Hurricane Ian: One Year Later

26 • HURRICANE IAN: ONE YEAR LATER • 2023 Shelters spring into ACTION FOR IAN Chris Porter North Port-Englewood Editor When Hurricane Ian's projected course took aim at Charlotte, DeSoto and Sarasota counties, teams in the counties sprung into action, preparing to house people who would be in need of shelters. While Charlotte County has no certified Red Cross shelters — the county is too low, and no appropriate buildings would be accessible if the area floods — it does regularly set up county-staffed "shelters of last resort" at four locations in Port Charlotte, three of which are elementary schools. Sarasota County also relies on its school system as well, with about 12 school sites throughout the county that can convert to shelters. They did just that for the approach of Hurricane Ian. Jack Ham, director of school support for Charlotte County Public Schools, says his team works hand in hand with the Charlotte County Emergency Operations Center, when storms approach. That's what they did as Ian neared Southwest Florida's coastline in the days before Sept. 28, 2022. Ham simplified the relationship between the county and the schools. "They run the shelters; we just open them up," he said. But the school district does much more than that. As a storm system approaches, the two entities will be in constant communication — and employees for both governments work to keep those lines of communication through the duration of a storm and into its aftermath. This is something they developed before Hurricane Irma hit Florida in 2017 and fine tuned through Hurricane Ian in 2022. A lot of people are involved. School principals and assistant principals, custodians and district personnel, transportation people, including school bus drivers, and the communications and tech- support teams. SUN FILE PHOTO Jack Ham PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF VENICE Approximately 100 people were sheltering inside Venice High School on Oct. 2, 2022 following Hurricane Ian's hit on Florida's Gulf Coast.

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