Kathy Perkins, director of Pinellas County Emergency Management, briefed the Board of County Commissioners on Aug. 14 on post-2024 recovery, ongoing shelter and special-needs planning, and preparedness actions ahead of the seasonal peak. "We had our final coordination call with FEMA for their direct housing program," Perkins said, reporting that FEMA assistance has placed 277 families in direct housing and that 39 of those have transitioned to permanent solutions; the program will run through Sept. 2026.

Perkins told commissioners that outreach efforts have expanded since the storms: emergency management held 184 public events in the fiscal year and reached roughly 20,750 people, double last year’s outreach. New initiatives this year include a Hispanic outreach event with Spanish-language materials and a deaf-access event conducted with the Family Center of Deafness. The county has also distributed more than 125,000 printed hurricane guides and an additional 20,000 through a schools partnership; staff purchased 10,000 additional guides after demand exceeded supply.

Perkins described shelter planning and special-needs support: the county maintains general-population, pet-friendly and special-needs shelters and asked residents to register for transportation or medical assistance on disaster.pinellas.gov. The county’s special-needs registry and case management will continue to follow FEMA direct-housing clients with 30-day check-ins. The emergency-management office reported producing shelter task-force training, 12 shelter training sessions with roughly 445 participants, and a just-in-time shelter training video for on-call staff.

On state law and planning, Perkins flagged Senate Bill 180, which includes provisions affecting local preparedness and public information. Staff are updating county web pages and await Florida Division of Emergency Management guidance on new training requirements for elected officials, municipalities and public-works personnel; the county also plans to provide municipalities with templates for comprehensive emergency management plans. Perkins said a draft update to the county’s comprehensive emergency management plan will be provided to the Board for review by Aug. 22 and submitted to the state by Oct. 6, with adoption planned in January–February.

Perkins described new operational integrations: the county is working with Duke Energy to import outage and gauge layers, integrating utility and wastewater provider data to better track critical-facility impacts (traffic signals, hospitals, nursing homes) and exploring a real-time flood-forecasting dashboard. She noted recent severe-weather events this summer, including a tornado and a localized strong wind event the National Weather Service called a “gustnado.”

Commissioners asked how to increase resident registration for Alert Pinellas and Ready Pinellas; Perkins urged the board to promote Alert Pinellas and the Ready Pinellas app and noted that the county issued 171 Alert Pinellas notifications last year. She reiterated that shelters and public transportation are available for residents who cannot stay with friends or family during an evacuation.

Ending: Perkins said the county will continue mitigation expos, targeted outreach to mobile-home communities and work with municipalities to improve regional preparedness; no formal policy decisions were made at the Aug. 14 work session.