our training partnerships, our disaster preparedness exercises. So when it is time, just like any athlete or any musician, you want to have that performance practice so when you do go on stage, you're ready to perform. And that's a good metaphor for how we approach that decision-making process.
Mathieu Cavell:
Yeah. I mean, if you're going to play in the Super Bowl, it shouldn't be the first time you suited up with the team. And that's something that Emergency Management does at our local level, but nationally, so very, very well. To do everything they can to test themselves before the emergency so that when the emergency comes, that they're ready to respond as well as possible. And we take that very seriously at the County as well, even after an emergency, where we do thorough after-action reports of the challenges we faced, the ways in which we overcame them, and the ways in which we can do better next time. Because if we're not extracting every lesson from every emergency that we experience, we're not doing our jobs. There's never going to be a perfect response, and we understand that, we appreciate that, and it's part of our plans to be better each and every time.
Erin Hill:
This sounds like there are just a ton of moving parts. How do you manage communication between the EOC first responders and the public during an activation?
Mathieu Cavell:
Well, I'll speak to the public side and then I'll pass it over to Kevin for the first responder component. So from the public information side, going to the community, again, as I'd said, no one has ever said that they had more than they needed for information before they evacuated their family or sheltered. So we know very much that the public information has a rhythm. So before the disaster, we know that folks are going to be asking about policy, how they prepare their own property and grounds, their insurance policy, for instance, how they prepare their property and grounds, and then where would they seek shelter and sandbags and those elements. Those types of considerations don't change. They're important and everybody wants the right and best information. We need to make sure that when we tell them the address where the sandbags will be, that the sandbags will be there. So the accuracy of what we disseminate at the Emergency Operations Center is key always. A fundamental component of our public information is that it must always be accurate and that it always must be first. And these are challenges always in any disaster that has changing needs and expectations from the public. But however, we have a dedicated communications team that listens to the needs of the community through various channels, social media. And then also we talked about the Citizens Information Line. When folks are calling in about something a lot, if we're receiving a hundred calls about sandbags, that means that we need to do a better job in public information, telling people the information before they even need to make a phone call. So our canary in the coal mine when it comes to communications really can be that Citizens Information Line, and then those questions from the public drive it. Broadly speaking, our effort in County communications is to not get any calls about any information needs because we've already given you everything. That's our goal. It's aspirational and I'd say we won't reach it, but we strive every hour of every disaster to ensure that we reach it.
Kevin Peters:
From the Emergency Management practitioner side, when we're in the Emergency Operations Center, very similar to what Matt says about the public, there's nobody that's ever said they've received too much information. That's the same thing for our emergency response agencies. And the operational rhythm in the Emergency Operations Center is very focused on a cycle of meetings or briefings, conference calls to share and coordinate that information to maintain the highest level of situational awareness amongst all those moving parts, as you said, Erin. Our mornings, typically we work 12-hour shifts when we activate the Emergency Operations Center and we'll operate 24 hours a day during certain emergencies like hurricanes. And so when we start a shift around 7 a.m., we'll have our start time. 730 or 830 a.m., we'll start with an operations briefing with all the people in the room. Tell us what you're doing today. What are your plans for the day? Here's the weather update for the day. Here are our goals for the day. We'll start with that. Then we just move through the day around 930. There's usually a call with the National Weather Service. Then there's a 1030 conference call with the different agencies at the City, the County, the State, National Weather Service briefing. There's statewide emergency management calls with the State of Florida and the 67 counties. And then we start it all over in the afternoon with local briefing in the room and afternoon update conference call and afternoon State call, afternoon Weather Service call. Continual cycle of information sharing because like Matt says, nobody can be ever over-informed when you're dealing with a crisis or an emergency. Just the same as the public, it's important for all our emergency responders to know what everybody's doing. That brings situational awareness to all of the response. It helps synchronize activities, creates that unity of effort. So everybody across the spectrum of emergency response, all of those emergency response function agencies, we're all working towards the same common goals, again, to get through the disaster, to transition to recovery and to increase the resiliency of our community.
Erin Hill:
That's incredible. I'm sure with all of these high intensity situations that those are some pretty memorable experiences. Can you share a recent example of an activation and how the EOC's work helped the community?
