It’s that time of year again: Hurricane Season.
With the first potential Hurricane to hit Florida this coming Monday, WE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO CONTACT THEIR LOCAL REGISTRATION OFFICE TO FIND OUT WHAT PROVISIONS ARE BEING MADE FOR PERSONS REQUIRED TO REGISTER IN YOUR COUNTY AND SHARING THAT INFORMATION IN THE COMMENTS TO THIS POST.
THE CONTACT INFORMATION FOR YOUR COUNTY REGISTRATION OFFICE CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/Documents/REREGISTRATIONLOCATIONS.pdf
Remember, if you plan to evacuate your residence for three or more days, you will have an obligation to register, IN PERSON, wherever you are staying as a temporary residence within 48 hours before evacuating. You should also ensure that your expected evacuation location does not run afoul of any sex offender residency restrictions (SORRs) or you could expose yourself to arrest for simply being there.
Emergency evacuations are MUCH, MUCH more complicated for someone on the registry than anyone else. Please do not wait until the last minute to make your plans. Please check to see if your county’s information has already been updated in the comments before calling.
Pinellas county: You can not go to the county jail if you need to evacuate. The only place is the Largo re-entry facility. Not sure if you can take your family with you.
As I look at the devastation on the Bahama island I can’t help what wonder just where are the people going to live while rebuilding. I cannot see where they could even stay. There has to be more people than places for them so live.
The news talks about the deaths and damage but not about what is going to happen to those who lost their homes and everything they owned.
Here in Florida we kind of dodged a bullet. I feel blessed that all I had was rain this time. Three years ago I wasn’t quite so fortunate. But at least I didn’t lose my home.
This may be a little off the subject of the FAC but I just felt a need to express my concerns.
Although this article is from back when Irma went through, it is very good and gives a lot of good information and some eye openers. Mentions many counties with some offering shelters and some telling you to go pack sand.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/florida-counties-sheltered-sex-offenders-irma
After reading this PBS report, I checked online for information on the lawsuit filed. There are plenty of articles on the lawsuit being filed and why, but I could not find out if the lawsuit went anywhere. It was filed in September of 2017.
Most likely it was quietly dismissed. You can try and look up the contact info for the lawyer who filed the suit and maybe he will email you back. On the one hand you want everyone to have shelter, on the other hand I can see them wanting to protect children etc. but there are plenty of bad actors not on the registry who could very easily still get access to the kids in the shelter. It is all a show by law enforcement.
PUTNAM COUNTY
If a person is a registered sex offender and will not pass the instant background check, they will be directed to report to Ochwilla Elementary School in Hawthorne, where they will be sheltered in a separate area, Waters-Merritt said.
“We want to make it clear that those who are offenders will be sheltered, but they will not be housed together with the general public,” Waters-Merritt said. “They will be separated from the general population and not be allowed to intermingle.”
Extra law enforcement personnel will be assigned to the shelter, Waters-Merritt said.
Although it is NOT a designated shelter, the Orlando International Airport is a safe place to ride out a hurricane. I’ve done it several times. Because it’s not a designated shelter, there is no check-in requirements. And it is perfectly legal to be there. LE leaves you alone as long as you dont look suspicious.
thats an awesome idea
And they have generators and even if youre just in the parking garage its safer than anywhere else and has water and bathrooms before the check in areas. Thats where the fam have spent one or two of these. Load up the trunk with food but realize youd probably be paying for the parking. Another place are the free courthouse prking garages themselves: volusia county has a pretty big one and secure and free.
Marion County The only shelter for SO’s is the County Jail.
They do that in Orange county as well. Check yourself into the county jail. This means if you were a single parent, you couldn’t even stay in the shelter with your own child while a scary storm blows through. Your child would already be scared with the storm brewing, now add to that , that Daddy has to go to jail for a few days, even though he did not break the law. Mind blowing ( And again, they say NONE of this is punitive, just business as usual )
Orlando.com said for Osceola Co: County’s Beaumont Street Facility at 330 N. Beaumont Ave. Kissimmee, FL 34741
When SATIRE is too close to reality: https://babylonbee.com/news/residents-of-florida-urged-to-evacuate-not-because-of-hurricane-but-just-because-its-florida
SEMINOLE: Per Seminole County Felony Registration, if you are not on probation, you can use any available shelter. However, you must identify yourself as a registered sex offender/preditor as soon as you walk in. They will process you and isolate you from everyone else. Pretty much, everyone will know after it’s all over.
Another option is to go to the designated shelter at the Seminole County Courthouse on 17-92 across from the sheriff’s office. It is a designated shelter for SO’s and felons, so you do not have to announce yourself as a registered citizen. In both cases, you may bring your spouse/kids to the shelter with you.
ST JOHNS – if you respond to a shelter, you MUST identify yourself as a sexual predator or sexual offender upon check-in. You will be provided a blue wristband you MUST wear at all times while inhabiting the shelter. You will be directed to a designated area of the shelter and your FDLE flyer will be posted in the common area of the shelter.
ST JOHNS –
The only approved shelter for SOs is:
Pedro Menendez High School
600 State Road 206 West
St Augustine
SOs are required to have identification and will be placed in a separate area of the shelter.
PASCO – Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel.
BROWARD – CAN go to emergency shelters, just announce your presence
GADSDEN – Registrants on probation can go to the county jail for shelter. No provisions being made for those not on probation.
