Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Communications topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Pasco officials say social, website and traditional media efforts reached hundreds of thousands during storms
Summary
Media relations staff reported large spikes in web and social traffic during hurricanes Helene and Milton and outlined steps to expand customer-service and multi-channel outreach before the next season.
Pasco Countymedia, communications and customer-service leaders told the Board of County Commissioners that changes made after the 2024 storms increased reach and helped residents find life-safety information during activations.
"We pushed out 95 news releases and handled more than 250 media contacts during Helene and Milton last year," said Tambry Lane, the countymedia relations and communications representative. Lane presented traditional-media tallies and social metrics showing large short-term increases in engagement: the county estimates more than 45 million impressions across television, radio and online during the two storms and more than half a million social followers across platforms.
Lane said the county's website pop-up (a one-stop emergency-resources modal) and a new graphic-designer position improved message clarity. "That website pop up was a place to put all of this information," she said, and that the vendor submitted the work for an award: "they submitted it for an award on our behalf and we won a gold award for that."
Customer-service staff reported heavy call and chat volumes. County customer service answered roughly 66,000 calls during September and October (compared with a monthly average of about 17,500), and handled nearly 8,000 online chats in the same period. Staff said they will add trained customer-service personnel to emergency rosters and implement an AI-powered chat tied to live website content.
The briefing covered targeted messaging tools used in 2024, including LED trucks, digital billboards, the Everbridge mass-notification system and interactive evacuation maps that allow residents to zoom to specific addresses. Lane said the county's GIS and web teams produced a detailed evacuation map that drove a spike in visits when messages were posted.
Why it matters: Clear, multi-channel messaging helps residents make evacuation and preparedness decisions. County staff said they plan to expand staffing, pre-position digital assets, and use new automation (including AI chat) to handle high volume during activations.
Staff also discussed coordination with municipal PIOs, Spanish-language partners and sign-language interpretation at news conferences to reach non-English speakers and residents who need accessible formats.
County leaders recommended continued investment in pre-scripted messaging, redundant distribution channels and cross-jurisdictional joint information center procedures.
