Crist, Emergency Planners Go Over Disaster Plans

By Josh Hafenbrack, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Aug. 6–TALLAHASSEE — Five million Floridians infected. A death toll of 100,000. Mass panic.

In a mock scenario, and the state’s emergency managers today envisioned a pandemic flu striking Florida. It was part of their annual disaster-planning session at a newly renovated Emergency Operations Center.

“Obviously were preparing for disaster,” Crist said. “It’s important for us to always do that, to be prepared, be vigilant, be ready.”

The scene: 5 million people — 30 percent of Florida’s population — get infected with an influenza strand in a span of six to eight weeks. The outbreak is worldwide, on a par with the 1918 Spanish flu that killed millions.

Florida’s response: Crist and state leaders would shutter schools and day care centers, quarantine anyone infected and urge others experiencing early symptoms to rest at home rather than risk spreading the avian flu.

National Guard troops would be deployed. Emergency reserves of fuel could be tapped to keep government running.

At 87 workstations at the state command center, emergency planners and private-sector experts would dispatch information through phone lines and the Internet.

“This is scary,” said Craig Fugate, director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management. “The governor was asking, ‘Craig, could this really happen?’ Unfortunately, that’s what science tells us.”

State Surgeon General Ana Viamonte said Florida has stockpiles of anti-viral and anti-bacterial medicines, but not enough for everyone.

In 2007, Crist asked the Legislature to set aside $36.7 million for enough anti-viral medicine to treat 4.8 million people in the case of an outbreak, but he never got the funding.

“There’s not enough resources to go around to everybody, but our greatest resources will be each other,” Viamonte said. “Make sure to take care of ourselves and our families but also our neighbors.”

Also today, two months into hurricane season, Crist urged Floridians to be prepared even though it’s been a quiet storm season so far.

“Make sure you have enough water and provisions for several days, and be ready,” the governor said. “We had a great hurricane season last year, and we certainly hope for that again this year, but we can’t rely upon that.”

—–

To see more of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sun-sentinel.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.