Episode 51

From the Eye of the Storm: A Transit Unplugged Special Episode

The back-to-back hurricanes that swept through the Southeastern U.S. brought unimaginable destruction to the region. Many places are far from recovered, with tens of thousands of people still without power in some areas.

But behind the scenes, transportation networks need to keep running. People need to be evacuated to safety. Supplies have to get through. Emergency workers need to get to where they are needed.

This week we pull back the curtain with a special episode focused on how our transportation networks prepare for and recover from disasters like Hurricanes Helene and Milton. On this special episode of Transit Unplugged, host Paul Comfort connected with six transportation leaders in Florida about the preparations, their Emergency Operations Centers, and what happens now to recover.

We hear from:

  • Brad Miller, CEO of Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority
  • Coree Cuff Lonergan, CEO of Broward County Transit (BCT)
  • Dave Dech, Executive Director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority/Tri-Rail
  • Ivan Maldonado, Executive Director of Palm Tran
  • Tiffany Homler Hawkins, CEO of Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (LYNX)
  • Greg Slater, CEO/Executive Director of the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority

This is a unique episode that only Transit Unplugged can bring you! Make sure you tune in and share with your transit colleagues.

Next week on the show, we have Mass Transit Magazine 40 Under 40 winner Schneider St. Preux talking about his 12 year transit career trajectory from bus operator to General Superintendent of Bus Operations for the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works. Schneider tells Paul what it took to build his career and his advice for other up and coming leaders in the industry.

Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo https://www.modaxo.com

  • Host: Paul Comfort
  • Producer: Paul Comfort
  • Editor and Writer: Tris Hussey
  • Executive Producer: Julie Gates

Special thanks to:

  • Brand design: Tina Olagundoye
  • Social Media: Tatyana Mechkarova
  • Marketing content, Transit Unplugged Newsletter, & transit puns: Tris Hussey

If you have a question or comment, email us at info@transitunplugged.com.

Follow us on social media: LinkedIn - Twitter - Threads- Instagram - Facebook

Sign up for the Transit Unplugged Newsletter

00:00 Introduction to the Eye of the Storm

00:45 Brad Miller: Riding Out the Storm

01:17 Coree Cuff Lonergan: Tornadoes and Transit

01:33 Ivan Moldanado: Coordination and Preparation

01:54 Tiffany Homler Hawkins: Orlando's Response

02:22 Dave Dech: TriRail's Role in the Crisis

02:44 Greg Slater: Road Networks and Disaster Management

03:43Brad Miller: Firsthand Hurricane Experience

11:03 Brad Miller: Evacuation and Recovery Efforts

21:19 Dave Dech: TriRail's Hurricane Preparedness

32:11 Coree Cuff Lonergan on Broward County's Hurricane Response

36:03 Ivan Maldonado Discusses PalmTran's Challenges

44:10 Tiffany Homler Hawkins on LYNX's Hurricane Preparedness

52:54 Greg Slater on Tampa's Expressway and Hurricane Resilience

01:01:22 Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the guests, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Modaxo Inc., its affiliates or subsidiaries, or any entities they represent (“Modaxo”). This production belongs to Modaxo, and may contain information that may be subject to trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property rights and restrictions. This production provides general information, and should not be relied on as legal advice or opinion. Modaxo specifically disclaims all warranties, express or implied, and will not be liable for any losses, claims, or damages arising from the use of this presentation, from any material contained in it, or from any action or decision taken in response to it.

Transcript
Paul Comfort:

I'm Paul Comfort, and on this episode of Transit Unplugged, we

Paul Comfort:

bring you into the eye of the storm.

Paul Comfort:

Unlike any other podcast out there, we're taking you down to Florida.

Paul Comfort:

Right after their two hurricanes back to back, Helene and Milton, and talking to

Paul Comfort:

six public transportation CEOs, that's right, six of them across the state.

Paul Comfort:

They had two back to back storms that really battered the state.

Paul Comfort:

We wanted to take you inside the response.

Paul Comfort:

How does a public transit system In the state of Florida or any state

Paul Comfort:

respond to a major hurricane or a major natural disaster such as this.

Paul Comfort:

Well, today you're going to find out right from the leaders of

Paul Comfort:

the public transportation and the highway system in that area.

Paul Comfort:

We begin with Brad Miller.

Paul Comfort:

Brad is CEO of PSTA, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority.

Paul Comfort:

Right in Clearwater at St.

Paul Comfort:

Petersburg, which was, at the epicenter of the storm.

Paul Comfort:

The storm, as you may recall, Milton, the most recent one, was coming right up

Paul Comfort:

and was aimed right for them in Tampa.

Paul Comfort:

And then at the last minute, swerved slightly south.

Paul Comfort:

He tells you how he rode out the storm in his house, how the storms

Paul Comfort:

were roaring around him, how their public transit System responded.

Paul Comfort:

The roof of Tropicana Field being lifted right off by the winds.

Paul Comfort:

You'll hear it right from someone who lived right through

Paul Comfort:

it and how they responded.

Paul Comfort:

Amazing.

Paul Comfort:

We'll also hear from Coree Cuff Lonergan, the CEO and General Manager of Broward

Paul Comfort:

County Transit, on the other side of the state where the storm went through

Paul Comfort:

and the impact that the tornadoes, over 150 tornadoes, that went through

Paul Comfort:

the area of Florida afterwards, and the response that they had to those.

Paul Comfort:

We also speak with Ivan Moldanado who is the new Executive Director of

Paul Comfort:

PalmTran, and he talks about how they prepared for the storm in the EOC and the

Paul Comfort:

coordination, that is so much required between public transit agencies the EEOC.

Paul Comfort:

And the public government agencies that are around them, such as the counties and

Paul Comfort:

the public works department, the sewer department, the road department, all

Paul Comfort:

the things that have to be coordinated.

Paul Comfort:

We also hear from Tiffany Homler Hawkins, who is the CEO of the transit system in

Paul Comfort:

Orlando, Florida, where Disney and so many of those are called LYNX and she

Paul Comfort:

talks about their response and how they don't charge for people when they're

Paul Comfort:

riding out to, go to hurricane relief centers and storm centers and all the

Paul Comfort:

different impacts and how her team, not one member of her team called off when

Paul Comfort:

they were back in service because they understand the role of a transit system in

Paul Comfort:

being, a first responder and really part of the essential services of a region.

Paul Comfort:

We also speak with Dave Dech.

Paul Comfort:

Dave Dech is the executive director of SFRTA, commonly known as TriRail,

Paul Comfort:

which is the commuter regional rail.

Paul Comfort:

Which comes up from Miami all the way through all these

Paul Comfort:

counties that were affected.

Paul Comfort:

He talks about how they work together with those agencies to provide great

Paul Comfort:

service and the importance of keeping the railways clear so that CSX and others

Paul Comfort:

can bring in supplies after a storm.

Paul Comfort:

And then we speak with Greg Slater.

Paul Comfort:

Greg Slater is a former colleague of mine.

Paul Comfort:

He was Secretary of Transportation here in Maryland and was head of the State

Paul Comfort:

Highway Administration when I was head of the Maryland Transit Administration.

Paul Comfort:

Now he's down in Florida as CEO and Executive Director of the Tampa

Paul Comfort:

Hillsborough Expressway Authority.

Paul Comfort:

I thought it was important to have someone kind of wrap it up and explain

Paul Comfort:

to us the role of the road network during a major disaster like this and

Paul Comfort:

how they coordinate so closely with public transit agencies to ensure like

Paul Comfort:

traffic lights and all the things that are required for buses to work in a region.

Paul Comfort:

This is a coordinated effort and this is a look inside the storm at how public

Paul Comfort:

transit agencies help a region prepare for endure and recover from a major disaster,

Paul Comfort:

a natural disaster, such as these back to back hurricanes, Helene and Milton.

Paul Comfort:

Stay tuned for some great information that you won't get anywhere else

Paul Comfort:

except right here on Transit Unplugged.

Paul Comfort:

Hey, great to have with us Brad Miller, my good friend, who is the CEO of PSTA,

Paul Comfort:

Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, in the Tampa Bay area in Clearwater.

Paul Comfort:

Thank you so much for being with us today, Brad.

Brad Miller:

Oh, I'm glad to be here, too.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, man, I bet you are, after all that.

Paul Comfort:

So, what the heck happened, man?

Paul Comfort:

Fill us in.

Brad Miller:

Oh, yeah, well, you know, I have been a CEO down here in St.

Brad Miller:

Petersburg, Florida, Clearwater area for, years now.

Brad Miller:

Lucky 13, I guess.

Brad Miller:

I'm lucky, I don't know.

Brad Miller:

Because this is the first time that we've had Not one, but two hurricanes, Hurricane

Brad Miller:

Helene and then now Hurricane Milton, come very close to the Tampa Bay and have major

Brad Miller:

impacts on the Tampa Bay Region, certainly the biggest impacts, since I've been

Brad Miller:

here and, and now historic with Hurricane Milton, historic impacts to the, the

Brad Miller:

Large Tampa Bay region, you know, which is like four, four plus million people.

Brad Miller:

This is probably the biggest impact they've had in their lifetime.

Brad Miller:

So, yeah.

Paul Comfort:

That's crazy, man.

Paul Comfort:

I know.

Paul Comfort:

Back to back.

Paul Comfort:

So, walk us through it a little bit.

Paul Comfort:

Walk us through what happened and, and then we'll get into your response.

Paul Comfort:

How transit really stepped in and helped kind of save the day.

Brad Miller:

Yeah, sure.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

So, well first, you know, I'm not originally from Florida.

Brad Miller:

I'm from northern, from Pennsylvania and worked in Virginia.

Brad Miller:

I think where you and I met first a long time ago, and then, you know,

Brad Miller:

so when I got to Florida, I was just amazed at how, like, professional and

Brad Miller:

integrated, transit systems and the whole hurricane response is throughout Florida.

Brad Miller:

I mean, there are professionals that this is what they do all the time because

Brad Miller:

there's a lot of, a lot of, risk here.

Brad Miller:

And, uh, so, certainly we have it down pat on, you know, what our operational plans

Brad Miller:

are and everything like that, but just in the last two weeks, toward the, the last

Brad Miller:

week of September, Hurricane Helene came straight up the west coast of Florida

Brad Miller:

and actually kind of landed ground just a little bit east of Tallahassee, up in the

Brad Miller:

Panhandle area, but it was only about 100 miles offshore, and that was the That was

Brad Miller:

the biggest impact of what is storm surge, where the hurricane winds blow basically

Brad Miller:

the Gulf of Mexico saltwater onto land, uh, and, uh, it was like a record

Brad Miller:

number, especially along the beaches.

