Charlotte County declares local state of emergency after weather damage

The Charlotte County Board of Commissioners has issued a local state of emergency at a Monday morning meeting.

The meeting was planned to decide the county’s best response after the serious damage sustained by communities like Placida from Sunday’s EF1 tornado. Emergency crews were on the scene within minutes, quickly getting resources to the impacted communities.

Patrick Fuller, Charlotte County’s director of emergency management, said 21 mobile units were deemed uninhabitable and another 18 saw some level of damage. The area with the largest impact was Gasparilla Mobile Estates. Thankfully, nobody was injured, but people are still in need of shelter, which is why commissioners agreed to declare a local state of emergency.

“A local state of emergency allows the county to respond more quickly,” Fuller said. “To be able to kinda track forward certain services to individuals, get the county back up and running correctly. Additionally, it prospers us so we can hopefully seek a declaration either from the Small Business Administration or FEMA itself.”

Fuller also says the resources department has staff that is heading out to the impacted areas Monday, bringing them disaster kits and directing them to financial resources for which they may be eligible, to help them get back on their feet. The state of emergency is set for seven days, which Fuller says is most likely when it will expire.