Real Estate Disruptors

Hurricane Prep 2025 - After Helene and Milton: What Every Florida Resident Needs to Know

• Charles Rutenberg Realty • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Hurricane season demands our attention, especially after last year's devastating storms that impacted Florida. Jessica McCracken, Pinellas County's Whole Community Readiness Coordinator, shares crucial insights about preparing for the next hurricane season with particular emphasis on the lessons learned from recent storms.

Most residents don't realize that Debbie, Helene, and Milton weren't direct hits to Pinellas County, yet caused significant damage. This sobering reality highlights why proper preparation matters regardless of a storm's projected path. Jessica breaks down three essential hurricane preparedness steps: knowing your risk, making a plan, and staying informed.

A critical misconception Jessica addresses is the difference between evacuation zones and flood zones. Evacuation zones are based on storm surge models, while flood zones determine insurance requirements. The entire state of Florida sits in a flood zone—the question is simply whether you're in a high-risk or moderate-risk area. This distinction matters tremendously for insurance coverage, as standard homeowner policies don't cover flood damage. Many residents learned this lesson the hard way during recent storms when areas outside traditional flood zones experienced significant flooding.

Property preparation follows the simple ABCs: anchor, brace, cover, and strap anything that could become windborne during a storm. For condo and HOA residents, Jessica emphasizes the importance of understanding both personal and community-level emergency procedures, including what happens with elevators, common areas, and trash facilities during evacuations.

Perhaps most valuable is Jessica's practical evacuation advice: "Go tens of miles, not hundreds." Often traveling just beyond evacuation zones provides sufficient safety while avoiding long-distance traffic congestion. And don't rely solely on the "cone of uncertainty" when making evacuation decisions—it only shows the potential path of a storm's center, not its size or impact area.

Register today for your county's emergency notification service (like Alert Pinellas) to receive critical information before, during, and after storms. This simple step connects you with life-saving alerts and resources when you need them most.

Are you prepared for hurricane season? Take action now to protect your home, family, and peace of mind before the next storm arrives.

Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, welcome back to Real Estate Disruptors podcast. I am your host, Amir Habibzadeh, and I am sitting down with Jessica McCracken, who is the Pinellas County Whole Community Readiness Coordinator. Thank you so much for joining us today, jess.

Speaker 2:

Hello, thank you so much for having us.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely so. Your title is kind of a mouthful. You know, I think I have, you know, an understanding of what the Pinellas County Whole Community Readiness Coordinator is. But would you mind telling us who you are, what you do and you know what services you provide.

Speaker 2:

Sure, so we can actually jump into some stats and facts about last season with my perspective. From the community standpoint is pretty unique. I get to do all the education and outreach programs throughout Pinellas County, meaning I get to work with every walk of life, every stage of life, every type of community located all throughout Pinellas County. So especially going into this year with what we've experienced last year really took the approach to try to listen and get that feedback about what the experience was in that community.

Speaker 2:

And we have a saying in emergency management every disaster is local and that really is ringing true depending on what community I'm talking to or working with, where they're located. If they're especially one of those particularly vulnerable populations, it really dictates their experience and their perception of the 2024 season. I think one of the biggest takeaways going into this year is just trying to focus on communicating that of Debbie, helene and Milton. None of those storms were a direct hit to Pinellas County which.

Speaker 2:

I think is pretty important. It's a pretty big deal considering the damages that we saw and how many of our folks were impacted.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because it felt like a direct hit.

Speaker 2:

It looked like a direct hit in some areas. Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1:

So what do you want people to know and how to prepare for hurricane season.

Speaker 2:

So we ask people to do three things to prepare for hurricane season, and that's know your risk, make a plan and stay informed. So by know your risk, we mean know your home, know your zone. Are you in one of those particularly vulnerable populations or areas mobile home, park, barrier, islands which is all evacuation zone A? By know your zone we mean know your evacuation zone, and I know we're talking to people not only in Pinellas. But there are several ways to look up your evacuation zone. For Pinellas We've got the Ready Pinellas app. You can go to our website, look up Know your Zone.

