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Rep. Connie Mack broke from a conversation inside Collier County’s Emergency Operations Center to accept a red pen.

The pen, given to Mack, R-Fort Myers, by County Commissioner Frank Halas and Emergency Management Coordinator Jim von Rinteln, had a message that mirrored Mack’s comments for the day: “Get a plan.”

Mack visited the county building to hear a presentation from von Rinteln and County Emergency Services Director Dan Summers on the government’s emergency preparedness plans on the eve next week’s start to hurricane season.

County Commission Chairman Tom Henning and County Manager Jim Mudd also attended the event.

After the presentation, Mack, dressed casually in a pin-striped button-down shirt with the top two buttons undone, pronounced the county “very prepared.”

“It’s not what I think,” Mack said. “It’s what they’ve proven.”

Mack received a rundown of the country’s plans for hurricane season including a tour of a mobile command unit and an update on construction at the county’s new East Naples emergency operations center scheduled to open by next storm season.

The strongest statements from Mack and county officials were encouragements to residents to develop a plan for hurricane season. They spoke against complacency as the county enters its third year since 2005’s Hurricane Wilma. A Mason-Dixon poll released Thursday at the National Hurricane Center in Miami showed that 54 percent of Atlantic and Gulf Coast residents surveyed don’t feel vulnerable to a hurricane or related tornado or flooding.

“Just because we had a hurricane three years ago that was significant to the community doesn’t mean we won’t have a stronger one this year or one with the same impact,” von Rinteln said.

Mack echoed his comments.

“Every time we get farther and farther from an event you wonder if people are paying attention,” Mack said. “This is the time to prepare. This is the time to gameplan.”

Mack also spoke to federal support for disaster relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He said the department has improved since its struggles to deal with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.

“I think we’ve seen a big change from when Michael Brown was head of FEMA and what we’re getting now,” Mack said.

“The communication hopefully has gotten better under new leadership,” he added.