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Florida bill aimed requiring local governments to establish hurricane plans for storm response

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Published  April 21, 2025 8:23pm EDT
Florida
FOX 13 News

Hurricane plan bill moving through Florida House

FOX 13's Kailey Tracy reports.

The Brief

    • A bill is moving through Florida’s House that would require local governments to have better hurricane plans in place.
    • This comes after local governments found themselves ill-prepared to respond to last year’s storm season.
    • The bill would require local governments to have more defined pre- and post-hurricane plans in place.

SHORE ACRES, Fla. - As many across the area are still recovering from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, a bill moving through the Florida House aims to require local governments to have more established pre- and post-hurricane plans in place to respond to storms. 

"It’s no secret to any of us that we had a really terrible hurricane season, and many of our communities are still reeling from the impacts," Representative Fiona McFarland (R-Sarasota), who’s sponsoring the bill, told the House Transportation and Economic Development Subcommittee earlier this month. 

PICTURED: Fiona McFarland. 

"It has ideas and best practices that bubbled up from the very local level and are all compiled in this bill," McFarland said. 

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The backstory:

Many homes in Shore Acres are still being rebuilt, are boarded up, or are for sale and ideas have poured in from locals like Kevin Batdorf, the president of the Shore Acres Civic Association.  

"We in Shore Acres had many conversations with our legislators and offered some suggestions," Batdorf said. 

PICTURED: Kevin Batdorf.

House Bill 1535 requires local governments to set up at least one debris management site before the storm, open a permitting office as soon as possible after the storm that will be open 40 hours a week and set up mutual aid agreements to bring in more help after the storm to expedite the permit and inspection processes. 

It would also require local governments to have an online option for substantial damage and improvement letters. 

What they're saying:

"My hope is that, God forbid, another storm does come our way, that it's managed better," Batdorf said. "That you don't wait seven months to get a permit, that you don’t wait 90 days to have your trash picked up off of the street."

"Hopefully, this bill moves the needle a little bit," said Batdorf. 

The bill also states that all hoisting equipment at construction sites must be secured to comply with manufacturer recommendations 24 hours before a hurricane's impact after a crane fell into an office building in St. Pete during Hurricane Milton. Thankfully, no one was injured.

RELATED: St. Petersburg construction crane falls from high rise during Hurricane Milton

Since election season overlaps with Florida's hurricane season, the bill would allow election supervisors to request that the Secretary of State make specific changes. 

"Here are some of the actions the local supervisors may request: change the location of early voting sites, allow early voting on the day before the election, allow election day voting to occur at early voting sites, designate additional secure ballot intake stations, and vote by mail ballots to voters who request a ballot at a new address and then waive some restrictions on who can be poll workers," McFarland said.

Big picture view:

It’s a potential plan that no one wants to use, but they fear they may have to. 

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The bill is still working its way through the House. If passed, the governor would then have to sign it into law. 

A similar bill in the senate, sponsored by Senator Nick DiCeglie of Indian Rocks Beach, recently passed unanimously.

The Source: FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy collected the information in this story.

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