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North Port outlines hurricane-season readiness, new EOC timeline and software upgrades
Summary
City emergency staff briefed the commission on last season's storm activity and a suite of preparedness upgrades'including WebEOC coordination with county/state partners, federalized feeding contracts, automated employee role assignments and an EOC construction schedule aiming for occupancy by July 2027.
City emergency-management officials on May 4 briefed the North Port City Commission on the city's preparations for the 2026 hurricane season and a multi-step upgrade of emergency operations.
Emergency Manager Stacy Hill told the commission that while North Port avoided direct impacts last Atlantic season, it was still a major year in the basin: "13 named storms, five hurricanes and four major hurricanes," she said, and urged officials not to become complacent. AJ Brown, the city's emergency management planning coordinator, cited Colorado State University's forecast of about 13 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes and said, "it only takes one storm" to create major local consequences.
Hill outlined operational changes intended to speed response and improve coordination. The city adopted WebEOC incident-management software to align resource requests with Sarasota County and the state, which Hill said will reduce duplicate paperwork and provide visibility into where resources are in the response lifecycle. "Now that we have the same software, we're working on getting them to talk to each other," Hill said.
Staff also updated standard operating guidelines and EOC activation thresholds, automated the employee "e-roll" so staff roles are assigned during onboarding, and secured federalized feeding contracts so FEMA can reimburse feeding costs after a disaster declaration. Hill said the city also uploaded public-infrastructure records to CrisisTrack to speed damage assessments and showed commissioners the EOC facility construction timeline: site clear and prep completed, slab-on-grade expected in August, topping out in October, building dry by November, power and HVAC installed by February and final preparations in April with an occupancy target of July 2027.
In discussion, commissioners pressed staff on training and mutual aid. Hill said FEMA courses (ICS 100/200/700/800) are offered monthly when testing is available and that staff run tabletop and field exercises; a recent damage-assessment exercise included utilities, public works and finance. When asked about employee overtime during activations, staff confirmed overtime is payable with city-manager approval and, if under a federal declaration, is typically eligible for FEMA reimbursement.
The presentation concluded with staff noting upcoming EOC section briefings, a communications exercise with the city's call center and Joint Information Center, and continued public outreach following a recent hurricane expo. The commission did not take formal action at the workshop; staff said some items, including reserve allocation discussions tied to emergency response, will return to the commission during the budget process.
