Vol. 6, No.1, Jan 2010

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 Contents


New Courses Announced

FDACS’ Office of Agricultural Emergency Preparedness is again partnering with the Western Institute of Food Safety and Security (WIFSS) to bring Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) Certified Agroterrorism Courses to Florida in 2010.

Courses offered for February and March 2010 include:

  • AWR-153 Principles of Detection and Diagnosis: Strategies and Technologies

 

CONTENT INCLUDES

  • Principles and methods for detection and diagnosis of an agroterrorism event
  • Strategies to enhance detection and diagnosis
  • The laboratory networks and hierarchy of reporting to responsible agencies
  • The difference between a criminal and an epidemiological investigation
  • Sampling and preservation
  • Roles of local response teams

SUGGESTED ATTENDEES

  • Emergency responders, supervisors and managers, law enforcement officers, fire/rescue, EMS and OES
  • Federal, state & local public health and environmental health agencies
  • Hospital clinicians, administrators, health care providers
  • Environmental health and public information officers
  • Agriculture industries, including cultivation, processing, distribution, storage, transportation, veterinarians and extension advisors
  • Elected or appointed public officials
    • Tuesday, February 2 – 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at the USDA Farm Service Agency, 4401 NW 25th Place, Suite M, Gainesville, FL 32606
    • Wednesday, February 3 – 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Central Operations Center, Mel Martinez Auditorium, 2500 W. Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32804
    • Wednesday, March 3 – 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at the Miami Regional Operations Center, 1030 NW 111th Avenue, Miami, FL 33172

     

  • AWR-154 Principles of National Incident Management System (NIMS), Team Building, and Risk Communication

 

CONTENT INCLUDES

  • Core concepts of the ICS, NIMS, and risk communication, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and methods of dissemination
  • NIMS as an all-hazards, and comprehensive approach to collaborative incident management.
  • Using ICS to coordinate the efforts of multiple agencies
  • Basic principles of interagency teamwork, communication, and conflict management
  • Understanding of the importance of effective internal and external communications

SUGGESTED ATTENDEES

  • Emergency responders, supervisors and managers, law enforcement officers, fire/rescue, EMS and OES
  • Federal, state & local public health and environmental health agencies
  • Hospital clinicians, administrators, health care providers
  • Environmental health and public information officers
  • Agriculture industries, including cultivation, processing, distribution, storage, transportation, veterinarians and extension advisors
  • Elected or appointed public officials
    • Thursday, March 4 – 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at the Miami-Dade County Extension Office, Agricultural Center, 18710 SW 288th Street, Homestead, FL 33030
    • Tuesday, March 30 – 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at the Palm Beach County, Division of Emergency Management, 20 South Military Trail, West Palm Beach, FL 33415
    • Wednesday, March 31 – 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at the Institute of Public Safety (Building 22, Room 155) Broward College Central Campus, 3501 SW Davie Rd, Davie, FL 33314

Registration: http://wifss.ucdavis.edu/agroterrorism/classes/classesbydate.php 
Information: http://wifss.ucdavis.edu/agroterrorism/classes/course_desc.php 
Contact John Terry (850-410-6756 or terryj1@doacs.state.fl.us ) with questions.

All courses are free of charge with lunch provided, thanks to a DHS grant through WIFSS.  Additional sponsoring partners include IFAS-Extension, the Department of Health and the Regional Domestic Security Task Forces.

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SART Advisory Board Meeting

Please mark your calendar for March 3 for a meeting of the SART Advisory Board. The meeting, which will begin at 10:00 am will be held at the Florida Farm Bureau building at 5700 SW 34th St., Gainesville (352) 378-1321.

“There is a lot to discuss and review,” says Florida ESF-17 Coordinator Joe Kight, “so this will be an important meeting – especially since the December meeting was cancelled.”

Issues and developments include: NASAAEP (the National Alliance of State Animal and Agricultural Emergency Programs – which is developing an independent web site at www.nasaaep.org), progress in developing training standards and universally recognized credentials, the formation of a centralized Florida volunteer response network tentatively called Florida DART, plans for the 2011 SART Conference including need-agenda-location, a report by UF/IFAS Extension about damage to the Florida agricultural sector from the January freeze and discussions about accomplishing the mission in difficult economic times. All this and more on March 3rd at the Florida Farm Bureau building in Gainesville.

