The Virginia Beach City Council convened on August 20, 2025, to receive a briefing on Hurricane Aaron, review a detailed demographic and housing analysis, discuss the Tourism Investment Program (TIP) Fund, and provide guidance on the Rudy Loop Park project. The meeting also included public hearings, consent agenda approvals, and recognitions. Key outcomes included approval of a food bank rezoning, a supportive housing project, and unanimous direction to proceed with the Rudy Loop Park design.
Thank you all. Yes. All right. So Mr. Mayor, we discussed previously before the meeting that with the change in trajectory for Hurricane Aaron. It'll be good to start the city council off and the public with a quick synopsis and a quick briefing on the path of Hurricane Aaron and some of the things that we're going to get ready for the storm. All right, direct. I think that's very proven. Thank you. All right. Well, uh good afternoon, Mayor, members of the council. Uh give you a quick rundown of uh what we're expecting to see with Hurricane Aaron and then what we've done to prepare and what we're looking at over the next couple days. All right. Is it on? Is it on? Maybe not. I don't know. I'm not used to going first. There you go. You're right. Thanks. Look at all world. I'm I'm real good at doing what I'm told. All right. So uh kicking up hurricane season, we're back again. Uh so right now, uh Hurricane Aren is a category three hurricane. It's located east of the Bahamas. Uh it will remain a very powerful hurricane throughout the rest of this week, somewhere between a category two or three. Um it's still forecast to curve to the north northeast uh over the next few days. It's gonna it's anticipated to start that curve later tonight or tomorrow morning. Um and it will pass us offshore. Um, however, the trajectory has changed more to a westward, which means closer to our shoreline, uh bringing some of those outer bands, winds, and coastal flooding uh closer to closer to our shores and and our communities. We expect it to pass just offshore of us as a category three downgrade into a category two uh Thursday, and then being out of the area by Friday afternoon. Um so we'll see the conditions worse uh tomorrow afternoon and then throughout the day on Thursday, and then start to uh improve Friday, and by Friday afternoon, we should be uh back to semi-normal state. Uh, this is not looking like a rain event. Uh, there might be a couple periods of rain from the outer bands. Any rain this week and clouds are not associated with the storm that you're seeing today. Uh, this looks like it's mostly going to be a coastal uh tidal event uh and possibly a wind event. So as you can see uh from the latest models around from about 11 a.m. Uh the outer bands will likely uh likely reach us tomorrow afternoon and then continue throughout Thursday. You know, we're looking at 25 to 30 mile per hour uh out of the north northeast uh with gust as high as 40 miles per hour. Uh and those could be much higher as especially along the coast, directly along the coast. Umce we see where the storm curves, uh, we'll determine how west it's gonna track, and then those numbers could possibly change in the next 24 hours, depending on the actual path it takes, uh, not just the forecasted track. Uh and then this morning they just issued a tropical storm watch for our area, meaning that there is a good possibility that we'll experience tropical storm force gusts, so gust over 40 miles an hour uh in the next 48 hours. Uh tidal and coastal flooding is uh concern right now. Uh we're watching the possibility of stacking building waves along the Chesapeake Bay that could result in tidal flood flooding for our bay communities and the Linhaven Bay areas, uh Croatan, Rudy. Um the back bay area does not look like it should flood right now. We've got the winds out of the north northeast, so it should be pushing out of the back bay, but stacking those waves at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. So uh our communities along Shore Drive and Lynn Haven, uh Crowatan, like Rudy is our primary concern right now, but we are watching everywhere. Um we're expecting to hit moderate to major flood levels during the high tide periods, uh especially Wednesday night and Thursday night.