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INDUSTRY INSIDER
November | December 2026      AirportImprovement.com
Here in Southwest Florida, 
emergency response planning for 
hurricanes, tropical storms and 
severe weather is a top responsibility for 
airport leaders. Each storm has different 
impacts and presents new opportunities 
to reassess previous plans. Weathering 
the storm, however, is only part of the 
equation. 
Recovering from it—and resuming 
operations quickly—is vital to supporting 
search and rescue operations, 
humanitarian missions and flights with 
lifesaving food, water and medical 
supplies. Airfields also serve as staging 
areas for relief workers, utility companies 
and military operations. The sooner 
airports are operational, the sooner 
communities can begin to recover.
That challenge is becoming more 
urgent as Florida’s hurricanes produce 
broader impacts and greater damage. 
Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was a relatively 
compact but devastating storm, while 
the more recent Hurricane Irma affected 
nearly the entire state. In September 
2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall in 
Southwest Florida, inundating portions 
of Naples Airport (APF) with 3 to 5 feet of 
storm surge. Flooding damaged buildings, 
airfield lighting and navigational aids while 
severely disrupting airport operations.
APF has also experienced impacts from 
storms that never made direct landfall 
nearby. Hurricanes Helene and Milton 
remained well offshore of Southwest 
Florida yet still produced water levels 
that caused airfield flooding. The lesson 
is clear: Resilience planning can no 
longer focus solely on direct hits. 
Airports must prepare for a wider range 
of storm scenarios and secondary effects 
such as storm surge, prolonged rainfall 
and regional infrastructure disruptions.
To help keep critical infrastructure 
functioning after future storms, the Naples 
Airport Authority undertook a $25.4 
million Airfield Lighting Rehabilitation and 
Electrical Vault Replacement Project. 
More than 1,000 elevated, watertight 
lights will replace existing runway and 
taxiway lighting. The new fixtures will sit 
about 20 inches above the ground.  
The project also includes a new 
electrical vault. During Hurricane Ian, 
storm surge came within inches of 
flooding the existing vault. Had water 
entered that facility, portions of the 
airfield lighting system could have been 
disabled for weeks or even months. 
The replacement vault, now under 
construction, will be 3 feet above the 
base flood elevation, inside a hurricane-
rated concrete structure equipped with 
standby power, backup climate control 
and surge and lightning protection. 
Other upgrades will address threats 
that are not immediately visible. After 
Hurricane Ian, saltwater remained trapped 
within portions of the underground 
conduit network that carries power to 
airfield lighting. Even after floodwaters 
receded, residual salt continued to 
corrode system components. The 
replacement system is designed to 
improve drainage, and new flush ports will 
allow crews to quickly rinse the system 
with fresh water after a storm surge event. 
The larger lesson is that resilience 
should not hinge on one project.
We purchased 3,000 feet of rapidly 
deployable Tiger Dam flood barriers to 
protect key buildings, electrical systems, 
communications infrastructure and APF’s 
fuel farm. More importantly, airport teams 
are trained to deploy it within hours of 
forecasted storm surge.
Significant resilience upgrades to the 
fuel farm are also nearing completion. 
During Hurricane Ian, flooding affected 
pumps, electrical equipment and the 
facility’s generator. The improvement 
project elevates those critical systems to 
better protect them. The ability to keep 
fuel flowing is fundamental—particularly 
during emergency response and recovery 
efforts. By hardening this infrastructure, 
APF is helping ensure it can continue 
supporting emergency responders and 
relief operations when they are needed 
most.
Understanding the ongoing condition 
of critical infrastructure is key. Routine 
inspections and testing of airfield lighting 
circuits help staff monitor system health 
and address issues before a disaster hits. 
That data becomes especially important 
after a federally declared disaster. While 
FEMA provides significant recovery 
assistance, documentation is essential 
for demonstrating how a qualifying 
event affected airport infrastructure. 
Detailed maintenance records and 
system performance data help establish 
pre-storm conditions, allowing recovery 
efforts and reimbursement requests to 
move forward more efficiently. Without 
that information, recovery can slow 
considerably and delay progress toward 
full restoration.
Together, these efforts represent 
a change in philosophy. Emergency 
planning is not simply about replacing 
what a storm damaged. Airport leaders 
should ask why infrastructure was 
vulnerable in the first place and what 
could be done differently to prevent it 
from happening again.
We cannot control the next hurricane, its 
path or the height of related storm surge. 
What we can control are the decisions 
made before the next Ian hits. 
Chris Rozansky, C.M., 
is executive director 
of the Naples Airport 
Authority. Under his 
leadership, Naples 
Airport has become 
a community asset that generates 
an annual economic impact of 
$781 million and serves more than 
200,000 passengers per year.  
Resilient by Design

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