Kevin Peters:
Every one of the emergencies, there's something that happens, but I'll tell you one of the interesting ones was the recent snow in January of 2025. So many of the other events that we've dealt with, whether it was hurricanes or floods or tornadoes, a lot of damage and a lot of destruction can occur and it can be difficult with some of the challenges of the effects to the community. But the snow was an interesting one because there were so many people that could enjoy that. It did cause us to have to close roads and schools were closed and things slowed down for the better part of a week. But it was interesting to see on the traffic cameras, the area traffic centers part of the Public Safety Complex, to watch the snow coming down and start to cover the roadways. And sometimes you could see people on the camera on sidewalks or little sides of hills enjoying sledding or something like that. It was really neat to see people enjoying what was a little bit of a weather emergency, but it wasn't dangerous. It wasn't tragic. It was people in the community having fun with a weather emergency that we don't typically see that kind of record breaking snow in the southeast and here in Tallahassee. So that's something I'll remember for a long time is the "great blizzard" of 2025.
Mathieu Cavell:
So when I was able to put my Michigan driving experience into practice, it worked out real well. I was able to drive folks around and take photos and document it throughout the community. A bit of a transition from that is probably one of our more recent activations was the FSU shooting on campus in April 2025. That really exhibited what was a lot of the discipline and need for the Emergency Operations Center to stand up in short notice. And in this case, not to be that directing agency or coordinating agency, but to be that support agency to our law enforcement and our first responders. We had the opportunity to share information. We stood up what's called a joint information center in partnership with our law enforcement agencies. And we were able to provide that level of support and guidance from kind of that backseat driver moment, which is very, very valuable. So our communications team was able to coordinate with others to ensure that messaging was, again, accurate, timely, and we kind of saw our community through that process. But again, we did it in a support role other than in the driver's seat. But I think that it was one of those moments that you won't forget anytime soon and was one of the more memorable ones for the Emergency Operations Center, even if it didn't involve more than a hundred folks sitting in those chairs at that time.
Erin Hill:
Speaking of support, how does your office support long-term community resilience in addition to emergency response?
Mathieu Cavell:
Well, I think one of the best ways that we do it on a recurring basis is the Citizen Engagement Series that we host generally in the summer, Junes and Julys. Those Citizen Engagement Series events give people the opportunity to come into the Public Safety Complex, which is in Tom Brown Park, give them a chance to come into a facility that is normally close to the public and restricted, and it gives them the chance to be able to see what the consolidated dispatch agency does. There are 911 call takers and dispatchers. It also gives folks the opportunity to look at that Emergency Operations Center to see that level of information exchange and coordination that does happen during, again, our community's most critical times. And it also gives folks the chance to meet our nonprofits in the community who are the ones who provide so many services from 211 Big Bend to American Red Cross to Salvation Army, the list goes on. But those are the nonprofits that are in that room to engage with those people who attend the Citizen Engagement Series each year, to again, affiliate them, to get them the opportunity to volunteer with a nonprofit, and to get everyone better prepared for a disaster should it strike. So that's one of those efforts that's a physical opportunity. But throughout the year, we also mail a Disaster Survival Guide to every household. So more than 30,000 households will receive... Well, actually, the disaster survival guide is actually mailed to nearly 100,000 households in the community, and it provides all the information that folks would need for wildfire response, for hurricanes, check their insurance policies. What do you do for that? How do you use a sandbag right? That's always a question. People get sandbags and then wonder, how do I now use it so that it keeps water out of my house? It has all that information in it. It's a printed newsprint guide, just about 20 pages. It never loses power. It's always there for you. You don't need to go. You just have it on the fridge or nearby and it can provide you all the connecting resources that you would need to get information and to get resources before and after disaster. Those are some of those key moments, but really and truly, as Kevin will be the first to say, throughout the year, we have the opportunities to gauge with neighborhood associations and with senior living facilities, assisted living facilities, to come in and train not only the staff, but the residents of those facilities to be better prepared themselves. In addition to that, Kevin and his team review those emergency plans for those assisted living facilities and those nursing homes to ensure that they are in compliance with the State, that they have the right plans, that they have their generator figured out, that they have evacuation plans in place, all of which can ensure that they keep their residents safe so that we have the opportunity to turn our attention to others in the community, other vulnerable populations who need our support.
Erin Hill:
Awesome. Thank you both so much for being here. The Disaster Survival Guide sounds like an incredible resource. Visit LeonReady.com to access the Disaster Survival Guide, learn about emergency alerts, and review household preparedness checklists.