With hurricane season set to begin June 1, Sen. Rick Scott brought his annual Hurricane Preparedness Tour to Dewey Destin’s Seafood Restaurant on Wednesday morning, joined by area law enforcement leaders, emergency officials and Congressman Jimmy Patronis to deliver a unified message: prepare now and heed evacuation orders when they come.

Scott, speaking to a crowd that included several Okaloosa County commissioners and local first responders, pointed to the deadly consequences of ignoring evacuation warnings, citing Hurricane Michael in 2018 and Hurricane Ian in 2022.

• “No one … we should lose nobody in a hurricane,” Scott said. “If everybody will just listen to local officials and local news, they’ll know when to evacuate. When people tell you to evacuate, you gotta evacuate.”

Scott recalled Ian’s last-minute shift toward Fort Myers, where 151 people lost their lives. He urged residents to visit ready.gov and develop a plan now rather than waiting until a storm is approaching, when hardware and grocery stores may already be emptied of supplies.

“If you don’t get prepared, there’s nothing law enforcement or fire department can do for you,” Scott said. “In the middle of the storm, they can’t come get you.”

The senator also stressed that residents should stop focusing on hurricane categories and instead pay attention to storm surge forecasts.

• “It’s not the wind that’s killing people anymore. It’s really the water,” he said.

Patronis, who represents Northwest Florida, encouraged residents to use their cellphones to document their homes and belongings now as a financial preparedness measure.

“Take your cellphone and go do a video of the outside of your house,” Patronis said. “Then go inside the house and do the exact same thing. Take pictures and video of your wall coverings, your television, your kitchen, your wardrobe, your clothes.”

Patronis recommended emailing the videos to yourself so they are stored virtually, giving homeowners photographic evidence to share with insurance adjusters in the event of a total loss.

“God forbid a storm hits, and let’s say you come back to a slab,” Patronis said. “Now you’re going to call your insurance company. The insurance company’s going to send an adjuster, and they’re going to say, ‘What did you own?‘ Now you’ve got photographic evidence.”

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden spoke about the law enforcement response during and after storms, noting that all 67 Florida sheriffs are organized into seven zones through the Florida Sheriffs Association for mutual aid during disasters. Aden said he chairs Zone 1, which covers 10 counties from Escambia to Franklin and Gulf counties.

• “Everything shuts down, and we have to go to work in a different capacity when we’re hit,” Aden said.

Aden recalled working 25 straight days without a day off as a young deputy during Hurricane Opal in October 1995 and said the state’s preparedness capabilities have improved significantly since then. He also noted that tornadoes touched down over Memorial Day weekend.

Destin Fire Chief Kevin Sasser urged residents who choose to stay during a storm to be prepared to survive on their own for seven days.

“During those seven days after that storm, most of us emergency services workers, especially in the fire service, we’re going to be performing search and rescue,” Sasser said. “So that means we’re out there to rescue those that are dying to get our help.”

Patrick Maddox, Okaloosa County’s director of public safety, highlighted the coordination framework that guides local disaster response, built around what the federal government has identified since 2017 as community lifelines — critical functions including safety and security, health and medical services, food, shelter, fuel, power, communications, transportation and water systems.

• “As long as we can keep those critical functions running, then we can actually help society begin to recover,” Maddox said.

Maddox emphasized that off-season training and relationship-building among local, state and federal partners is what makes the response work when storms hit.

“When the blue skies are on, that’s when we’re training, and that’s where we’re building relationships,” he said.

Lisa Greer of the American Red Cross Northwest Florida district also spoke, encouraging residents to build disaster kits and plans incrementally and noting that volunteer and training opportunities are available through the organization.

Scott also addressed flood insurance costs, saying Florida has been a donor state to the federal flood insurance program and that costs remain too high. He referenced legislation that has passed the House for tax relief related to past storms and a bill he worked on with Patronis and Congressman Byron Donalds called the Fishes Act to support fisheries.

Among other officials in attendance were Dewey Destin and Parker Destin, owners of the host restaurant; Commissioners Carolyn Ketchel, Trey Goodwin, Paul Mixon; and the Honorable Graham Fountain.

• Residents can visit ready.gov and myokaloosa.com for hurricane preparedness resources and disaster kit information.

Scott, who said he has visited Dewey Destin’s nearly every time he has been in the area, opened and closed the event by praising the community and the restaurant’s grilled shrimp.

“This is a wonderful place to come to. It’s a beautiful part of our state, and we’re blessed that we have so many wonderful people live here,” Scott said.

He closed by encouraging everyone to stay and enjoy the shrimp.