Questions and comments please contact Florida ESF-17 Coordinator Joe Kight kightj@doacs.state.fl.us or SART Planner Michael Turner turnerm@doacs.state.fl.us.

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Halstead Appointed Interim Director

Gov. Charlie Crist has appointed David Halstead interim director of the Division of Emergency Management. Halstead started his fire service career as a volunteer firefighter in 1970 in Central Florida, later becoming a paid firefighter for the City of Altamonte Springs and retiring in 1998 as an Assistant Fire Chief. During his service to the city he was a paramedic, instructor for hazardous materials, became a certified emergency manager and coordinated the city’s emergency management program.

David Halstead

In 1992 Halstead was part of a task force from Seminole County that responded to Miami-Dade County in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. After his retirement he went to the Florida DEM serving from 1999-2004:

  • Implementing recommendations after the devastating wildfires of 1998.
  • Coordinating statewide assessment for emergency services after the attacks of 9/11.
  • Serving as Emergency Services Branch Chief during the 2004 hurricane season.
  • Assisted in leading more than 1,000 Florida responders in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In 2004 Halstead was appointed the first Chief of Domestic Preparedness for the FL Dept. of Law Enforcement. In that capacity he coordinated efforts of the state working group for domestic preparedness in developing and refining an all-discipline approach to potential acts of terrorism.

Halstead returned to DEM in April 2006 as Bureau Chief for Response and serves as the State Emergency Response Team (SERT) Chief, responsible for managing day-to-day and activation operations of the State Watch Office and State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, the alternate Emergency Operations Center, Domestic Preparedness Grants, Critical Infrastructure and the State Logistics Response Center in Orlando. In May 2009 he became Interim Deputy Director of DEM. (http://floridadisaster.org)


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BioMass Energy

Despite the news of a single month during 2009 when more people moved out of Florida than moved in, the population of the Sunshine State is growing. The latest US Census estimate is 18.3 million people. Those people need electricity.

The public is not in favor of nuclear fuel – which is almost certainly a good thing for responders and emergency planners – or coal – which is probably a good thing for the environment.

Above: New Texas biomass plant in Nagodoches. Below: Forest waste is gathered for shipment to biomass plant rather than being burned on site.

The fuel option chosen for new 100 MW generating facilities planned for Alachua and Hamilton Counties is biomass, burning bio-waste – detritus from managed forests, urban tree trimming and some treated manure – to make steam to turn turbines to create electricity. The biomass fuel option is good because it is a renewable source and because its pollutants are minimal. The downside of a biomass plant is competition for fuel and increased costs for residents.

Rob Brinkman, chair of the Suwannee-St. Johns Group (14 counties in North Central Florida) of the Sierra Club says biomass releases less than half of the particulates of coal; only 10% of the nitrous oxide (NOx); 1/30th of the sulfur dioxide (SO2); and is effectively carbon neutral.

So how does this energy move relate to SART?

  • First, nuclear is off the table (at present) and that is a good thing for emergency response.
  • Second, biomass plants should reduce the extent and effect of Florida’s wildfire seasons because these plants generate (aside from electricity) a commercial demand for the fuel that sustains wildfires. Biomass gives otherwise non-commercial woody mass (not to mention tons of animal waste!) a value. Yard waste, tree trimmings and forest detritus become a cash crop.

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FLSART Q&A

Posted on line on the front page of the Florida SART Web site www.flsart.org is a brief paper titled “Questions and Answers from our SART Partner Entities & Members” – November 2009. It has a number of quick-reads with tips that may help your community prepare for an emergency situation. Here, for instance, are Q&A about the vital emergency topics of transportation and chain-of-command:

 

5. Question: How should we address the transportation needs to get people with pets to evacuation shelters, especially in those counties lacking mass transit?
Answer: SART though its agencies and NGO’s does not own pet-friendly shelter (PFS) transportation resources. It is able to get animals moved, but not with their owners. State DEM is attempting to negotiate bus contracts which counties will be able to use to assist in PFS evacuations. It is important that each county develop its own transportation resources for animals. As an example, all counties have school buses that could be used or could be designated to transport people with animals. These are county resources and not state resources. ESF-17 at the state level continues to work to address this issue on the state-bus contract.

