How UF faculty and staff are lending expertise to Hurricane Helene recovery
In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s widespread destruction, University of Florida faculty, staff and students are providing critical support to affected communities and using advanced tools to analyze wind and wave conditions, aiding in storm recovery and future preparedness.
UF/IFAS
UF/IFAS Extension agents from North Florida established an incident command post at the Suwannee County Fairgrounds to coordinate assistance for people of the surrounding communities, despite dealing with power outages and minor damage at their own homes.
Animal support
UF/IFAS Extension agents from various counties assisted with missions by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Emergency Support Function 17 (FDACS ESF 17), which is an animal and agricultural issues mission area. As of Sept. 30, there have been 40 mission requests from across Florida, mostly regarding pet shelter and animal evacuations.
Angela Lindsey of the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education serves as the UF/IFAS Extension liaison for the FDACS ESF 17 Incident Management Team. She assisted in completing several missions, including coordinating UF/IFAS Extension support in Madison County, where she located and created a distribution point for beekeepers and coordinated distribution points for supplies.
Farmer support
UF/IFAS staff attended a meeting with farmers on Monday in Live Oak with Florida's Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson to discuss the impacts on Florida farms and herds, as well as determine how UF/IFAS can assist farmers and ranchers as they begin the long road to recovery. Christa Court, associate professor in the department of food and resource economics, provided information for conducting agricultural assessments.
Hot meals
UF/IFAS faculty and staff provided hot meals and cold water to residents and cleanup volunteers in Cedar Key on Wednesday, sending brisket, green beans, macaroni and cheese, cucumber salad, Texas toast and cobbler.
Surveying the damage
UF/IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program, or EIAP, launched its survey for losses and damages associated with Hurricane Helene, which UF/IFAS Communications disseminated to Florida media, getting the word out to farmers and ranchers about how they can report their agricultural losses. The EIAP’s Assessment of Losses and Damages to Florida Agriculture has been used to assess several events in recent past, including Hurricanes Michael, Ian, Idalia and Debby.
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
In the final hours before deadly Hurricane Helene made landfall, research teams from the University of Florida scrambled up Florida’s west coast in a two-day blitz to set up storm-monitoring equipment that will provide valuable insights into environmental, structural and human survival.
Sentinels collect critical data
The day before Helene made landfall, faculty members, staff and graduate students from the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering arrived at Cedar Key’s beach to install a UF-developed storm-monitoring tower called a Sentinel. These 33-foot-tall devices collect data on wind, storm surge, waves, and water quality before, during and after a hurricane makes landfall.
It reports data back to researchers in real time. The goal is to analyze the data collected on wind, surge and water impacts that could be used to mitigate coastal damage, property damage and structural vulnerabilities that could endanger life.
The Sentinel team then hustled up the coast to deploy a second tower on Mashes Sands Beach in Panacea, very close to where Helene’s eye was expected to hit the following day.
“The Sentinel at Cedar Key provided a critical live data stream,” said Brian Phillips, Ph.D., the project lead and an associate professor with the Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering. “We were watching it as the storm approached and made landfall. NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] had access to it and quoted our wind-speed measurements on the official updates. It made an immediate impact.”
Measuring the water
Another UF-led team was spreading out across Cedar Key, Horseshoe Beach, and Suwannee on Wednesday to place wave gages, water-pressure sensors, and an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler to measure water levels, waves, and the pace of the water. The team also used Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems and drones to document detailed pre-storm conditions.
Nina Stark, an associate professor with UF’s Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering, led a team of NSF-funded Nearshore Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association and collaborated with the NSF-funded Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure RAPID facility team on before- and during-storm data collection.
UF Health
Caring for seniors
ElderCare of Alachua County ensured the safety of its senior clients by initiating direct contact to inform of impending dangers and check their preparedness. ElderCare provided storm information, shelter locations and made grocery runs for essential supplies. Additionally, staff delivered shelf-stable meals to ensure clients had food in case of service disruption.
Case managers will help facilitate additional services for those who may need them, including available community emergency resources.
During the storm, the Senior Center facility was used as a special needs shelter. While the shelter itself is run by Alachua County Emergency Management and Department of Health personnel, ElderCare staff provides additional support as needed while they occupy the building.
College of Veterinary Medicine
Shelter Medicine
The UF Shelter Medicine program coordinated the evacuation of hundreds of dogs and cats from shelters in the Panhandle and Big Bend areas prior to the storm.
A UF Shelter Medicine staff member ran a daily call for national and statewide responders to coordinate animal relocation and rescue efforts in Florida before and after the storm, to coordinate the delivery of pet food and medical supplies, and to establish field clinics for pets in the affected areas. The UF team was also the first to establish communications with the Asheville Humane Society in North Carolina after the storm and elevated their urgent needs to the National Animal Rescue & Sheltering Coalition, a multi-state team of animal specific disaster responders, who arranged to have critical supplies like water and food delivered by air.
Some of the organizations that participated in the UF Shelter Medicine program’s daily coordination calls included American Society for the Protection and Cruelty to Animals, Humane Society of the U.S., Animal Search and Rescue, Animal Incident Management Team by BISSELL Pet Foundation, Greater Good Charities, Florida Animal Control Association, Florida Association of Animal Welfare Organizations, Florida State Agricultural Response Team, National Animal Control Association, Humane Society International, Florida State Animal Rescue Coalition, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, UF Vets, Wings of Rescue, Florida Veterinary Medical Association, and others.
Emergency Treatment Services
Staff from the UF Veterinary Treatment Services, or VETS, team is supporting the efforts of the Humane Society of the United States in Taylor County.
UF Veterinary Hospital Operations
UF Veterinary Hospitals Gainesville, like UF Health human hospitals, stayed open throughout the storm.
In addition, the UF Veterinary Hospital at World Equestrian Center remained open and provided urgent treatment for horses and other large animals sheltered at WEC during that time.
College of Design, Construction and Planning
Cleary Larkin, director of UF’s Historic Preservation Program, is leading a group working with Anna Hodges, the executive director of the Cedar Key Historical Society, on initial cleanup of the museum buildings and planning for next steps in the museum’s recovery. As a board member of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, Larkin will also provide an initial windshield survey of downtown to determine needs for documentation of building conditions for potential recovery grant applications.
Communities that need assistance with building documentation can email the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation at information@floridatrust.org to be connected with the Hurricane Response Committee.
College of Journalism and Communications
Emergency network
The Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, housed at the College of Journalism and Communications and funded by the state, provided storm updates before, during and after the event to public radio stations throughout the state, reaching 22 million residents.
WUFT
WUFT News provided its most comprehensive and robust storm coverage in station history. Approximately 30 students and all faculty and staff assigned to the Innovation News Center Unit embedded in Weimer Hall to provide this extensive coverage.
The FM channel provided North Central Florida and Nature Coast residents with 12 hours of continuous coverage as Hurricane Helene approached, made landfall and passed the area. WUFT-TV provided three full newscasts and cut-ins stretching over a 12-hour period, and WUFT.org showcased a steady flow of real-time news and information that garnered tens of thousands of page views.
You can see a stream of all content from Hurricane Helene here: www.wuft.org/helene
Field reporting
Immediately following the storm, UF journalists covered impacted communities by plane and on foot. That coverage continued Saturday with crews covering Gainesville, Cedar Key, Horseshoe Beach, Jena/Steinhatchee, and Perry.
View this outstanding Photo Gallery by Diego Perdomo, and the TV story by Alexander Land.