- Taylor County's Division of Emergency Management are looking for help from the state budget to build a new Emergency Operations Center.
- Emergency Management said they have "outgrown" the current facility that has housed multiple agencies during hurricane response and recovery.
- Watch the video to find out why new funding is needed and how the money will help the County.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Taylor County Emergency Management hopes to upgrade its services, that calls for building a brand new facility. Now, they're looking for funds from the state budget to do it. We're finding out how last year's severe weather events demonstrated why this building is needed.
While life looks pretty calm at Taylor County's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) right now, during storm preparation and recovery, things look very different.
STACEY WALKER - VOLUNTEER - TAYLOR COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
WALKER SOT: "Imagine having an entire FEMA division sitting next to someone doing the financials," said Stacey Walker. Walker has volunteered at the EOC for the last two years. "Then you have someone next to you doing all of the missions for food, supplies, for housing, getting the Governor here. It is very hectic and very chaotic."
On average, how many people are in this room?
"In this room, by itself, at any given time, between 50 and 60 people," said Walker.
What's like when you are dealing with people in immense crisis and how would a new facilitate help mitigate some of that?
"It's very overwhelming because you are dealing with a lot of people in an emotional state," said Walker. "They're as stressed as they have ever done and they don't really know where to go."
Currently, Emergency Management has one room where all of their operations for Taylor County take place during a storm. For Helene, they housed multiple agencies.
"What we have found out over the past couple of hurricanes, that our EOC, we have definitely outgrown our current facility," said Dr. Danny Glover, Taylor County Emergency Management Director.
A reason why the division is going after funding from the state budget this year for a new facility.
Why do you think it is such a necessity right now that you do have this new building?
"Because we can provide better services to our residents, and at the end of the day, that's what it's about," said Glover. "We want to build that new building that's safe, that's got the infrastructure to withstand the storms."
Emergency Management Director, Danny Glover said the goal is to have a facility that can comfortably house agencies, withstand a category 5 storm, and most significantly, host a shelter and evacuees on-site.
Last year, Walker said organizing off-site shelters was difficult.
"It was a day's worth of facilitating, getting it open, getting it ready for people, getting the cots there," said Walker. "If we had a facility that was already regulated, that already had all of the supplies here, it would make such a difference because there was a lot of confusion last year."
Glover said it would also help improve the efficiency of their department.
"We realize 3 hurricanes in one year, we hope it's not us for a while, but we could see that again this year, and we just need that infrastructure to move our county forward," said Glover.
The County received $2,500 from last year's state budget for this project. This year they are requesting an additional 7,500 to be able to build the facility they need, demands they noticed during Hurricanes Debby and Helene last year. The state budget will begin to be finalized and discussed at the beginning of April.
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