Brad Miller:

Like Clearwater Beach, which is a huge tourist area, all the way

Brad Miller:

down the beaches is basically inundated and a lot of damage.

Brad Miller:

A lot of damage.

Brad Miller:

Basically, oh my gosh, you can see the sand from the sandy white beach.

Brad Miller:

And then basically all just got lifted and plopped right on the road with it.

Brad Miller:

Wow.

Brad Miller:

It runs down the various islands and, you know, you know, I used to, I've seen, you

Brad Miller:

know, you see like up in Buffalo and stuff like cars totally submerged under snow.

Brad Miller:

Right.

Brad Miller:

It looked the same way, but there were cars under sand.

Brad Miller:

Wow.

Brad Miller:

Really, really, really bad.

Brad Miller:

and a lot of people did lose their transportation, lost their cars.

Brad Miller:

So they were looking to transit, to get them to, you know, to

Brad Miller:

FEMA had set up a whole bunch of, food sites and things like that.

Brad Miller:

And, so that was, that was a, Kind of a surprise.

Brad Miller:

I mean the, the rest of the hurricane kind of missed the Tampa Bay, but they, just

Brad Miller:

the way the, wind went, it pushed all that water into storm surge and a lot of low

Brad Miller:

lying areas around the Tampa Bay really got a major hit of storm surge, which,

Brad Miller:

and some people actually lost their lives, that couldn't get out of their house fast

Brad Miller:

enough, and so that was really devastating

Brad Miller:

. And then just, About six days later, we get Hurricane Milton, and this one that

Brad Miller:

we just got back in the office, today, from, that hit last Thursday, Wednesday

Brad Miller:

night into Thursday, was a wind and rain, storm, like there not, not, has

Brad Miller:

not been in, the Tampa Bay's history.

Brad Miller:

Luckily, well, I guess luckily, actually touched ground a little south of us

Brad Miller:

down in the, uh, Sarasota, Bradenton area of Florida, on the west coast of

Brad Miller:

Florida, and then it just went basically straight up the I 4 corridor, past, St.

Brad Miller:

Petersburg, Tampa, up to Orlando.

Brad Miller:

I think it was still even rated a hurricane as it went past

Brad Miller:

Orlando, and then out the other side on the Atlantic Ocean side.

Brad Miller:

But, it was the north side, we were on the north side, and that's where the worst

Brad Miller:

wind and rain was, for this hurricane.

Brad Miller:

It was, Cat 3, it got 100 mile an hour winds right, in

Brad Miller:

my neighborhood where I live.

Brad Miller:

Wow.

Brad Miller:

I was here.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

My family had luckily evacuated and a lot of people did evacuate.

Brad Miller:

I stayed through it.

Brad Miller:

I was in my house.

Brad Miller:

It was, I was, had my headphones in and then I would take them out.

Brad Miller:

It was roaring for like six hours of just incredible wind.

Brad Miller:

The noise inside the house.

Brad Miller:

I mean, it was, but.

Brad Miller:

It's what we're all good, safe.

Brad Miller:

the, there wasn't really much storm surge with this just because it, the winds

Brad Miller:

were going in a different direction.

Brad Miller:

actually, it's kind of fascinating.

Brad Miller:

The water goes away from that.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, they said it kind of sucked the, sucked the water

Paul Comfort:

out of the Tampa Bay or something?

Brad Miller:

Yeah, it sucks it out and it's kind of incredible.

Brad Miller:

That's weird.

Brad Miller:

You, you got like, I can walk Tampa, you know.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

Oh, it's Moses

Paul Comfort:

crossing the, the Dead Sea or whatever.

Paul Comfort:

Yes,

Brad Miller:

but, this one was, a lot of, downed trees and of course

Brad Miller:

power, you know, so, 90 percent of the million people that live in

Brad Miller:

my county, uh, were without power.

Brad Miller:

So many hundreds of thousands are without power.

Brad Miller:

Tampa, same thing, about over half of Hillsborough County.

Brad Miller:

So, Down trees, down power lines, that's been the main thing.

Brad Miller:

Of course, that also, basically eliminates the traffic lights, because there's

Brad Miller:

no power, so it's very treacherous driving, you know, on the roadways,

Brad Miller:

so, a real, real major impact, just a one two, so, we're just all very

Brad Miller:

happy and blessed to, to be here.

Brad Miller:

Still be here we're doing just fine.

Paul Comfort:

So, all right, so, so that's what happened.

Paul Comfort:

That's a great, by the way, great description.

Paul Comfort:

Thank you for that, you know, kind of a first person review of what happened.

Paul Comfort:

All that rain and everything.

Paul Comfort:

Did your car get like flooded out by all the rain coming up underneath of it?

Paul Comfort:

Or could you drive it?

Paul Comfort:

Or how did that affect your buses and and your facilities and all that?

Brad Miller:

Yeah, well, very luckily, no.

Brad Miller:

I, I'm totally fine.

Brad Miller:

And, I, I live in a, a little bit higher ground area.

Paul Comfort:

Okay.

Brad Miller:

You know, the, for hurricanes That's smart.

Brad Miller:

For both, right, for both hurricane, both hurricane, Helene

Brad Miller:

and Milton, there was evacuations.

Brad Miller:

There's mandatory evacuations that the, counties, all go through,

Brad Miller:

depending on where the storm's coming.

Brad Miller:

And so, for Milton's last one, there was the biggest evacuation I've ever seen.

Brad Miller:

Mandatory evacuations, the whole, every county in Florida is all organized to

Brad Miller:

have like zones A, B, C, D, E, F, whatever , based on your height above sea level.

Brad Miller:

And, luckily I live in zone D.

Brad Miller:

pretty high, it's 27 feet above sea level, so I'm fine.

Brad Miller:

They evacuated, in my county, A, B, and C, mandatory.

Brad Miller:

So, over half the county evacuated.

Paul Comfort:

And where did they go?

Paul Comfort:

Just up the road north?

Brad Miller:

Well, yeah, if you look at, the traffic on I 75 up to Atlanta, up

Brad Miller:

I 95, this time since it was the West Coast of Florida, mostly I 75, just

Brad Miller:

totally jam packed all the way to Atlanta.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

People from Florida fleeing the storm.

Brad Miller:

And, this, because it came just a couple, just two weeks after the last hurricane

Brad Miller:

and that was really devastating, I think.

Brad Miller:

I, I do think, over half the population completely evacuated.

Paul Comfort:

They, they took it seriously.

Brad Miller:

They really took it seriously this time, which was

Brad Miller:

really good, you know, in a sense.

Brad Miller:

But, yeah, now, even today, the traffic is incredible on coming back, because

Brad Miller:

they're all finally coming back.

Brad Miller:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Brad Miller:

today, so I've heard really kind of nightmare stories about folks coming back.

Brad Miller:

But the transit systems.

Brad Miller:

are really essential to every county in Florida's, response to these storms.

Brad Miller:

The, we all have a full blown emergency operations center, at least where I had

Brad Miller:

come from in the past, they had used, like, a room in City Hall or something for

Brad Miller:

something like this, but for emergencies, but here, there's the permanent

Brad Miller:

facilities that are just in there.

Brad Miller:

They have a permanent director and, you know, it's a very, sort of, uh, command

Brad Miller:

control kind of set up where we, we, we always have people there 24 7 during a

Brad Miller:

storm and, um, the requests come down to us and we provide the evacuations.

Brad Miller:

This one was so big and threatening to come right to us that they

Brad Miller:

actually relied on us just running our regular bus service, which goes

Brad Miller:

by, you know, the evacuation, centers.

Brad Miller:

that, that they set up are the schools.

Brad Miller:

They close down the schools, and then they set them up in high

Brad Miller:

schools, the evacuation centers.

Brad Miller:

And, supposedly, on this storm, a record, like, nine or ten thousand people

Brad Miller:

actually went into the, evacuation sites, the schools, and churches, and things.

Brad Miller:

And, you know, our bus, our bus network, serves, All those schools, pretty, pretty

Brad Miller:

effectively just with its regular routes.

Brad Miller:

So we, we ran our regular service until late on, uh, at their, their

Brad Miller:

request, Tuesday because that's, that's the, and it becomes free and, you

Brad Miller:

know, that's the best, most frequent way to get as many people access to

Brad Miller:

the evacuation centers as possible.

Brad Miller:

And like I said, Helene had taken out a lot of people's cars and our

Brad Miller:

transportation, so, that was even more necessary, so we did carry a lot of

Brad Miller:

people to the evacuation centers, and then, of course, we just, inundated

Brad Miller:

with specific requests, and maybe you heard from the other folks that you

Brad Miller:

talked to about the same kind of request where, low, low lying, nursing homes

Brad Miller:

and, medical facilities and things like that, of course, we have the

Brad Miller:

largest fleet of wheelchair accessible vehicles in, the county, you know,

Brad Miller:

with our paratransit vehicles and with our, our buses all having, wheelchair

Brad Miller:

accessibility, so, we're called to those sort of special needs to evacuate

Brad Miller:

all those folks that, you know, need a wheelchair accessible vehicle to

Brad Miller:

get out and, or a hospital, you know.

Paul Comfort:

Oh, right.

Brad Miller:

And, and there's, there's dozens of those, those locations

Brad Miller:

in the evacuation zone that we, we carried, close to 10, 000 people away.

Brad Miller:

Wow, Brad.

Brad Miller:

Before the, before the storm hit and, And then certainly right after, even

Brad Miller:

today, we're doing a lot of special movements of buses , but again,

Brad Miller:

it is just so well integrated.

Brad Miller:

Now, the only way we can do that is I've just got a fantastic staff

Brad Miller:

who has us down to a tee and did such a fantastic job this time.

Brad Miller:

We have to make sure that our fleet and our facilities and all of our

Brad Miller:

employees are safe first, and then, then we can provide the service.

Brad Miller:

It's an essential service to the county, to the citizens.

Brad Miller:

We moved all of our buses to higher ground because the facility, of course, most bus

Brad Miller:

garages, I think in the United States, are built in flood zones, probably,

Brad Miller:

but we're in Zone B, so we evacuated our buses to higher ground, themselves.

Brad Miller:

We did that, Wednesday, right before the storm hit.

Brad Miller:

and then, left some buses, our older buses, just in case something bad happens,

Brad Miller:

we don't want one of our brand new buses to get messed up, to provide the, uh,

Brad Miller:

evacuation services as long as we can.

Brad Miller:

our policy is we will run, it's really for the safety of the riders, we will run

Brad Miller:

until, sustained storm force winds 45.

Brad Miller:

and that's what we did.

Brad Miller:

Okay.

