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. Leon County Emergency Management is the lead agency responsible for helping our community prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. From hurricanes to tornadoes and snowstorms, yes, even snowstorms. This team works year round to keep residents informed, safe, and ready. Today we're joined by the person who leads that effort, Leon County Emergency Management Director Kevin Peters. Kevin and his team are behind many of the resources residents rely on, including leonready.com and the Leon County Disaster Survival Guide. Kevin, welcome to Voices of Leon. We're glad to have you here to talk about how our community can better prepare, act, and recover when it matters most.
Kevin Peters:
Well, thank you, Aaron, for having me today. I'm so happy to be here.
Erin Hill:
Let's get started. Leon County Emergency Management plays a critical role before, during, and after disasters. Can you walk us through what your team does as the lead agency for disaster response?
Kevin Peters:
Yeah, so a lot of our work is part of its relationship building. There are a lot of agencies involved in the response to a disaster. Part of it is planning work and then the other piece is putting it all together. So with emergency management, our response model is broken into different emergency support functions. There are 20 of them in our plan. They span from transportation to public works to animal control to cyber security response. So it's a broad spectrum. So we create emergency management plans and checklists and processes that we would follow. The next key step for us is beyond that planning piece is we train our partners on that. We go through all of the plans, we train on that and different national standards for emergency response. We go through exercises. We test that. So when that day comes when we have to activate our emergency management center and respond, we know the plans, we've trained on the plans and we've practiced the plans.
Erin Hill:
Leon County is vulnerable to a variety of different manmade and natural disasters. What are the most common hazards Leon County residents should be prepared for?
Kevin Peters:
Well, that's the thing is in Florida, particularly here in the Big Bend in Leon County, disasters no, no season. It's a year round calendar of risks. So we encourage people to be ready year round. Make a family emergency plan. Know what you would do if different hazards were to happen anytime of the year. It could be in the spring. We could have heavy rainfall or wildfires in the spring. We have tropical weather through the summer. Like you said, we might have snowstorms in the winter occasionally. So it could be anything through the year. So having that emergency plan is really a critical thing for a family to know what things could happen and how they should react.
Erin Hill:
Absolutely. The County promotes the message, prepare, act, recover. What does that mean for residents in practical terms?
Kevin Peters:
Yeah. So started to hit on that with that family emergency plan, be prepared. Take a little bit of time and assess the risk. Take a look at your home. What hazards might you face in your home, because that will drive a lot of decisions that you have to make. Do you have high wind risks? Do you have a lot of trees maybe around your house that during wind storms like severe weather or hurricanes that tree limbs could break off or the tree could even blow over and land on your house? Or maybe you live in a wind vulnerable structure like a mobile home, manufactured home or an RV of some type. Certainly those are the guidance we have from FEMA. Those are not as safe as site build structures during high wind storms. So having a plan that would identify a safer place you could go to is important. Or is your home in a flood zone or near a flood zone? Do you experience flooding when we have heavy rainfall events? Knowing how the hazards could affect your home will help you decide what decisions you'll need to make when we have these different emergencies.
Erin Hill:
And being sure to include all your family members, including pets in that emergency plan, because they also need to eat during disasters, they also need all of their toys and fun things.
Kevin Peters:
To keep.
Erin Hill:
Them as safe and calm as possible.
Kevin Peters:
Absolutely. Every member of the family from the youngest child to the oldest adult to all of the pets all have unique needs. And once you take that step past planning your home, plan for the needs of all of the family members. Absolutely.
Erin Hill:
Leon County was recognized as the first Hurricane Strong community in the nation. Can you explain what the process involved and what it says about our community?
Kevin Peters:
Yeah, so that was a program or is a program administered through the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes in partnership with FEMA. And what they did is it was a top to bottom assessment of Leon County, having good, strong building codes and floodplain management codes, having a strong administration support for an emergency management program and agency, high quality public information and outreach programs, and a very good emergency management plan program and process. It looked at all of those segments of our community's programs and assessed it against their standards, and also other national standards. And then that's how we were able to achieve that first ever. We were the first ones they came to for that and we were able to knock it out of the ballpark.
Erin Hill:
Being the first in the nation, what weight does that hold for our community?
