Gulf Breeze EOC Level 2 partial activation starts at 4 PM today. Key personnel, including the City Manager, Police Chief and Fire Chief, will be making decisions as the storm approaches. For storm-related non-emergencies call 850-934-5100.

Gulf Breeze EOC is responsible for the City’s all-hazard Emergency Operations Plan and coordinates activities with the Santa Rosa County Emergency Operations Center or SRCEOC. The GBEOC, when activated, is a central location where representatives of local government and private sector agencies convene during disaster situations to make decisions, set priorities and coordinate resources for response and recovery.

Water interruption: Residents in coastal low-lying areas, water service may be interrupted between the hours of 5pm Wednesday to 7am Thursday in order to prevent potential water line breaks from causing city-wide outages. During Hurricane Sally, many water line breaks caused a nearly City-wide water shutdown due to loss of pressure and supply. All homes south of HWY 98 experienced water shut off in order to isolate repairs. The majority of the water line breaks occurred to coastal areas that received storm surge. The majority of the breaks in those areas were from floating debris running into dock water lines. In order to prevent a system-wide shut down, staff will be isolating water supply from these vulnerable areas.

Map:

Sewer interruption: Residents in coastal low-lying areas, sewer service may be interrupted between the hours of 5pm Wednesday to 7am Thursday. Refrain from flushing toilets, and using sinks, showers and baths. The sewer pumping stations that service these areas are vulnerable to flooding from the forecasted storm surge. These stations will be shut down before the surge in order to prevent the systems from pumping salt water into the sewer system and inundating the system with excessive water, which could cause wide-spread sewer backups. See map above.

All City offices will be open for regular hours Wed. and Thurs.

There are currently no evacuation orders, however Santa Rosa County has opened a shelter today, Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Milton Community Center, 5629 Byrom St., for those who do not feel safe in their homes. The shelter will be a general population/special needs/pet friendly facility and will close at 7 a.m. Thurs. Residents utilizing the shelter will need to provide their own bedding - cots will not be available. There is no shelter available inside Gulf Breeze.

• Santa Rosa County Schools will be open Wed. and Thurs. If there are any unexpected changes at the 5 p.m. briefing, the school district will notify parents immediately. All Wednesday evening extracurricular activities will be canceled or rescheduled.

• The City’s garbage service is operating as normal. Weather may impact regular pick up times.

• The COVID testing locations at Milton Community Center will be open as usual on Wed. and Fri., 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The COVID testing location at St. Sylvester's Catholic Church will be open Thurs. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., then the south end testing site will relocate to Tiger Point Community Center beginning Thurs., Nov. 5 through the end of the year.

• FEMA's Mobile Registration Intake Center at the Gulf Breeze Community Center is closed due to the storm. No post-storm reopening date or time has been set.

Sand

• Sandbags are available until 5 PM at the Gulf Breeze Community Center. Sand is available at Shoreline Park South.

Debris

• Notify the City of any debris blocking drainage infrastructure or roads through the citizen work request form at https://cityofgulfbreeze.us/contactus/ or 850-934-5100.

For current weather events, visit www.weather.gov/mob. For information on preparing for disasters, visit www.santarosa.fl.gov/emergency

Relevant Links:

• https://cityofgulfbreeze.us/contactus/
• http://www.santarosa.fl.gov/emergency
• http://www.weather.gov/mob