Committees amend disaster-preparedness bill to limit use of correctional facilities as public shelters (SB239)

The Senate Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs voted on Jan. 31, 2025 to advance SB239 with substantive amendments limiting which state buildings must be designed and equipped to serve as hurricane shelters. The Committee on Government Operations did not have a quorum and deferred its formal vote to a reconvened session on Feb. 4, 2025.

Tommy Johnson, Director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the committees the department supports the measure’s goal of hurricane resistance but cautioned that correctional facilities have limited capacity to shelter members of the public. "We do believe that all our correctional facilities should be able to withstand Cat 5. ... However, our capacity to hold other individuals, to shelter other individuals would be limited, but we could make some space with planning," Johnson said, and added the department would coordinate with city, county and state emergency managers.

Dr. Keone Dudley, testifying remotely, urged changing the bill’s trigger language and adding technical specifications. Dudley recommended striking "constructed after Jan. 1, 2026" and instead tying coverage to projects for which appropriations are made in the 2026 legislative and county council sessions and thereafter. He also proposed specifying wind speeds and internal bathroom access — "with wind speeds of 200 miles per hour and to have interior passages to bathrooms" — to ensure buildings can practically function as shelters.

At decision-making, the PSM committee adopted amendments that: remove correctional facilities from the requirement to shelter the public; exempt structures that are not fully enclosed or not suitable to shelter large numbers (for example, covered playgrounds and sheds); change wording from "public buildings" to "state buildings"; and accept language proposed by DAGS. The committee retained the original construction-date trigger of Jan. 1, 2026 rather than adopting Dudley’s appropriations-tied suggestion.

Why it matters: the amendments narrow which state-owned facilities may be required to serve as shelters during hurricanes and clarify that makeshift or partially enclosed structures are not intended as shelter locations. Corrections officials noted that, even if strengthened structurally, correctional facilities will be limited in their ability to receive members of the public without additional planning.

The Senate Committee on Government Operations plans a reconvened vote on Feb. 4, 2025, at 3 p.m. in Conference Room 225 to record its recommendation.