Osceola emergency management director outlines plan updates, exercises and federal funding concerns ahead of hurricane season

Bill Litton, Osceola County emergency management director, told the Osceola Board of County Commissioners on June 2 that the county has updated and filed its comprehensive emergency management plan with the state, added three new annexes and is preparing for the 2025 hurricane season while monitoring possible federal funding reductions.

Litton said the plan update — which he said has been approved by the state — now includes annexes for extreme weather, cyber response and livestock response. He also said county staff are completing a local mitigation strategy to be filed in September, which Litton said is required to make the county eligible for certain federal mitigation dollars after a disaster.

The county also is replacing its older damage-assessment software with ScribeTrack, Litton said, adding the new system integrates with WebEOC and will include a public-facing link for residents to report damage and upload photos. He described recent…