Wed Aug 31 Storm TD 9 Update

Details

31 Aug

The Emergency Management Office is currently monitoring a Tropical Depression in the Gulf of Mexico that is anticipated to bring severe weather to the City of St. Petersburg beginning early Thursday morning into Friday.

What’s Happening: Tropical Depression 9 is expected to intensify to tropical storm level later today before it makes a turn to the northeast. Current forecasts anticipate landfall in the Big Bend area sometime Thursday as a strong tropical storm. Pinellas County will begin experiencing rain impacts on Wednesday, with rain bands and winds 25 mph with 45 mph gusts. Rainfall totals may exceed 10” in coastal areas.

Pinellas County remains in the three-day cone of track forecast uncertainty. Current forecasts call for the system to make landfall as a mid-level tropical storm. There is high confidence in the storm track, but lower confidence in storm intensity. On the current forecast track, our area may start to feel impacts from the storm as rain starting Wednesday, with storm-related rain bands and tropical storm force winds possible early Thursday. There are NO watches or warnings for our area at this time.

Impact on St. Petersburg:

• If it continues on the current predicted track and at the predicted speed, TD9 should take a turn toward Tampa Bay by Wednesday
  • We could begin to feel the effects of the storm late tomorrow night with heavy rainfall.

• Up to 10” of rain may fall between now and Friday, September 2.

• Storm tides are expected to be 1’-3’ above normal forecast levels. Since we are close to a new moon, normal tides will be unusually high. This may result in coastal flooding.

• Rip Current concerns will increase as the storm approaches.

What St. Petersburg is Doing:

The Office of Emergency Management is monitoring the storm closely and preparing for tropical storm formation. Please note the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is not activated at this time. The following actions have taken place or are in motion:

Sandbags are available today until 8pm today and tomorrow from 9am to 5pm, weather permitting, at the following locations:

• Northeast Park, 875 62nd Avenue NE. (located at the Cardinal Drive entrance to Mangrove Bay Golf Course)

• Bartlett Park (Frank W. Pierce Recreation Center), 22nd Avenue S. between Sixth and Seventh Streets

The City is staging signage at the following flood prone locations to warn about potential hazardous flood conditions:

• 100 block of 83rd Ave N

• 62nd Ave. N / 16th St NE (Shore Acres)

• 40th Ave NE / Shore Acres Blvd

• Coffee Pot Bridge

Should the need arise, a shelter will be opened for citizens who may be affected by potential flooding. The shelter will be located at Northside Baptist Church, 6000 38th Avenue North. The decision to open such a shelter may not come until Wednesday and will be decided by Pinellas County Emergency Management.

The City will activate a Joint Operations Center at Fire Headquarters with Fire, PD, Stormwater, Pavement, and Traffic Ops, and Leisure Services beginning Thursday morning at 5am thru Friday afternoon (hours/days will be adjusted accordingly) to ensure a proper response to and recovery from TD9.

The City’s Office of Emergency Management is attending twice daily conference calls with the County Emergency Operations Center to discuss the storm’s track, possible affects, and aid in the decision making process for County activities.

What to Expect:

• At this time there is no plans to close City offices.

• The Pinellas County School Board will be meeting with County Emergency Management tomorrow afternoon to decide if public schools will be closed on Thursday.

• Pinellas County will be activing their Citizens Information Center (CIC) from 1pm to 6pm tomorrow afternoon.

• The National Hurricane Center is issuing TD9 updates at the 11 and 5 o’clock hours.

• EM will continue to monitor the situation and will send out another Sitrep as more information becomes available.

Recommended Actions:

Any Emergency Critical personnel should begin taking appropriate actions to ready their preparedness plans and report for duty, should the need arise. Monitor the weather reports on a regular basis; here are some websites to review:

• http://www.pinellascounty.org/emergency/weather.htm

• http://weather.gov/tampabay http://spaghettimodels.com/ (tropical storms/hurricanes only)

• http://www.wunderground.com/radar/station.asp?ID=TBW19

Monitor St. Petersburg and Pinellas County social media sites:

• https://www.facebook.com/CityofStPetersburg

• https://twitter.com/StPeteFL

• https://www.facebook.com/PinellasCountyNews/

• https://mobile.twitter.com/pinellasem

• http://www.pinellascounty.org/social-networking.htm