Vol. 8, No. 10, October 2012

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 Contents


Registration Open for 2013 Planning Meeting

The 2013 Florida SART Planning Meeting is scheduled for Monday-Wednesday, January 28-30. There is no event fee for the planning meeting.

Registration is available through the Florida SART website at www.flsart.org/jsp/meetingregistration/. For organizations and/or individuals who must wait, on-site registration will begin at noon on Monday the 28th. A general session will end with closing remarks at noon Wednesday the 30th.

The site of the conference is The Shores, 2637 South Atlantic Ave., Daytona Beach Shores, FL 32118 Telephone (386) 767-7350 Fax (386) 760-3651 Toll Free (866) 396-2217 http://www.shoresresort.com/. The room rate for conference attendees is $99/per night. You must register and book your room before December 28 to be eligible for the group rate. Conference attendees are invited to a light fare reception on Monday evening.

For additional information contact Florida ESF-17 ECO Joe Kight, FDACS/DAI, 407 South Calhoun St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0800 [Telephone: (850) 410-0920 E-mail: joe.kight@freshfromflorida.com].


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Team Practices Swift Water Rescue Skills

By John Haven

 

(Above) UF Department of Veterinary Medicine student Joelle Glenn performs a "live bait" rescue of Adam Smith who is simulating a panicked victim.

(Above) The Columbia County Fire & Rescue team uses a boat on a high line to rescue the ASPCA's Adam Leath.

(Above) Evaluating a horizontal Stokes Basket with cages.

(Above) The ASPCA's Adam Leath performs a "live bait" rescue with a train of four victims.

With the summer flooding of Florida's rivers in their rearview mirror, twenty-four members of the UF VETS Animal Technical Rescue Team, Columbia County Fire Rescue, Columbia County Sheriff's Office Dive Team, the ASPCA Southeast Disaster Response and Forensics Team, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spent Saturday, September 29 on the Ichetucknee River practicing water rescue techniques for both people and pets. They were joined by UF DVM student Joelle Glenn, and VET Corps Reserve DVM Dr Sarah Kirk.

Three of the UF VETS team completed National Fire Protection Association swift-water technician rescue a year ago, and they had many skills to share on how to rescue team members who may end up in the water unintentionally and civilians in need of rescue. They also experimented with some techniques to rescue pets (no animals were actually used) and move them across the water.

Simple skills such as defensive and offensive swimmer position, ferry angles, and how to use a rescue line were practiced. From there, "live bait" takedown rescues, and "V-Lowers" were practiced. One of the most likely opportunities to rescue a person and their pets is the use of a multi-point boat operation, and a "Boat on a Highline." The "Boat on a Highline" worked well for repetitive crossing of the river, with great control and stability, and was even used to "rescue" someone from the water. While still needing some refinement, the use of a highline and Stokes basket with cages inside was also practiced. The teams expect get together again in the spring to continue their training.

For more information or ideas on training with the UF VETS Team in your area, contact UF VETS Team Director, John Haven (havenj@ufl.edu).


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Florida SARC
Small Animal Emergency Sheltering Awareness Courses

November 11 – Sunday – 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
American Red Cross Training Room, 1115 Easterwood Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32311


Photos from the SARC course given in Gainesville, Florida at the Alachua County EOC.

The Florida State Animal Response Coalition is teaching "Small Animal Emergency Sheltering: Awareness Level" to promote effective response for animals during disasters. Registration is required, but there is no fee to attend. Breakfast, snacks and lunch will be provided through a sponsorship by IAMs Pet Foods.

For more information or to register online go to http://www.flsarc.org/Training.html or contact Consie Von Gontard training@flsarc.org (352) 658-1224.


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Florida SART Advisory Board Meeting Report
So Many Topics – So Little Time!

The SART Advisory Board met at the Alachua Regional Service Center in Alachua, 14101 Hwy. 441 north of Gainesville on October 10. More than 20 individuals were present, representing a dozen different agencies and groups. SART Co-Chair Joan Dusky, UF/IFAS, opened the meeting at 10:00 a.m. Before it closed at 1:30 p.m., attendees found that the issues under discussion in and peripheral to the agricultural community were almost too many to list.

Top left: Consie von Gontard – Florida SARC, Mary Jo Maruca – RedRover (UAN), Ken Vetzel – RedRover (UAN) and David John – UF CVM. Top right: David John – UF CVM and David Perry - FDACS. Bottom left: SART Planner Stephen Barineau - FDACS. Bottom right: Haven Cook – Big Bend DART.

