FOX 13 Tampa Bay: Lessons learned in Manatee County after devastating hurricanes

ANNA MARIA ISLAND, FLA., May 23, 2025 — With the 2025 hurricane season just weeks away, Manatee County is turning lessons from last year’s devastating storms into action, partnering with Peregrine to improve real-time situational awareness and emergency response.

“We are monitoring our shelter census, we are able to track road closures,” Jodie Fiske, Director of Public Safety for Manatee County, told FOX 13 Tampa Bay. “We are actually going to be able to utilize AI technology, pull keywords from 911 calls that are coming in.”

Fiske said the system will help guide rescues before it’s too late and reduce the burden on first responders.

“This is removing that stress level from our responders and putting these things into a dashboard that will automatically be populated for us,” she said.

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