Bonita Springs reviews hurricane preparedness, FROC score and partner coordination ahead of storm season

Bonita Springs City Council heard a multi-agency briefing on hurricane preparedness Tuesday that outlined a shift from an emergency operations plan to a broader emergency management plan, a current voluntary Florida Recovery Obligation Calculation (FROC) score of roughly 41 out of 60 and steps staff will take before the August opt-in deadline.

The presentation matters because the city is entering hurricane season with recent storm experience and is coordinating with Lee County and state systems so it can request resources quickly and potentially receive expedited funding through FROC if a major event occurs.

Tony Backhurst, director of Neighborhood Services and Emergency Management for the City of Bonita Springs, told the council the city “has gone from an emergency operations plan ... to an emergency management plan,” a change he described as aligning mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery work. Backhurst said Bonita’s recent storms and recovery work prompted the broader plan and the compilation of a large document the city manager recently showed the council.

Backhurst explained FROC as a voluntary, audit-like program with a scoring structure tied to how quickly a jurisdiction can receive upfront disaster funding. “We just got our score back ... somewhere around 41 or 42, out of 60, which means if we do the questionnaire, we would get 62% of funding upfront when it comes to an incident,” Backhurst said. He and Deputy Director Chris Campbell told the council some improvements to increase the score require time and contract updates rather than large new capital outlays.

Ben Abes, director of public safety for Lee County, described county-level coordination, including a recent interagency briefing with about 400 stakeholders and an expanded Public Safety Center that will house emergency medical services, county communications and sheriff’s communications. “We appreciate the partnership with the city,” Abes said, and invited council members to tour the new 37,000-square-foot facility.

Representatives from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Bonita Springs Fire District and Bonita Springs Utilities summarized operational readiness: equipment checks, staging areas and mutual-aid agreements. Lieutenant Rush of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said staffing and staging areas were confirmed and described coordinated sheltering and post-storm reconnaissance. Deputy Chief Andrew Schmidt of the Benita Springs Fire District described urban search-and-rescue capabilities and urged residents to evacuate when ordered.

Alan Perry, safety and security coordinator for Bonita Springs Utilities, said the utility has updated its five-year emergency response plan, reinforced mutual-aid agreements, and is updating its hurricane-response procedures. Perry said upgrades to pump stations and lift-station controls have been completed in some districts to better protect electrical controls from surge and flooding.

Tony Backhurst also summarized the National Weather Service seasonal forecast and recent improvements in forecasting: “NOAA ... extended advance notice of potential tropical cyclone risks ... from 2 weeks to 3 weeks,” he said, and read the national forecast ranges for named storms and hurricanes.

Council members pressed staff on how to raise the FROC score and whether improvements would be costly; Backhurst and Campbell said many steps require staff time and policy or contracting updates. Council directed staff to continue the FROC work, pursue attainable improvements, and to return with details on items that would require contracts or spending.

The presentation concluded with an assurance that the city maintains real-time damage-assessment links to the county emergency operations center and the state EOC, and that partner agencies will continue coordinated daily calls during incidents.

Looking ahead, staff noted an opt-in deadline to the state FROC process in August and asked council to allow staff to continue pursuing FROC-related updates and contract work to improve the city’s score and readiness.