From Ian to Helene and Milton: Evolving Hurricane Preparedness and Mitigation in West-Central Florida

• In Event: Co-Producing Resilience: Community, Collaboration, and Policy in Crisis Response

Abstract

Historically after major natural disasters, emergency management literature focuses on household and community levels of preparedness; however, the increasingly prevalent and severe disasters that have occurred in the last half century have necessitated the expansion of these observations to the organizational level of mitigation and preparedness (Sadiq & Weible, 2010). The back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season were an unprecedented test of West-Central Florida’s emergency infrastructure, only two short years after the devastation of Hurricane Ian in the same region, exposing the need to understand how lessons learned from the 2022 hurricane may have informed the mitigation and preparedness for the 2024 hurricanes. This study examines existing emergency management plans and policies of six West-Central Florida counties (Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas, Hernando, Sarasota, and Manatee) to identify mitigation and preparedness measures that were activated during Hurricane Ian in 2022, and then, if and how they were utilized in the 4-week period during the 2024 hurricane season. This study analyzes the policies and plans for all three hurricanes and then compares them to post-disaster documentation, both official (after-action reports) and unofficial (news articles), to identify the mitigation and preparedness measures that evolved based on lessons learned. Additionally, this study includes subject matter expert interviews with those emergency management agencies on how they saw a shift in their mitigation and preparedness from Hurricane Ian in 2022 to Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024. Our study evaluates how these takeaways from Hurricane Ian were integrated into planning documents and response actions for Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Using documentary data analysis and qualitative semi-structured interviews, we highlight how emergency operation plans differ from the actual response (Knox, 2021). This study adds to the literature by comparing those differences specifically reflective of mitigation and preparedness across multiple hurricanes impacting the same region in multiple years. Early results show that prior hurricane events have resulted in the critical updates of necessary measures for organizational mitigation and preparedness. Understanding how policies manifest into practice and the impacts these practices have on future disaster planning can better inform preparedness, mitigation and response practices.

Authors

• Megan Corn, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author

• Savannah Marie Havird, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author

• Rachel French, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author

• Ratna B Dougherty, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author