Hurricane Season 2025: Lessons learned in Manatee County after devastating storms last year

Manatee County: Storm lessons learned

Kimberly Kuizon reports.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND, Fla. - The 2025 Hurricane Season starts in less than two weeks, and it comes as some in Manatee County continue rebuilding and recuperating after last year's brutal storms.

The backstory:

It began with the flooding from Tropical Storm Debby in 2024 and continued with the storm surge from Hurricane Helene that forever changed Anna Maria Island. And finally, the area was hit once again by Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 storm that caused $351 million in damage throughout Manatee County.

READ: FEMA's top official fired three weeks before hurricane season

Local perspective:

"I just want to rebuild, get it finished, and we will probably say goodbye to Florida," said Paula O’Neill, an Ellenton resident.

Many months later, people are still working to rebuild. As a new storm season arrives, though, emergency planners are applying the lessons they learned from last year’s storms.

"You really take a hard look at what could we have done better," said Jodie Fiske, the director of public safety for Manatee County.

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Dig deeper:

This year, Manatee County is partnering with a company called Peregrine. It gathers real-time data from across the county to show exactly what’s happening at the moment.

"We are monitoring our shelter census, we are able to track road closures," said Fiske.

It can even help direct first responders to areas that are flooding.

"We are actually going to be able to utilize AI technology, pull keywords from 911 calls that are coming in," said Fiske.

MORE: Crews preparing Tampa Bypass Canal flood control structure for upcoming hurricane season

It will allow them to start rescues before it’s too late, while informing Public Works about lift stations that stop working, causing backups that lead to more flooding.

"This is removing that stress level from our responders and putting these things into a dashboard that will automatically be populated for us," said Fiske.

One of the greatest challenges Manatee County experienced in 2024 was the sand. So much of it wound up in places it didn’t belong.

"We were not prepared for experiencing the same storm of run over that we experienced. That brought most of the sand from our beaches and our dunes and put it onto private property, onto parking lots and roads," said Charlie Hunsicker, the director of Manatee County's natural resources department.

That sand had to be sifted and sorted, and clean sand went back to the beach, but many loads were contaminated and removed. That sand that was removed is being kept for future road projects.

READ: St. Pete Fire Rescue will get 3 new high-water rescue vehicles ahead of peak hurricane season

"It’s taught us the value of these beaches here on Anna Maria Island. A healthy beach is one that took the energy of the sand," said Hunsicker.

Hunsicker said restoring the beaches of Anna Maria Island is now key.

"The dunes did their jobs. As soon as we can get our dunes back, that’s something we will be working on this year and next. We will get that hurricane protection back in again," he said.

Big picture view:

As residents work to find a new sense of life after the storms, emergency planners said they will walk away from the 2024 season with the biggest lesson of all.

"Respect for the storm's energy and respect for the hard-working people who responded after that emergency every day, every night, every weekend," said Hunsicker.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Kimberly Kuizon.

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