Governor’s
Hurricane Conference Features FSEC Programs on Renewables and
Sustainability
|
The destructive power of Hurricane Katrina
left her mark on one of many homes in Mississippi.
Photo: Bill Young |
The words “hurricane season” have taken on new meaning
for Floridians during the past two years. The state has been battered
on all sides by some of the most destructive storms in history,
and many new efforts have begun to prepare citizens for future
storms.
One older effort that has continued but made big changes is the
Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference, which held its 20th annual meeting in May in Fort Lauderdale. It brought together more
than 3,000 people from the public and private sectors with emergency
management responsibilities to discuss strategies for dealing with
hurricane planning, response, recovery and mitigation.
For the 14th consecutive year, FSEC was well represented at this
meeting with both a display of photovoltaic
(PV) equipment that
can be used during disaster recovery and participation in a workshop
on “Emergency
Power in a Disaster 101.” FSEC’s Bill Young joined
with Jeff Curry of Lakeland Electric to put on a 3-1/2 hour program
on utility company emergency operations, emergency generator power,
renewable energy sources and operational disaster-resistant buildings.
Bill also gave a report on damage assessment from last year’s
storms showing the survivability of solar equipment and discussing
the benefits of solar systems after a major storm.
“It was a great program,” he noted. “The attendees
included emergency managers, first responders, public works employees,
city managers and Red Cross and other volunteer organizations from
around the state as well as outside of Florida. What I especially
like in this year’s program that was a major step forward
was the promotion of the Florida Office of Emergency Management’s
priority that preparing for a hurricane is not just the government’s
responsibility but also a civic responsibility for everyone living
in our state. This gave us the chance to talk about ways that home
owners and business owners as well as government agencies could
use PV and other solar systems during and after natural disasters
like hurricanes.”
Young added that he took the Governor’s theme of promoting
the development of a new "culture of preparedness” to
talk to the attendees about disaster resistance in a sustainable
way. “I discussed that instead of responding to a disaster
with massive resources, each individual and business should consider
building a disaster-resistant building that is structurally sound,
very energy efficient, and power by renewables for sustainability,” he
explained. “As a result, future disasters will have minimal
damage, impact, cost and we’ll even be saving lives.”
For more information on FSEC’s activities in the area of
disaster relief, visit www.energyfordisasters.org.
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