Florida Senate - 2020                              CS for SB 826
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources; and
       Senator Mayfield
       
       
       
       
       592-03060-20                                           2020826c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to marina evacuations; amending s.
    3         327.59, F.S.; prohibiting vessels under a specified
    4         weight from remaining in certain marinas that have
    5         been deemed unsuitable for refuge during a hurricane
    6         after the issuance of a hurricane watch; requiring a
    7         marina owner, operator, employee, or agent to remove
    8         specified vessels under certain circumstances;
    9         providing that such owner, operator, employee, or
   10         agent may charge the vessel owner a reasonable fee for
   11         such removal and may not be held liable for any
   12         damages as a result of such removal; providing
   13         construction; authorizing certain penalty fees;
   14         providing an effective date.
   15          
   16  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   17  
   18         Section 1. Subsection (1) of section 327.59, Florida
   19  Statutes, is amended, and subsection (5) is added to that
   20  section, to read:
   21         327.59 Marina evacuations.—
   22         (1) Except as provided in this section After June 1, 1994,
   23  marinas may not adopt, maintain, or enforce policies pertaining
   24  to evacuation of vessels which require vessels to be removed
   25  from marinas following the issuance of a hurricane watch or
   26  warning, in order to ensure that protecting the lives and safety
   27  of vessel owners is placed before interests of protecting
   28  property.
   29         (5) Upon the issuance of a hurricane watch affecting the
   30  waters of marinas located in a deepwater seaport, vessels under
   31  500 gross tons may not remain in the waters of such marinas that
   32  have been deemed not suitable for refuge during a hurricane.
   33  Vessel owners shall promptly remove their vessels from the
   34  waterways upon issuance of an evacuation order by the deepwater
   35  seaport. If the United States Coast Guard captain of the port
   36  sets the port condition to “Yankee” and a vessel owner has
   37  failed to remove a vessel from the waterway, the marina owner,
   38  operator, employee, or agent, regardless of any existing
   39  contractual provisions between the marina owner and the vessel
   40  owner, shall remove the vessel, or cause the vessel to be
   41  removed, if reasonable, from its slip and may charge the vessel
   42  owner a reasonable fee for any such services rendered. A marina
   43  owner, operator, employee, or agent may not be held liable for
   44  any damage incurred to a vessel from a hurricane and is held
   45  harmless as a result of such actions to remove the vessel from
   46  the waterways. Nothing in this section may be construed to
   47  provide immunity to a marina owner, operator, employee, or agent
   48  for any damage caused by intentional acts or negligence when
   49  removing a vessel pursuant to this section. After the hurricane
   50  watch has been issued, the owner or operator of any vessel that
   51  has not been removed from the waterway of the marina, pursuant
   52  to an order from the deepwater seaport, may be subject to the
   53  penalties under s. 313.22(3).
   54         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2020.