Okaloosa County is fronting nearly $10 million in Hurricane Isaias costs from its general fund reserves while it waits on federal reimbursement, County Administrator John Hofstad told the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday.
Hofstad gave the figures during a storm impact update at the board’s Oct. 20 regular meeting. Public Safety Director Patrick Maddox then recounted the county’s preparation and response to the storm, which made landfall in Okaloosa County on Oct. 9, and outlined where recovery stands.
Nearly $10 million and counting
Hofstad said the county is looking at about $4.3 million in building damage, $1.4 million in upfront costs for water and sewer, and an estimated $4 million in debris removal before a second push.
“So in total, that’s almost $10 million,” Hofstad said. “I want to just take a second and thank this board for the work you’ve done over the past 10 years in raising our general fund reserves to the level they are today, which is in excess of $20 million.”
When Hofstad started in the role in 2014, he said, the county had less than $5 million in general fund reserves.
“I say that because you’re looking at roughly $10 million in money that we’re going to have to front before we get any reimbursement, and we have the fortunate ability to have a general fund reserve to draw from,” Hofstad said.
Hofstad credited the board’s spending decisions and its millage rate of 3.83 mills. He said the county operates on a budget of more than $700 million across 15 departments, including its own water and sewer utility and three airports, and collects about $120 million a year in property tax revenue. Because the county has not had a significant impact from a tropical event in more than 20 years, he said, it was able to build its reserves to the current level.
Hofstad also pointed to Amendment 3, the statewide homestead property tax exemption measure on the Nov. 3 ballot. He said it would cut county revenue by $15 million in year one and $25 million in year two, a 21% hit to general fund revenue.
- “We will not be able to raise those general fund reserves to a level to be able to offset an issue like this in the future if we have to contemplate that significant a reduction in our revenue,” Hofstad said.
Maddox said people regularly ask whether the county needs that level of reserve. He said $10 million “went in two weeks, or a week and change, and it’s counting.”
“And if we didn’t have that money, that’s not ‘I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,’” Maddox said. “That’s money we have to lay out and may be reimbursed if those categories of reimbursement get turned on based on the level of impact.”
Chairman Trey Goodwin said the costs could have been a problem if the county had only $5 million in reserves, and he pointed to Bay County’s experience after Hurricane Michael. He said the storm’s immediate impact could have been double or triple without the weather factors that weakened it.
“Nobody likes the county or any government to sit on a pile of money and just leave it there not working,” Goodwin said. “The reality of it is it’s invested, it’s earning interest, but if you don’t have it when you need it, even if you only need it every 10 years or 15 years, when you do, if you don’t have it, it’s a big problem.”
Waiting on a federal declaration
Maddox said the county must first meet its own threshold of $1,064,000 in damage. All counties in the impacted area then submit their numbers together to reach a state threshold of more than $43 million.
The county has submitted its numbers, Maddox said, and the governor’s office has requested a major disaster declaration from the White House and FEMA. The request now sits at the federal level awaiting approval.
- “That’s why we have not had any great movement of money or other categories turned on just yet,” Maddox said.
Hurricane Isaias came ashore ‘smack in the middle of Destin,’ but damage varied widely, Maddox says
Hurricane Isaias' eyewall came ashore in Destin as a Category 2 storm, but officials said the damage varied widely, with significant gusts to the northwest.
The county currently operates multi-agency resource recovery units at the Fort Walton Beach Convention Center and the Destin Community Center. Maddox said those will move next Monday to the Rigdon Center, the former Northwest Florida Fairgrounds in Fort Walton Beach, and will remain open at least through the beginning of November. Deputy County Administrator Craig Coffey confirmed the move.
Maddox said residents can visit the centers for help with forms and questions once additional assistance categories open under a major disaster declaration.
“Rather than getting on Google, they can get a representative from the state or federal agency to say, ‘Here’s how it works,'” Maddox said.
How the storm played out
Maddox said storms that form in the Bay of Campeche are concerning because they leave very little reaction time. A strong El Niño eroded the back end of Isaias, he said, and in any other year the storm could have looked like Hurricane Michael from a meteorological standpoint.
Isaias came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds. Maddox said a weather feature known as a sting jet produced stronger winds than normal on the west side of the storm, devastating western portions of Okaloosa County along with Santa Rosa and Escambia counties.
- “But as we preach over and over again, it’s expected local impacts that we need to watch, not the category of the storm, not the mile an hour winds,” Maddox said.
