State officials offer hurricane safety tips

By Rafael Olmeda

South Florida Sun Sentinel

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia briefly took off his fiscal watchdog hat

Tuesday to deliver a message more in line with his title as State Fire Marshal: Hurricane

season is coming, and it is not too soon to get ready for it.

The season starts next Monday, June 1, and runs through Nov.30.

“The time to prepare is now,” said Ingoglia, speaking at the fire rescue station in downtown

Fort Lauderdale. Stock up on batteries. Check and replace spark plugs for your generators.

Store water. “Do all that stuff in advance. This way you’re not stuck in line for hours trying

to get basic needs that you could have gotten a couple of months ago.”

Ingoglia advised homeowners and residents to double-check their insurance coverage, keep

important papers in a dry, lock box, and take inventory of their belongings and property.

Take pictures and video, he said, to give insurance companies less opportunity to deny

claims.

After, he said, check licenses of repair workers, take pictures and video of the damage and

watch out for scammers looking for the opportunity to take advantage of desperate victims.

Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management,

offered advice of his own. Develop a checklist and make sure everyone is covered, including

pets and vulnerable family members who live nearby.

“Know your home and your zone,” Guthrie said.

Homeowners should be aware of whether they live in a flood zone, an evacuation zone or

both, and they should be ready to act accordingly. It helps, he said, to learn about your

home’s construction to predict, to an extent, how it will stand up to a storm.

“Can your home withstand hurricane-force winds?” he asked.

One of the latest hurricanes to wreak havoc in parts of South Florida was Hurricane Milton

in 2024. The hurricane, which made landfall near Siesta Key and went across the center of

the state, caused a historic outbreak of powerful tornadoes, some of them in South Florida.

It left homes destroyed in Palm Beach County, among other parts of the state.

Officials warned that it only takes one storm to create an emergency and a tragedy, and that

“inactive” seasons are no reason to get complacent. In 1992, no named storms formed from

the start of the season through the middle of August. The first storm of the season,

Hurricane Andrew, was one of the deadliest in the state’s history. Of the 65 people who died,

the majority of deaths were in Florida.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.