The director of Florida's Division of Emergency Management joined AccuWeather to discuss how they're preparing for potential flooding, tornadoes, power outages and more ahead of severe storms this weekend.
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00:00 Much of Florida is in the path of this incoming storm system.
00:02 And joining us with the steps already underway
00:06 in preparation and safety for residents of Florida
00:09 is Kevin Guthrie.
00:10 You may recognize Kevin.
00:11 He's the director of the Florida Division of Emergency
00:14 Management.
00:14 And it's good to have you back, Director Guthrie.
00:17 Hey, glad to be here, Jeff.
00:19 Thanks for having us on.
00:20 Well, thank you.
00:20 You have an important task.
00:22 And this weekend, you're back in the spotlight again.
00:26 So how are your teams preparing as this weekend storm
00:28 approaches?
00:31 So Jeff, the governor today activated the State Guard.
00:35 This is not the Florida National Guard,
00:36 but this is the Florida State Guard
00:38 to assist the division with any type of response and recovery
00:41 actions that we may end up having
00:42 to take throughout the weekend.
00:44 So we have the Florida State Guard at our disposal.
00:47 Of course, we have our regular public safety agencies
00:49 like Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Department
00:51 of Law Enforcement, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
00:55 All of those traditional partners
00:57 will be working with us, Department of Transportation
00:59 is ready.
01:00 Specifically, the division has our personnel standing by.
01:03 We also have our flood response and control devices
01:06 that are staged in Orlando and ready to deploy
01:09 throughout the state.
01:10 We have pumps available.
01:11 We have hosing available.
01:13 So all of that is prepped and ready.
01:15 State Guard to help us with the manpower,
01:17 and our other state agencies to help us
01:20 with any of the other type of response actions
01:22 we may need to take.
01:24 And with this being a multi-pronged severe weather
01:27 threat, we're looking at the flooding rain
01:28 that you talked about.
01:29 Coastal flooding is also a concern
01:31 with that onshore wind shoving seawater into land.
01:34 And there is the risk of wind and tornado damage possibly,
01:37 too.
01:37 So what are you most concerned about?
01:39 I think what I'm most concerned about at this point in time
01:42 is our coastal erosion issues.
01:44 From Hurricanes Ian, Nicole, Adelia, more so Ian and Nicole,
01:48 we're still recovering from a lot of the beach erosion
01:51 that happened in those areas.
01:52 So coastal erosion is going to be one of our primary concerns.
01:56 I think a secondary concern is going to be electrical outages.
02:00 And I want to tell our viewers, we're
02:01 going to have electrical outages.
02:03 I've talked to FPL.
02:05 I've talked to Duke.
02:06 I've talked to some of our other electrical partners.
02:09 We don't have 40,000 electrical workers assembled and staged.
02:13 This is not a Cat 5 hurricane.
02:15 This is an El Nino weather pattern, if you will.
02:19 So we don't have all of those trucks amassed.
02:21 But Florida Power Light, Duke Energy,
02:24 our municipal electric associations,
02:25 our cooperative electric associations
02:27 are monitoring the weather very closely.
02:30 They will respond to these situations.
02:32 They will get the power restored as quickly as possible.
02:35 But I think the expectation of what we've had after hurricanes
02:38 is that's going to be in the next 24 to 48 hours.
02:40 It may take us a little bit longer
02:42 to get that done in this situation, Jeff.
02:44 And is there a geographical part of Florida
02:47 where you're most concerned about the greater risk?
02:51 This thing's been developing, it seems like now,
02:53 for two or three days.
02:54 I think what I would say at this point
02:56 is our Central Florida corridor right along the I-4 area.
03:00 If this thing does set up a little bit further
03:02 to the north, we're looking at the Big Bend or that area that
03:04 was impacted by Hurricane Adelia earlier this year.
03:07 So we're looking somewhere in that I-4 corridor
03:10 upwards of the Big Bend area is our primary watch area,
03:14 if you will.
03:15 And we'll respond accordingly to it.
03:18 All right, well, we appreciate your insight.
03:20 And all that you're doing to keep people in Florida safe.
03:24 That's Director Kevin Guthrie there
03:25 in Tallahassee, Florida, with Florida Emergency Management.
03:29 And Kevin mentioned this is an El Nino year.
03:31 And we do expect to see a more active than average winter
03:36 for severe weather in the south.
03:38 And something that he was keying in on.
03:41 And this may be the first in a series of active storms