PREPARE****PREPARE****PREPARE
Friends, Residents, and Tourists,
My plans were to wish everyone a safe and joyous 4th of July, celebrating our independence. Unfortunately, as of this writing, Hurricane Elsa threatens our community sometime between the early morning hours of July 6 through July 7, 2021. This should not dampen our plans for Sunday July 4th and our tremendous fireworks display is still on track for 9 p.m. Sunday night. Please, please, please, use today and tomorrow to make your preparations. Use the following points as your checklist:
- DO NOT TRIM YOUR TRESS OF VEGETATION! The time for hurricane trimming was during the month of April and May. Trimming now may add to items that can blow around with the high gusty winds.
- Make sure you have an evacuation plan. As we found with Tropical Storm ETA last November, we cannot take the threat of flooding lightly. If the Hurricane weakens to a Tropical Storm, the Pinellas County shelters may not open. Therefore, you should plan on evacuating to a friend or relative’s home on high land or a hotel with a generator on high ground. Depending on high tides, we might call for our own barrier island evacuation. Be prepared should that be necessary. Gather your important papers, your pets and family members, and any valuables. Due to the high sea level in our community, please follow local evacuation orders.
- Use this time to remove items from your property that will blow in high winds.
- Fill the gas tank of your cars.
- Withdraw some cash from your bank account that you might need, because without power, ATM’s may not function. We have contacted Hanover Bank which might offer a mobile ATM to our community should there be a need.
- Listen to local weather, view the National Hurricane Center website, and view our web page. Our staff is working during this weekend to make assist in mitigating the threat of Hurricane Elsa.
- Sandbags are available at the fire station over the weekend and a pile of sand is located at John Pass Park on the eastern side of the parking lot. This is provided to our residents and our friends in the Redingtons. The process is self-serve currently. Once the governor declares an emergency in our county, we have an application ready for action with the Department of Environmental Protection to allow the removal of excess beach sand at Archibald Park. This will facilitate our sandbag filling operations.
Please enjoy the weekend, be prepared, and keep informed. Should you have any questions, please e-mail me at rdaniels@madeirabeachfl.gov.
Stay safe,
Robert Daniels
City Manager, City of Madeira Beach