Brad Miller:

And really we're, Appreciated, I know, but the county very much relied on public

Brad Miller:

transit to help them get the people safe.

Paul Comfort:

You helped evacuate at least 10, 000 people.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

That's amazing, Brad.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

And I think, and I know, I don't think the numbers were, you know, we were right,

Brad Miller:

we're right on the Gulf of Mexico and,

Paul Comfort:

yeah,

Brad Miller:

probably got the, the highest, the most, impact to our county,

Brad Miller:

but Tampa just right behind us, they also, same thing, same exact things.

Brad Miller:

They, they evacuated certain zones.

Brad Miller:

the system on, on that side of the bay did the same thing, at their emergency

Brad Miller:

operations center providing evacuations.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

to get people out of harm's way.

Paul Comfort:

Right?

Paul Comfort:

I heard the roof of Tropicana of field got ripped off and where

Paul Comfort:

they were having first responders there and that was their shelter.

Paul Comfort:

And then that got, wow.

Paul Comfort:

That's like biblical proportions.

Brad Miller:

I know.

Brad Miller:

yeah.

Brad Miller:

It was, it was, it was incredible.

Brad Miller:

Just like, to see that and then, oh my gosh, the, the roof is

Brad Miller:

gone on that, facility, that's certainly a, a huge challenge.

Brad Miller:

Luckily there was nobody in there, nobody injured amazingly.

Brad Miller:

And then, And they had sent a warning out before this, but you know, downtown St.

Brad Miller:

Petersburg, one of our main areas that we serve, is just really booming

Brad Miller:

economically, and there's maybe, I don't know, seven, eight, maybe a

Brad Miller:

dozen, those big huge cranes, building, buildings, and they said, you know, be,

Brad Miller:

be wary of those cranes with hurricane force winds, and one toppled over,

Brad Miller:

and basically landed on top of the Tampa Bay Times newspaper, building.

Brad Miller:

Oh, wow.

Brad Miller:

and kind of crushed the corner of it, and it almost, right,

Brad Miller:

right in the downtown core of St.

Brad Miller:

Petersburg where our BRT goes, it probably missed our BRT station.

Brad Miller:

Right in that part of that area, by about, 30 feet or so.

Paul Comfort:

Oh my goodness.

Brad Miller:

And it still, is lying there on the, street.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

Down below.

Brad Miller:

That was, that, that was also incredible.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

So what's happening now?

Paul Comfort:

Now that it's over, I hear that there's still a lot of people without

Paul Comfort:

power, and, and what's your role in transit to help kind of recover?

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

Well, you know, it just continues on.

Brad Miller:

You're exactly right.

Brad Miller:

probably the biggest thing that we're dealing with now in our

Brad Miller:

county is the lack of power.

Brad Miller:

and so that certainly a nursing home or a hospital or something like that.

Brad Miller:

In an area that doesn't have power, can't go back yet, can't have their

Brad Miller:

folks go back there without power.

Brad Miller:

Now, a lot of, like the major hospitals and everything, have emergency backup,

Brad Miller:

generators and things like that.

Brad Miller:

So, we're talking mostly like smaller nursing homes or maybe, you know, senior

Brad Miller:

living facilities and stuff like that.

Brad Miller:

so we're, we're still providing, uh, As of today, we did something like 200

Brad Miller:

people, uh, get people back still today.

Brad Miller:

Supposedly, they're going to have all the power back by tomorrow,

Brad Miller:

and we can, maybe get back to some resemblance of normal, normalcy.

Brad Miller:

this time, you know, I think largely, due to the lack of power at gas stations,

Brad Miller:

there was a run on gas very long lines to get gas, at places, you know, our

Brad Miller:

paratransit system, which is heavily used, during the, hurricane, The cabs

Brad Miller:

and the Ubers, you know, that we use a lot of here, they were having trouble

Brad Miller:

getting gas, and so PSBA has big tanks, and we have a lot of unleaded fuel also.

Brad Miller:

We opened up our facility to basically fill up all the taxi

Brad Miller:

cabs to keep that service going, just in the last couple days.

Brad Miller:

We've been doing that too.

Paul Comfort:

Wow.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, that's, that's, interesting how you don't think about that.

Brad Miller:

Right.

Brad Miller:

Right.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Brad Miller:

I mean, the taxis, the Ubers, Lyfts those are very, those are critical to our, to

Brad Miller:

our paratransit, network, getting people, you know, everybody's power has been out.

Brad Miller:

So now they need to go to Publix or the grocery store more often because

Brad Miller:

their refrigerator doesn't work.

Brad Miller:

yeah.

Brad Miller:

Just everything, is just.

Brad Miller:

out of sorts right now.

Brad Miller:

it's going to take our community a while.

Brad Miller:

The, the destruction from the storm surge from the first hurricane along

Brad Miller:

our coastlines, and then, and then this.

Brad Miller:

This, the power and the, of the last, being out, it's, it's a real challenge,

Brad Miller:

but we're just grateful that, by and large, our, our employees are all

Brad Miller:

safe, and accounted for the incredible work getting, the, so many people to

Brad Miller:

safety, and really helping out, and I'm just, I'm, I'm grateful for them and,

Brad Miller:

and the great work that they've done.

Paul Comfort:

That's something.

Paul Comfort:

Well, thank you for joining us today, Brad, and kind of filling us in from a

Paul Comfort:

first person perspective for those around the country and the world who listen here.

Paul Comfort:

is there any kind of final, you know, you've done this a few times

Paul Comfort:

now, any lessons learned from your perspective that you would share with

Paul Comfort:

other people in preparing for, you know, a natural disaster of this type?

Brad Miller:

Oh yeah, thank you.

Brad Miller:

And I, we are always, learning, you know, what, what goes wrong, what, what we could

Brad Miller:

do better, what could be more efficient, through every storm, and we're trying to

Brad Miller:

make those adjustments, I would certainly say, you know, and I didn't know any of

Brad Miller:

this before I really came down here to Florida, and then I've just been sort of

Brad Miller:

indoctrinated in it, have a plan, have a, procedure in place on how you're going to

Brad Miller:

make decisions, on, you know, service, how you, we, we work very carefully with our

Brad Miller:

union, to include them in the discussions, now with the power of Zoom, like this,

Brad Miller:

we have, Zoom calls, replacing like in person meetings a lot because we're

Brad Miller:

all in our evacuation spots or at home.

Brad Miller:

and, communication is probably the number one, lesson I've learned

Brad Miller:

is key, from myself as the CEO and the leader of the organization.

Brad Miller:

And I'm interacting with the leaders of the other public organizations, the

Brad Miller:

cities, the first responders and things like that, on down to, to make sure

Brad Miller:

that we can really be there for the community when they, when they need us.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, that's amazing.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, Greg Slater was telling me, that, you know, you guys were coordinating with

Paul Comfort:

him because your vehicles are running on their roads and there's so much

Paul Comfort:

interagency cooperation and coordination happening behind the scenes that the

Paul Comfort:

public doesn't see, but it's critical and then, you know, the other folks who are on

Paul Comfort:

later on today's episode, we'll be talking about, All the preparation and planning

Paul Comfort:

and the tabletop exercises and all the things that go into this, you know, like

Paul Comfort:

you said, these are real professionals that have been doing this for a long time.

Paul Comfort:

And, it almost, it's not second nature, but you have to have a plan, you have

Paul Comfort:

to coordinate and communicate, and then you have to be able to execute, right?

Brad Miller:

Oh, absolutely.

Brad Miller:

And, and to your point, it is great, the relationships and the, just,

Brad Miller:

everyone working together, in the Tampa Bay area, but then across the

Brad Miller:

state in the transit world, even.

Brad Miller:

Like, I, I have been in communication with, Tiffany Homler, in Orlando, Nat

Brad Miller:

Ford in Jacksonville, our State Transit Association, Lisa Bacow up in Tallahassee,

Brad Miller:

of course the Florida DOT, uh, the Expressway Authority, Yeah, everybody has

Brad Miller:

called me up and said, is there anything that they can do to help me, you know,

Brad Miller:

or coordinate with them, in any way?

Brad Miller:

It's been, it's been fantastic support for us.

Brad Miller:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Well, thanks for sharing with us today.

Paul Comfort:

We wish you all the best in the recovery.

Paul Comfort:

We know it's just really starting now that people can get back into the offices

Paul Comfort:

and that your power comes back on.

Paul Comfort:

Thank you for sharing it with us today, Brad.

Brad Miller:

Thank you.

Brad Miller:

Thank you,

Brad Miller:

Paul.

Paul Comfort:

Great to have with us my good friend, Dave Dech who is

Paul Comfort:

executive director of what's known as TriRail, but it's the south.

Paul Comfort:

What is it again, Dave?

Dave Dech:

it's a mouthful.

Dave Dech:

It's the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority.

Paul Comfort:

That's it.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Beautiful, man.

Paul Comfort:

So, and today, you're, you're also on the board of

Dave Dech:

just finished the board meeting for the commuter rail coalition.

Paul Comfort:

Right.

Paul Comfort:

Commuter rail coalition.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

That's a very big operation, big organization, isn't it?

Paul Comfort:

And growing.

Paul Comfort:

And

Dave Dech:

growing.

Dave Dech:

Yeah, I think we represent at this point about 98 percent of all

Dave Dech:

commuters that run on these trains are represented on this association.

Paul Comfort:

Well, for those of you who watch our television show,

Paul Comfort:

Transit Unplugged TV, you might recall Dave was one of the stars of

Paul Comfort:

our episode in South Florida, Miami.

Paul Comfort:

we rode his service, went to the Yellow Green Market with Coree Cuff

Paul Comfort:

Lonergan, who was on today's episode.

Paul Comfort:

and then, You showed us a station that you had built right in with,

Paul Comfort:

with Miami Dade in the downtown area.

Paul Comfort:

And you, I know you continue to coordinate very closely with

Paul Comfort:

your transit partners, right?

Dave Dech:

Yeah, we've got a beautiful Miami Central Station

Dave Dech:

that, we share with Brightline.

Dave Dech:

Brightline built that station.

Dave Dech:

We have the platforms that we own in there, that connects over to Government

Dave Dech:

Center and connects you to the Metro Rail and then to the Metro Mover.

Dave Dech:

So, yeah, it's really really good to see all those pieces start to come

Dave Dech:

together as the way it should be.

Dave Dech:

I mean, it's all about connectivity.

Paul Comfort:

That's right.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Especially in South Florida there.

Paul Comfort:

So along those lines, actually, it's a great segue to what I wanted to

Paul Comfort:

ask you about, which is preparation.

Paul Comfort:

So we've talked, uh, with some of the CEOs about execution on the day

Paul Comfort:

of service, and you run a rail line.