DUVAL:
Legends Center at the Bob Hayes Sports Complex
5130 Soutel Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32208
(904) 255-4050
http://www.coj.net/departments/parks-and-recreation/recreation-and-community-programming/community-centers-(1)/legends-center-and-gymnasium
THANK YOU JZ!
What about all those poor devils from the “Untouchable” film whose only residence is OUTSIDE under a tarp or a tent amidst all those abandoned warehouses? Or the luckier ones in the same area who have a car to sleep in? None of them can go ANYWHERE to escape from a hurricane. Before I was illegally adjudicated as a criminal, I lived in a nice trailer in a park during “Wilma” which had winds up to 125 miles an hour. I’d never make that mistake again after the horrifying night I survived.
Can we please keep comments to what YOUR COUNTY tells you to do for Hurricane safety?
ORANGE COUNTY is not telling us anything. They say they dont know where RCs can go except to voluntarily enter the jail since shelters are not an option for RCs.
But if I don’t stay in one location for three consecutive days, I don’t need to register anything, right?
not for 3 consecutive days or 3 days in the aggregate per year. If you avoid those two scenarios, you don’t register
Not sure about this year but last year, the Sheriff of Orange county told sex offenders if you do not have a place to go, you can check yourself into the Jail.
Me personally, I would rather hide under a log in the woods during a category 5 hurricane than to go back to jail. First of all never want to see the inside of a jail again and secondly, they may conveniently forget you are not an inmate and send you off to the DOC for processing.
thank u for posting ur hurricane evacuation info. In myand my husbands particular situation, we no longer have a car and wouldnt dome anygood anyway withsight problems from having had cataract surgery on one eye. I did phone the sheriffs dept. about my husband, the registrant, situaiton – onlyshelter is the place he goes to register which costs me 40dollars round trip by cab. He had congestive heart failure a couple years ago after surgery for blocked arteries so cant walk well very far -is on a multitude of medications besides his diabetes med., ie. blood thinners, blood pressure, etc. etc. I was told by the Sheriffs dept. that anyone withhealth problems that has to shelter there has to bring all their medications and if on special diet, as myhusband is- lowsalt diet, whichis a lot of work for me living in a motel,, he has to bring his own food. I am glad that we are staying in a relativelyhurricane proof motel evne tho it leaves useunable to access public transportation as we bothhave mobilityproblems. sorry for typing problems, keys stick – and not about hurricane evac, but last time he went to register, they are always trying to trick these people – he had to take cab out there before to tell them got rid of car – and because I wasnt sure when he left tht they hadnt changed their hours of operation, called to make sure they were open. When he got there, detective I spoke to said I called, where is she out in car. And then when he said he took a cab, she responded with “you could have taken a bus” – and there is more – so, I originally located and stay where I am to be near a hospital and if I have to move him with the weather it will be to the hospital I dont care what they want – their nonsense has force me into living in a situation where I can no longer go out of here with my husband , even to the Drs. because since we have been here have had people stealing when we are gone and ove rth epast two years attempts to get into bank accounts. When my husbnad questioned that detective about some of her behaviorher response was because “we want them all in jail” delete what u want from this but I have intended towrite u a letter again aboutthewhole situation. Perhaps better I communicte with a major newspaper.
All – please don’t post comments unless you are informing us of what your county advised you. Simply put the county name IN BOLD followed by the instructions.
HENDRY COUNTY
required to report to the jail in Labelle during mandatory evacuation.
A Federal judge ruled that a mandatory evacuation cannot be enforced. If you want to stay in your house law enforcement cannot arrest you for staying in your home. I cannot see the sheriffs office making you leave your home to go to the jail. However if you want to go to a shelter, they can designate the jail as the offenders location. Requiring someone to report to jail during a storm is not constitutional. Not sure if you were on probation. Another item on the agenda that is NOT punitive (Coughs into hand) according to the law makers
Is there a specific Florida statute or federal code that mandates evacuations and creates a penalty for anyone’s failure or refusal to evacuate? I ask, bc this discussion came up recently with my federal po. He said I was required to have an evacuation plan with some place to go on file with him even though I live in Orange County which is never evacuated because its the central hub for ALL emergency equipment and gasoline for the entire state. He said I’d have to report to the Orange County jail if I had nowhere on file to go for an evacuation. But I held my ground and said he cant force me to jail without formal charges and all the due process and other legal protections the Constitution requires. He left my house conceding that he cant force anyone to evacuate bc I told him to review all the cases in South Florida and Key West where people refused to evacuate, yet nobody was charged with any offense.
No there is not. That said; Please keep the comments on this post limited to what you discover in your county.
Holiday weekend : no firm storm track yet: wed need to know by tomorrow (thursday) where we can or cant go and if we have an alternate: how can we tell them? Actually guess we have until friday to let them know where we think we may go if we go to wherever we can go to or just stay at home and try not to die. Ridiculois
Im assuming in the case theres no transport or power and we cant get to the office to let them know where we go: does a phonecall to fdle cover us?
Will someone please post what to do in their county?
ORANGE COUNTY JAIL if you are not on probation
CENTRAL FLORIDA RECEPTION CENTER If you are on probation I was told this by my P.O. a few years ago
VOLUSIA: told me to talk to my probation officer. Told them i never had one. Told me to report to the county correction facility and identify myself. They may be able to accommodate but under no circumstances go to a shelter with my family as i will be ejected.