Flagler Emergency Management Dept Prepares for ’25 Hurricane Season

The 2025 hurricane season in Florida is poised to stand a good chance of being above average, according to data from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. Per the NOAA, the odds of more and stronger hurricanes than average is about 60%. Hurricane season runs from June 1st to November 30th, though the hurricanes themselves don’t always observe those parameters. Further data from Colorado State University predicts the number of named storms could be as high as 17, with potentially nine of those projected to become hurricanes. AccuWeather also released their projections, saying we could see between 13 and 18 named storms with seven to ten hurricanes among them. Local Prepartion in Flagler County Locally, however, emergency personnel are not much more concerned than in any other year. Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord briefed representatives of the local media on Tuesday, outlining a series of measures being carried out to ensure Flagler’s preparedness for any caliber of hurricane impact. The most important local project to bolster hurricane preparedness is the timely construction of a new shelter at the Flagler County Fairgrounds in Bunnell. This facility, once completed, would accommodate evacuees of the general population, along with special needs individuals. It will take some of the pressure off of Flagler Schools, who are normally the first to open their doors and act as a shelter. During the year, the shelter building will be open for rental, bringing in revenue for the county to offset costs of upkeep. The Flagler County Parks & Recreation department would handle administration. The funding for the shelter was provided in a state budget grant lobbied for by now-former Florida Senator Travis Hutson. Additionally, Lord feels confident that the community will be better equipped to evacuate when necessary now that zones are referred to by their common names. Instead of residents having to determine whether they’re in one of several arbitrarily-named zones, Lord’s department will explicitly refer to street sections in Palm Coast (S Section, R Section, etc.) and areas such as coastal Flagler from Marineland to Flagler Beach. The evacuation zones will be updated live online during severe storm situations. How FEMA Cuts Could Affect Hurricane Season If anything, the greatest challenge facing local emergency management staffs is not from storm systems, it’s budget cuts. Lord estimated that their department receives between $50,000 and $60,000 in grants each year from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), distributed to counties by the Florida government. The Trump administration has advocated for cuts to FEMA in the federal budget, which could dry up a major source of funding for disaster preparedness and relief. “We’ve been moving basically all of our recurring operating expenses to the county’s general fund and utilizing those funds instead for special projects,” Lord said. “This year, we’re using those funds to purchase emergency communications portable towers.” The ability of the county and the state to pick up the slack after potential FEMA cuts could be pivotal in Flagler and other counties’ ability to manage hurricane response. In January President Trump suggested he may favor abolishing FEMA altogether shortly after his inauguration, but his administration has since indicated they’d act more to reform federal emergency management than to cut it altogether. FEMA, along with relative agencies like the Environmental Protections Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers, were among those who saw funding cuts under the Elon Musk-run Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE).