FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:Brie Turek (407) 246-3106

CITY OF ORLANDO UPDATE REGARDING HURRICANE KATRINA AFTERMATH

ORLANDO, FL (September 1, 2005) – Today, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer participated in a statewide conference call with Governor Jeb Bush and various municipal and county leaders to discuss issues surrounding the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“As we continue our relief efforts to hurricane victims of the impacted region, we also want to lend a steady hand to the citizens and visitors of Central Florida,” said Mayor Buddy Dyer. “We are encouraging everyone to conserve both fuel and energy from their home, to their vehicles, and to the workplace.”

Currently, the City of Orlando’s fuel and energy supply is at normal levels, but staff will continue to monitor the situation and has already taken proactive steps to conserve fuel and energy within City departments and divisions. For example, the Fire Department is limiting non-emergency response movement and Public Works is limiting routes to critical service response issues. Also, in an effort to conserve energy, the facilities division is modifying thermostat levels, water heater temperatures and lighting levels at City buildings.

The Mayor personally spoke with leaders from the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, LYNX, OUC and Orange County Public Schools to ensure that if coordination efforts were needed regarding fuel resources, they would be done at the highest level.

Additionally, the City of Orlando is continuing its assistance to the region impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Official requests have been submitted for support from the City’s fire department, public works department and police department.

“We have received several requests for support including our mounted patrol for crowd management at distribution locations, search and rescue personnel to assist in recovery efforts, and public works staff for water systems support, continued Dyer.” We are ready to respond and awaiting further direction from the State for deployment of City staff to Mississippi.”

For more information, log on to www.cityoforlando.net.

# # ## # #