Dale Dubberly, FDACS-Agricultural Environmental Services, reviewed mosquito control issues and actions following June's Tropical Storm Debby, which slowly crossed North Florida dropping huge amounts of rain. Debby dropped as much as 25 inches of rain, which resulted in severe flooding and the hatch of hordes of mosquitoes.

Joe Kight, ESF-17 ECO, introduced new SART Planner Stephen Barineau. Stephen has a background in corrections, having received his bachelor's degree from FSU in the spring, 2004. After several years as a correctional officer, he worked in case load management. Stephen is married with one child.

Kendra Stauffer, DVM, USDA APHIS-VS, discussed the issues involving farm animal decontamination following a nuclear event and cited the Japanese experience.

Kim Duffiney, USDA APHIS-AC, Kendra Stauffer and Joe Kight reviewed progress at the recent NASAAEP (National Alliance of State Animal and Agricultural Emergency Programs) summit. All seemed to agree that NASAAEP concentration is evolving from a focus on pet and companion animal disaster management to also address emergency response for large, exotic and wild animals.

________
It was the first conference where we began to see the focus shift
from a total emphasis on pets to also include animals in agriculture."
Joe Kight
________


    Tim Manning

Florida FSA Director Tim Manning discussed changes in FSA to make its response faster in emergency situations. A special emphasis was the problem of sinkholes opening in Florida following Tropical Storm Debby. "There is no current program that fits it," Tim said, "but the problem is severe in many areas, especially in the Suwannee River zone."



  • Joe Kight and UF's David John, College of Veterinary Medicine, discussed DHS 2013 funding and the continuing county visits. He mentioned that the Large Animal Technical Rescue Course developed through a cooperative effort of SART and UF's IFAS and College of Veterinary Medicine has received DHS approval for certification and training nationally.
  • Consie von Gontard, representing Florida SARC, mentioned that more than 700 people had received training through the small animal emergency sheltering course.
  • David Perry discussed the effective local response to flooding in Palm Beach County which displaced dozens of horses.
  • A new brochure from the Florida Division of Emergency Management with cooperation with FDACS and state power companies highlights the potential exposure of agriculture in nuclear events. It explains the actions that may be necessary to protect ones self, family, crops and farm animals. For more information go to http://www.floridadisaster.org/EMTOOLS/Nuclear/rep.htm. For information on harvesting, storing and decontaminating crops and land contact your local agricultural extension agent at http://solutionsforyourlife.ufl.edu/map/index.html.

Image: Southwest Florida Water Management District


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NASAAEP Summit 2012
Declared "Best Ever" by Members

By Dr. Kendra Stauffer, DVM

In 2006, the first NASAAEP Summit – National Alliance of State Animal and Agricultural Emergency Programs – was held. More than one hundred participants got together to speak with a common voice about a shared vision for animal and agriculture emergency management in the U.S.

The 2012 NASAAEP Summit held September 11-13 at the National Conference Center in Leesburg, Virginia continued the progress in developing effective all hazard preparedness, response, and recovery. This year the focus was using the "Whole Community" approach. Present were 200 attendees representing states, local governments, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and federal agencies, as well as regional alliances, non-governmental organizations, industry and the academic community.

This year the NASAAEP Summit expanded its workshops to include general animal emergency management, large animal planning, and response to its historical focus on companion animals. Present this year were representatives from APHIS Wildlife Services, Animal Care, and Veterinary Services. http://www.nasaaep.org/

 

Florida ESF-17 ECO Joe Kight (right) talks "Whole Community" concepts with Courtney McBride.

Presidential Policy Directive 8 [National Preparedness (PPD-8)] was signed and released by President Barack Obama on March 30, 2011 and was a big topic at the Summit. PPD-8 and its component policies intend to guide how the nation, from the federal level to private citizens, can "prevent, protect against, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from those threats that pose the greatest risk to the security of the Nation." These threats include terrorist acts, natural disasters, and other man-made incidents.

PPD-8 evolved from, and supersedes, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8, released under President George W. Bush. PPD-8 is intended to meet many requirements of Subtitle C of the Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-295, 6 U.S.C. §741- 764). There were many discussions of how this Directive would affect us in agriculture and how it affects the Pets Act of 2008 to change its focus to ALL animals, not just companion animals. Time will tell as this Directive gets implemented later this year and into the next.

 

The group representing USDA's Animal Care at the NASAAEP Conference
included Florida's Kim Duffiney (3rd from right).

