Cold Weather Shelters in Escambia County: How'd it Go during the Recent Cold Snap?

So far as I've been told, there were no hypothermia deaths during the recent area cold weather event...

Leading up to the recent three-day, near record cold snap the area went through last weekend--there were naturally concerns about those less fortunate in our area.  Specifically, there were worries about vulnerable citizens and the unhoused who may not have been able to weather the storm.

So I asked questions about what our plan was.  I blogged about it too.  And I spoke with folks intimately familiar with the homeless community as well as county staff at EOC.

Obviously--we are not Buffalo, New York, where they saw an immense blizzard and snowstorm that covered their city with up to four feet of snow and where three dozen + of their citizens perished due to that historic cold weather event.  But we were going to be below freezing for multiple days in Escambia County-- so I was concerned.  I wasn't alone in my concern(s).

The county did not open any of our facilities for cold weather shelters.  

Nor did we pay any group or entity any tax dollars to shelter folks from the cold.  

We had neither a contract nor an MOU/MOA with any entity to house citizens from the cold--but rather a verbal agreement with existing shelters (Waterfront Rescue Mission and REAP Lodge/Max Well Respite Center) to house those who needed sheltering from the storm as the temperatures dipped below 40 degrees.

Having now spoken to several individuals who were out and about during the cold weather event, I'm told that, with a few small exceptions (one couple was turned away as they had been previously banned.  And they were subsequently housed at a hotel for three days at someone else's expense.  A woman and her two children were turned away from one shelter the day prior to the cold weather event as the temperature had not dropped enough to trigger the sheltering protocols--but subsequently admitted to the shelter the next day when it was below 40 degrees) the plan worked as envisioned.  So far as I've been told--no citizens have perished from hypothermia in this last cold snap.

According to an individual with intimate, firsthand knowledge;  "We did outreach and drove around checking on homeless populations and offered rides.  Most declined stating that they did not want to go to a shelter due to the need to look after their belongings that would have been left behind.  At the Max Well Center we ended up housing 8 additional women and two children above the folks aready there, and at Waterfront [rescue mission] we never got to the capacity of 200 --we were at about 150 citizens throughout tht event."

I'm glad we had an action plan, and thankful that no citizens perished.  I'm of the understanding that the protocol will be refined going forward to eliminate any snafus--but that also most who were a part of the entire evolution (on the ground, in the know) feel it went about as well as could be expected.

Getting Ahead of an Issue

Some might naively state  "If a memo is voluntarily published, what difference does it make if it was or was not a public record prior to such a voluntary release?"  Some might even say something really flippant like "What difference does that question make, if a memo is shared, that is the same as leaving the barn door open and letting the Horse out!"

Here's why asking the public record question is critically important:

If a memo is created by a public agency in the furtherance of its operation in the state of Florida--odds are that all or parts of it are a public record, either immediately or at some point in the very near future--except in some narrowly defined, very limited categories subject to exemption.

These things live forever.

If a memo is created and disseminated widely, and if it is a subject of contention or significant gnashing of teeth---odds are it will be revealed sooner rather than later.

So the feckless, ignorant, and utterly fetid assertion that such a record will not become a public record unless someone voluntarily releases it, or because someone voluntarily released it, is nothing but a ridiculous, naive,  red herring.

The real issue of importance, the real matter at issue,   is this:

Creation of memorandums that ultimately will become subjected to release under Florida's public records laws must be carefully considered, particularly if such memorandums might contain unseemly allegations, explosive claims, and/or potentially damaging or inaccurate conclusions.

So should such memos even be created at all, or under what dire circumstances should they be created?  Shouldn't the process of creating such records be re-worked, with a thoughtful decision matrix put into place delineating the when and if of such record creations?

Because under the current environment and protocols, apparently, nobody knows when they might be the recipient of such a memo.....

Ans so yes, sometimes being proactive in the face of an issue or a potential issue is an appropriate action to take; It is called getting ahead of a problem.  Intercepting and deflecting an attack. Contingency planning. Controlling spillage.

This is why it is not an uncommon practice among Bomb-Squads worldwide that encounter suspicious packages to blow up such potentially explosive items immediately.  Often, these bomb-squads proactively, purposely blow up bombs they find so they can render these devices inert or they can control detonations, minimizing and/or isolating the extent of damage caused by such devices.

Think about it.