Storm surge came in at 3 to 5 feet rather than the 7 to 9 feet initially predicted, Maddox said. Watching the storm’s approach, the county decided against expanding evacuations to Zone C.
The county ordered tourists and nonresidents to leave first, about 12 to 18 hours ahead of residents in Zones A and B. Maddox said that gave gas stations and other resources time to restock before residents evacuated. He credited residents who left with the lack of high-water rescues during the storm.
“We thank our community for having the courage and the faith to listen to us because that’s a scary moment,” Maddox said.
Maddox said residents and staff set aside their differences during the storm.
“I’ll tell you right now that Okaloosa County showed up for the storm, not only your staff, but the community,” Maddox said.
Commissioners share what they saw
Commissioner Sherri Cox said both her county and personal phones were on Verizon, which lost towers during the storm, so she stayed at the Emergency Operations Center until she could get a satellite phone to reach residents.
While volunteering at a north end meal distribution site, Cox said, she learned of residents who were cut off, including a man who could not get to his medicine or appointments. When she alerted Maddox, she said, emergency personnel were deployed to check on the families, and CHELCO crews were already working by the time she arrived with supplies. What was thought to be five families turned out to be 20 families who had been cut off from resources for three days.
- “Your efforts, Mr. Coffey and Mr. Autrey and Mr. Maddox, saved lives that day, and I just thought I would take this moment to let you know that,” Cox said, referring to Coffey, Maddox and Deputy County Administrator Jason Autrey.
Commissioner Drew Palmer, who Goodwin said spent about 48 straight hours at the EOC, thanked Maddox, Hofstad and the deputy county administrators for the team’s work.
Maddox credited the staff working under him.
“There wasn’t a single person that called out. There wasn’t a single person that said, ‘No, I can’t do that,'” Maddox said. “There was just, ‘How can I help? How many more hours can I put in?'”
He pointed to Bernard Johnson of FPL, who came out of retirement to work in the EOC and dispatched crews to work alongside the fire department when a tree fell on a house with a person trapped inside. Maddox also said the Dorcas fire chief had to send some volunteers home because they would not leave.
Lessons learned
Goodwin said he also uses Verizon and had trouble the morning after the storm when he found a 6-inch water main break. He borrowed a phone from a resident who had AT&T and reached Autrey to report it.
“If everybody was down, it’d be one thing, but everybody else was up. That’s what’s triggering my concern,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin said the county should look at why the service went down and whether it needs to reconsider its providers. Maddox said the county has backup communications, including Starlink, satellite phones and AT&T FirstNet.
Hofstad said the communications issue will be part of an after-action report to the board. He said the EOC also lost power after landfall and its backup generation failed, leaving a 30- to 35-minute pause while he and Autrey worked to restore it.
“It would’ve been nice to have an electrician in-house with us,” Hofstad said. “So just items like that, that will be part of our debrief back to this board and lessons learned and things we can do better going forward.”
Private roads and emergency documents
One of the documents before the board was a notice of intent allowing debris monitoring and removal on private roads, including private gated roads. Maddox said the county must ask permission to enter those roads and that the Florida Department of Health provided a letter supporting the effort over public health concerns.
Goodwin said the county’s interest is access for emergency services, since Okaloosa County ambulances respond to 911 calls in gated communities and on private roads.
- “If I’ve got a senior citizen that’s living at the end of a road on a private street and they need an ambulance and we can’t get there because there’s pine trees in the way, that’s a problem,” Goodwin said.
The board voted unanimously to ratify the county’s emergency documents for the storm. Those include the local state of emergency, evacuation orders for nonresidents and residents, the lifting of those orders, the debris removal notice of intent and extensions of the local state of emergency. The vote also approved a walk-on item extending the local state of emergency again. Palmer made the motion, and Cox seconded it.
Before the vote, Goodwin asked whether the local state of emergency was affecting landlord-tenant eviction proceedings after his office received a call raising the issue. Maddox said he did not believe the two were connected.
Gap Creek in long-term recovery
Maddox said the county’s long-term recovery team has identified Gap Creek as a project area. He said a major disaster declaration may allow more flexibility among local, state and federal partners to get work moving. Two team members are dedicated to the effort, and Public Works Director Scott Bitterman will consult.
Maddox said he will give the board a fuller debrief presentation when all commissioners are present.