Paul Comfort:

tell us what you run so that people are clear on that.

Paul Comfort:

And then we'll dive into kind of preparation.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Dave Dech:

So we, we run commuter rail.

Dave Dech:

and we run through three counties.

Dave Dech:

our northernmost station is our Mangonia Park Station in Palm Beach

Dave Dech:

County, and we run through Palm Beach, Broward, and then Miami Dade County.

Paul Comfort:

Right.

Paul Comfort:

And, you kind of, you told me one time a good way for people who aren't

Paul Comfort:

familiar with it, it, it geographically, you kind of parallel I 95, right?

Dave Dech:

Oh, yes, we, you know, we are, we, there's no

Dave Dech:

better way to get off 95 than to

Paul Comfort:

ride it.

Paul Comfort:

I love that.

Paul Comfort:

So, let's, take our minds back a week or so when Hurricane Milton was

Paul Comfort:

bearing down on Florida, the, the, the preparations that were required

Paul Comfort:

for all transit agencies, which is what I'd like you to focus on, was

Paul Comfort:

tremendous because this thing looked like it was going to be a monster.

Paul Comfort:

I mean, I, I heard people saying it could be the worst, or one of

Paul Comfort:

the very worst in history, and then, and then what happened, Dave?

Dave Dech:

Well, you know, we, we were watching it because as we're watching the

Dave Dech:

models and everything and, you know, we have a very prescribed, you know, where

Dave Dech:

we are in South Florida, we have a very prescribed hurricane preparedness plan.

Dave Dech:

we go over it every year, we make sure we have our supplies, we make sure

Dave Dech:

everybody's up on the plan, we make sure our generators are filled, all those, you

Dave Dech:

know, all those things we do every year.

Dave Dech:

So then it just becomes a matter of executing that plan

Dave Dech:

based on whatever variables.

Dave Dech:

The storm throws at you.

Dave Dech:

So while we were initially watching, it really looked like it was going to

Dave Dech:

go far enough north on the coast that we weren't going to have to do much.

Dave Dech:

And we were, we're fortunate that we have great partners in South Florida.

Dave Dech:

So we were, you know, we were having three times a day, three and four

Dave Dech:

times a day calls with the Florida East Coast Railroad and Brightline.

Dave Dech:

And they had their weather people on there with just these really great

Dave Dech:

in depth analyses of, of the weather.

Dave Dech:

So, When it took a turn south, we, we, we said, okay, now

Dave Dech:

we need to make a decision.

Dave Dech:

And our, our hurricane preparedness plan calls for if there's going

Dave Dech:

to be, wind speeds, the sustained wind speeds above 40 miles an hour,

Dave Dech:

we must start to secure gates.

Dave Dech:

So that's where really what we start to worry about are the

Dave Dech:

crossing arms and crossing gates.

Paul Comfort:

because

Dave Dech:

they can become projectiles.

Dave Dech:

They can, so they become more of a hazard.

Dave Dech:

so once it became clear, like even the morning of.

Dave Dech:

they were starting to project, sustained wind gusts, not gusts, sustained wind

Dave Dech:

speeds of 55 to 60 miles an hour.

Dave Dech:

So that became a no brainer.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Dave Dech:

We've got a, you know, it was just in the Palm Beach County area.

Paul Comfort:

Okay.

Dave Dech:

But we made the decision that we're, you know, starting with

Dave Dech:

the service on, Wednesday morning, I think it was, that we were going to

Dave Dech:

suspend service Wednesday, Thursday, where we would start securing gates.

Dave Dech:

So we How do you

Paul Comfort:

do that?

Paul Comfort:

What do you do?

Paul Comfort:

Like wrap a chain around it or something?

Paul Comfort:

So,

Dave Dech:

yeah, it's, it's Your chain or rope you can latch, anything

Dave Dech:

shorter than 25 feet will secure.

Dave Dech:

Anything longer than 25 feet will remove because they just did that.

Dave Dech:

So, and that's where it becomes a lengthy process.

Dave Dech:

So we removed, you know, we removed over a hundred gate arms, and then, you know,

Dave Dech:

secured the rest in Palm Beach County.

Dave Dech:

and then, you know, again, we made sure all of our generators were up.

Dave Dech:

We made sure we had a source for diesel fuel.

Dave Dech:

we made sure that we had, You know, light, light plants stationed throughout the

Dave Dech:

area in case we lost power at a station.

Dave Dech:

we put our signal people all in rest, because our signal

Dave Dech:

people are all hours of service.

Dave Dech:

They can only work so many hours in a day.

Dave Dech:

so then you start thinking ahead, okay, I've got to put these people down for

Dave Dech:

rest, so that when the storm hits, I have people available to go out and work.

Dave Dech:

So we were going through all those, those preparations.

Dave Dech:

And then, fortunately for us, you know, that, that the eye hit the, the eye

Dave Dech:

wall and the south end of the eye of the storm kind of opened up and released

Dave Dech:

a lot of the energy on the south end.

Dave Dech:

so we didn't get the winds that we anticipated.

Dave Dech:

I'd much rather be prepared and not get the wind than, you

Dave Dech:

know, not be prepared to get it.

Dave Dech:

So I still think we made the right decision to curtail our operations.

Dave Dech:

and we, we did sustain damage to, um, Our Mangonia Park station, we lost a

Dave Dech:

lot of the roofing, in the station, so we'll have to make some repairs there.

Dave Dech:

We had some light poles down, a lot of trees down.

Paul Comfort:

Now, was that due to the hurricane, or was that due to tornadoes?

Dave Dech:

It was a little bit of both.

Dave Dech:

Okay.

Dave Dech:

the tornadoes were scary.

Dave Dech:

I mean, it's, you know, if you look at my house in particular,

Dave Dech:

I had no damage, you know, I had a flower pot that was blown over.

Dave Dech:

But if you go up a mile or two from my house or a couple miles where they

Dave Dech:

had the tornadoes and there's entire neighborhoods just completely devastated.

Dave Dech:

I'm sure you've probably seen some of the images on Instagram.

Dave Dech:

And that was, you know, that was just north of us.

Dave Dech:

You know, I have a friend of mine sending me pictures from his backyard

Dave Dech:

of a tornado in his backyard.

Dave Dech:

So, we were very fortunate.

Dave Dech:

that we, you know, we sustained very, what I think is very minimal damage

Dave Dech:

for what we were expecting, from the storm and we'll, you know, we were

Dave Dech:

back up and operating on, on Friday.

Paul Comfort:

That's great.

Paul Comfort:

And so, what I want to just kind of, focus on for our listeners is

Paul Comfort:

the amount of preparations that go into getting ready for a storm.

Paul Comfort:

I was interviewing Greg Slater, who is the head of the Tampa

Paul Comfort:

Hillsboro Expressway Authority.

Paul Comfort:

Greg was head of the State Highway Administration when I

Paul Comfort:

was head of the Maryland Transit Administration together in Baltimore.

Paul Comfort:

We went through a storm called, we called, Snowmageddon, where we, you know, the

Paul Comfort:

roads and the transit, which is on the roads, we coordinated dramatically and

Paul Comfort:

we ended up shutting down all service, everything, for like two days, which is

Paul Comfort:

something you almost never do in transit.

Paul Comfort:

Shut it all down, but we had to.

Paul Comfort:

But he said it's so different.

Paul Comfort:

Handling hurricanes because, you know, in snowstorms, you're usually you're

Paul Comfort:

trying to keep everything open, keep the roads open so people can get

Paul Comfort:

through, but in a hurricane, it's close everything down and stay home.

Paul Comfort:

so it's a whole different mode.

Dave Dech:

It is.

Dave Dech:

It is.

Dave Dech:

Yeah, you're exactly right.

Dave Dech:

You know, my life up north, you know, you, you want to keep the

Dave Dech:

roads, keep driving on them.

Dave Dech:

That's right.

Paul Comfort:

You got to keep them passable.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Dave Dech:

You know, so, you know, we went through, cause, you know, even though.

Dave Dech:

You know, we were going to shut down our operation.

Dave Dech:

You know, we have CSX that operates.

Dave Dech:

We have, so CSX on the Southern end of the railroad was still, still workable.

Dave Dech:

So we had dispatchers around the clock still, but you know, you think about

Dave Dech:

you arrange hotel rooms, you, you know, you, you've got, you, you get

Dave Dech:

your phone list so you can do wellness checks, you know, for people, you

Dave Dech:

know, when the storm goes through, you want to make sure your people,

Dave Dech:

all your teammates are okay, because it's not just affecting the railroad.

Dave Dech:

You know, if you, you know, we have a lot of people who live up North who, you

Dave Dech:

know, and, and so now we're worried about.

Dave Dech:

Are they okay?

Dave Dech:

Are their families okay?

Dave Dech:

Are their, you know, their houses okay?

Dave Dech:

but it is, it's, it's an exhaustive list of, of preparations.

Dave Dech:

some of it you don't think about, right?

Dave Dech:

So, I mean, you, you, you got to keep your locomotives running.

Dave Dech:

In these kind of storms, because you don't want the water to

Dave Dech:

come into those exhaust stacks.

Dave Dech:

It just, just,

Paul Comfort:

you

Dave Dech:

gotta keep

Paul Comfort:

the train running.

Dave Dech:

Exactly.

Dave Dech:

So then when you're like some of our places like Palm Beach, they,

Dave Dech:

you know, we, they don't really like us to keep locomotives running.

Dave Dech:

So now we're restaging our locomotives into the yard where we would normally

Dave Dech:

leave them up, up north, so that we could, we could, the ones that have

Dave Dech:

to stay running to stay running.

Dave Dech:

And then we have, like exhaust.

Dave Dech:

port covers that we go up and we lash around.

Paul Comfort:

Oh, yeah.

Dave Dech:

and then, so you're doing that and you need to make sure that,

Dave Dech:

you know, your water filtration and your filtration sites are all going

Dave Dech:

to keep working no matter what.

Dave Dech:

They don't care if the storm's coming or not.

Dave Dech:

You know, your sewage and your raw water and everything

Dave Dech:

still needs to be processed.

Dave Dech:

and then you start looking at your, uh, you know, we ordered in, I think 200

Dave Dech:

tons of ballast and had that staged.

Dave Dech:

You know, along the thing, we make sure all of our tampers and our

Dave Dech:

regulators and our on track equipment and everything, we go out, start it

Dave Dech:

up, make sure it's running, because you just don't know, you know you're going

Dave Dech:

to need those things after the storm.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

You

Dave Dech:

just, you know, and that's not, finding out after the storm that

Dave Dech:

it's not running is the wrong time.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Wow, that's something.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, so much that people don't think about.