Two Florida SART members were part of discussion panels and gave talks at the Summit. Joe Kight (ESF-17 Emergency Coordinating Officer) was a panel participant discussing evacuation and transport challenges, catastrophic and disaster pre-event assessment, and SART/SARC models.

Dr. Kendra Stauffer (Area Emergency Coordinator with APHIS VS) was a panel participant on situational assessment and reporting. She also talked about Florida's MIM (Mobile Information Management) system project earlier this year, that utilized existing equipment to identify, track, and generate reports on animals in an emergency animal shelter. Phase I utilized MIM in companion animals and Phase II, which will start this fall, will look at using this system in equine emergency care.

Five new Board of Director members were voted in during the Summit, four representing state Departments of Agriculture and one representing VMAT. Dr. David Chico (New York Department of Agriculture) was voted NASAAEP president. The Best Practices documents generated from the work groups are now on line at www.NASAAEP.org.


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How Much of a Disaster
Is the Expired Farm Bill, Really?

While Congress is seemingly held hostage by the campaign season, agricultural organizations around the country are voicing concern over the one thing that withstood this year's drought only to be left sitting on the table—the farm bill.

Congress [recently] adjourned so members could go home and campaign. Just after they left, on September 30, the 2008 farm bill expired. This wasn't exactly an oversight. By the end of July—before the August recess, that is—the full Senate and the House Agriculture Committee had both passed farm bills. But before the House committee's full farm bill was ever scheduled for a floor vote, the House Republican leadership put forward an alternative one-year extension of the 2008 farm bill. The extension never made it to a vote either, but its disaster provisions certainly got some folks all hot and bothered…

For the complete story and a follow-up story "Hazards of the Farm Bill: What's on the Line" go to http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/dr/currentdr.html.

Under the Radar



Hazards Real, Hazards Imagined
           Which of the following issues is NOT considered a true "Florida Hazard" by the Florida Division of Emergency Management? For the answer and to follow links to information for each of the "real hazards," please visit http://www.floridadisaster.org/index.asp:

Wildfire Flood Cold
Jail Breaks Neighbor Space Weather
Tornado Heat Wave Nuclear
Lightning Drought Hazmat
Thunderstorm Terrorism Animal
Hurricane Earthquake Asylums

This NASA image illustrates solar particles interacting with the Earth's protective magnetic field. Image courtesy NASA.gov

            Two questions: What is "space weather" and why isn't "epidemic" listed?
            Space weather is a relatively new field of science dedicated to the understanding of interactions between the sun and Earth, and to the forecasting of solar flares, magnetic storms and other space-related phenomena. Solar flares zap a science satellite. A coronal mass ejection sparks a stunning display of aurora borealis. Blazing meteors streak through Earth's atmosphere. All these are examples of space weather.
            And a disease epidemic? A new strain of influenza such as that of a century ago could cause havoc in all areas of the economy, defense … our personal lives. Stay tuned!





Mexican Bird Flu Outbreak Was Expensive

           Latest analysis from the Mexican Poultry Association indicates that damage to the poultry industry from the recent bird flu outbreak was more than $860 million. Cost to the industry came from decreased egg production (and the requirement to import millions of eggs from neighboring countries including the U.S.), a fall in income and loss of an estimated 7,688 jobs.
           The avian flu outbreak started in June at poultry farms in the Los Altos region of the western state of Jalisco. After three weeks when no new avian flu cases were reported, restocking began with "flocks of between 4.5-5 million birds each month." Bird populations are expected to be back to the pre-emergency level by November.
           Approximately 22.3 million birds were slaughtered between June 19 and August 31 to contain the outbreak and140 million other birds (poultry) were immunized.
           The AH7N3 avian influenza virus does not pose a danger to people consuming [poultry] meat or eggs. Mexico, according to National Poultry Producers Association figures, produces nearly 2.5 million tons of eggs and 1.2 million tons of meat annually.
Reported by Dr. Kendra Stauffer, DVM

Offbeat Quote
As quoted in the very first issue of the Florida SART Sentinel, June 2005: "...strawberry Pop-Tarts increase in sales, like seven times their normal sales rate, ahead of a hurricane. And the pre-hurricane top-selling item was beer."
-- Linda H. Dillman,
Wal-Mart Chief Information Officer



Amid Emergencies … a Note of Levity
Bird Flu Hits Florida Hard

Julian Humphries photo


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About the SART Sentinel

The SART Sentinel is an e-mail newsletter prepared monthly by 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.

Editor: Rick Sapp, PhD, Technical Writer, under contract with the 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 Joe.Kight@freshfromflorida.com

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