City monitors progress of Hurricane Hanna

No time for complacency as City Monitors Progress of Hurricane Hanna

According to reports received by Historic City News, St. Augustine Fire Chief Mike Arnold called a meeting of the heads of all city departments early this afternoon for an initial briefing regarding Tropical Storm Hanna.

Even though the storm is not expected to affect our weather in St. Augustine until late in the week, the single message of the meeting was “Get prepared, follow procedures, and don’t be complacent.”

It is the same message the city wants to pass along to city residents and business operators. Now is the time to prepare to put your own emergency plan into action if necessary. All are urged to make their own preparations as they continue to monitor weather information.

The central location for all local emergency information is the St. Johns County Department of Emergency Management and the county’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The EOC may be contacted by phone at 904.824.5550 and its information accessed online at www.sjcemergencymanagement.org. The site also has a link to the most current Situation Report, a press release with the most current information issued from the EOC.

Currently the EOC is at a Level 3/Monitoring and no part of the county is under any watches or warnings. The St. Johns County Emergency Management team is participating in state conference calls with the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center to maintain up to the minute information.

The city’s emergency operations are coordinated from the main fire station under the management of Fire Chief Mike Arnold who maintains close contact with the EOC which coordinates efforts countywide and hand-in-hand with the state.