Vol. 11, No. 2, February 2015 |
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2015 SART Planning Meeting Turns Visions into Action
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On January 12, SART's Biennial Planning Meeting kicked off from the Embassy Suites in Lake Buena Vista. With 148 attendees present, agency representatives, government and private sector leaders, and animal and agricultural response team members joined for a packed two and a half days of information exchange, training, andcollaboration. With SART Vice-Chair David Perry opening the event, Dr. Lisa Conti, Deputy Commissioner and Chief Science Officer of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services welcomed the attendees while emphasizing the planning meeting's tagline. "It's great that this meeting is about 'turning visions in action,'" Conti said.
"The partnership between agencies is critical." That theme would continue over the remaining two days of the assembly, which ended on January 14.
With a carefully flushed-out agenda of speakers, Jim Roberts of the State Emergency Response Team (SERT) was first to speak to audience members about the State's Comprehensive Emergency Response Plan, also known as the CEMP. "The CEMP sets the 'Overall Framework,'" said Roberts. He iterated the importance of the Emergency Support Functions (ESF) in disaster response, highlighting the work that ESF-17 does in support of animal and agricultural disaster response.
Roberts said, "There are three rules we follow with regards to emergency response in the State of Florida:[1] Meet the needs of survivors; [2] Meet needs of the responders; and when all else fails,[3] go back and see item #1."In reference to how SERT and ESF-17 interact with counties throughout the state, Joe Kight, ESF-17 Emergency Coordinating Officer with FDACS said there are many things that SART and FDACS do to facilitate the exchange of information. "For starters," said Kight, "we hold this Biennial SART Planning Meeting every two years." Then we "take time to visit every county within Florida to discuss current issues." Recently the areas of focus have been on pet-friendly sheltering and large animal response efforts.
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"Each ESF functions differently, [and] ESF-17 depends heavily on volunteers―that is our approach," said Kight.
The planning meeting highlighted some new animal-related training courses currently available or coming soon to attendees throughout the state. Dr. Matt Hersom with the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida spoke about the pilot program for LECALE, the Livestock Education & Certification for Agricultural Law Enforcement training. Dr. Hersom said that, "For law enforcement, we have a high value education opportunity" for those looking to increase that agricultural knowledge.
Amongst other factors, objectives of the training include animal identification and nutrition, body condition scoring, and health and disease. Meanwhile, Consie von Gontard of the Florida State Animal Response Coalition (SARC) updated the team on the Small Animal II course and SARC's other animal trainings.
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The 2015 SART Biennial Planning Meeting was a remarkable success. With 148 in attendance, SART members engaged in workshops, presentations, an exercise, and networking opportunities. Want to view more photos? Visit the Florida SART Web Site, www.flsart.org.
Birds Sensed Impending Tornado
 | Did you Know? Animals can predict disasters. This according to new research published in the Journal of Current Biology. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that golden-winged warblers were evacuating an area where only 24 hours later a devastating tornado killed 35 people. Researchers suspect that the birds accomplished this task by listening to infrasound―levels well below the range of human hearing―associated with the severe weather. |
For years, there has been anecdotal evidence that animals could predict natural disasters, but emerging research in the field could, in the future, help people plan in advance of coming problems.
Read more at Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141218131413.htm
Discovery News has a slideshow on the 10 animals that can predict disasters: http://news.discovery.com/animals/10-animals-that-can-predict-disasters-photos-141218.htm