Council praises city staff, residents for reaction to hurricane

Marco Island city employees and residents received accolades from the City Council when it reviewed the island's hurricane disaster plan.

The efforts of city staff to keep the public informed on evacuation left little doubt that lives were saved when Hurricane Wilma ripped through the city and Collier County.

Chairwoman Vickie Kelber said the new "Code Red" contact program proved to be worth the money as residents heeded the mandatory evacuation.

"I want to thank the residents for heeding the evacuation request," she said at the Nov. 1 council meeting. "It is estimated that 90 percent did evacuate, and those who stayed that I have heard from say they will never stay again."

Kelber praised City Manager Bill Moss, directors and all 168 city personnel who played roles in the city's hurricane plan.

"I took part in city planning meetings before and after the hurricane and was able to see the foresight and calm displayed by Mr. Moss," she said.

"I saw his determination to get the city back to normal as quickly as possible, with as little stress on our citizens. I saw the tireless efforts of our city staff and directors, many of them with families and homes to worry about, devoting full time to our safety."

Moss said the most important part of the plan was the willingness of residents to evacuate. He also said the decision to evacuate was difficult, but it was part of the success because the citizens supported it and evacuated.

Councilman Mike Minozzi praised the city staff's exemplary performance before, during and after the hurricane.

"In the past the people did not take storms as serious as they should have," he said. "Mr. Moss, Fire Chief Mike Murphy and staff kept us fully informed and able to communicate the seriousness of the storm to make sure citizens understood."

Minozzi also mentioned how city staff showed its resilience when the power went out a second time on Oct. 28.

"Folks at City Hall could have gone home; instead they brought tables out into the parking lot, helping citizens with questions — and the line of people was long," Minozzi said.

He commended the staff and others who helped wash down power lines to clean salt off lines and transformers.

"When the power went out because of salt deposits, our Fire Department could easily have said, 'This is your problem.' But dedicated people and mutual aid took on the tremendous job of hosing down major components to allow power to be restored the same day," Minozzi said.

Moss spoke of how well Lee County Electric Cooperative responded during and after the hurricane.

"LCEC did a superb job, being staged off-island and here in moments after passage of the storm and restoring power," Moss said.

He said a shortcoming was the low number of generators available.

"Fortunately we have built up good relationships with Fort Myers and Punta Gorda from last year's storms and they sent us generators," Moss said.

City Finance Director Bill Harrison said his department is unique in that when other departments may already be done, the finance work begins.

"Finance begins working with the insurance company on losses to public buildings and coordinating FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and state highway department losses covered by those two programs," Harrison said. "We spent significant amount of taxpayers' dollars and want to get full reimbursement back into the local community in the next six months."

During the storm, his employees wore a lot of different hats, working with the Community Development Department in assessing damage and taking telephone calls.

Community Development Director Vince Cautero said that before the storm, the department's major role was to be prepared to do damage assessment on the island and coordinate meeting the needs of other departments. Several staff members did an initial assessment of the city to get a feel for where areas were hardest hit, he said.

Cautero said there were three components to damage assessment: windshield, walk-by and looking at all sides of the condominiums along waterways. The city used a boat to inspect structures behind residential and commercial locations. Pool screen damage was a major part of the damage scene.

Cautero said debris management was a challenge.

"Code enforcement went out every day to make sure debris was in proper places," he said.

Public Works Director Rony Joel said the city learned after the hurricane that it didn't have all the tools to take down damaged lights. His department borrowed heavy shears to cut them down.

"We put in temporary lights (at some locations). They are not pretty, or perfect, but will be operational until they can be fixed properly," he said.

He said the state Department of Transportation sent divers to assess damage to the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge. They also looked at a number of city bridges affected by the storm. Joel said seven bridges were affected, but didn't know final results.

Joel's staff continues to assess damage to public buildings. He noted that the fire station needs nearly an entire new roof and that City Hall sustained roof damage.

Souza became known as "Mr. Debris" as he coordinated those efforts.

He said that before the hurricane, the Marco Island Eagles football teams helped take down goalposts and windscreens to protect 1,300 feet of fencing.

Once the storm hit, Souza began coordinating with the county for debris removal.

"The county has been absolutely outstanding," he said.

Souza said about 350 city trees were knocked down; 280 were restaked and the others were lost and have to be replanted. He is grateful to the Florida Parks and Recreation Association for putting out notice to the association, resulting in the city of Palmetto sending six workers who spent two days cleaning up Leigh Plummer Park, with St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation on standby.

The Mackle Park recreation center sustained roof damage, with roof leaks caused by a large tree falling on the building. The basketball court roof also was damaged, as were several palm trees, and irrigation lines to the football field were broken.

The Marco Island Racquet Center sustained ceiling damage, while most tennis court lights need repair and most trees were damaged, Souza said. A sinkhole occurred in one of the hard courts. The city baseball field behind Tommie Barfield Elementary lost its scoreboard and the fencing was damaged.

Police Chief Roger Reinke said successful preparation led to residents having a plan and exercising that plan.

"There were no traffic jams during evacuation," he said. After the storm, "we showed high visibility patrols, determined to protect residents property who left the island."

The Collier County Emergency Management Department sent buses to the island, evacuating 73 residents to shelters. Initial re-entry was for residents and businesses, until 5 a.m. Oct. 25, when restrictions were removed to allow deliveries, contractors and business personnel back on the island to get it back to normal, Reinke said.

Murphy, who was directly responsible for the Emergency Operations Center plan, said fire Division Chief Chris Byrnes did an outstanding job, as did all employees who made the plan work.

He said the Fire Department used 3,100 personnel hours. The Citizens Emergency Response Team handed out re-entry stickers and made more than 300 phone calls, checking on residents with special needs. Fire personnel went to Goodland to remove 70 people, but they refused to evacuate, Murphy said.

Firefighter Jerry Adams cooked more than 600 meals that were handed out, some to National Guardsmen who came to Marco Island to help distribute water and ice.

City Clerk Laura Litzan made 103 sandwiches that she took out to crews working on washing down power lines.

With the help of departments from Isles of Capri, Corkscrew, East Naples and North Naples, firefighters washed down 388 transformers and 955 electric poles along 33.6 miles of overhead electric lines and two power stations.

Murphy said the Marco Fire Department loaded pallets of food, water and ice that it delivered to Goodland before the county could set up an ice and water location.