Speaker 2:

So it really is one of those three major risks which we have storm surge, wind and flooding. A common misperception is that flood and evacuation zones are the same thing, but it's important to know both. We have a lot of people that are coming in from out of the state never have experienced hurricanes. I even had somebody ask me in a presentation what does the siren sound like when you hear that? So it's kind of fixing those myths and those misperceptions. But evacuation zones are built on storm surge models. That's really important to know because if we call your evacuation zone, that is because we are saying you will have impacts from storm surge.

Speaker 2:

So, it's based on storm surge models, but we also can experience inland flooding, flooding just an afternoon storm and then the rain bands. So we have a lot of folks that look at that cone of uncertainty. We've got to remember that the cone does not tell the whole story, sure. So the cone talk you know, will tell you where the center of the storm is going to be a percentage of the time, but it doesn't show you how big the storm is, doesn't show you how the size of the storm right, which was particularly important with helene, because helene was such a large storm. So we really try to reiterate, not to make any decisions, evacuation decisions based on that cone. It's kind of the tropics way of popping up and saying hey, you know, you might have impacts.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha, gotcha Makes sense. So when people talk about you know, knowing your zone, go to that website or download the app and whatnot. I know you can find it on Pinellas County. I always find ours on the Pinellas County Property Appraiser site, but then there's also a map that goes along with that and you know. So you know, get to know where your zone is and then, I would assume, where you can evacuate to as well, right?

Speaker 2:

That's right. So it's easy to make your plan once you know what your risk is. So are you going to have to evacuate? Are you in? You know that that first level evacuation mobile home communities are always asked to evacuate when an evacuation order is called. So once you know what you're going to have to do, it's much easier to start figuring out that plan.

Speaker 2:

But what a plan is is really just where you're going to go. So are you going to shelter in place because you're in a non-evacuation zone, or are you in one of those evacuation zones where you're going to have to leave? Where are you going to go? Who do you have to take care of, and what does that entail? So even when we're talking about hurricane kits, I've had people tell me well, I shelter in place because I'm in a non-evacuation zone, so, so I don't really need to get anything Right. And every level of every plan requires some sort of supplies. So it's really important to know who you're going to be responsible for. Do you have kiddos? Do you have furry kiddos? Are you going to a shelter, special needs shelter, whatever that looks like for your plan and plan?

Speaker 1:

accordingly. Yeah, and you know, along those same plans, I think you know insurance and making sure your policy is up to date and make sure you have the right coverage right.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. Trying to get that culture of preparedness and thinking about insurance as a preparation tool is something that I am very passionate about. I come from the dark side. I come from the insurance world before my time in EM and having those conversations now during blue skies not just an automatic renewal, making those payments, but really understanding what your policy entails. So an insurance policy is a one-way contract that requires you to do X amount of things in order to make sure that you get paid out, but it's your responsibility to know what your deductibles are, what is covered, what's excluded. So not just paying that renewal, but having that conversation with your insurance professional.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha, gotcha and then, just because you have, you know, homeowners insurance and, like we experienced in these last storms, a lot of places that weren't in a flood zone or weren't in an evacuation zone still got flooded. And you know then the homeowners battling for coverage and unfortunately they didn't have flood insurance. So it might be worth it to some, some people, to go out and proactively get that.

Speaker 2:

Sure. So something we hear a lot is I'm not in a flood zone and the entire state of Florida is in a flood zone. Whether you're in a high risk flood zone or a low risk to moderate risk flood zone is really the difference people associate if they're in a flood zone with if their mortgage requires that they pay for flood insurance. And that's just kind of how the industry has been for such a long time. I was in the insurance industry for 15 years. I've written hundreds of thousands of homeowners policies.