Kevin Peters:
Well, once you set a high benchmark to maintain that level of competency and professionalism is critical and everything we do with emergency management, there is really no off time. It's always about identifying these high level standards that we maintain, updating our plans to those standards, training and practicing to those standards. But the other piece to that is it goes beyond being Hurricane Strong community. It's once we've had these emergencies, taking those self-evaluation steps, doing the after-action reviews that we do. And we've done numerous after actions after these disasters. We've had over 300 findings from our recent disasters and our after-action reports. We have over 220 areas of improvement that we've undertaken and implemented into our programs to keep us operating at such a high standard, keeping our community and our emergency response program as ready as possible to respond to future emergencies.
Erin Hill:
Yes. And since 2016, Leon County has been involved in a whopping 11 federally declared disasters. What lessons have you learned from those events that help residents prepare today?
Kevin Peters:
Well, one of those is the communications. Our communications program is one that we've improved and continue to improve. We've relaunched and built out our Citizens Connect app that's available for anybody to download to Apple or Android devices. You can receive push notifications on hazardous weather alerts, push notifications on updates from the emergency operations center when we're activated. It's a tool that works all year long to keep residents of our community informed and up to date. We've started to mail our disaster survival guide to every household in the community. Over a hundred thousand residents will receive it in the mail so you can get that disaster information in your hands. You don't have to leave. You don't have to go anywhere to get it. It's right there in your hand. You can get that guide and get the information you need to stay safe and ready for hurricanes. And then we have our online presence, leonready.com. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as long as there's internet access, you can go online, find even more information about preparedness and readiness and actually access ways to download the Citizens Connect app there when you're on LeonReady.com.
Erin Hill:
Yeah. The communications aspect is so pivotal and important because if residents don't know what we're doing or don't know about the information that's coming out, that's not helpful for anybody. So it's important that we communicate that message well and effectively during a disaster.
Kevin Peters:
Yeah, absolutely. The most important thing that we can do as local government during a disaster is to give that information to people. And what they need to know is what's going on. What are we at Leon County doing and what can they do to stay safe and where can they find additional resources to help them recover? It is pretty simple, but it takes a lot of effort to hit those benchmarks for information sharing. And once a disaster happens, it's a continual cycle because nobody has ever said that they've been overinformed during a crisis. There's always opportunities for us to continue to share information, to make sure the message is getting out and that citizens know again, what's going on, what are we doing and what can they do to recover and where can they get more resources.
Erin Hill:
Let's take a short break and hear about some upcoming Leon County services and events.
John Schmick:
Looking for a fresh way to grow your own food this fall? Join Leon County for the Fall Seed Library kickoff on Saturday, August 1st from 1000 AM to noon at the Leon County Main Library. Pick up free seed packets, get expert gardening advice, and discover tips for a successful fall garden. Seeds will also be available at all Leon County public library locations while supplies last. Learn more at LeonCountyLibrary.org/SeedLibrary.
Ross Brand:
Want to make a difference in your community while learning practical ways to live more sustainably? Leon County's Sustainability Ambassadors Program offers free training on topics like waste reduction, energy and water conservation, transportation, and sustainable food systems. Through a mix of in-person and online sessions, participants gain the knowledge and skills to help build a more sustainable and resilient community. Complete the five session course and earn a sustainability ambassador certificate. The next program begins July 28th and registration is open through July 27th. Learn more and sign up at LeonCountyFL.gov/Ambassadors.
Erin Hill:
We're back with Leon County Emergency Management Director, Kevin Peters. Kevin, one tool that every Leon County resident should know about is the Leon County Disaster Survival Guide. What makes it valuable and what should every household take from it?
Kevin Peters:
Yeah, so the Disaster Survival Guide, it's an all hazards guide. It's not just a community hurricane guide. It doesn't only help you the six months of hurricane season. It gives information on all hazards that could affect our community from wildland fires and things you can do to protect your home to cybersecurity and some steps to stay safe with your home computer. It's full of information that every citizen would need to know. We have tips on how to build a little sandbag wall at home. Oftentimes people will get a sandbag before a heavy rain event, but they don't really know how to stack them or how they should have prepared the bag itself. We have step-by-step instructions on how to put that sandbag up at home, simple things like that to more nuanced information like checking on your insurance and do you have enough coverage and how you should go about contacting your insurance agent to get better prepared for the insurance process. It's got all of the information you could ever want to have about disaster readiness at your fingertips. The nice thing about it is it's a printed document. It doesn't need power to inform you. Like I said, we're going to send it out in the mail to every household. So you receive it in the mail, read through it, put it in your disaster supply kit. So if we do have an emergency, it's a handy resource. You'll have it right there for any of those things you may have forgotten.
