The creation of new public faculties across Florida has contributed to a significant increase in the number of storm shelter spaces, according to a plan approved this. The Division of Emergency Management presented its updated statewide crisis plan to the cabinet at a meeting held at a Florida Keys elementary school. A combination of hurricane shelter surveys, retrofitting existing schools and building new schools to meet shelter design criteria has created more than 939,000 public shelter spaces over the last 12 years, emergency management officials said. More than half of those spaces were created through the construction of new public schools. Statewide, 37 counties now have a surplus of shelter spaces for the general population and people with special needs, officials said. Those counties include Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Brevard and Orange counties, along with counties in Florida’s Panhandle. Southwestern Florida continues to have a lack of shelter spaces due to its exposure to storm surge.
