{"id":32503,"date":"2023-06-01T01:23:40","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T05:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=32503"},"modified":"2023-06-01T01:23:52","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T05:23:52","slug":"polk-countys-message-to-all-residents-hurricanes-hit-here-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/06\/01\/polk-countys-message-to-all-residents-hurricanes-hit-here-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County\u2019s message to all residents: Hurricanes hit here, too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a booming county, officials want all residents to be ready for all hurricanes, even when they live outside the forecast cone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big misconception that if you\u2019re not in the cone, then you\u2019re safe. That\u2019s not the case. The impacts can be hundreds of miles outside of that area cone,\u201d said Paul Womble, Polk County emergency management director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a focus for Womble as hurricane season begins June 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cone-shaped graphics are ubiquitous during hurricane coverage. They show where the center of a hurricane could travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s a storm that\u2019s hundreds of miles wide, [there\u2019s] tornadoes, heavy rain. The cone shows where the center could be. The cone doesn\u2019t show all those other impacts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Emergency Operations Center Tuesday, people were calling those with special medical needs who are pre-registered with the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They reach out ahead of hurricane season to make sure contact information is correct<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got about 2,500 or so folks in Polk County. We know there\u2019s more that are not registered so we really encourage everybody to pre-register. That way it helps us plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The county, in partnership with Citrus Connection, can provide transportation to shelters with electricity for people who are pre-registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People can call 863-298-7027 to register and learn more or visit Polk County\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really for people who have family or friends with some type of primary dependency on electricity,\u201d said Womble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Womble, Hurricanes Charley, Francis and Jean, all in 2004, Irma in 2017 and Ian in 2022 show how high winds and heavy rainfall<\/a> can devastate inland communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a lot of wind damage. Trees down, powerlines down and you know damage to people\u2019s homes,\u201d said Womble about Irma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polk County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With so many new residents, Womble said he is often asked about evacuation zones, which are used in coastal areas for storm surge risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere in Polk County, we don\u2019t have evacuation zones like the coastal counties. But mobile homes, RV\u2019s, some type of housing that could flood or certainly that high winds could damage,\u201d said Womble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could not believe the homes that were underwater and the damage that was done,\u201d said Rep. Melony Bell (R-District 45) about the damage left behind in Polk, Hardee and DeSoto counties after Hurricane Ian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell says her roof in Fort Meade still has not been repaired since Ian last September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wants new residents to be aware of the risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have rivers here. We have lakes here and when water starts dumping, water starts rising. We had people that were like hanging up in trees trying to get away from the flooding,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell said she said one of the legislature\u2019s achievements she is most proud of from this session is the passage of a 14-day disaster preparedness sales tax holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in effect now through June 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qualifying hurricane supplies are exempt from sales tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a full list, visit the Florida Department of Revenue\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Womble advises people to have seven days\u2019 worth of supplies in case of a hurricane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a booming county, officials want all residents to be ready for all hurricanes, even when they live outside the forecast cone. \u201cThere\u2019s a big misconception that if you\u2019re not… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[5124,5125],"class_list":["post-32503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-countys-message-to-all-residents-hurricanes-hit-here","tag-too"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}