WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — With hurricane season just weeks away, Florida's preparedness and response professionals were gathering Monday for the 36th annual Governor's Hurricane Conference.
Gov. Ron DeSantis was invited to join more than 1,600 first responders, volunteers, Federal Emergency Management Agency representative and medical professionals.
Throughout the week-long conference, attendees will participate in a series of training sessions and workshops to further their knowledge in preparing for, responding to and recovering from natural and man-made disasters, with a primary focus on hurricanes.
Jeff Goldberg, director of emergency management for Walton County and conference participant, said getting everyone together for the conference each year proves invaluable during hurricane season.
"Being able to sit down, talk to one another, get the understanding of what it is we are doing, may help our partner and our partner agencies solves some of those problems, trade some best practices. Also, we help each other out," Goldberg said.
Various discussions will be held on how to connect capabilities for stronger communities through leverage of partnerships, personnel and resources for effective responses.
Goldberg said one of the important takeaways from the conference is helping the community understand the importance of an evacuation.
"When we tell you to evacuate, it's not because we flipped a coin. It's because there's a process involved," Goldberg said. "When we call for an evacuation, for example, that's something that we agonize over, and when we do these protective measures, we think about it, we look at all the data and then we make our decision."
The conference will take place through Friday.
More information on the 36th annual Governor's Hurricane Conference can be found here.