12. Question: What is the chain-of-command from the local non-profit (humane societies, rescue groups, etc.) to the county, state, federal level?
Answer: All reputable NGOs are in agreement of the need to follow ICS (Incident Command System).
a. At the county/local response level, NGOs should respond in coordination with the county Emergency Management Team.
b. If deployed to a county through an MOU, the NGO will report to the command structure as assigned.
c. If deployed as part of a state response, the NGO would be assigned to an operational component of the SART Incident Management Team.

The chain-of-command for “Animals and Agriculture” starts with the county ESF-17 coordinator and moves through the county chain-of-command to the county emergency management director. If county resources cannot meet the needs and requirements then the county emergency management director will make the request from the State Emergency Management SERT. The State SERT will direct the request to the State ESF-17 if it is animal or agriculturally related issues.

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Not to be Overlooked New Stuff

Speaking of New Stuff added to the Florida SART web site, it you haven’t cruised through the “Headlines” (right side below “Members”), you are missing some “good stuff.” Interesting, informative and spot-on.

Clicking on the link “Presentations from AVMF Tampa Bay Veterinary Disaster Medicine Symposium” for example brings up links to a number of brochures and power-point presentations. The power-point “Florida’s Animal Disaster History” tells the story – primarily in photos – of people, animals and hurricanes. It makes the point that animal issues are people issues.


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Maintaining in Uncertain Times - Alachua County

Alachua County Animal Services Director David Flagler has only been on the job for a year and a half, but during that time he has faced one of the hottest summers on record, one of the coldest winters, 65,000 students moving into and out of the county (UF and SFC), and a sputtering economy that is barely generating enough in tax revenues to meet the needs of his division.

Flagler’s Animal Services division employs 32 people full-time and cares for 7,500 animals annually. That number, he says, was once as much as 12,000 animals, but effective partnering with community organizations and a grant from Maddie’s Fund have been extraordinarily helpful.

A tip for soldiering through the tough time? “Build relationships with community groups,” he says. Flagler has not yet been called on to terminate staff, but positions which are vacant will not be filled. “We’re not protected more than any other department or division of county government. So part of making it in the difficult economy is to spread the burden through the community.” In support of the mission of Animal Services Flagler and the Alachua County team have developed and promoted the web site www.alachuapets.com.

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Word of the Day - Dengue

At least 20 people may have contracted dengue fever in Key West during the fall 2009. Subsequently the Florida DOH and the U.S. CDC found that 99 of the 240 residents (41 percent) who donated blood for a survey tested positive for the dengue virus either through exposure or perhaps through vaccinations. “Much like a lot of other mosquito-borne diseases, some people can have it and not have any symptoms, while others end up very sick,” says Associate Professor of Medical Entomology Roxanne Connelly of UF/IFAS.

Responding to reported confirmed cases of dengue fever, the Keys Mosquito Control District stepped up spraying and control efforts.

The dengue virus is spread by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito (which may also carry yellow fever). Aedes aegypti is active during daylight hours as opposed to Anopheles quadrimaculatus which prefers evenings and spreads the malaria parasite.

Symptoms of dengue include high fever, headache, pain behind the eyes, backache, joint pains and occasionally a rash. Connelly notes that these symptoms are sometimes misdiagnosed as influenza. The pain from dengue, however, can be so excruciating in the joints that the fever is sometimes called “breakbone” or “bonecrusher” fever. Dengue is painful and debilitating, but rarely deadly, though the related syndrome known as dengue shock and dengue hemorrhagic fever are often fatal.

Jonathan Day, a medical entomology professor at the UF/IFAS Vero Beach laboratory, says Florida’s 1934 dengue epidemic left more than 25,000 people ill.

Monroe County officials increased spraying for mosquitoes throughout the area to diminish the possibility of an outbreak of the virus. To learn more about dengue, visit www.cdc.gov/dengue and http://news.ufl.edu/2009/11/23/dengue/.
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Noteworthy

1. The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences invites applications for the Public Service Faculty position of Coordinator for Homeland Security from “individuals with experience, vision, and leadership in agro-security/bio-security.” Email submissions with attachments are preferred. Position requires a master’s degree and closes March 1. The url for the position announcement is www.caes.uga.edu/?tiny=GBRLBG. Please send inquiries or materials to ekanema@uga.edu.