Erin Hill:
Kevin, can you tell us when should residents begin preparing for disasters and what are the most important first steps?
Kevin Peters:
Disasters know no season in Florida. So the time to prepare is right now really. If you're listening to this podcast, when we're done today, certainly that would be a very good time for a listener to start preparing if they haven't already done so. I mentioned it a litle bit earlier, thinking about the risks to your home, that's probably the first best step. Is my home vulnerable to high winds or flooding? Maybe wildland fires could be a risk. Understanding those different hazards and then starting to take steps to mitigate those hazards. Maybe you have to have trees removed because they're old or maybe they're diseased and could fall during a windstorm or maybe it's just trimming back some of the limbs that could fall on your home. Taking different mitigation steps to protect your home is probably one of those first steps. Then understanding how to get emergency alerts and building a disaster supply kit. Those would be those things that follow on to help you be even better prepared.
Erin Hill:
Yeah, absolutely. I think my favorite first step is building a disaster supply kit to be ready. I remember a hurricane season when I was a freshman in college and my parents called me freaking out and I didn't even have a flashlight. So making sure that we are prepared beforehand with those disaster preparedness kits is so important. But additionally, how can residents stay informed during an emergency?
Kevin Peters:
Yeah. So one of the best tools that we have from Leon County is our Leon County Citizens Connect app. It's available for Android and Apple devices. People can get emergency weather alerts all year long if they have the app. When we have an emergency, they'll get push notifications from the emergency operation center when there's something new. It's a good tool to use all year long. Leon County has an emergency information website, LeonCountyFL.gov/EI, that's our emergency information portal. Another resource that's available 24 hours a day, 365 days per year, emergency updates and links to emergency information all year long to help people stay informed when emergencies are happening. We also have our preparedness website, leonready.com also 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. Anytime you think about taking a step to be prepared, you can always consult leonready.com to get up information on being prepared and what could happen during disasters so you can make more informed decisions about your family emergency plan or what to put in your emergency kit for your family.
Erin Hill:
And what programs or trainings are available for residents who want to be more prepared such as neighbor readiness, neighborhood readiness efforts?
Kevin Peters:
Yeah, so Leon County does have a neighborhood readiness training program. You can visit leonready.com to register. Me or a member of my team will come to your neighborhood or to your community organization. We'll talk through in much more detail than we did today, the different emergencies and hazards that we face, ways to prepare your home, how to build a disaster supply kit and how to help one another in a community, neighbors helping neighbors after disaster. We'll go through all of those steps. It's a 30 to 45 minute program that we can go through to help neighbors and neighborhoods and community organizations become better prepared and increase community resilience here in Leon County.
Erin Hill:
We've touched on several different disaster preparedness resources that Leon County offers. For someone who feels completely overwhelmed, what is the simplest way to get started with preparedness?
Kevin Peters:
Get a copy of the Disaster Survival Guide, read through the guide. It's very comprehensive, but it's not a big guide. Around 20 pages That's a good first step. Understanding the hazards, getting a list of things you can put in your disaster supply kit and also a list of phone numbers for additional follow-up if you have questions from other organizations or agencies that you might want to ask questions to to help you with your preparedness. Our office number for emergency management's on there and feel free to call us 850-606-3700. Me and my staff would be more than happy to talk with any community resident about how to be prepared.
Erin Hill:
Well, thank you, Kevin, for joining us and for sharing all of these amazing disaster preparedness resources. As a reminder, visit LeonReady.com to create or update your emergency plan and sign up for alerts. Don't forget to download the Citizens Connect app for real-time emergency updates and review and download the Leon County Disaster Survival Guide to get prepared for this upcoming hurricane season. Thank you so much, Kevin.
Kevin Peters:
Alright. Thank you for having me.