Beleaguered Bus
The intent of the Beleagured Bus exercise is to develop and deliver a series of realistic public health preparedness exercises that could be played out in any county within a given region. The exercises are designed to test and evaluate each county's response to a mass casualty incident involving an exotic infectious disease or a bio-terrorism event. The exercise series is presented in three phases; an orientation, a tabletop, and a full field exercise.
The exercise schedule begins with a series of orientations for participating counties. The orientation gathers county responders (law enforcement, emergency medical services, emergency management, fire & rescue, hospitals, and county health departments) and provides an overview of the exercise purpose and content.
The second opportunity for the county response community to meet was a tabletop exercise conducted in each of the counties prior to the full scale event. In addition to ID cards, badges, etc., the most important identification at an emergency event is face recognition. The tabletop provides an opportunity for all county responders to strategize about their actions at the scene of a bus with passengers carrying an exotic and serious communicable disease.
The true test for participating counties is a series of full-scale exercises using a chartered bus with screened and trained participants of all ages, genders, and varied backgrounds. The date the exercise takes place is known by each county, but the exact location and time are kept as exercise confidential.
Bioshield
Bioshield is a full-scale exercise designed to test the State’s ability to receive and disseminate pharmaceuticals to citizens during a Weapons of Mass Destruction incident. The Office of Emergency Operations, within the Florida Department of Health, is responsible for assuring that Florida has a plan to accept the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and make it available in a location that most efficiently meets the needs of the local affected community. During the exercise, Florida communities tested their ability to receive SNS materials from the state and distribute them to their citizens via Points of Dispensing (POD).
The first day of the four day exercise tests the policies, processes and procedures used to coordinate information between the State Emergency Operations Center, the Department of Health (DOH) ESF8 Senior Policy Group, and selected players within the communities. Day two of the exercise consists of a full-scale activation and operation of a Receipt, Storage & Shipment/Logistical Staging Area (RSS/LSA) facility using materials provided by the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) Training Package. The third day of the exercise (May 4th) is devoted to Point of Dispensing (POD) exercises within the communities themselves. Using simulators and dispensing SNS materials prepared at the RSS/LSA and delivered via ground or helicopter transportation, communities test their local plans for dispensing to an impacted population. The fourth and final day of the exercise provides an opportunity to recover all the materials distributed to CRI POD’s for return to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Continuity of Operations Planning [COOP]
CDRP offers extensive planning for State of Florida and local governments through Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) training. COOP plans are important because they outline a plan that will allow government entities to perform their minimum essential functions (MEF) during any emergency or hazard scenario. With the appropriate COOP plans in place, essential government functions such as public safety, public works, and health care can be available even when the traditional operations centers have been effected by a disaster. CDRP has assisted ___ counties and ___ State of Florida Departments in developing their COOP plans to ensure that the essential functions of government are available to Florida citizens under all scenarios.
Extreme Exposure
Extreme Exposure simulates a catastrophic mass casualty incident resulting from detonation of radiation dispersal device. The scenario is played out in an area specific to each of Florida's participating counties. The exercise is the culmination of radiation response training provided by the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Radiation Control to county responders in November and December 2006. While this training was helpful in providing the basics of radiation incident response, it was not a prerequisite for the exercise.
The XXX07 table top exercise is based on a radiological dispersion device that detonates within the local community causing dozens of initial casualties. The purpose of the exercise was to provide training to public health workers and emergency response agencies to effectively and efficiently respond to a biohazard release in their regions. The initial explosion is a backdrop to the impacts of widespread radiation as the aftermath. The questions and prompts in the half-day table top exercise lead discussions to center around local impacts of exposure to a radiological weapon of mass destruction (WMD).
Participants were separated into small groups of three to four individuals, working through the scenario on the group’s laptop using the Tabletop Exercise System Technology (TEST). The group facilitator for this exercise was Mr. Rob McDaniel, Center for Disaster Risk Policy, Florida State University. Mr. Mc Daniel interacted with the individuals groups, answering questions and ensuring that no single group fell behind.
The exercise was designed to provide participants with an opportunity to assess current capabilities to perform the critical tasks required to respond to a public health emergency resulting from a bioterrorism attack. Through assessment of those capabilities, participants identified strengths, weaknesses, and future training needs.
Influenza Control Exercise [ICE]
The Florida Department of Health's Influenza Control Exercise (ICE) series administered through the Center for Disaster Risk Policy (CDRP) is designed to provide state, county, city and community participants the opportunity to discuss, examine and improve response to a pandemic influenza.
ICE was developed to help meet certain gaps that were identified through a statewide assessment focused on the preparedness of the state’s health and medical infrastructure in the context of pandemic influenza. The county level assessments assessed each county’s preparedness capacity to operationalize and respond as a community. The Department created an Emerging Event Team (EET) which included representation from all department divisions and county health departments. This team was tasked with validation and prioritization of the identified gaps and to ensure proposed projects would support gap closure within three years.
