- June 6, 2025
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In the time period from 2017 to 2024, the United States has experienced as many landfalls of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes as it has from 1960 to 2016, according to Jennifer Hubbard of the National Weather Service’s Tampa office.
However, Sarasota County shared some advice to help residents be prepared for hurricane season, which begins June 1, during its community conversation on hurricane preparedness, held May 8 in the auditorium of Riverview High School.
County, state and federal officials turned out to speak before a largely full auditorium, with pre-registrations totaling 600 according to County Administrator Jonathan Lewis.
The lineup of speakers included Hubbard; Sandra Tapfumanyei, emergency management chief in Sarasota County; Kevin Guthrie, executive director of Florida Division of Emergency Management and John Brogan, federal coordinating officer of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Hubbard noted some changes at the National Weather Service.
She said the time frame has changed for advisories of potential tropical cyclones.
The forecast now provides these advisories for possible impacts from a system that has not yet formed into a storm 72 hours in advance; previously, only it was 48 hours.
She said last year, the introduction of new graphics emphasizes watches and warnings outside of the projected path cones.
She said many people misunderstand the cones, which only show the average error of where the center of the storm will track — not how far the impacts could extend.
“Last year’s storm, we saw we don’t have to be in the cone to experience those impacts, and so we want people to take every storm seriously, even if it is 100-plus miles off our coast,” she said, noting the flooding impacts of Hurricane Debby despite its distance.
She also said in the past decade, there has been an increasing risk from rip currents, and Hurricanes.gov will highlight the presence of any rip currents in the Atlantic basin.
Hubbard said while storm surge used to be the biggest cause of deaths from hurricanes, rainfall now holds that status.
She said water has at least an 85% fatality rate, whether storm surge or floodwater, and more than half of flood-related fatalities result from people trying to drive through flood waters.
Tapfumaneyi said Sarasota County is looking to boost its graphic imagery and its explanations of storm surge.
She also said the county has purchased a new warehouse large enough to fit all disaster supplies and is trying to increase its capacity to receive resources from the state, noting upgrades to its staging area at Twin Lakes Park.
She said the county will continue implementing improvements throughout the season.
Guthrie spoke on how residents can be prepared for flooding, emphasizing the intention of FEMA is not a service to be relied on for all needs.
He said the average payout from FEMA for a Floridian over the past 10 years is about $4,000.
“FEMA is there to help the worst of the worst, the situations that truly are emergency, dire situations,” he said, asking residents to take protective actions for themselves and their properties.
However, Brogan said, even if they have insurance, people should still register for FEMA assistance, stating the service is intended to supplement what insurance provides.
“We can’t duplicate those benefits that you’re already provided by your insurance company,” he said.
Guthrie urged attendees to consider flood insurance, stating if they cannot afford an insurance policy, to think about a contents policy. He said in Palm Beach, Florida’s most expensive market, a contents policy can cover $40,000 in home contents for $298 per year.
He said Florida is doing everything it can in terms of hurricane preparedness.
In his speech, he noted the state division of emergency management will approach visiting communities differently, gathering at a community center in a neighborhood rather than traveling door to door.
"I want to give you some comfort tonight and say, look, hurricane season in Florida is going to be, the response to it, the recovery from it, is going to look the exact same way it always has," he said. "Our federal partners are going to be here to support us with whatever we need them to do, and then we're going to take the lead on … what resources are coming into the state, and then we're going to give those down to the local emergency management directors to do those."