Speaker 2:

We were never required to tell somebody what their evacuation zone is. It just wasn't part of the process. I'm sure in the back, the underwriters, it's all in that algorithm, but it wasn't a conversation that we had to have as an insurance agent. So I would say for a real estate professional know what those both zones are for a property that you're selling, so that you can be an advocate for your client, and let them know hey, this is what you're going to be responsible for. If you are not in a standard flood zone or a high risk flood zone meaning it's going to be required by your mortgage, you can still get flood insurance and let's say you're not in a flood zone, or you're not in a high risk flood zone but you are an evacuation zone and you have storm surge damage that's not covered in your homeowner's policy but you can still have that flood policy that will cover it and it's substantially less money if you're in that preferred zone yeah absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And you know, I think, just making your clients aware as realtors, that there is a difference between a flood zone and an evacuation zone. And you know, I, I, we hear it quite often where, oh no, I'm not in a flood zone. Yeah, I understand, but there is an evacuation zone and you know that could really dictate whether you want to just go ahead and get flood insurance, just preemptively. You know, I know for myself, I live in Seminole, so I sit like 60 feet above sea level. So you know for us flood insurance, you know I don't have to have it, but you know it's pretty inexpensive, just to have that peace of mind. So it's definitely part of our plan this year to make sure we got it.

Speaker 2:

I'd love to hear that.

Speaker 1:

So what about shared communities, condos and homeowners associations? How does that play into emergency management?

Speaker 2:

Sure. So we have a lot of condominium associations and homeowners associations in the state of Florida, a ton on the barrier islands here in Pinellas. So there's kind of a two-step process. You've got to have that personal plan as somebody that's an owner of a unit, somebody that's living in one of those units, but also having a plan for the community. And a lot of those communities have the professional property management companies. What is the property management company's plan?

Speaker 1:

as well.

Speaker 2:

So who's doing what? Who's taking care of the common areas? Who's moving the pool furniture? What is that plan? You're going to have people that are going to just resist and they're going to want to stay even though the order is to evacuate. So how are you going to handle that as an association? What does the property management company do and what are they required to do by law? That may be taking your elevator up to the top floor, turning it off, locking it, locking your dumpsters, so if somebody's got mobility issues and they're on the 10th floor, they're not going to have access to an elevator. That's really important information to know. Yes, so we don't want to put more people in danger, our first responders in danger, if we've got somebody trapped in a building when they should have left. And the point of the matter is, at a certain point we have to pull those response vehicles off the road. 35, 40 miles an hour. Their equipment especially like a fire truck ladder truck, they just can't withstand the winds and they have to get to their safe place.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

The goal with evacuations is always get to your safe place before the onset of the tropical or storm force winds. So, um, it's going to be the same thing for all of us who have to yeah, you know shelter in place or at the emergency operations, and that's part of it.

Speaker 1:

You know, as part of that making your plan, you know, don't sit there and get stuck on the analysis, paralysis of what, um, you know, dennis phillips is saying on the news and you know you just got to pick a point where, hey, if I'm going to leave, I'm leaving now, and make that part of your plan. And so I think, because you don't want to put the first responders at risk either, and they're not going to risk to come get you, and you don't have to wait until an evacuation order is called.

Speaker 2:

If you think that you're going to have to leave or you, in your experience, you are getting evacuated, go ahead and pack up and go, get on the road. That way you're not sitting in traffic, you're not waiting in lines for gas. I mean, we've got a million people here in Pinellas, so just a level A evacuation is, I think, 340,000 people. Oh wow, not everybody is going hundreds of miles. You know, we tell people don't go hundreds of miles, go tens of miles. If you look at an evacuation map of Pinellas, all the white area are non-evacuation zones. So you don't have to go too far, right, but you don't want to be on the road when everybody else is on the road. So that's why it's great to have all your stuff prepared so you can just hop in. Good stuff.

Speaker 1:

So how can residents prepare their homes?

