CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Hurricane season was the focus for many business owners in Cape Coral on Wednesday who attended a luncheon focused on hurricane preparedness, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce.
“It does not matter if there’s a forecast for 30 storms, or one storm. If we have that one storm that affects us, it’s a bad year for us," says Emergency Management Manager Alvin Henderson.
Fire Chief Ryan Lamb and Henderson were both keynote speakers at the meeting.
“We’re in a shelter deficit, so we talk about really having good family plans and business plans to know where you’re going to go so you can enact that plan when you have that need," says the Chief.
He adds that a critical part of any plan is making sure your shutters are up, and while the council decided to vote down a new shutter ordinance that would dictate how long people can keep their shutters up, the Chief says that it's still a good idea to not leave those shutters up for long after a storm passes.
“We would encourage people to take them down when there isn’t a threat of a storm because it’s safer to get folks out of your property. Especially in a business aspect, you want to attract people into a business," says Lam.
Chief Lamb does that the city is working on other solutions to help keep both businesses and shoppers safe, saying that they are working with emergency management and the Chamber on a new web page to show which businesses are back open once the storm ends.
“We are in the beta phases right now, but we’re actively working with the Chamber of Commerce and the Cape Coral Construction Industry Association to get those businesses in and preregistered for that," explains Lamb.
The rollout for that service, according to Chamber President Donna Germain, is expected to happen as soon as August, with the goal to be in place for the peak of the season.
“It’s mostly just when the incidents happen, and to be able to communicate for those specific incidents or storms or other things that happen," says Germain.