Paul Comfort:

And then, were you a part of the Emergency Operations Center?

Paul Comfort:

Did you have staff over there in any of the counties you were at?

Dave Dech:

So we did, we did not have staff over there.

Dave Dech:

I, you know, I stayed in very close communication with Coree

Dave Dech:

and Ivan and, and, and Eulois down in Miami and our staffs all talk.

Dave Dech:

So our, our directors of security and safety talk to Broward, talk

Dave Dech:

to Palm Beach, Miami Dade, all the EOCs so that we can coordinate.

Dave Dech:

and then, you know, the biggest thing for us, Especially in a storm of this

Dave Dech:

magnitude that we were expecting is, you know, our role then can be more vital,

Dave Dech:

not really moving people around, but opening up that track, get out of the way.

Dave Dech:

So if CSX needs to bring in, you know, supplies

Paul Comfort:

or

Dave Dech:

water or, you know, whatever it is, you know, it's a vital outlet

Dave Dech:

there to keep that railroad running.

Dave Dech:

So if things are down in South Florida, you've got CSX and the FPC

Dave Dech:

can kind of bring in all that, that.

Dave Dech:

That freight infrastructure is needed.

Paul Comfort:

Oh, yeah, that's amazing.

Paul Comfort:

I think about all the supplies.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Now, do you work with your contractor, TransDev, on doing all that?

Paul Comfort:

Are they integral to all this?

Paul Comfort:

Oh,

Dave Dech:

it's, yes, it is.

Dave Dech:

It is arm and arm with TransDev and Herzog and Allied Universal.

Dave Dech:

They were on all the weather calls and we had a call following that to

Dave Dech:

make sure we were all coordinated.

Dave Dech:

it really was, you hate to say you get good at it because we get to practice

Dave Dech:

this a couple of times a year, but, but we, you know, you do, you run into

Dave Dech:

that, you know, just kind of a routine of making sure that you're ready.

Paul Comfort:

That's good.

Paul Comfort:

Well, Dave, thanks for making time for us today.

Paul Comfort:

I know you're on a busy schedule there, and I'm really happy that, you know, you

Paul Comfort:

had, you sustained minimal damage, both personally and, and your operations,

Paul Comfort:

and, we'll plan to be back down there in South Florida again later, in 2025

Paul Comfort:

to do a follow up on all the great news you all have coming out of South

Paul Comfort:

Florida, and congratulations on your ridership recovery there, at TriRail.

Paul Comfort:

I think you're leading the nation in the way of You know, of reorienting what

Paul Comfort:

might be traditional commuter service to now adapt to the more hybrid work

Paul Comfort:

schedule by opening up the schedules and making them more of a regional rail.

Dave Dech:

Yeah, it's, you know, we're very pleased with our results and we're

Dave Dech:

just going to continue to drive, continue to, to increase our reliability and

Dave Dech:

make that customer experience better.

Dave Dech:

I mean, that's really what it all boils down

Dave Dech:

to.

Paul Comfort:

Great to have Coree Cuff Lonergan with us today on the show.

Paul Comfort:

She is CEO and General Manager of Broward County Transit.

Paul Comfort:

Those who watch our TV show got to see her on our South Florida episode.

Paul Comfort:

Kori, thank you so much for being here today.

Paul Comfort:

Coree Cuff Lonergan: Thank you, Paul, for having me and hello to the audience.

Paul Comfort:

So glad to be here today and want to welcome you back to South

Paul Comfort:

Florida as soon as possible, Paul.

Paul Comfort:

Oh, good.

Paul Comfort:

I'd

Paul Comfort:

love to be down there now that it's getting

Paul Comfort:

cold up here in Maryland.

Paul Comfort:

Hey, Coree you guys, just had, just, you know, today's show is about the

Paul Comfort:

impact that public transit has in responding to, natural disasters, such

Paul Comfort:

as the back to back hurricanes that you just suffered there in Florida.

Paul Comfort:

Tell us about that and, and where you all are at today.

Paul Comfort:

Coree Cuff Lonergan: Yeah, so it's a really good question, Paul, and

Paul Comfort:

thank you again for allowing us the opportunity to talk about it.

Paul Comfort:

Yes, we did have, two back to back hurricanes, here, in Florida.

Paul Comfort:

Fortunately for us, in both cases, we weren't immediately impacted by them.

Paul Comfort:

We didn't sustain a direct hit.

Paul Comfort:

However, with Milton, we did, have some, bands that came through, that, that,

Paul Comfort:

The, we got some very strong gusts, but we didn't get sustained winds.

Paul Comfort:

for us, we, look at sustained winds of over 39 miles an hour.

Paul Comfort:

And if they get to that point, then we start to, close down our

Paul Comfort:

service and we don't operate.

Paul Comfort:

So we didn't have that situation.

Paul Comfort:

So we were so fortunate.

Paul Comfort:

but I do want to send, My well wishes out to our colleagues on

Paul Comfort:

the West Coast, and in Central Florida that did take direct hits.

Paul Comfort:

they're doing amazing jobs recovering there and I and my

Paul Comfort:

thoughts are with them for sure.

Paul Comfort:

but for us, we were able, fortunately, to keep our service running the entire time.

Paul Comfort:

we did have one, only one detour, and that was because of flooding in one of

Paul Comfort:

the local cities here called Hollywood.

Paul Comfort:

for those of them familiar, Hollywood Beach.

Paul Comfort:

well, our Route 6, had to be detoured for about two or three

Paul Comfort:

days as, because of flooding.

Paul Comfort:

other than that, we ran our normal paratransit service, our normal,

Paul Comfort:

fixed bus route service, and, we were able during that time to carry

Paul Comfort:

a ridership of about 100, 000.

Paul Comfort:

Wow, that's something.

Paul Comfort:

even though the hurricane didn't hit you as bad, I understand

Paul Comfort:

that there were some tornadoes.

Paul Comfort:

Did you get any of those in your, in your county?

Paul Comfort:

Coree Cuff Lonergan: we did.

Paul Comfort:

We did get some tornadoes touched down here in Broward, very briefly.

Paul Comfort:

they did some, damage.

Paul Comfort:

fortunately, from a transit perspective, we weren't, impacted by that.

Paul Comfort:

and I saw a picture of you online, at your EOC.

Paul Comfort:

I mean, that was, that was activated, right?

Paul Comfort:

And you all had some plans.

Paul Comfort:

You all prepare for these, right?

Paul Comfort:

I mean, a lot of folks don't realize, having been a county

Paul Comfort:

administrator myself, there's so many practice sessions that people have.

Paul Comfort:

Have you been involved in any of those?

Paul Comfort:

Coree Cuff Lonergan: Yes, in fact, our planning for the hurricane season starts

Paul Comfort:

back in the beginning of the summer, actually, here in Broward, and we do

Paul Comfort:

have multiple drills, tabletop drills, where we test how our responses are

Paul Comfort:

going to be under various scenarios.

Paul Comfort:

So it's taken very seriously here.

Paul Comfort:

in Broward, and so we do have people that are dedicated to, watching the

Paul Comfort:

weather, and, and, establishing, what the, protocol for response is going to

Paul Comfort:

be based on weather reports, and that obviously triggers certain reactions, from

Paul Comfort:

a county perspective on how we respond.

Paul Comfort:

But it's taken very seriously here.

Paul Comfort:

as you know, we're kind of the hurricane capital of the

Paul Comfort:

country down here in Florida.

Paul Comfort:

not something that we're proud of, but there, that's a fact.

Paul Comfort:

and so because of that, you know, hurricane season is very

Paul Comfort:

important to us and always top of mind and the preparations

Paul Comfort:

are very, rigid and, important.

Paul Comfort:

Thankfully, the impact there in your county wasn't as

Paul Comfort:

bad, Well, thank you for joining us today, Corey, for this brief update.

Paul Comfort:

We'll, we'll come back and film an episode of our TV show there in

Paul Comfort:

Broward and, maybe in a few months, we can also do another podcast update.

Paul Comfort:

You've got so much going on

Paul Comfort:

Great to have with us my good friend Ivan Maldonado, who is executive

Paul Comfort:

director of PalmTran, the transit agency in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Paul Comfort:

Ivan, thanks for joining us on today's podcast.

Ivan Maldonado:

Thank you, Paul.

Ivan Maldonado:

I appreciate this, interview.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, man.

Paul Comfort:

Ivan and I were pals when he was director of, transportation at

Paul Comfort:

HART Hillsboro Transit in Tampa.

Paul Comfort:

then after that, he went over for a few years to Omaha,

Paul Comfort:

and now is back in Florida.

Paul Comfort:

For the last couple months, many people will remember Clinton Forbes, who

Paul Comfort:

was a great leader in our industry, passed away tragically, too soon.

Paul Comfort:

I'm really happy you're back there, I think they've got a great, strong

Paul Comfort:

leader in you to help kind of pick up where Clinton left off.

Ivan Maldonado:

Yes, and I knew Clinton very well, met

Ivan Maldonado:

him when I was at Star Metro in Tallahassee, and he worked at JTA.

Ivan Maldonado:

Oh, right.

Ivan Maldonado:

That's

Paul Comfort:

right.

Paul Comfort:

Oh, yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, you guys know each other a long time.

Paul Comfort:

So, how long have you been in this job, Ivan?

Paul Comfort:

As a executive director of PalmTran.

Ivan Maldonado:

just a little over two months.

Paul Comfort:

Okay.

Paul Comfort:

So as soon as you get in the job, what happens?

Paul Comfort:

But you have Hurricane Helene come in and then a couple of weeks later, Milton.

Paul Comfort:

I mean, boom, boom.

Paul Comfort:

What a way to get started, huh?

Ivan Maldonado:

Yes.

Ivan Maldonado:

It's a way to get you back acclimated into Florida.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

I mean, you had your fill of those storms.

Paul Comfort:

I know when you were in Tampa, but tell me about the impact.

Paul Comfort:

I've got a good friend who lives there in West Palm and he was saying that,

Paul Comfort:

you his neighborhood was fine, but two neighborhoods away, tornadoes came

Paul Comfort:

and just ripped the whole place up.

Paul Comfort:

So it was kind of wild, huh?

Ivan Maldonado:

Correct.

Ivan Maldonado:

We were obviously hoping for the best, anticipating that we probably

Ivan Maldonado:

needed to be prepared for the worst.

Ivan Maldonado:

And what got us was the tornadoes and actually devastated a couple

Ivan Maldonado:

of towns in Palm Beach County.

Ivan Maldonado:

Actually, where I live right now, which is Palm Beach Gardens, was an

Ivan Maldonado:

area that was affected by tornadoes.

Ivan Maldonado:

Oh, man.

