A busy hurricane season is predicted for Florida, Emergency Operations Center Director Tod Hardacre told Okeechobee County Commissioners at their May 23 meeting.

The 2024 hurricane season forecast predicts 20-25 named storms and 8-12 hurricanes including 4-7 major hurricanes.

Last year, Okeechobee County was lucky, he said. “It only takes one.”

Hardacre said upgrades have been made to the Emergency Operation Center, including rearranging the work space, replacing the computers used by the call center and replacing 8 of the computers in the operation center. More computer replacements are budgeted for this year. He said the computers they are replacing are slow because they are older machines.

He said they would like to upgrade the speaker system and add cameras so public meetings at the center and updates during a storm could be broadcast live online. This equipment would cost an estimated $15,000. Commissioners agreed this could be put in the budget for the coming fiscal year.

 Hardacre said even when a storm does not hit Okeechobee County, the county may be impacted.

“When the coast gets the evacuation order, we know they are going to come through on SR 70, and it’s going to impact our supply chain,” he said. He said they are working to get that notice a little bit quicker so they can prepare for that.

“It’s critical that everybody understands their role, and everybody stays in their lane,” said Commissioner Kelly Owens.