Manatee’s annual hurricane exercise set for May 21

MANATEE COUNTY – More than 150 community leaders and government officials are scheduled to participate in Manatee County’s annual hurricane preparation exercise on Thursday, May 21, from 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.

The exercise is open to the media and will take place at the Manatee County Public Safety Building, 2101 47th Terrace East. The scenario is a hypothetical category 3 “Hurricane Gibson” sweeping from southeast Florida towards Manatee County.

This exercise will challenge the county, municipalities, first responder teams and local non-profit groups to test and evaluate their emergency protocols.

“This type of tabletop scenario is a perfect venue to validate our plans and expectations of each other,” said Emergency Management Chief Don Hermey. “This is a great training opportunity for our community partners as well as new players.”

This year the County will focus on post-storm recovery and getting the community back up and running. Response teams will be challenged with addressing issues like power outages, debris removal, road and bridge evaluations.

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