Paul Comfort:

Oh, man.

Paul Comfort:

Wow.

Paul Comfort:

Tell me about that.

Paul Comfort:

What was it like?

Paul Comfort:

Were you there when it, when it touched down?

Ivan Maldonado:

No, I was actually at the emergency operations center, so it

Ivan Maldonado:

did not affect me directly in my home.

Ivan Maldonado:

I was not affected by it, but I know that it was a tragic situation.

Ivan Maldonado:

And what's amazing about that, because it brings back memory, when I was

Ivan Maldonado:

in Omaha, we had a major, major, tornado that actually encompassed

Ivan Maldonado:

almost a three mile, range.

Ivan Maldonado:

I didn't realize that tornadoes could get that big.

Ivan Maldonado:

Yeah, I got to Omaha.

Ivan Maldonado:

So, the results of that tornado was devastating.

Ivan Maldonado:

I've never seen anything like it, until I got to Omaha.

Ivan Maldonado:

So yeah, they can be very devastating.

Ivan Maldonado:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

So this hurricane comes across.

Paul Comfort:

The initial track had it hitting right between Clearwater and Tampa, then

Paul Comfort:

it moved south, and it moved south quite a bit, maybe 40 or 50 miles,

Paul Comfort:

and then crossed the whole state.

Paul Comfort:

You're on the other side of the state, so tell us about what happened, where you

Paul Comfort:

were, and the role of your transit agency, what was going on during that time.

Ivan Maldonado:

So, I'm very thankful for the, Palm Beach County

Ivan Maldonado:

and everyone's involvement here.

Ivan Maldonado:

We were obviously tracking the storm for a couple of days before

Paul Comfort:

it

Ivan Maldonado:

came in.

Ivan Maldonado:

The county administrator, the county commissioners, the different department

Ivan Maldonado:

heads, emergency management, they were on point, tracking the storm.

Ivan Maldonado:

we were at the EOC multiple days, making sure we had all the preparations

Ivan Maldonado:

in place anticipating this storm.

Ivan Maldonado:

So, we were very thankful, for our area and, and as I'm saying this right now,

Ivan Maldonado:

I have reached out to some of the other transit systems like HART and PSTA, that

Ivan Maldonado:

were affected, a lot more than we were.

Ivan Maldonado:

Manatee County, for example.

Ivan Maldonado:

So, the storm actually proceeded somewhat northeast, so we weren't

Ivan Maldonado:

necessarily affected by it severely.

Ivan Maldonado:

We had a lot of shrubs and things down, and, but we were able to, to resume

Ivan Maldonado:

services, practically the very next day.

Ivan Maldonado:

we, we, started notifying customers that services might be interrupted,

Ivan Maldonado:

but what, What was, interesting about this whole plan, we wanted to make sure

Ivan Maldonado:

that we got people safely to shelter.

Ivan Maldonado:

So, so the day before the storm, we wanted to make sure that they knew

Ivan Maldonado:

what options they had available for to get to the different shelters.

Ivan Maldonado:

So we ensure that our services continue to operate as long as it was needed

Ivan Maldonado:

before we pull services back inside.

Ivan Maldonado:

We started to get pretty strong winds.

Ivan Maldonado:

So we were initially we're going to close services by 12.

Ivan Maldonado:

But the county administrator made the decision to continue to operate services

Ivan Maldonado:

as needed to get people to the regular shelters and the special needs services.

Ivan Maldonado:

So, we got information out there that we'll continue to make

Ivan Maldonado:

sure that we'll get them there.

Ivan Maldonado:

If we needed to get supervisor vehicles out there, we would

Ivan Maldonado:

do whatever was necessary.

Ivan Maldonado:

information was very thorough.

Ivan Maldonado:

we, we had our call center, all modes of, communications available to

Ivan Maldonado:

them so they could call if we needed to, coordinate special services.

Ivan Maldonado:

we were able to get people safely to the, to the shelters and then we

Ivan Maldonado:

were able to, pull services backup.

Ivan Maldonado:

Everyone did a fantastic job, the supervisors, the operator in good

Ivan Maldonado:

spirits, always, obviously concerned about their safety, but also concerned

Ivan Maldonado:

about the safety of our customers, and, and the day of the storm, obviously by

Ivan Maldonado:

that time we had everyone, in, in, in place where they needed to, to, to be

Ivan Maldonado:

at, but we were grateful to hear that we would not be affected and we were able

Ivan Maldonado:

to get folks back home safely as soon as possible with no issues whatsoever.

Ivan Maldonado:

The communications were great.

Ivan Maldonado:

We worked with the different departments of the county and we

Ivan Maldonado:

were able to get people safely.

Paul Comfort:

So, tell us a little bit about that coordination.

Paul Comfort:

I think that's something that people may not realize is how closely a

Paul Comfort:

transit agency in a natural disaster like this coordinates with the

Paul Comfort:

Department of Public Works, the county administrator, like you said, as you

Paul Comfort:

know, I used to be one, so I remember, doing that, coordinating with everyone.

Paul Comfort:

Talk about that and where that all occurs in the EOC and how valuable that

Paul Comfort:

is for everyone's in the same room.

Ivan Maldonado:

Yeah.

Ivan Maldonado:

Well, it's definitely, it's extremely valuable.

Ivan Maldonado:

you have every representative from all the different, community stakeholders

Ivan Maldonado:

in the community, you had, the Sheriff's Department, Emergency Management, you

Ivan Maldonado:

have, representative of Fire, Rescue, the different, Departments of the City, Public

Ivan Maldonado:

Works, Engineering, Water Utilities.

Ivan Maldonado:

So there's a lot of coordination and most people don't realize that it's happening.

Ivan Maldonado:

But before we can actually bring people back home safely, you have County

Ivan Maldonado:

Engineering that has to go out there and look at the roads to make sure that they

Ivan Maldonado:

are completely free of debris so we can safely take them to their destination.

Ivan Maldonado:

We have supervisors out there.

Ivan Maldonado:

monitoring the roadways.

Ivan Maldonado:

We have communications with the, the different, community service providers

Ivan Maldonado:

out there, especially if they're managing the shelters, to know that

Ivan Maldonado:

we're able to bring them back on.

Ivan Maldonado:

We just don't simply show up at the, at the shelters and, and

Ivan Maldonado:

get people, to the destination.

Ivan Maldonado:

Something that the county did that, I'm proud of the coordination with the

Ivan Maldonado:

different agencies to make sure that the homeless community were not just left

Ivan Maldonado:

out in the community, so we took buses out there to the different sites, and

Ivan Maldonado:

we identified locations throughout the county that we could pick up the homeless

Ivan Maldonado:

and make sure that communication was thorough, and we were able to transport

Ivan Maldonado:

them safely to the regular shelters.

Ivan Maldonado:

It was just a wonderful coordination, and I'm used to that level coordination,

Ivan Maldonado:

I think all the transit systems in Florida do a fantastic job to make

Ivan Maldonado:

sure that people are properly served.

Ivan Maldonado:

but, but it was a great opportunity to see firsthand, Palm Beach County

Ivan Maldonado:

and the different stakeholders doing what they do best and that is to

Ivan Maldonado:

take care of the All of these are the kinds of people that we serve.

Paul Comfort:

We wish you the best, my friend.

Paul Comfort:

I'm happy that you made it through, even though there was some bad tornado damage.

Paul Comfort:

The, the hurricane itself doesn't sound like the, the water damage

Paul Comfort:

was that bad and wish you the very best as you continue to, kind of

Paul Comfort:

get settled there and move forward.

Paul Comfort:

And hopefully we'll get a chance to see you in person before the end of the year.

Paul Comfort:

Thank you,

Paul Comfort:

sir.

Paul Comfort:

Great to have with us Tiffany Homler Hawkins, who is the CEO of

Paul Comfort:

LYNX, which is the public transit system that covers the Orlando area.

Paul Comfort:

Thanks for being with us today, Tiffany.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: Thanks for having us.

Paul Comfort:

So, on today's episode of Transit Unplugged, we're really

Paul Comfort:

talking about the value of public transportation during a natural

Paul Comfort:

disaster, and you all just had two of them back to back in Florida.

Paul Comfort:

Amazing.

Paul Comfort:

Tell us about that and the impact it had in the Orlando area.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: Well, it's, so, it, there are two

Paul Comfort:

certain things in Florida.

Paul Comfort:

It is going to be hot and humid in the summer, and at some point you

Paul Comfort:

are going to be doing some type of hurricane prepper response.

Paul Comfort:

And, you know, we were fortunate here in, Central Florida, Orange Seminole

Paul Comfort:

and Osceola County, Helene, we had some winds, and we did not shut down

Paul Comfort:

service for Helene, Milton, which was catastrophic, both, both storms and,

Paul Comfort:

you know, the whole southeast of the U.

Paul Comfort:

S.

Paul Comfort:

for Helene.

Paul Comfort:

Milton, we shut down for less than 24 hours.

Paul Comfort:

And so, you know, this is the things that we prepped for and,

Paul Comfort:

at least for our team and because hurricanes are definitely a given.

Paul Comfort:

And so we have a meeting starting in May.

Paul Comfort:

Hurricane season is June 1 through November 30th.

Paul Comfort:

And, so vacation times are limited because unlike snow days, in the

Paul Comfort:

north for transit systems, we know we're going to have hurricane days.

Paul Comfort:

But, you know, for us, we, our standard policy and has been for over 20 years

Paul Comfort:

is we pull the buses when the winds are sustained at 35 miles an hour.

Paul Comfort:

And, so it's the timing of those winds.

Paul Comfort:

all of our, partners, emergency operations centers, we have the HURABAC models.

Paul Comfort:

We have the same models and so it's a timing issue.

Paul Comfort:

it takes us about three hours to get all the buses, off the routes, refueled

Paul Comfort:

and staged so that they're secure.

Paul Comfort:

And, you know, we start our 72 hour prep to get our facilities, secured

Paul Comfort:

and work with our major employers.

Paul Comfort:

You know, we have one of the, largest single site employers in Disney.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, Disney,

Paul Comfort:

yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: 85, 000 employees, universal.

Paul Comfort:

And do a lot of them ride your bus system to work?

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: A lot of our passengers are hospitality workers.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: And so, you know, we can get, we get them out and

Paul Comfort:

we don't want to leave them stranded.

Paul Comfort:

So we work with the parks for the timing of closures.

Paul Comfort:

we also have a lot of, hospital workers that they are on their

Paul Comfort:

ride out crews, during an event.

Paul Comfort:

So.

Paul Comfort:

We, we work with them to find out what their timing, is as

Paul Comfort:

well to go to Alpha Bravo shifts.

Paul Comfort:

Okay.

