WIFSS Trains First Responders for Flood Related Disasters
Chris Brunner – March13, 2018
It was another great MGT 448 training session, this time taking place in the sunshine state of Florida. The course, sponsored by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, was full of new ideas from more than 50 training partners attending from all over the state. Partners included representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Animal Control, USDA, APHIS, sheriff’s departments, and Human Health Services.
Many discussions centered on the nation’s largest evacuation in history that took place in Florida in 2017, including first-hand human and animal rescue experiences during hurricanes in Florida and Puerto Rico.
Tracey Stevens WIFSS, holding the SART poster, with Summer Williams (left) and LeiAnna Tucker, (right)
The MGT 448, All Hazards Planning for Animal, Agricultural, and Flood Related Disasters, held in Tallahassee, on February 28, was the first cross-training effort for the Florida SART and FLIRRT teams.
Tracey Stevens, an Instructor and Trainer with WIFSS, presented the course, with the support of Summer Williams from Florida’s Integrated Rapid Response Team (FLIRRT) and LeiAnna Tucker with Florida’s multi-agency coordination group State Agricultural Response Team (SART).
This management level course provides emergency planners, and other essential community members, with the background information needed to participate in the development of supplemental animal, agricultural, and food (AAF) related disaster response plans that could be included within the existing EOP for an operational area (OA).
The course addresses the resources and information available to emergency managers for planning the unique challenges that rural communities face in planning for and responding to AAF related disasters; and AAF related incidents that will require federal agency response, such as foreign/infectious animal disease (FAD/IAD) outbreaks or agroterrorism.
All content was presented at the instructor-led training event, and included multi-media presentations, class discussions, and review of case studies that explored lessons learned from historical and recent animal, agricultural, and food related disasters.
MGT 448 is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium, and WIFSS. DHS gives certificates to those completing the course which can be used as proof of training to become part of a disaster team responding to disasters.
Gayton, GA, is the location of the next MGT 448 class on April 10. Sign up here.
It was a full house at the recent All Hazards Planning for Animal, Agricultural, and Flood Related Disasters training course in Tallahassee. Summer, LeiAnna, and Tracey, on first row, pose with the class.