ROBERTSDALE – As the Gulf Coast enters the busiest part of hurricane season, Baldwin County officials went over procedures for dealing with storms and their impact.
The County Commission held a training exercise meeting Wednesday, Aug. 4. The drill included a scenario in which a major storm, “Hurricane Don,” was expected to make landfall on the Baldwin coast.
Zach Hood, Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency director, said that while the storm was a drill, the threat to the Gulf Coast this time of year is real.
“This is the first week of August as we’re going into August. September, October, November and you have to know that some of the historical data show that storms will strengthen at this particular time of year,” Hood said. “So, we would need to anticipate that.”
Hood said the county faces additional challenges this year. Some buildings and other facilities damaged by Hurricane Sally in September 2020 have still not been repaired.
You’ve got to know that we still have some compromised structures, some compromised roofs on homes, businesses, things like that,” Hood said. “So, we do have some vulnerabilities that we need to look at that maybe we wouldn’t have had previously.”
During the meeting, county commissioners and officials reviewed to prepare for a hurricane. Department heads were ordered to check fuel inventories and the status of generators for county buildings.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still going on, the availability of employees will also be an issue during an actual storm, Hood said.
“What we are asking for because we are in the middle of an apparent pandemic,” Hood said. “We’re asking for availability to see if we have any shortfalls or gaps that we may need to find and fill whether it’s internal or external as it pertains to working within the EOC.”
Another issue was what to do if the commission could not meet. If more than two of the four commissioners were infected by COVID-19 or were not able to attend a meeting due to a storm, the group would not have a quorum needed to conduct business during the emergency, Commissioner Jeb Ball said.
“Since there are only four of us, anything can happen,” Ball said. “It just so happened in the last hurricane, we were doing good getting all this done, but that may not be the case all the time.”
Ball said Thursday that county officials and attorneys had confirmed that the commission could delegate authority to the chairman, vice-chairman or other available commissioner if necessary.
During the exercise, county officials also went over plans to work with coastal cities to evacuate people if necessary. Hood said tourists and non-residents should be encouraged to evacuate first.
Commissioner Charles “Skip” Gruber said that even if a storm is not predicted to be a major hurricane, county officials should be prepared for any contingency.
“They’re so unpredictable. Sally wasn’t supposed to do what it did. It was supposed to be a small, light hurricane,” Gruber said.
