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Good Morning!
I wanted to reach out and personally tell you our story of Hurricane Irma from within our schools. We began storm preparations with 10 schools ready to provide shelter for evacuees and Irma was heading for the east coast. However, as Irma changed direction and headed right for Collier, the storm surge predictions became dire and the evacuation zones expanded, we opened 100% of available schools.
- 29 (54%) schools were opened
- 20 (40%) schools were unable to be opened as they were within the projected storm surge area
- 3 (6%) schools were unable to be opened due to waste water treatment plant (septic – if electricity went out, unable to use bathrooms)
- Ultimately, every CCPS school that could be opened was – the community and county was grateful for CCPS doing this – a first in CCPS history, 29 schools!
Prior to Hurricane Irma, CCPS had never opened more than 10 schools – this is 190% increase of opened shelters!
The number quickly grew from 10 to 29 schools, providing shelter to over 17,000 guests. For the first time, CCPS opened our doors to being Pet Shelters for dogs, cats, and even birds! All were opened within 30 hours! This required a sudden and mass effort for all CCPS departments, school-based administrators, and volunteers to get these shelter activated and keep them operational for several days.
Today, we still have 7 schools operating as shelters, 4 days after the storm. Some of these shelters have evacuees and some with folks helping ready our community! For example, we have various agencies staying at Oakridge Middle School and Cypress Palm Middle, such as Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife. Barron Collier High is still a staging area for all incoming resources. The National Guard is staying at Gulf Coast High School and areresponsible for feeding stations throughout the county.
CCPS had our challenges. For example, Palmetto Ridge High School, functioning as a special needs shelter for 240 residents, lost their air conditioning. The county was waiting on a part to get flown in, and it did not arrive. Collier County Emergency Management sent ten indoor air conditioning units. The person to assemble these air conditioners did not arrive. Therefore, the principal, assistant principal, and facility manager together got all 10 units up and running! We might have some new engineering teachers! I am very proud of our people doing “whatever” it takes!!!
In some shelters, water mains broke, causing low water pressure. Due to power failure, the lift stations failed, causing sewage back up into the school. The cavalry came to the rescue…and port a potties were deployed in the morning!!! I had the opportunity to personally witness it all as I visited 16 shelters and the CountyEmergency Operations Center.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Administrative Center is outfitted with two generators and we certainly thought they would hold. The Data Center generator held, the lid of the second generator blew off during the storm and was unable to operate. When we opened our CCPS Emergency Command Center (ECC), immediate by 8:00am the next day, Monday, September 11th. With the failed generator, the 3rd Floor in the Data Center was used for the CCPS ECC and it was dark like a cave, with just one window. Eventually by 1:00pm we were able to fire up the second generator and could set up operations in our full command center. We have had our full cabinet team working all week to help coordinate our recovery efforts and winding down our sheltering effort.
To keep track of all of these shelter operations and issues, we have collected daily reports from principals which again with limited cell phone coverage was difficult. They could use school phonesif they had generator power, some ran out of fuel. A fuel truck came at 5:30pm to deliver to the schools. There was a 9pm curfew so the truck went to as many schools possible until 8:30pm. Our facility managers stayed even later to ensure we could receive the fuel. Again, I could just fill up pages worth of these stories of how our CCPS staff “made it happen”.
These are just a handful of challenges that our district and school based administrators’ and staff continually faced and solved brilliantly!
The most important part to remember about Hurricane Irma was how CCPS staff and volunteers came together and made our guests feel special and worked to calm those who were so worried. Staff had activities and movies for kids, cell phone charging stations, some shelters even barbequed for guests, again went above and beyond to make people as comfortable as possible!
Again, one of many stories of such positive memories was seen at Gulf Coast HighSchool. The school’s flag was stuck at top of flag pole before the storm and staff tried to get the flag down. Needless to say the flag flew away in the storm. The National Guard saw that and with principal’s new flag, the National Guard did an entire flag raising ceremony!! Guests were all very touched as they watched!
Here is one of many compliments to our staff. “I want to thank you so much for opening Veterans Memorial Elementary as a shelter for county employees. Mrs. Franklin and her staff were wonderful under the stress of the hurricane and I always felt safe and informed. My children never showed any fear because the staff were so calm and collected at all times. This includes the cooking staff, cleaning and maintenance staff, teachers and the Parks and Recreation employees. My family and I are ever grateful.”
Power, this is our GREATEST concern – we currently have only 26 of 54 schools sites with power. FPL is not guaranteeing power until a week from Friday. We are hoping they will get our schools back sooner. We use ourselves as a barometer as we have many buildings all around the county.
This is just a small sample of the efforts during this storm. Our work is essential to getting Collier County back up and running. When the schools are settled, so is the community. We are #CCPSStrong and will get “Back to the Classroom Together” very soon! Thank you to all who helped and continue to help in any way!!!
Kamela Patton, Ph.D.
Superintendent
Collier County Public Schools
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