LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Lee County leaders are reacting to a new report released about the county's response to Hurricane Ian. It's called the after-action report, put together by a third-party firm. It shows what they thought was successful and what needs work.
County commissioners were expected to discuss it at a meeting on Tuesday, though nothing was said as Chair Brian Hamman asked the Board if they had questions for the County Manager.
Fox 4 spoke with both Hamman and the county's Public Safety Director Benjamin Abes after the meeting.
"The plan that we had in place really worked well," Hamman said. "The departments all communicated well with each other and did everything they could to make sure that the residents of Lee County had the best chance to protect themselves as this storm barred down on us."
Though the director admits there are lessons they've learned.
"There’s issues on communication, areas where we can better staff and prepare for some of the impacts of such a devastating storm," said Abes.
One of the lessons: shelters. Though the report calls it "successful," it shows shortfalls, too.
It says shelter staff did not have enough time to make it to their assigned shelters and needed better training.
Shelters did not open until the day before Ian, so we asked Hamman if this was too late.
"Again, reading the report I think certainly Ben [Abes] can answer any technical questions about that from the report," he said. "But reading the report, I think people had plenty of time to get to the shelters."
That despite what the report showed. Also documented: evacuations, which faced the most criticism.
The report says the timing of the evacuation aligns with Lee County's plan. However, on the county website, it shows Lee County can take up to 41 hours to evacuate.
For Ian, evacuation orders for the barrier islands happened 32 hours before Ian made landfall. It's a decision Abes says he stands by.
"I whole heartedly agree that evacuations were done at the right time," he explained.
However, as Fox 4 reported in our seven-month long investigation, based on the county's plan from wind thresholds and storm surge data, evacuations should have started Sunday night at 11 p.m.
Instead, they didn't start until Tuesday, the morning before Ian hit. That decision came from now former County Manger Roger Desjarlais.
"Certainly I think there was enough time to get out of the flood zone, yes," Hamman said.
Now moving forward, Abes admits lessons learned by the county and personally.
"I think the power of Mother Nature cannot be underestimated," he said.
Nearly each topic came with a recommendation. On Tuesday, the county approved a contract with a third-party to provide shelter staff to better serve evacuees.
