Florida Fairs helping in preparation and aftermath of Hurricane Irma
turned to their homes. Others, including residents of the Florida Keys who lost their homes, left once FEMA located temporary housing for them. When shelters at public schools were closed, homeless individuals were bused to the Fairgrounds as well as special-needs individuals. The shelter’s last day was Sept. 22, two weeks after it opened. The Youth Fair faced massive vegetation cleanup from storm damage along with repairs and paint-
ing necessary to restore the grounds to its original pristine condition. “We cancelled a couple of shows while the buildings were used as shelters. Now we are ready to get
back on schedule with our Expo events,” Blanco said. 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. Florida State Fair: The Florida State Fair has been deployed as a staging area for several local state and federal agen-
On Call: Julie Blanco, admin-
cies including the National Guard, TECO, Hartline Bus System, Red Cross, McDill, the Tampa Port Au- thority, Hillsborough County Sheriff's office, FWCC and many others that are yet to arrive for post Irma relief. Additionally we opened the Bob Thomas Equestrian Center to those in need for sheltering their horses to safety. I'm very proud of our
team who worked diligently to support these agencies and prepare for our equestrian visitors. Given Tampa was certainly considered a Target of Irma the fairgrounds did very well. We had some damage, but nothing that can't be
rebuilt. We are blessed! Most importantly we are all safe! Some of our team did have Irma damages to their homes and are still without power but no catastrophic losses. Thanks for checking and please let me know if you or any county fairs needs assurance from the Florida State Fair or our team.
St. Lucie County Fair: Minor damage to structures front gate fencing and a few sheds... we are very blessed. Also a holding area for out of state power trucks
for a few surrounding counties. Pasco County Fair:
Pasco County Fair suffered minimal damage, despite being on top of
a hill. Lost one roof and sustained damage to the barn, but it is all fixa- ble and no one was hurt. It could have been much worse. Power was restored on Tuesday
morning. The office is open and we will be using the grounds for certi- fication/dispatch of clean-up trucks/trailers for FEMA and Pasco County as we did after the last storms. Florida Strawberry Festival: Here is some info for you on what the Florida Strawberry Festival has done to help with hurricane relief: We partnered with TECO in using our Grimes Agricultur- al Building and our Expo Hall as their Incident Command Center. This was the “home base” for hundreds of trucks and thousands of workers who came from other states and as far away as Cana- da
to help
restore electricity in our area. We helped secure over 1,000 cots and basic ne- cessities so that our
Expo Hall could house these hard-working individuals. Lastly, we spoke to the director of the United Food Bank of Plant City,
and she expressed to us a dire need for non-perishable foods. Cancelled deliveries and preparations for the storm caused their shelves to be wiped clean. With that in mind, we shared the information about this great need on our social media platforms. We can’t quantify the result, but the Facebook post alone was shared over 400 times.
istration and compliance manager at Miami-Dade County Youth Fair & Exposition, balances daily duties with requests from emergency
Sarasota County Fair 28 FAIRCRACKER-FALL 2017
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