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Kathy Weaver: Our firefighters have to be able to respond they have to be able to go out and
handle emergencies but at the same time they have to have a place of protection as well.
Hi, I am Kathy Weaver, deputy fire chief with Volusia county fire services.
If there is any damage to these fire stations depending on the extent of them it means that
we will literally have to pull our firefighters and our apparatus out of this area which is a
longer response time for the citizens which is not what we want to occur.
Today we are here at fire station 31 in Orange City which is one of our 24 fire stations and as
we walk around here we are gonna see our firefighters installing the windscreens which
are part of the mitigation project that we did. The purpose of the windscreens is to protect
the bay doors from any impact from any flying debris.
After the 2004 hurricanes went through, which we had three successive hurricanes go
through in about 6 weeks period of time Charley, Frances and Jeanne.
Volusia county fire services looked at what we needed to do we came up with the project to
put the accordion shutters on and the wind screens.
Jose Lopez/Firefighter: Here we have shutters that will protect us from the storms. Helps
protect from tree limbs, debris coming though the windows so that we can be safe. These
storm shutters are actually a great protector. Simple as that.
We worked very closely with the FEMA technical reps that were here to make sure
that we had all the information that was important to show that this was a very cost
effective measure for our citizens, for the county, for the state, and obviously for FEMA.
Jason McCright, Florida Mitigation Planning Manager: Studies show that for every dollar
spent you spend on these types of projects you’ll save four dollars in the future because
you won’t have to come back to a certain area or building and do repairs. There are other
costs associated with it such as emergency response.
Nearly 100 fire stations strengthened against high winds and debris.
Orange, Brevard, Volusia and Marion Counties
FEMA Grants $1.28 Million Orange, Brevard, Volusia, and Marion Counties
I think that its extremely important that we are lucky to have the advantage of the
cooperation between the state and the feds with the local governments to protect our
critical facilities protect our fire fighters protect our public safety.
All of these programs are managed by the state. FEMA is the funding authority but the
state manages the program. It’s our job to make sure these dollars get to the
communities where they’re supposed to be spent and that these communities
are strengthened.
This cooperative process and the fact that the state recognizes that these facilities need to
be protected and that they were willing to work towards that goal to allow us to have that
occur it was extremely wonderful.
FloridaDisaster.org FEMA.gov