From the Mayor – Gregory J. Oravec
Virtual Hurricane Expo 2020
On behalf of our five-person City Council, 1,100 plus City employees and your more than 200,000 fellow residents, I’d like to invite you to our virtual Hurricane Expo 2020, www.cityofpsl.com/hurricaneexpo.
As you may know, Port St. Lucie’s Hurricane Expo is an annual event the City produces to help residents and businesses learn about hurricanes and how we can mitigate, prepare, respond and recover should a hurricane track toward Port St. Lucie, or heaven forbid, make landfall here. We have had some scary near misses in the past couple years, and it hasn’t been that long since we were walloped by Frances and Jeanne or flooded by Fay. So, we know many of you are seasoned veterans when it comes to preparing for storms, and we’re counting on you to help our newer residents and any neighbors in need get ready, especially this year.
This year’s Expo is different than years passed as a result of COVID-19. We couldn’t risk an in-person gathering with you, our special guests, community members and vendors. At the same time, since the need for the Expo, and our shared need to mitigate, prepare, respond and recover for a hurricane, didn’t go away, the Expo couldn’t go away either. We had to adapt, and we hope that you find the virtual Expo to be of value. In addition to the resources at www.cityofpsl.com/hurricaneexpo, we hope you enjoy the recorded segments with our special guests, which include meteorologists Steve Weagle from WPTV and Mike Lyons from WPBF. The video segments are available here: www.cityofpsl.com/em.
Even though I’d like to wish that Mother Nature would cut us a break, to think that, certainly, we won’t get hit by a hurricane this year while we are all dealing with COVID-19, the emergency manager in me and in all of us, reminds us of Murphy’s law and that this could very well be the year that the big one doesn’t turn at the last minute. This year is the year that we have to be more ready than ever.
In the face of a hurricane, viral pandemic and any other disaster, your team at City Hall wants to make sure you are ready, so that we can survive, recover and thrive. With these goals in mind, let’s be as ready as we can be as we enter the heart of the 2020 Hurricane Season. If the City Council and I can be of assistance with your hurricane preparations or anything else, please do not hesitate to call us at 772-871-5159. Please know if disaster strikes and things are at their worst, your can count on your City’s emergency response team to be at their best.