Officials agree on lightning alert methods
Alerting beach goers about lightning may not require detection systems on area beachfronts, according to results of a recent meeting involving municipality officials. However, systems may still be placed at designated places in respective county communities.
Lee County mayors attended a closed meeting at the Lee County Administration building involving lightning detection and other hot topics last Wednesday. It was arranged by Lee County Commissioner Larry Kiker, the mayors liaison. Water quality, flood insurance and flood maps, land development codes and medical marijuana were also discussed between Kiker, Fort Myers Beach Mayor Anita Cereceda, Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane, Cape Coral Mayor Marni Sawicki, Bonita Springs Ben Nelson and Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson. Lee County Parks & Recreation Director Dave Harner attended the lightning portion of the meeting.
Kiker stated the primary topic centered on the viability of lightning alert systems to the point of what other measures could be taken to aid in the safety of beach goers when storms are present and an investigation of where such systems may be applicable. The same officials will reconvene sometime in October to see what proposals community representatives come up with.
“We all had a realization that there was no way we could blanket all of Lee County from a financial, practical and enforcement standpoint,” Kiker said. “We are going to get an inventory of where lightning alert systems may be needed, so that we can start putting a financial number to them and an implementation plan in place that we can take back to all the Councils and the Board of County Commissioners.”
Placing signs along county beachfronts that state the known slogan, “When thunder roars, go indoors,” and other informative language to that nature may be one less-costly and more immediate measure to warn of lightning danger. Signage could also include a QR code to link to the WeatherBug app to alert people of the impending weather at a certain site. Social media and other forms of communication could come into play as well.
“We are kind of thinking we can place (signs) along the beach areas. It won’t cost a lot of money,” Kiker said. “We also want to include media as part of our education.”
Cereceda really liked the slogan idea and added that a flyer with the same information could be included as a mailer to everyone within the county, possibly enclosed with the monthly electricity bill.
As far as lightning alert systems, she stated municipality officials would move forward with having respective staff members take inventory of what facilities or places among each community could perhaps warrant some implementation of a lightning detector system. She mentioned Times Square and Bay Oaks as two sites that might be looked into on the Beach.
“The next step is to pull resources and find locations where detection systems would be best suited,” she said. “We are going to look at that and look at what liabilities and expenses would be associated to that and, in the short run, look at educating our visitors and our county residents of what dangers and risks are associated with storms.”
With Town of Fort Myers Beach officials looking to redo their beach access signage soon, possible lightning warning wordage on those could be another less costly way to alert beach goers.
“We need to include something like that that on our signage, where we talk about not just doing the stingray shuffle but keeping your eyes up in the skies,” she said. “That’s an easy, immediate educational process that we can do now that will not only save lives but really help people. Where to implement lightning alert systems would be a further discussion beyond that.”
Disturbance of beachfront natural habitat was a big part of discussion if lightning alert systems were implemented.
“Those detectors could be going off virtually constantly. It does disrupt wildlife habitat,” said Cereceda. “You may find out that after two months of using the system that you have no more roseate spoonbills or little shorebirds or sea turtles.”
Cereceda pointed out that Harner stated the natural habitat issue was one of the reasons for careful investigation when county officials first looked into beachfront systems.
As far as liability issues, Kiker stated he heard about two lightning detection stations that were actually struck by lightning and didn’t work afterwards. Last month he questioned what would happen if a fatality or injury occurs due to a lightning strike while the system is put in place but doesn’t function properly prior to or during a given storm.
“If the system doesn’t work, we need to investigate if we just accepted liability for an ‘act of God’,” Kiker said then.
On July 22, a lightning strike along the FMB beachfront left one person dead and two injured during a heavy afternoon rainstorm.
According to the police report, Scott Wilcox, 41, died on site. Zac Latawiec, 14, was listed in critical condition but made a miraculous recovery. Chelsea Gill, age 16, was also transported to a local hospital for treatment and was released soon after.
Since that time, there has been healthy debate about the viability of lightning warning systems. The Town of Fort Myers Beach Public Safety Committee has discussed the need of lightning detection systems on Estero Island in the past and has had further discussions since the incident. The advisory board is expected to hold a workshop on the matter at Town Hall this Friday at 9 a.m. in preparation of a joint session workshop with the Town Council, that may occur Sept. 15, at 10 a.m.
Councilwoman Rexann Hosafros, a former member of the safety committee and current liaison of the advisory board to Council, has been involved in preliminary discussions about such lightning systems during PSC meetings.
Last Wednesday, Cereceda stated the results of the closed session would be reviewed at the Council workshop (held Tuesday after deadline) and information could be passed on to the advisory board via Hosafros.
“We want to be all on the same page. It’s not Fort Myers Beach that’s the lightning capital, it’s Southwest Florida that is the lightning capital,” said Cereceda. “We are all in this together.”
Overall, Kiker called the meeting “very cordial, professional and result-oriented” in trying to find collective agreement on positions that county officials and all municipality officials could adopt.
Cereceda also stated she enjoyed the meeting and called it inspiring. She said the lightning discussion took a good hour.
“We all share the same concerns,” she said. “The consensus of this group is we clearly want to be speaking with a unified voice on this.”
The 30-30 rule
The “30-30” lightning safety rule from the National Weather Services is defined as the following:
– 1) It is strongly recommended that you seek safe shelter when you first hear thunder, observe lightning or see dark threatening clouds developing. You should already be in a safe location when the time between the lightning flash and the rumble of thunder is 30 seconds or less.
– 2) You should not resume activities until 30 minutes after the last audible thunder.