City Hall prepares for a hurricane, again, and again, and again
By Jeff Maxim, Management Analyst

Hurricanes are by their nature a perilous combination of destructive power and unpredictability. The sharpest minds and most advanced technology can at best provide an educated guess as to where, or how hard, or how frequently they will strike.

The 2004 Hurricane season has been unusually active, and Florida residents will not soon forget the names of Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. In the end, the City of Sunny Isles Beach was spared from the worst of these storms, but there was no way of knowing how we would fare as they marched closer. Because we couldn’t predict their path, we were obligated to prepare for each of these storms as if they were headed directly our way.

Preparing a city for a hurricane is no small task, and to be successful, it must be a team effort. Staff monitored updates from the National Hurricane Center, and as the storm drew closer, City Manager Christopher Russo arranged periodic meetings with representatives from every City department to discuss how best to prepare.

Planning focused primarily on how to protect the community from potentially heavy rains and wind. When a hurricane warning was declared, City staff notified construction sites to prepare their areas by securing loose items that could become dangerous in high winds. Sweeps of the City were made to remove banners and items that could be potentially dangerous, and City property was moved out of low-lying areas. Police made ready to deal with public safety issues related to the hurricane. After all the preparations were complete, there was nothing left to do but wait.

The effects of Charley and Ivan turned out to be minimal, but Frances passed close enough to do some light damage to the City. The Public Works crew was out early the following morning coordinating cleanup, the Information Technology Department brought systems back online, and everybody else pitched in to help the City get back to business. Special thanks should be given to those Police, such as Lt. Michael Grandinetti, who manned the Emergency Operations Center, and all those who were at their post before, during, and immediately after the Hurricane instead of with their families.

While Sunny Isles Beach suffered little from these storms, preparing for them proved to be good practice for staff, providing a great deal of useful material to incorporate into our Emergency Management Plan.

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