A Consultant s View of Hurricane Irma Emergency Permitting in the Florida Keys. Sandy Walters & Audrey Siu SWC

Transcription

1 A Consultant s View of Hurricane Irma Emergency Permitting in the Florida Keys Sandy Walters & Audrey Siu SWC

2 First Things First: Evacuation Packing up the kids

3 Credit: San Diego Zoo

4 Fort Myers Cat 2

5 Fort Myers Cat 2

6 ? This kid is fine.

7 Chronology of Storm and SWC Irma Hit Keys Sunday, September 10 Lower Keys Residents Allowed to Return Sunday, September 17 Ran business from Fort Myers until phones and internet back in Keys office Returned to Keys Thursday, September 21

8 Chronology of Storm and SWC (cont.) Conducted first site visit of Sun Communities trailer parks Friday, September 22

9 Sea Breeze Resort, Islamorada NOAA right after Irma Google Earth

10 Homes Destroyed

11 Breached and Undermined Seawalls

12 Torn Up Docks

13 Chronology of Storm and SWC (cont.) Researched State and federal emergency procedures Wrote summaries and posted all info on SWC website Went on local radio show to inform people about availability of process

14 Chronology of Storm and SWC (cont.) Filed requests for park site verifications with SFWMD Made site visit with Damon Meiers at Islamorada parks on October 2, 2017 Received State emergency authorizations for Islamorada parks November 2, 2017

15 Mangrove Damage September 22 looks completely dead October 2 some green coming back Worked with Damon to mark dead and removable mangroves in field to distinguish from ones recovering

16 Chronology of Storm and SWC (cont.) Properties did not have historic permits because were built before permits required Permit sketches providing details needed for USACE process, which is time consuming for large properties New Jacksonville Biological Opinion (JAXBO) issued November 20, 2017, which changed things for us and Corps reviewers

17 Chronology of Storm and SWC (cont.) Client asks to convert historic seawall to riprap o Environmentally superior & saves lots of $$ in construction o Confer with Corps and receive yes if 10 feet or less from seawall and no protected resources o Confer with State and receive yes same conditions o Submit applications to Corps for two parks with this conversion o One PM says fine and the other not! Worked it out but

18 Chronology of Storm and SWC (cont.) Receive call from Little Palm Island in mid-february 2018 only just realizing problems with shoaling affecting boat access March 17, 2017

19 Chronology of Storm and SWC (cont.) December 30, 2017

20 Chronology of Storm and SWC (cont.) State extended emergency permitting procedures Corps deadline remained March 7, 2018 Conducted benthic assessment February 23 Permits include mainland facility too

21 Chronology of Storm and SWC (cont.) Prepared applications and supporting docs as much as possible Received hydrographic survey at 9 PM Friday, March 2! Cummins-Cederberg were major heroes and sent SWC design drawings for four restoration dredging projects on Tuesday, March 6

22 Chronology of Storm and SWC (final) Learned Monday, March 5 th from one PM that Corps applications had to be deemed complete on March 7 to qualify, so fine-tuned Managed to submit applications March 7 Whew! 2018 Hurricane Season only 76 days away so let s talk now about how we can make this process easier on all of us!