2. Did you know that January 10-14 was National Invasive Species Awareness Week? (No … me either!)
The scorecard on Economic Impact of Invasive Plants in the US says annual estimated losses with the cost of control are $34 billion. Putting that in perspective, UF economists say the Florida citrus crop – 75% of all oranges in the US and 40% of the world’s OJ supply – is worth $9.3 billion.
A recent meeting in Washington, DC (an “all taxa” event – meaning everything was on the table) helped raise awareness of invasive species issues. The meeting focused on climate change, energy and biofuels, and the green economy. Check out www.nisaw.org or contact Al Tasker, APHIS’ National Noxious Weed Program Manager, alan.v.tasker@aphis.usda.gov.

3. Food for the Hungry – Tough economy; hungry people. APHIS’ Wildlife Services program helps feed hungry people by donating meat to food banks. Last year, they donated 161.5 thousand pounds to food banks in 26 states: 88% venison, 5% bear and 4% goose. Smaller amounts included turkey, goat, feral hogs and duck. Donated meat comes from animals that are removed from the population because of wildlife damage problems. For information about Wildlife Services expertise in resolving wildlife conflicts, please visit www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/.

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Most Expensive Disasters in Modern History










Just for fun, which we realize may be a twisted way of thinking about it, how many “Expensive Catastrophes” can you name … and can you estimate their cost? Of course we are talking economic cost, not the human or animal lives and suffering, and no, we didn’t think of these all by ourselves, although in a universe of infinite possibilities we surely could have. Instead, we excerpted a number of them from a story at www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/2527518-cost-of-disasters. They do not include such cataclysmic disasters as World War II, for instance, or the Rwanda Genocide, but are relegated to catastrophes “of the moment.”

This of course raises the question of perspective or the “Widow’s Mite.”
If I am away when the house burns to the ground and I lose my family and everything I possess except my life, is that not the most expensive and worst possible catastrophe in history for me even though it won’t come close to making the list of “World’s Worst?” Which is another way of saying that all disasters and all recovery efforts are local … and personal.

Hint: Think of where you were when you heard the news …. And hoping there will never be another disaster anywhere….

The Editors

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About the SART Sentinel

Editor: Rick Sapp, PhD, Technical Writer, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Division of Animal Industry [rsa5@cox.net]

Associate Editor: Joe Kight, State ESF-17 Coordinator, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Division of Animal Industry [kightj@doacs.state.fl.us]

The SART SENTINEL is an E-mail newsletter prepared monthly by Rick Sapp and the members of the Florida State Agricultural Response Team. Past issues of the Sentinel are archived on the Florida SART Web Site, www.flsart.org.

If you have a story or photo that you would like to have considered for publication in The SART SENTINEL, please contact the Editors.

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Answer: Most Expensive Disasters in Modern History

Disaster Estimated Cost*

April 15, 1912 – Sinking of Titanic (North Atlantic)

$150 million

August 26, 2004 – Tanker Truck vs. Bridge (Germany)

$358 million

September 12, 2008 – MetroLink Crash (Los Angeles)

$500 million

February 23, 2008 – B-2 Stealth Bomber Crash (Guam)

$1.4 billion

March 24, 1989 – Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (Alaska)

$2.5 billion

July 6, 1988 – Piper Alpha Oil Rig (North Sea)

$3.4 billion

January 28, 1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger (Florida)

$5.5 billion

November 13, 2002 – Prestige Oil Spill (Spain)

$12 billion

February 1, 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia (United States)

$13 billion

August 24, 1992 – Hurricane Andrew (Florida)

$38 billion

August 29, 2005 – Hurricane Katrina (New Orleans)

$110 billion

April 26, 1986 – Chernobyl nuclear Leak (Soviet Union)

$200 billion

July 28, 1976 – Tangshan Earthquake (China)
September 11, 2001 – Attack on World Trade Centers (NY)
December 26, 2004 – Indian Ocean Tsunami (South Asia)
October 8, 2005 – Pakistan Earthquake

Still unknown

* Cost are estimated in modern dollars.

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