Most people who die in hurricanes are senior citizens. Now, U.S. Reps. Maxwell Frost and Daniel Webster want a review of what can be done to prevent those deaths.
The Fixing Gaps in Hurricane Preparedness Act would task the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with conducting a review on how to better communicate on storm preparedness to certain populations. The legislation focuses on how better to meet the needs of seniors, people with disabilities, non-English speakers, and rural and urban populations.
“With Florida and our people on the frontlines of worsening hurricanes and storms, the Fixing Gaps in Hurricane Preparedness Act will help pave the way for new steps that will help protect the most at-risk folks from the worst of a natural disaster,” said Frost, an Orlando Democrat.
“Our emergency communications and preparations systems need to meet Floridians where they are at — whether you’re a senior, someone living with a disability, or a non-English speaker — you deserve to have the knowledge and tools necessary to protect yourself from a hurricane, and this bill does just that.”
Webster, a Clermont Republican, said it’s important to improve outreach ahead of disasters reaching communities.
“As Floridians, we are not strangers to the terrible power and ravages of hurricanes and tropical storms, and we recognize the need for emergency relief when such tragedies occur,” Webster said.
“In the wake of natural disasters, seniors, people with disabilities and those in rural areas are often most vulnerable. The Fixing Gaps in Hurricane Preparedness Act will help federal agencies evaluate how these harder to reach populations receive emergency notifications and identify shortcomings to improve preparedness and assure that assistance will swiftly reach those at the time of need.”
Frost and Webster represent neighboring Central Florida districts. They also serve together on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. That committee is working on reauthorizing the Weather Act, which looks to improve forecasting technology. The Florida lawmakers would like to see the language of the bill added to that bipartisan legislation as an amendment, or they would like the bill passed independently on its own.
This is the first bipartisan bill Frost has filed since he won election to the House in November. He said he was excited to work on an issue, hurricane preparedness, that impacts Floridians of all walks of life and political views. He found equal enthusiasm from Webster on the issue.
The lawmakers point to startling statistics on who faces the greatest risk of death in a hurricane. Two-thirds of those who died in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 fall into one of the populations the legislation looks to inform. The same occurred in Hurricane Florence in 2018 and with Hurricane Ian in 2022. When Hurricane Dorian struck in 2019, everyone who died was age 56 or older.
Frost noted in Hurricane Ian, many individuals did not choose to evacuate from barrier islands, and he wonders if better education and outreach would have encouraged more to pack up sooner.
“Part of this is a cultural change, and we need to make sure Floridians are taking the threats more seriously,” Frost said. “But this bill is homing in on people who might not get the message in the first place.”
If NOAA does all it can to inform all populations of the threats of a storm in a timely fashion, that means everyone can make better informed decisions on how they respond to a storm.
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