EOC deputy urges Saint Augustine Beach residents to check evacuation zones and flood insurance as hurricane peak approaches

Mayor Dylan Romrell and Kelly Wilson, deputy director of the St. Johns County Emergency Operations Center, discussed hurricane readiness for Saint Augustine Beach on Monday.

Wilson said the EOC maintains daily staffing of seven people that can expand “to somewhere in the neighborhood of a 100 and a 150 people” during major events, and that the center coordinates evacuations, sheltering and post-storm debris management with county and municipal partners. "We bring in all of our partners in," she said.

Wilson said the EOC works with utilities including Florida Power & Light and JEA to coordinate power and water restoration and that the center prioritizes clearing major roads and restoring service where teams can restore the most customers most quickly. "If they can do an hour's worth of work over here and restore a thousand customers, that's what they're doing," she said.

Wilson described the EOC building as designed to remain staffed during storms and said phones at the center are answered by county employees who normally work in other departments such as libraries and administration so residents can reach a live person for information and reports during events.

She urged residents to rely on official sources for storm information and preparedness steps. "Make sure you're looking at the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center for your hurricane information. Then follow official sources of information. Saint Augustine Beach, Saint Johns County, the EOC," Wilson said. She directed residents to the St. Johns County Emergency Management website to check whether their address is in an evacuation zone and to heed evacuation orders when a zone is called.

Wilson also stressed insurance preparation: "Go check your insurance policies. Make sure you have flood insurance. Those are gonna be critical if 1 day it's our turn and the hurricane does, in fact, come here directly and causes a great deal of damage," she said.

She warned that the season is entering its peak and that most storms occur after Aug. 1. "Eighty to 90% of storms in a hurricane season happen from August 1 forward," she said, noting ocean temperatures are rising at this time of year.

The discussion was informational; no formal actions, motions or votes were taken during the interview.

Mayor Romrell and Wilson closed by reminding viewers to monitor utility outage pages (for example, Florida Power & Light's outage map) and county channels for real-time updates after a storm.