NORTH PORT, Fla. — As we are nearly nine months since Ian, North Port officials are looking at ways to improve for the next hurricane season. They're taking a look at what worked and what did not.
After Ian, I-75 closed due to flooding from the Myakka River. People had to be rescued by airboat and others got supplies from loved ones as they remained trapped.
"The water just keeps coming up and they pretty much needed to be rescued to get out of there," said Ivan Belyy, who was looking for his loved ones two days after Ian.
Mayor Barbara Langdon said through the process they learned a lot.
"I think what went really well was immediately after the storm, people really pulled together," Langdon said.
She explained how non-profits helped people in need and others nearby got their airboats and canoes to rescue people trapped by the rising water.
Though with the successful times came the shortfalls.
"If you don't acknowledge what went wrong, then you can't learn from it and then you can't fix it," Langdon explained.
For example, she says the Emergency Operations Center, running out of City Hall during the storm, lost power. The generators and back-ups also failed along. She says communication also failed.
"Staff had to move from city hall to one of the community centers that weren't in better shape and that's really, totally unacceptable," Langdon said.
In the city, she says structures eroded and roads flooded. The two ramps to North Port off of I-75 also closed as National Guard rescued people.
"So we need to make sure that area never gets impacted again in a situation like this," Langdon said.
She hopes to do this with community input from resiliency workshops like the one held on Monday. Though some ideas come back to money in order to make improvements.
At a budget meeting coming up, Langdon wants to discuss an individual EOC where it will not have to work out of City Hall.
"Enhancing our communication structure at City Hall and also upgrading our generators," Langdon said.
She also wants to upgrade North Port's infrastructure with a local radio station.
"The city is aligning and integrating our infrastructure to act the city can break into WKDW programming in times of emergency," Langdon said.
An emergency we can all learn from as we begin another hurricane season.
"It's not a matter of if, it's really more of a matter of when," Langdon said.
