JACKSON COUNTY, Fla. — The Jackson County Emergency Operations team is still playing it by ear for now, but they're taking any threat of severe weather seriously.
The team had a meeting with the National Weather Service Monday to see if it's time to start planning ahead.
But with the models for what could be a tropical depression still a little unpredictable, the team decided to meet with the NWS again Tuesday before making any big decisions. Just to be certain, the EOC Director has a local state of emergency plan that he's planning to present to the board.
That way, if things do shift, the county is prepared. Regardless of how strong the weather is later this week, the county is still weakened from Hurricane Michael.
"We're gonna have trees that need just enough to get blown over, but we've had several heavy thunderstorms that have come through here in the last few weeks that knocked all of the loose stuff down," said Rodney Andreasen, Jackson County Emergency Management Director. "It depends on how much rain we get. The rain will loosen up a lot of things and that's a concern of mine. Are we going to have problems? Of course we are, but I think we're better suited to handle those problems."
Andreasen says that he and many of his loved ones lost everything in Michael, so the threat of any type of severe weather is serious because the community is still very vulnerable.