Paul Comfort:

Oh, yeah, right.

Paul Comfort:

So, so the impact, Helene, sounded like it didn't hit you too bad, but how,

Paul Comfort:

what did Milton do in the Orlando area?

Paul Comfort:

Did you get tornadoes, like some of the folks in Palm

Paul Comfort:

Beach did, that kind of stuff?

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: No, we, we had a lot of wind, we had wind gusts of, 87

Paul Comfort:

miles an hour at Orlando International.

Paul Comfort:

I think one of the sustained clocked winds was about 65 miles an hour.

Paul Comfort:

Okay.

Paul Comfort:

We did have a lot of rain.

Paul Comfort:

the ground was already saturated, so it doesn't have anywhere to go.

Paul Comfort:

Some of our areas are still dealing with flooding and rising, waters

Paul Comfort:

on some of our rivers, in the northern part of our service area.

Paul Comfort:

and down trees.

Paul Comfort:

we did not have the tornadoes like they did down in Palm Beach

Paul Comfort:

and southeast Florida, but it was definitely a wind and rain event for us.

Paul Comfort:

Speaking of flooding, I saw a picture, I don't know

Paul Comfort:

if you can comment on it or not, but I don't know if it's true.

Paul Comfort:

It seemed like it may be a fake one.

Paul Comfort:

I saw a picture of Disney World under, like, you know, with water all over.

Paul Comfort:

Is that, was that a fake picture?

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: From what, from all accounts, it

Paul Comfort:

is a very much a fake picture.

Paul Comfort:

Okay, yeah, yeah, because it didn't seem like you had

Paul Comfort:

that much water there in Orlando.

Paul Comfort:

so tell me about, the day of the storm when you, when you had to shut down.

Paul Comfort:

What happened?

Paul Comfort:

What did you all do?

Paul Comfort:

you know, what was the role of public transit in helping to recover?

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: so, in shutting down, you know, we timed it.

Paul Comfort:

we wanted our buses to start coming in about 3 p.

Paul Comfort:

m.

Paul Comfort:

Okay.

Paul Comfort:

So, our dispatch worked with calling in the outer routes to kind of Was that on

Paul Comfort:

Wednesday?

Paul Comfort:

The day the storm was or Tuesday?

Paul Comfort:

That was on,

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: that was on, Wednesday, yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Okay, yes, that's what I thought.

Paul Comfort:

Okay, that's the day it was kind of hitting the West Coast.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: It was hitting the West Coast.

Paul Comfort:

We were getting the feeder bands.

Paul Comfort:

Okay.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: so we made the decision about 3

Paul Comfort:

o'clock to start pulling service.

Paul Comfort:

again, the, the major parks were closing down at 1 and 2 p.

Paul Comfort:

m.

Paul Comfort:

Okay.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: And they do work with their, their staff to, for those that

Paul Comfort:

ride the bus, to let them leave first.

Paul Comfort:

Okay.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: So, get the buses in, get them secured,

Paul Comfort:

and then it's a waiting game.

Paul Comfort:

And once we can monitor the winds and they start dying down, we work, with

Paul Comfort:

the Public Works for all three counties.

Paul Comfort:

We go out and do roadway assessments.

Paul Comfort:

To make sure that the buses can get down the road, obviously there's

Paul Comfort:

going to be light signals out, we had electrical outages, power outages,

Paul Comfort:

throughout all three counties.

Paul Comfort:

we're, we're pretty restored by Friday, but on Thursday, about 1.

Paul Comfort:

30, we did the, all call for folks to report.

Paul Comfort:

We have a, alert system, robocalls, an employee hotline.

Paul Comfort:

to keep everybody informed.

Paul Comfort:

And I, I will say that's one thing about the employees at LYNX is they

Paul Comfort:

are all on board, they understand our role in the community and lot

Paul Comfort:

of times during events, holidays, take it, take it out of the natural

Paul Comfort:

disaster, you have a lot of call offs.

Paul Comfort:

We didn't have any for Helene and Milton.

Paul Comfort:

Wow.

Paul Comfort:

So everybody steps up and, again, it's, it's our response.

Paul Comfort:

It's how, once the buses are rolling and traffic lights are back, there's

Paul Comfort:

a sense of normalcy that comes with, okay, I may have had damage.

Paul Comfort:

Hurricane fatigue is real, but it gets back to, okay, the sun came up the next

Paul Comfort:

day and, you know, we're responding and we're getting back to what we do.

Paul Comfort:

so it really speaks to the role of public transportation

Paul Comfort:

as an essential service, right?

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: Absolutely.

Paul Comfort:

and it sounds like your employees get that, too.

Paul Comfort:

They understand their role in it.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: They, they understand the role.

Paul Comfort:

They understand the assignment.

Paul Comfort:

And, you know, during COVID, we were all talking about, you know, our, the bus

Paul Comfort:

operators and bus operations is essential.

Paul Comfort:

They're, they're first responders.

Paul Comfort:

That's right.

Paul Comfort:

And,

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: you know, we only, we went to half service

Paul Comfort:

for about six weeks during COVID.

Paul Comfort:

And then we were back at full service.

Paul Comfort:

Now ridership was not back full.

Paul Comfort:

and you know, we're about 85, 90 percent back.

Paul Comfort:

But, you know, it's the, it's the demographics of our

Paul Comfort:

riders who need us the most.

Paul Comfort:

That's great.

Paul Comfort:

first of all, I just want to say, I love your transit system.

Paul Comfort:

You know, we were down there last year and I got to ride it and see

Paul Comfort:

your, one of your central hubs.

Paul Comfort:

For those of you who'd like to see LYNX a little bit closer up, we did

Paul Comfort:

do a TV show there, Transit Unplugged TV, where we featured Tiffany and

Paul Comfort:

her team and her transit system.

Paul Comfort:

Just give us a quick update since then for those who kind of Keep pace with us.

Paul Comfort:

What's the latest generally, you know, not talking about the, the, the

Paul Comfort:

hurricanes, but what's happening with your transit system generally now?

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: So, Orange County is, putting about six million

Paul Comfort:

dollars, more, a year into service.

Paul Comfort:

we'll have more service in and around, Metro Orlando.

Paul Comfort:

Link Central Station is going to be celebrating its 20th anniversary in

Paul Comfort:

November, and the skyline of Orlando 20 years ago is a lot different than

Paul Comfort:

it is today, and so we are doing a refresh at the terminal and bus bays

Paul Comfort:

and looking forward to celebrating, the 20th anniversary and the end

Paul Comfort:

of hurricane season in November.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, when is that?

Paul Comfort:

When is the end of hurricane season?

Paul Comfort:

Is there a specific day?

Paul Comfort:

I'm

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: officially it's November 30th, but we have been

Paul Comfort:

known to have a few in December.

Paul Comfort:

Wow.

Paul Comfort:

Well, hopefully you don't have any more this year.

Paul Comfort:

I mean, you've had more than your share.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany, your leadership there, I think, is just, it shows how, Some of

Paul Comfort:

the other folks were saying this too.

Paul Comfort:

Brad was saying how professional the response is in Florida to a hurricane.

Paul Comfort:

It's not like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what are we going to do?

Paul Comfort:

Everybody knows exactly what they're going to do.

Paul Comfort:

You guys have drills, you plan and then you just execute and

Paul Comfort:

your team sounds like they get it.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: Yeah, it's the execution and we have our own EOC and

Paul Comfort:

it helps us coordinate with the three counties when those requests come in for

Paul Comfort:

shelter service, it, we do not charge a fare if you're going to a shelter.

Paul Comfort:

And so,

Paul Comfort:

it's,

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: it's the messaging and, the IT team, the

Paul Comfort:

communications team, operations, they've all been long tenured employees.

Paul Comfort:

Like, none of them have been there less than 10 years that sit at that table and

Paul Comfort:

help make those decisions and, and make sure that we're firing on all cylinders.

Paul Comfort:

That's great.

Paul Comfort:

Well, thanks for giving us an update today, Tiffany.

Paul Comfort:

Tiffany Homler Hawkins: Well, thanks for having us.

Paul Comfort:

Great to have with us on the line today.

Paul Comfort:

Greg Slater, who is CEO and Executive Director of the Tampa

Paul Comfort:

Hillsborough Expressway Authority.

Paul Comfort:

Greg, thanks for joining us.

Greg Slater:

Absolutely.

Greg Slater:

Happy to, Paul.

Paul Comfort:

Greg and I, we're old colleagues.

Paul Comfort:

We used to work together at State DOT.

Paul Comfort:

He was the head of state highways.

Paul Comfort:

I was the head of transit.

Paul Comfort:

And then after I left, he became secretary of the whole state

Paul Comfort:

transportation department, man.

Paul Comfort:

Way to go.

Greg Slater:

it's a fun ride.

Paul Comfort:

And so a couple years ago, maybe almost three years

Paul Comfort:

ago, you went down to Florida.

Greg Slater:

I did.

Greg Slater:

I did.

Greg Slater:

It was an opportunity that kind of came to me in Florida.

Greg Slater:

Some of the transportation agencies, including the transit

Greg Slater:

agencies, are special districts.

Greg Slater:

Okay.

Greg Slater:

and throughout the state, there's a handful of special districts of the

Greg Slater:

state who, you know, we're solely supported by toll revenue and we do

Greg Slater:

a variety of transportation projects.

Greg Slater:

We have a greenway, we have some local roadways, some boulevards, but

Greg Slater:

it's all funded off of the revenue that comes from the toll facility.

Paul Comfort:

Interesting.

Paul Comfort:

So, you guys, I mean, the theme of today's show is basically, you know,

Paul Comfort:

resilience, how public transportation and the highway network play such a

Paul Comfort:

critical role, kind of in societal safety, when it comes to these big

Paul Comfort:

hurricanes you got down there in Florida.

Paul Comfort:

Tell us about what happened, these two back to back hurricanes,

Paul Comfort:

and how you all responded.

Greg Slater:

Well, you know, you look at that two major hurricanes,

Greg Slater:

the first one, a hundred miles away from us, still had tremendous

Greg Slater:

impacts in terms of the water surge.

Greg Slater:

You learn very quickly about which side of the hurricane you want to be on when

Greg Slater:

it's coming across the Gulf, depending on whether you're going to get water pushed

Greg Slater:

into you or water pulled away from you in terms of the rotation of the storm.

Greg Slater:

But in both cases, you know, the preparation is still the same.

Greg Slater:

So you come in, you've got these four or five days, even 10 days out,

Greg Slater:

you're watching these storms develop.

Greg Slater:

You got like an invest system now that's kind of flirting around whether it's

Greg Slater:

going to make it to the Gulf or not.

