• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
    • Privacy Policy
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
    • Marineland
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • First Amendment
    • Second Amendment
    • Third Amendment
    • Fourth Amendment
    • Fifth Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Eighth Amendment
    • 14th Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Privacy
    • Civil Rights
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2024
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

A Disaster Expo at the Palm Coast Community Center Highlights Community’s Prepared Resilience

August 13, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

A small hill of emergency-preparedness kits welcomed particip[ants at the disaster expo at the Palm Coast Community Center on Tuesday. (© FlaglerLive)
A small hill of emergency-preparedness kits welcomed participants at the disaster expo at the Palm Coast Community Center on Tuesday. (© FlaglerLive)
Only in America–maybe only in Florida, if not in Flagler County–could there possibly be a disaster expo like the one Flagler Volunteer Services, on a grant from Flagler Cares, put on yesterday at the Palm Coast Community Center. 

Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord picked up on the irony, as Tropical Storm Erin was brewing into the season’s first major hurricane about 1,000 miles to the east. “I don’t think there’s any other county that does it that way,” he said. 

But it’s also how you look at the word ‘expo,’” Lord said as the Sunshine Room, the largest at the Community Center, was already at capacity with volunteers (the lavish and free breakfast helped), residents, non-profits,  government agencies and a favored private business or two rimming two sides of the room. “So inherently, Expo is a celebration of whatever it is you’re showing. In this term, expo is really just more of a way of bringing people together. It’s specifically about education.”

Emergency management has an $1,100-a-month contract with Flagler Volunteer Services to help build volunteer programs and community outreach. “They help us do training. They help us through outreach in a way that far exceeds $1,100 a month, because they use volunteers to force multiply,” Lord said. “This event is actually an output of that contract.” 

Flagler Volunteer Services' Suzie Gamblain spoke to a capacity crowd. (© FlaglerLive)
Flagler Volunteer Services’ Suzie Gamblain spoke to a capacity crowd. (© FlaglerLive)

Flagler Cares, the social services non-profit and coordinating agency, secured a $143,000 Long-Term Recovery Grant from the American Red Cross for Flagler Volunteer Services as part of the recovery efforts following Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024. “With this support,” a release stated after the grant was secured, “the two organizations will work collaboratively to identify remaining unmet needs in the wake of the storms and to build a sustainable, community-based disaster recovery and readiness network in Flagler County. Their joint efforts will focus on connecting nonprofits, faith-based groups, businesses, and individual volunteers to strengthen the county’s long-term disaster resilience.”

That’s what Tuesday’s expo was all about. (With the money, Flagler Volunteer Services hired Jay Sanchez as Disaster Preparedness Lead and Danielle Anderson as Long-Term Recovery Lead, and both coordinated the event.) Though it is the first of its kind in Flagler County, it’s the sort of community that makes these events possible that had convinced Lord years ago to move here and be the county’s emergency management director. “I don’t know if all these people here are volunteers or not, but it’s this community, it’s our active senior community that kind of intrigued me about Flagler County in the first place, kind of got me interested,” Lord said. 

“The number one goal is just to educate the community, saying, Hey, listen, we are at risk for disasters, particularly hurricanes,” Lord said. “These are the resources in your community that can help you get better prepared.” 

A dozen and a half individuals, many of them well known in the community, addressed the capacity crowd, more than half of which was still there by the end of the three-hour event. Speakers included Lord, Sheriff Rick Staly, Carrie Baird, the CEO at Flagler Cares, David Bossardett, Flagler schools’ safety coordinator, Amy Carotenuto, the executive director of the Flagler Humane Society, and of course Suzy Gamblain, the long-time director of Flagler Volunteer Services. She got an Excellence in Volunteerism award from Volunteer Florida, also known as the Florida Commission on Community Service. 

The event was not revelatory: unless you are new to Florida or Flagler County, you would not have heard anything you do not hear repeated every year at least half a dozen times in one media or another–several dozen times on reputable social media: be prepared, “mandatory evacuation” doesn’t necessarily mean mandatory, but “heed the warnings,” as Staly put it (“if you decide to stay and your house is flooding or something happens, we can’t get to you,” the sheriff said, “because once the winds sustain at 40 miles an hour, we’ll pull in our deputies in because it’s not safe for them.” When shelters open, they’re open to all, including pets, the Humane Society has its own storm-preparedness resources available to residents, and so on. 

The sheriff was especially grateful for the cooperation that prevails locally among public safety and public service agencies. It is not common, he said, describing his prior experience in orange County. “This is a completely different world for public safety, and it’s really nice, because we all get along,” he said. “We all work together to get the job done and serve the community.” 

The expo was made possible with a Red Cross grant secured by Flagler Cares for Flagler Volunteer Services. Flagler Cares' Carrie Baird spoke to the audience Tuesday. (© FlaglerLive)
The expo was made possible with a Red Cross grant secured by Flagler Cares for Flagler Volunteer Services. Flagler Cares’ Carrie Baird spoke to the audience Tuesday. (© FlaglerLive)

One of those organizations is Flagler Beach’s Flagler Strong, whose volunteers emerged out of the wreckage of Hurricane Matthew, when the barrier island was cut off from the rest of the county, and numerous people needed help in their homes, as co-founder Traci Callahan-Hennessey described it. “The whole town was out of power, and nobody was coming,” she said. “So we just started door-knocking, checking on neighbors.” The organization became a non-profit in 2022 and has broadened its services. It runs the weekly farmers’ market on South 2nd Street to raise money. 

