Florida is prone to hurricanes and was hit by major hurricanes (category 3-5) twenty-six times in the last century, with 4 occurring in Miami-Dade county making it the most affected county on the US coastline. Jackson Memorial Long-Term Care Center is located in Dade county, making safe evacuation plans necessary.
In this disaster plan, Michelle Bandel and Yining Liu devise a response strategy focused on effective communications and actionable policies and procedures to support an emergency evacuation in case of a major hurricane. The students have identified the Florida County Office of Emergency Services as the lead agency for response and attribute the responsibility of communication to this agency. The internal communication plan describes the use of the phone as a primary contact method to relay information to the employees of the center. Other methods of communication that can be used by personnel are also described in the internal plan such as the pager and handheld radio units as secondary and tertiary methods. The external communications plan focuses on disseminating educational materials and improving awareness and risk perception by utilizing a multi-media approach. During an event, the external communication plan also includes public emergency warning messages through the Emergency Alert System.
The students report that the magnitude of the hurricane will dictate the extent of resources needed to respond, smaller hurricanes can be managed locally, however, if mass evacuation is needed for a larger hurricane, then assistance will be required. As the first step of the response, the hurricane needs to be identified and assessed for potential threats, then the information will be released to residents of the center, employees, and authorities, and preparation to activate the various response and operations plans should occur at this phase.
To prepare for response to the hurricane, several steps need to be implemented, including communication, escalation of the plan (hurricane watch, hurricane warning, or state of emergency), and requesting federal aid if necessary. If the hurricane impacts the gulf, the response plan is activated which includes 4-phases and a recovery phase.
Read their disaster plan here