Greg Slater:

Oh, yeah.

Greg Slater:

What you do is you start to track those and then a couple of days out, okay,

Greg Slater:

do I have enough contractual resources?

Greg Slater:

Are all of my drainage inlets clear of debris?

Greg Slater:

what do they look like in terms of whether we're going to get impacts

Greg Slater:

from water or whether it's resilient?

Greg Slater:

You know, but then coming out of those two storms.

Greg Slater:

Couldn't have been very different for us, you know, so it was, you know, so when we

Greg Slater:

came out of Helene, the first time, the first storm had a lot of water issues,

Greg Slater:

a lot of flooding, you know, a lot of, of drainage systems that just handled

Greg Slater:

much more than they were designed to do.

Greg Slater:

So washouts and those types of things that we're repairing.

Greg Slater:

Coming out of Milton, because we're on the other side of the storm, we didn't,

Greg Slater:

we had rainfall, you know, tremendous amounts of rainfall, but it was all wind.

Greg Slater:

We've got signs that are twisted.

Greg Slater:

We've got power lights that are down.

Greg Slater:

We still got significant portion of our system that's still

Greg Slater:

running on backup generator.

Greg Slater:

We still don't have power in the system.

Greg Slater:

So, you know, it's about resiliency.

Greg Slater:

And when you look at us, And the people that we serve, the network is the network.

Greg Slater:

So, you know, we, other than our streetcar system here in Tampa, the

Greg Slater:

system is really a bus based system.

Greg Slater:

So you've got a lot of transit facilities and transit services that are running

Greg Slater:

not only on our system, but the FDOT system and the local system, Pinellas

Greg Slater:

and Hillsborough County, as well as St.

Greg Slater:

Petersburg and the City of Tampa.

Greg Slater:

So we've got to work together as an all hands on deck to

Greg Slater:

make sure the system functions.

Greg Slater:

So that we can not only evacuate the way we need to evacuate, get people

Greg Slater:

to safe places like shelters, but then recover in a way where you are running

Greg Slater:

fuel supplies up and down the corridor.

Greg Slater:

We had tremendous fuel shortages because the port got shut down.

Paul Comfort:

So, tell us about the evacuation and people using your roads.

Paul Comfort:

I mean, tell us a little bit about your road network that you oversee and

Paul Comfort:

then, you know, how did it perform?

Paul Comfort:

For

Greg Slater:

Yeah, we performed pretty well.

Greg Slater:

So, you know, what happens under a state of emergency is the governor will

Greg Slater:

actually suspend the collection of tolls.

Greg Slater:

Okay.

Greg Slater:

During the state of emergency, so there's no charge to use the system.

Greg Slater:

Our system, for the most part, is elevated, so it's pretty

Greg Slater:

resilient from a water perspective.

Greg Slater:

but we're not so high elevated that we're not resilient from a wind perspective.

Greg Slater:

But as we connect to the other systems, so the three bridges, really, across

Greg Slater:

the water between Tampa and St.

Greg Slater:

Petersburg.

Greg Slater:

All three of them are owned by the Florida Department of Transportation,

Greg Slater:

so they coordinate with us and say, hey, this one's going to be shut down

Greg Slater:

soon, or this one's going to be shut down soon, and then what we do is, for

Greg Slater:

instance, one of them on the southern side that goes over into downtown St.

Greg Slater:

Petersburg headed towards Tropicana Field, you know, so that one was going

Greg Slater:

to be shut down, so what we needed to do is get out there and shut off the access

Greg Slater:

The elevator part of the expressway that goes to it so people don't get trapped

Greg Slater:

on it and are able to turn around.

Greg Slater:

The challenge for us is a lot of the system underneath of us was being

Greg Slater:

flooded at the same time, so you've got to kind of work it together.

Greg Slater:

How do you even get there?

Greg Slater:

Yeah, that's right.

Paul Comfort:

Wow, that's something, Greg.

Paul Comfort:

And you were mentioning, like, when you and I were in Maryland

Paul Comfort:

together, we had a big snowstorm.

Paul Comfort:

and I remember we, you and I had to coordinate to respond to that, but you

Paul Comfort:

said it's kind of different than, tell us about that, how it's different.

Greg Slater:

It's absolutely different.

Greg Slater:

I remember, I think we were calling it Snowmageddon at some point.

Greg Slater:

That's right.

Greg Slater:

It was like three blizzards in like a six day span or something.

Greg Slater:

But, you know, when you work a snowstorm, and I worked many many in the course

Greg Slater:

of my 25 years there, Your goal is to really, although people stay in during

Greg Slater:

those snowstorms, many don't, so the goal is to keep the system moving

Greg Slater:

while the storm is being out there.

Greg Slater:

You're issuing warnings and saying, please don't go out, please don't go

Greg Slater:

out, but, but the idea was to keep it mobile so, you know, hospital

Greg Slater:

workers can get to the hospital, so the supply chain can keep moving.

Greg Slater:

With a, with a hurricane, once you get to 30, 40 miles an hour, you're

Greg Slater:

pulling even your crews off the system.

Greg Slater:

And saying, hey, we're in a mandatory evacuation zone,

Greg Slater:

you're kind of on your own.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Greg Slater:

and then first light, you go back out and

Greg Slater:

start working on the recovery.

Greg Slater:

But the goal is to not keep the system moving through a hurricane,

Greg Slater:

because it's not safe to do that.

Greg Slater:

And so, although we have bridges closed and those types of things, there's

Greg Slater:

nobody out there to actually physically stop you from going across that bridge

Greg Slater:

if you decide to go out, but if you run into an issue, you kind of, on your

Greg Slater:

own, it becomes an emergency management type of an issue, but it really is a

Greg Slater:

very, very different type of approach to managing a hurricane versus a snowstorm.

Greg Slater:

It's like, alright, let's take the pause, let's take a break, and And then let's

Greg Slater:

figure out how we can get out there first light to work on the recovery

Greg Slater:

and assess the damage and inspect all your bridges and those types of things.

Greg Slater:

You wouldn't have to do that in a snowstorm.

Paul Comfort:

That's right.

Paul Comfort:

I guess last question would be, Greg, talk about the coordination you had with

Paul Comfort:

the public transit agencies down there.

Paul Comfort:

Because obviously they're driving on your roads.

Greg Slater:

They are.

Greg Slater:

And there's a lot of coordination that happens between us and them, as well

Greg Slater:

as FDOT and the city and the counties.

Greg Slater:

Because they're all kind of separate and the system is like a A patchwork of

Greg Slater:

who owns what, but the transit systems are running on either our system or

Greg Slater:

an FDOT system or a county system, so through an emergency operations center,

Greg Slater:

a lot of that coordination happens.

Greg Slater:

although transit service was running to get people to shelters and those

Greg Slater:

types of things through the storm, it's about how do you ramp it back

Greg Slater:

up when you get power restoration?

Greg Slater:

How do you ramp it back up to get people back to their kind of daily lives, but

Greg Slater:

also to keep that supply chain going?

Greg Slater:

So it really is an all hands on deck communication exercise, as much as it

Greg Slater:

is an operations exercise, saying, You know, somebody like HART will come out

Greg Slater:

and say, hey, we want to start this service back up, or PSTA saying, we're

Greg Slater:

going to start this service back up.

Greg Slater:

We got to make sure the roads open, and we got to make sure we have the

Greg Slater:

system in place to be able to run your routes, because we had, we still have a

Greg Slater:

tremendous amount of people without power.

Greg Slater:

We still have a tremendous amount of our system that has, you know, a foot

Greg Slater:

plus of standing water as the creeks are rising and those types of things.

Greg Slater:

So those routes, as you know, Paul.

Greg Slater:

You can't redesign those routes on the fly, you know, they work when

Greg Slater:

they work, and so you've got to make sure that that route is open it's

Greg Slater:

not as much us coordinating with them, but it is them coordinating

Greg Slater:

with us and saying, hey, Do I have a whole route here that I can restore?

Paul Comfort:

Or is there standing water three feet tall on a hunk of it?

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Wow, Greg.

Paul Comfort:

Well, man, we wish you the very best and congratulations on the work you did do.

Paul Comfort:

I was able to see even in the media how well you guys responded to this

Paul Comfort:

wild storm, I mean, the roof of Tropicana Stadium being ripped off,

Paul Comfort:

the hundred tornadoes or so that came through the area and you guys, you

Paul Comfort:

know, were able to minimize the impact to the great majority of the area.

Paul Comfort:

Congratulations and best wishes.

Paul Comfort:

As you continue to recover.

Greg Slater:

Thank you,

Greg Slater:

Paul.

Tris Hussey:

Thank you for being with us for this very special

Tris Hussey:

edition of Transit Unplugged.

Tris Hussey:

From the eye of the storm, talking about emergency preparedness in the wake of

Tris Hussey:

hurricanes, Helene and Milton in Florida.

Tris Hussey:

I'd like to thank our.

Tris Hussey:

Our guests, Brad Miller.

Tris Hussey:

Dave Dech Coree Cuff Lonergan.

Tris Hussey:

Ivan Maldonado, Tiffany Homler Hawkins and Greg Slater.

Tris Hussey:

We really appreciate them taking this time to speak with us.

Tris Hussey:

Right.

Tris Hussey:

Right now, still in the midst of a disaster.

Tris Hussey:

Hi, I'm Tris Hussey editor of the Transit Unplugged podcast.

Tris Hussey:

Now can we up next week on the show, we stay in Florida in Miami, specifically.

Tris Hussey:

And we Schneider St.

Tris Hussey:

Pru, who is one of the recipients of mass transits, 40 under 40 awards this year.

Tris Hussey:

But Schneider also has an amazing.

Tris Hussey:

Amazing career trajectory.

Tris Hussey:

He started bus operator.

Tris Hussey:

Greater over a dozen years ago and he's worked his way up to be general.

Tris Hussey:

Superintendent of boss operations for the department of

Tris Hussey:

transportation and public works.

Tris Hussey:

Works for Miami Dade county.

Tris Hussey:

his career success to hard work.

Tris Hussey:

Dedication education.

Tris Hussey:

And transit unplugged.

Tris Hussey:

Tune in to hear his entire story and his advice.

Tris Hussey:

Nice for those of you who also want to climb the career ladder.

Tris Hussey:

is brought to you by Modaxo.

Tris Hussey:

That Modaxo.

Tris Hussey:

We're passionate about moving the world's people and a transit unplugged.

Tris Hussey:

We're passionate.

Tris Hussey:

What about telling those stories?

Tris Hussey:

So until next week ride safe.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Transit Unplugged
Transit Unplugged
Leading podcast on public transit hosted by Paul Comfort, SVP Modaxo.

Listen for free