Emergency Management team urges to stay vigilant and prepared.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: September 24, 2025
Host: The Sarasota County Emergency Management folks want you to know: Hurricane season is at its peak—not the time to let down your defenses. Ramon Lopez reports about a press conference meant to keep locals on the tip of their toes.
Ramon Lopez: On Monday, Gabrielle rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. But it’s forecast to remain away from land.
We’re halfway through this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, and it’s been relatively quiet. Before Gabrielle, there was only one named hurricane in the Atlantic. Experts say there’s a few reasons for that, but it doesn’t mean dangerous systems aren’t far off.
And the Atlantic is suddenly buzzing with tropical activity. Two more potential tropical systems—one nearing the Caribbean and another farther east—could follow this week.
These tropical disturbances haven’t escaped the attention of Sarasota County Emergency Services Director Rich Collins. He discussed the impact of Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton on the county last year and recovery efforts.
Sandra Tapfumaneyi (left) and Rich Collins (right)
Rich Collins: We are just past the midpoint of the season. We’re at the highest points in time for a potential storm to hit our community. Just today, we’re monitoring two potential systems that are in the Atlantic, one with a 60% chance of development that’s following Gabrielle. If you look behind it, there’s another one a little bit closer to the peninsula with a 30% chance of development over the next seven days. We’re monitoring that one very closely. We’re also moving into October, and that changes the systems in the development from across the Atlantic back to the Gulf and the Caribbean. So we’re monitoring that as well.
In my 35 years of emergency services, last year was the biggest year. It was an impact for our community. I know that our community is still recovering as we are continuing to do the work to recover, not just in government, but to prepare for the next storm and continue to be prepared for any potential responses.
RL: Collins noted that together, Helene and Milton caused the largest evacuations in Sarasota County history.
RC: More than 9,400 people and their pets evacuated their homes and sought shelter in our evacuation centers. Assistance in the form of food, water, cleanup supplies and tarps were supplied at up to six locations across the county, providing initial relief to our impacted residents, many of whom are still recovering today, as the back-to-back storms hit our community.
RL: Emergency Management Chief Sandra Tapfumaneyi said comparing any two hurricanes is like comparing apples and oranges.
Flooding in the Pinecraft area during Hurricane Debby
Sandra Tapfumaneyi: We need people to not compare future storms with the storms that happened last season. Every storm is different, and it’s important to listen to local officials. If you’re in an area that’s under an evacuation in the future, try to avoid comparing what happened last season. If you were safe last season—if you didn’t have flooding—that might not be the case next time we have a storm that comes this way, so we really want people to pay attention to that. Evacuate if you’re told to do so.
RL: After the 2024 storm season, the county came up with numerous modifications to its hurricane preparedness.
RC: Ultimately, we came up with 62 different enhancements in an after-action report. They cover a multitude of areas—things like planning and how we plan public information and warning, situational assessment, operational coordination, mass care infrastructure, as well as our logistics and supply chain.
Map of residential damage sustained during Hurricane Debby
RL: A dozen county schools can be used as evacuation centers. Added to the list this year is the Skye Ranch School.
RC: This year, Sky Ranch School has opened up. That increases our capacity for hurricane evacuation centers. Brand new building.
RL: The best plan needs to be adaptable, and that was the case when Debby dumped 18 inches of rain on the county. Because of its location, Suncoast Technical College was unexpectedly turned into an evacuation center to handle flood victims.
RC: We opened up an evacuation center—a shelter—that same day. Think about ten plus 18 inches of rain in just eight hours. Where is that rain falling? Where does evacuation need to occur? You can open up a shelter where it’s flooding, and then the people can’t get to it. So we opened up the shelter based on the needs at the time in the best location so that we could get people there. We opened that and had it running for several days.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.
