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Boca Raton emergency manager highlights storm readiness, CERT and FROC reimbursement steps
Summary
Emergency Manager Christine Mucci told the council Boca Raton is the only municipality in Palm Beach County with National Weather Service 'storm ready' certification and outlined mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery work including debris plans, reunification, CERT training and participation in the state's FROC reimbursement program.
Christine Mucci, the City of Boca Raton’s emergency manager, briefed the council Aug. 26 on an all-hazards approach to emergency management and the city’s preparedness work as peak hurricane season continues.
Mucci said the city focuses on four phases: mitigation (beach renourishment, drainage and flood-reduction projects), preparedness (plans, public education, tabletop and full-scale exercises), response (incident command structure and mutual aid) and recovery (infrastructure restoration and reimbursement tracking).
She noted Boca Raton is the only municipality in Palm Beach County certified as “storm ready” by the National Weather Service and said the city is finalizing its 2024 Local Mitigation Strategy plan, which the state has approved and will present for local approval. “We’re actually the only city in Palm Beach County to be storm ready certified,” she said.
Mucci described practical preparedness work: debris plans that clear roads for emergency access, a distribution plan for water and supplies, a reunification plan for mass-casualty incidents, city employee shelter planning, and a process to manage emergency donations instead of ad-hoc crowdfunding. She also described multiagency mutual-aid deployments (police, fire, utilities, and emergency management staff) to other Florida counties after major storms.
On reimbursements, Mucci outlined participation in the Florida Recovery Obligation Calculation (FROC) program, which can expedite reimbursement by obligating funds at the state level and provide the city with up to 80% of obligated money while the state completes reviews.
Mucci encouraged residents to sign up for alerts and preparedness tools (myboca.us/alerts and myboca.us/hurricaneguide) and noted community programs such as CERT training run through the fire department, upcoming CERT classes (she said classes were expected in October), and public education events in libraries and with local TV meteorology partners.
Council members asked follow-up questions about CERT scheduling and upcoming classes; Mucci said the next classes were expected in October and information is available on the city website.
