Florida Fairs helping in preparation and aftermath of Hurricane Harvey
Truck Brigade: Utility trucks from around the country are parked at the Florida Power & Light staging area at the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair & Exposition Fairgrounds.
Sumter County Fair: Yes it was a shelter for residents and their pets.
Miami Dade County In the days before the largest hurricane in history roared
through Florida, Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition jumped into ac- tion to make its vast infrastructure services available to emergency re- sponse teams. “As a longtime partner in the community, the Miami-Dade County
Youth Fair & Exposition exists to help those in need. Our Fairgrounds meet all criteria as a hurricane evacuation center for residents fleeing a storm, and our infrastructure allows emergency teams to quickly set up their base of operations. As a matter of fact, after Hurricane Andrew we housed 3,000 National Guard troops after giving shelter to evacuees at our pet-friendly shelter,” said Robert Hohenstein, president and CEO. The Youth Fair provided potable water, a sewage system, electricity
from buried lines, parking areas, grounds, building floor space, logistical know-how, housekeeping, maintenance, and repairs over what stretched into a three-week period before and after the storm. “We were the support system. When anything came up, we were the ones they went to. ‘Can you provide a fork lift?’ We were on call 24 hours, getting calls from Florida Power & Light, the American Red Cross and the Miami-Dade County Office of Emergen- cy Management. We worked together to make it happen,” said Julie Blanco, admin- istration and compliance manager. In advance of the storm, FPL converted
Miami-Dade County On the Ground: Operations Department employees, from
left, Jorge Luis Torres, Luis Menendez, Martin Matos and Ro- land Alonso, keep the Fairgrounds in ship shape while Miami -Dade County Fairgrounds serves as a staging area and shel- ter during Hurricane Irma.
well as local citizens can bring their yard debris (no construction debris or bagged trash) to the fairgrounds and dump it here at no charge. The county sanitation depart- ment will then likely bring in a machine to chop it into mulch, which will be hauled away, like they did after Hurricane Matthew. Thank you for checking in. I know that so many of our Fairgrounds are being used to help folks recover and get back to “normal”. Hendry County Fair: Our grounds were not used. We were in a mandatory evacuation zone for the hurricane and af- terwards most of the distribution was deliv- ered to our outlying rural areas.
much of the 84-acre Fairgrounds into one of more than 20 staging areas around the state to house equipment and to feed and nurse temporary restoration crews. The Fairgrounds became the make-shift home to more than 3,000 contracted workers arriving in more than 1,200 utility trucks from
On the Midway: American Red Cross trucks park next to the pet-friendly shelter inside Fuchs Pavilion at the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair & Exposition.
across the country to restore power to millions of Miami-Dade County homes. In addition, FPL brought its own security company to pro- tect its equipment and supplies and a fuel truck for a quick service turnaround of the utility trucks. The FPL emergency response team hauled in commercial generators and erected air-cooled dining tents where breakfast and dinner
was served. Workers had access to a laundry center and medical area staffed with nurses. At night, workers were housed in nearby hotels and mobile sleeping units parked at the Fairgrounds. The American Red Cross of Greater Miami & The Keys (ARC) transformed the 49,000-squar-foot E. Darwin Fuchs Pavilion into a FEMA
approved pet-friendly shelter. The Red Cross brought in stacks of pallets crammed with supplies, including cots, blankets and food such as Meals Ready to Eat. It also set up equipment to provide warm meals, nursing care and other forms of emergency relief. The shelter opened Sept. 8 and reached capacity by nightfall. “It was a big production. We had a city within our fairgrounds,” Blanco said. The Youth Fair turned the Blue Ribbon and Carousel Rooms, usually reserved for banquets and private receptions, into living quarters
for the Red Cross staff. After Hurricane Irma rumbled through on Sept. 10, the shelter remained opened 12 more days. Some people stayed one night and re-
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