Flagler County has now released its Hurricane Matthew after action report, detailing what it can do differently should there be another hurricane to threaten the area this season.
- Hurricane Matthew action report released
- Flagler County to improve on storm response
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Nearly nine months later Flagler County has its Hurricane Matthew report card and residents like Judy Bowman believes it did well.
"Overall they did a really good job, I was surprised," said Bowman.
County Administrator Craig Coffey said the county was sharp on communicating with the community via social media sites and other online platforms including radio. Coffey and Director of Emergency Management Steve Garten said they moved quickly and efficiently during evacuations and recovery periods to keep people safe.
"No one got hurt, no one died," said Coffey.
But according to the report, staff reviewed countless documents and conducted interviews to build and put it together to aid officials for this hurricane season.
Along with the positives came at least 25 issues listed in the report to improve on. Issues included hospital evacuations, shelter and other facilities preparedness, debris pick up needing more generators, and staffing.
"The quicker and faster we can get them out and get them to listen to us, the better we are. The idea is to make sure their plans are prepared and at least we know about it on the front side and make sure we have people and locations for them to go to," Steve Garten, County Emergency Management, said.
"Had we gotten hit I think more of those weaknesses would have shown themselves more. It got lucky in the end so that gives us more to work forward to," said Coffey.
Coffey said people who were out of power for up to six days didn't have a means to charge their devices to get information. Now they plan to implement charging stations at libraries and community centers around town so people will have a place to go to help keep up with important information.
"Charging stations would be good and any shelters, people had nowhere to go. I think we always have to do more to be prepared, preparing the people is the most important thing," said Bowman.
The county administrator said they're already meeting to discuss staffing issues and sheltering plans for storms. Both fuel system and radio systems are also in the works to be replaced and they are in the process of getting new generators.