TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — The different departments within the city of Treasure Island are analyzing their response to last season’s hurricanes to see where they can improve and presenting those findings to city commissioners Tuesday.

Representatives from fire, police, community development, finance, administration, parks and recreation, and public information all submitted an "After Action Review" that analyzes the positives and shortcomings of the 2024 hurricane response.

Treasure Island Fire Chief Trip Barrs says while they have had to activate their Emergency Operations Center and prepare for disasters almost every year over the past decade, 2024 was a very serious and extreme situation. Barrs says they wanted to take this as an opportunity to analyze what went right, what went OK, and what went wrong and needs to be fixed.

“It was definitely a new experience for us and we had a lot of opportunity to learn things,” Barrs said. “We were diligent about actually tracking where we saw areas for improvement and this is now the culmination of putting all of that together.”

Barrs said part of the fire department’s After Action Review includes a plan to be more aggressive about messaging when it comes time for evacuations. Roughly 30% of residents evacuated for Hurricane Helene which resulted in four deaths, Barrs confirmed. He said going into Hurricane Milton, just two weeks later, almost every resident left the island. He says in years to come; he wants to make sure through clear messaging that every resident understands the risk and severity of evacuation orders.

Another major point, Barrs said, is post-storm response. He says the city is making written requests to the state now regarding what specialized staff they need following a storm, should another hurricane head this way.

“We just need more staff, we need specialized staff,” Barrs said. “When it is a regional event, that staff is hard to come by because everyone needs it. That’s folks in permitting, planning and review, floodplain management.”

Sunset Beach resident Grant Smith said he was pleased with the city’s response overall, he just hopes that communication to residents regarding rebuilding and recovery can improve in the future.

“I thought the response given the resources was quite good, and I was really impressed by the state’s response. They were on the island almost immediately,” he said. “What I think they could have done better is centralized communication to really inform residents of what they should expect throughout this process. If there was a failure, I don’t think it was so much logistics of bringing resources together… I think it was the communication.”

Barrs said because the police and fire station were destroyed in the hurricanes, they are working with St. Pete College for a solution in the interim. Construction on the new station will take another 18 to 24 months.