Florida Division of Emergency Management director talks about rebuilding after storms

Business and community leaders attended the Flagler Tiger Bay Club luncheon on Wednesday to see the guest speaker: Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

But Guthrie told them he is someone you’d rather not have around, because it could mean your community has just been torn apart by a hurricane or another disaster.

“You never want to see me. You never really want to see me,” Guthrie said.

That was not the case for this particular visit at Channel Side in Palm Coast which was like a homecoming for Guthrie, who previously served as Flagler County's emergency management director.

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Guthrie has more than 30 years of experience in public safety and emergency management in Florida, according to a press release. He also worked for 23 years with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, where he was a police officer and emergency preparedness coordinator.

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Guthrie in 2021 as director of the Florida Department of Emergency Management.

Guthrie said he agreed to speak to the Flagler Tiger Bay Club eight months ago. But he has had to adjust that talk as first Hurricane Ian and then Hurricane Nicole churned across the Sunshine State, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Ian and Nicole brought hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to Flagler and Volusia counties. The storms flooded homes, tore up piers and washed away sand dunes. Ian was linked to five deaths in Volusia County. Nicole forced the evacuation of condos in Daytona Beach Shores and sent homes in Wilbur-by-the-Sea crumbling into the ocean.

A resilient recovery

Guthrie said he wants to assemble a team of federal, state and local agencies and community leaders to meet with residents about recovering from Ian and Nicole.

He said he wants a more enduring recovery. For example, Guthrie does not want to do just coastal restoration; he wants to ensure resiliency is part of it, as well.

“We got to figure out how to get the resiliency in that,” Guthrie said.

He said resiliency could be different things in different places. It could take the form of a seawall covered by dunes in a place like Flagler Beach, where Nicole gnawed big holes in A1A. The scenic state road was patched within days in Flagler and Volusia counties.

Guthrie said he had not heard of any problems with a seawall in Marineland. But you cannot put a seawall along the entire coast, he added.

“How do we put lipstick on the pig,” he said about a seawall.

Guthrie mentioned that mangroves were knocked down from storm surge in southwest Florida.

He said he is working to standardize and automate the process for communities to submit claims. Those claims can quickly add up to significant dollars, so it’s important to be efficient to get every dollar possible.

Trailers available but permits aren't

Guthrie also noted that his agency has 2,900 trailers spread out throughout the state for people who have been displaced by storms and need temporary housing. But he said the problem has been getting permits and approvals from local governments to be able to put those trailers on people’s driveways.

Guthrie said his goal is to submit $4 billion in city, county and state claims to the Federal Emergency Management Agency along with individual assistance claims within 12 months. If successful in reaching that goal, then the state will receive about $800 million in Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding. Local jurisdictions can use that money to buyout properties that have flooded at least three times or to elevate the same properties, Guthrie wrote in a subsequent email.

Guthrie also praised Isabella Tarsitano, 15, who at one time designed a website to connect elderly people with students who can help the elderly prepare for a storm. Tarsitano is an intern with Flagler County Emergency Management.

Guthrie said his goal is to get to full-recovery from a disaster in seven years. He compared that to Hurricane Andrew which devastated parts of South Florida in 1992. Full recovery from Andrew took 26 years, Guthrie said.

“That cannot happen,” he said.

He suggested that local governments develop a plan for redevelopment before a disaster strikes. They can put the plan on a shelf, so it’s ready if needed. Start thinking of how to recover, he said.

“We will not be judged by how we respond,” Guthrie said. “We will be judged by how we recover.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida emergency chief talks rebuilding after Hurricanes Ian, Nicole