June 2, 2025 | Uncategorized

Bradenton Beach officials reflect on 2024 hurricane lessons

Bradenton Beach city officials are reflecting on lessons learned during the 2024 hurricane season.

BRADENTON BEACH – City officials discussed lessons learned following last year’s hurricanes and preparation for potential upcoming storms.

“We learned the lesson that you can never be over-prepared,” Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie said. “Training and preparation are so important. Our emergency response team under Chief (John) Cosby understood the duties and challenges and did an amazing job.”

With possible changes to FEMA on the federal level that could impart more responsibilities to the states, Cosby expressed confidence in Florida’s leadership if the system is revamped.

“The system could be improved,” Cosby said. “Florida is very lucky to have Kevin Guthrie.” Guthrie is the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Cosby said as city projects are completed and approved, FEMA money should come pretty quickly.

Chappie said Bradenton Beach worked with multiple government agencies following the hurricanes.

“FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) did an amazing job on Gulf Drive. We had help from the county and Holmes Beach,” Chappie said. “Having the governor come here gave it a big push toward recovery.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Bradenton Beach on Sept. 28, 2024 and said his goal was to have SR 789 (Gulf Drive) cleared and reopened as soon as possible.

“With the amount of sand we had, there was nothing we could have done differently to prepare for it,” Cosby said. “With help from the state and county and being able to have the sand sifted and processed right here, that allowed us to get back open with lightning speed.”

The week of May 14, Chappie, Cosby, Code Enforcement Officer Evan Harbus, City Attorney Ricinda Perry and City Treasurer Shayne Thompson attended the Governor’s hurricane conference in Palm Beach in preparation for the upcoming hurricane season.

“One of the things we learned at the hurricane conference is that you have to know your team and know their skills, and then add to those and cross train them,” Chappie said. “When you know your people and send them off for training, you get a 100-fold return.”

Chappie said conference attendees from all over the state knew Cosby and his expertise in hurricane response.

“Bradenton Beach has been doing hurricane preparation over the years under Chief Cosby. It’s not something you do overnight to train and prepare,” Chappie said. “It was amazing to see how connected he is. People came up to speak to him all the time at the conference. His contacts with the state and people in business and knowing how FEMA works, those things were so valuable in getting the city to recover as quickly as possible.”

“It was good to see at the conference that things have not changed,” Cosby said.

Following the hurricanes, Chappie said the Bradenton Beach Police Department Facebook page was an invaluable tool in getting information out.

“We went from 300 to 6,600 followers on that page after the hurricanes,” he said.

Chappie said the city is looking into having storm barrier doors installed at the Police Department, Public Works Department and city hall.

“We lost three police vehicles,” he said. “The police station and public works both had flooding. We got lucky at city hall.”

Chappie said the city is on track with contractors working on storm drains and street repairs.

“I also learned a lesson not to be afraid to accept help,” he said. “Throughout the Island volunteers were helping their neighbors. There are such wonderful people in this city.”