Preparing for a hurricane during a pandemic

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We’re heading into the peak of hurricane season and emergency managers are saying it’s even more important to be ready this year.

“And it appears to be a very busy season,” said Dan Summers, director of the Collier County Bureau of Emergency Management Division.

A busy season with a system looming right now in the Atlantic.

“Oh my gosh, please, nothing else,” said Tony Partello of Naples.

Naples couple Kim and Tony Partello just hope it’s nothing like Hurricane Irma.

“It was chaotic, it was stressful, she was crying,” Tony said.

Collier County has to prepare either way, and it’s being complicated by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Supply chains are different, response mechanisms are different now than they were a year ago,” Summers said.

Because of this, the Collier County Bureau of Emergency Services said to expect a different kind of shelter experience.

“All the COVID-19 protective strategies, such as our mask, hand washing, hand sanitizing, temperature checks, are gonna be real important in the evacuation shelter world,” Summers said.

To make it less complicated, officials hope to keep shelter numbers low.

“And we may send out a message that says ‘shelter in place.’ We want to talk more about keeping the census low in an evacuation shelter.”

As the county stands ready, so are the Partellos.

“We tried to make the house basically an impenetrable fort to storms and disasters…cross our fingers that we don’t ever see anything like that because we just finished all the remodeling.”

As with Irma, Collier County plans to utilize schools in the event evacuations become necessary.

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