Speaker 2:

I always tell people remember the ABCs anchor, brace, cover, strap. Anything that can become windborne will become windborne with those strong winds. So make sure to take everything, bring it inside, put it to where it can't be affected by those winds. After Irma we saw a lot of people took lawn furniture those little gnomes that you see in their yard and put it up against their homes, which really ended up causing a lot more damage to the homes. You can do things like replace the big gravel, the big rocks, with some lightweight mulch, Make sure you're trimming all your limbs, and so there's kind of two parts to preparing your home. There's the blue skies preparation. Those are the things that probably take a little bit longer. If you've got to cut boards, if that's the way you're going to go to protect your windows, Don't wait until the storm's coming to do those things. And then you're going to have that evacuation level preparation, where you're shutting everything off, locking it up and kind of those last minute things before you head out. Gotcha.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha. So in Pinellas County, what are some options for evacuation?

Speaker 2:

So in Pinellas County we tell folks you can go to a hotel, motel, airbnb, of course, in a non-evacuation zone. You can go to a host home which is the home of a friend or family member in a non-evacuation zone, out of the area Again, um tens of miles, not hundreds of miles. Um, we do have people that have out of state homes and you know they take off and go there Right. And then we've got our emergency um evacuation shelters, Gotcha.

Speaker 1:

And, you know, speak, just go uh, speaking of, out of town, you know, obviously we have a lot of snowbirds that are here, you know, before they go back home. They should really, you know, as agents. I think it's a good touch point for you to reach out to those clients who are the snowbirds and, you know, be prepared, you know, prepare that house before they leave to go back home for the summer.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Especially in those shared communities, mobile home communities, we see a lot of times they're vacant for that part of the year because everybody leaves to go back. So don't leave it up to your property management company or those folks that do stay around. Get everything up, get it inside and help prepare your community.

Speaker 1:

Definitely when people are planning to evacuate to a shelter, what do they need to know?

Speaker 2:

So we have shelters for anybody that needs shelter, but it is kind of the option of last resort. So we say it's a lifeboat, not a cruise ship.

Speaker 1:

It's going to be loud the lights are going to be on.

Speaker 2:

There's going to be lots of people. You have a very small designated space, but it is a safe place to ride out the storm. Sure, and we have. You know, most counties have a live list on their website that they will activate when an emergency is happening so you can see what type of shelter it is, if they've got occupancy, do they take pets, and if they're open. So not every shelter is open for every storm, so please do not evacuate to a county shelter unless it's announced as open. It really depends on the variable of the storm, the direction and what level of evacuation we're calling. But again, lifeboat, not a cruise ship.

Speaker 2:

So, it's really important to educate yourself about your county, your community and what options are available to you.

Speaker 1:

Definitely, because I think you know if you have pets and I assume you know the shelters that do accept pets you know they're going to be your regular household pets. You know cat, dog and whatnot, but I think you know part of that planning process they do. Pet emergency kit should be that county license.

Speaker 2:

We always encourage folks to have their pets microchipped, just in case they are lost during a storm, you're able to find your furry babies after the fact, any kind of toys that make them feel more at home or comfortable. It can be scary for people to evacuate just as scary for pets, definitely and have them either muzzled or in a cage or crate, especially if you're going to be using public transit to get to.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha, gotcha and what do you find? You know what prevents people from evacuating a lot of times?

Speaker 2:

The complacency is a big thing. I've seen some of that stigma drop off as we're doing outreach. That it can never happen to us, it can never happen here, it will never happen to me. Some of that has gone away because it has.

Speaker 1:

It has happened now.

Speaker 2:

Right and so many people were affected. So I've seen some of that complacency stigma drop off. But everything from timing to traffic to pets you know I've got two parrots or two parakeets. I'm not leaving, no matter what. So we really want folks to understand that we have a lot of resources that can help you, no matter what it is. If you are concerned about pets, if your special needs or you have mobility issues, if you're worried about you're a caregiver and the person that you care for has Alzheimer's or dementia and you're kind of freaked out about going to a shelter because of that, our special needs shelter are staffed by our Department of Health staff so in addition to you being able to bring your caregiver there, you've got some extra hands on site to help with that.