Curiously absent, however, were local government representatives other than Lord, such as city managers or city officials who might have provided a more direct and useful look at municipal responses, or lack of responses, in the immediate aftermath of emergencies. But so it went, from one speaker to another, including Mike Boylan of the famously cluttered and popular Mike’s Weather Page. His advice: don’t focus on the number of storms predicted. Focus on preparedness and proper response when it happens. 

To that end, a small mountain of preparedness bags welcomed participants at the entrance of the Sunshine Room. They could help themselves. Inside, they’d find a small first aid kit, flushable wipes, Narcan (the neutralizing agent in case of overdose or other medical emergencies), a roll of paper towels, a roll of toilet paper of course, tiny pellets of compressed towels, an emergency blanket packed into a tiny sleeve, and matches. The only thing missing was a storm. 

Support FlaglerLive's End of Year Fundraiser
Thank you readers for getting us to--and past--our year-end fund-raising goal yet again. It’s a bracing way to mark our 15th year at FlaglerLive. Our donors are just a fraction of the 25,000 readers who seek us out for the best-reported, most timely, trustworthy, and independent local news site anywhere, without paywall. FlaglerLive is free. Fighting misinformation and keeping democracy in the sunshine 365/7/24 isn’t free. Take a brief moment, become a champion of fearless, enlightening journalism. Any amount helps. We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donations are tax deductible.  
You may donate openly or anonymously.
We like Zeffy (no fees), but if you prefer to use PayPal, click here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ld says

    August 13, 2025 at 1:38 pm

    When and on what media was this event advertised?

    Loading...
    2
  2. FlaglerLive says

    August 13, 2025 at 2:53 pm

    Here, at Ask Flagler, at the Observer, etc.

    Loading...
    1
  3. Interested party says

    August 13, 2025 at 11:13 pm

    Will this be repeated for anyone unavailable on this date?

    Loading...
    1
  4. Norman Roy says

    August 14, 2025 at 7:58 am

    Mayor Mike Norris was at this very interesting event! So, WHY did you state that NO government officials at the event. I talked with the Mayor and told him that I was a Charter member RIFCO.org which has helped protect Western Rhode Island from CRAZY development. The CT Woodland Owners Assoc. worked to protect Eastern CT. Today, Western RI and Eastern CT are called “The Last Green Valley” Who will help me protect the Farms, Ranches, and Woodlands of Western Flagler County?

    Loading...
    1
  5. FlaglerLive says

    August 14, 2025 at 10:23 am

    We did not report that there were no government officials at the event. There were several, including Norris–who arrived at the end. We reported that no government officials other than Lord addressed the assembly, and that hearing from them would have been useful.

    Loading...
    1

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Conner Bosch law attorneys lawyers offices palm coast flagler county
  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Primary Sidebar

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • FLF on Flagler County Home Builders Sue Palm Coast Over Impact Fees, Seeking Immediate Invalidation of Sharp Increases
  • Really annoyed on Flagler County Home Builders Sue Palm Coast Over Impact Fees, Seeking Immediate Invalidation of Sharp Increases
  • Stolen funds on Flagler County Home Builders Sue Palm Coast Over Impact Fees, Seeking Immediate Invalidation of Sharp Increases
  • Land of no turn signals says on Flagler County Home Builders Sue Palm Coast Over Impact Fees, Seeking Immediate Invalidation of Sharp Increases
  • Linda on Creekside Music and Arts Festival Set for Weekend Is Postponed to February as Precaution Against Storms
  • Skibum on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, October 1, 2025
  • Joe D on FWC Employee Fired Over Charlie Kirk Instagram Post Sues Accuses Agency of 1st Amendment Violation in Lawsuit
  • Here we go again on Republican Push for Snitching on Charlie Kirk Posts Drives Unprecedented Purge of Public Workers
  • Joe D on FWC Employee Fired Over Charlie Kirk Instagram Post Sues Accuses Agency of 1st Amendment Violation in Lawsuit
  • Pogo on FWC Employee Fired Over Charlie Kirk Instagram Post Sues Accuses Agency of 1st Amendment Violation in Lawsuit
  • Dusty on Flagler County Home Builders Sue Palm Coast Over Impact Fees, Seeking Immediate Invalidation of Sharp Increases
  • Jay Tomm on Flagler County Home Builders Sue Palm Coast Over Impact Fees, Seeking Immediate Invalidation of Sharp Increases
  • Mo Froatz on Creekside Music and Arts Festival Set for Weekend Is Postponed to February as Precaution Against Storms
  • Skibum on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, October 2, 2025
  • Darla on Trial of Andrew Mintz Over Crash in Flagler Beach Pushed to July
  • Mothersworry on Flagler County Home Builders Sue Palm Coast Over Impact Fees, Seeking Immediate Invalidation of Sharp Increases

Log in

%d