Speaker 2:

We've really thought of everything and have all those resources out there, so we really want people to stay safe.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha, and so do your research ahead of time to make sure you're going to the right shelter that has the special needs or allows pets or caregivers and things along those lines. What happens if you don't evacuate?

Speaker 2:

So this is a question that we get. A lot is just will I get arrested if I don't evacuate?

Speaker 2:

Surprisingly, people ask that a lot, so we're not going to use resources that we need to keep people safe that are actually listening to evacuation orders to go around and arrest people. The bottom line is you're going to be on your own If you're in evacuation zone. Consider that storm surge water. I hate to tell people to take an ax if they're going to evacuate up in their own home. Water's rising, but we've seen it. We've seen it in Lee County and it can be very scary. So don't make a disaster within a disaster. Just heed the warnings and head out Makes sense.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, cause those you know, those waters come in and you now, all of a sudden, you're in your attic and you ain't got nowhere to go. So that's right, it's good advice, bring an X.

Speaker 2:

I know we see a lot of people say I'm going to wait and see if the weather gets bad. Right and so winds may be inside, they don't look as bad or feel as bad, but now we've got rising water and people jumping in cars to try to get out. And at that point it's just too late.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, it makes sense, Don't want to, don't want to be. We talk about the impacts and the cone of uncertainty we always hear about as a storm is approaching what. What are the impacts?

Speaker 2:

of that. So, like we talked about before, that cone of uncertainty, it really doesn't tell the whole story. The cone of uncertainty tells you where the center of the storm is going to be a percentage of the time, but not what the size of the storm is. So you know the eye of the storm is the calm part of the storm. Right. The impacts are all the bands around it. So that could be wind, tornadoes, storm surge, all the impacts that come with the storm. So do not use the cone to make those evacuation decisions. Really get tuned into your emergency management team in whatever county you live in. You will see the National Hurricane Center has issued a new kind of updated graphic for the cone. So it's going to show wind impacts inland so to help kind of communicate what those risks are a little bit better, because so many people have been dependent on the cone for such a long time but not really knowing what it means or what it's communicating to the public.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Because I mean, as we saw, you know, Helene was essentially a hundred miles off her coast and I think the cone was going in an opposite direction and you know Helene was the one with the storm surge. Correct, yeah, so it's. It's definitely something you got to pay attention to, but, as we talked before, you know, don't sit there and just focus on that cone. You got to make that plan and, you know, get get safe, Absolutely yeah, definitely so how can I know? We kind of touched on this already, but residents can stay informed via your app, via the website and any, any other good options for them.

Speaker 2:

Sure, so our website's disasterpinellasgov. But one thing that you can do today is register for Alert Pinellas. Are you registered for Alert Pinellas? I am there, you go, see, you're checking all the boxes. So that's our.

Speaker 1:

Bought my batteries too.

Speaker 2:

That's our emergency notification service. That's how we communicate with you before, during and after a storm, and we've even been pushing out some recovery messaging and resources and information since the last storms. So you can register up to five addresses. So if you've got kids' school or another property, oh wow.

Speaker 1:

I didn't know you could do that.

Speaker 2:

So you can get a phone call, email text, and it's severe weather alerts, boil water notices, evacuation orders, all that good stuff.

Speaker 1:

Very cool, very good stuff. Yeah, I mean, it's all about keeping the community safe.

Speaker 2:

And I, I, uh, every County's got their own version of alert Pinellas, so check out, um, you know, hillsborough County, pasco County, wherever you live, check out the emergency management website and you you'll be able to find that.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. We will definitely get that out to our listeners and put it in the podcast notes. Well, Jess, hey, I really appreciate you coming in and talking to us about getting ready for this season. Would just kind of follow up what are you expecting to see this season?

Speaker 2:

Everybody evacuating when the order is called.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha.

Speaker 2:

Hopefully we've had some lessons learned all across the board and all across the county and residents will take it serious.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think people will start to take it serious now. Well, once again, thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 2:

My pleasure. Thanks so much, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

All right, everybody. We'll see you next time on the Real Estate Disruptors podcast. Take care.