For first responders, life-or-death scenarios are part of the job.
And last week, to prepare for hurricanes and other natural calamities, roughly 50 students from FIU’s Academy for International Disaster Preparedness gathered at Biscayne Bay Campus with dozens of law enforcement volunteers. They simulated how they’d work together – just two weeks before hurricane season hits on June 1.
“Creativity and using past experiences help build these simulations,” said Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Deputy Francisco Bruno, who was in his eleventh year doing the annual exercise. “We’re the ones behind the scenes making sure everybody looks good.”
The two-day event included officers and representatives from 25 agencies, including the City of Miami Police Department, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, and the US Army They gathered in an open area just south of campus near Bayview Housing. Simulations included helping out after a major hurricane hits Cuba.
On the first day, last Thursday, the students and emergency workers convened in the morning and again in the evening to discuss protocols.
The second day included “search and rescue in Cuba,” with people simulating injured civilians and other first responders and officers helping them.
There were helicopters, ladder trucks, diving equipment, and armored vehicles like the one Miami Dade Sheriff Sergeant Jonathan Streetzel used to watch the event.
But that’s not all. One unique piece of equipment that is a great use in emergencies, according to Streetzel: a $200,000 robotic dog named Spot, equipped with lights, cameras, and a two-way communication system. It/he accesses emergency situations – such as homes ripped apart by a storm –without putting workers at risk.
“This is very expensive equipment,” Streetzel says. “But if it’s your family member in one of those houses, it’s worth every penny.”
The academy’s assistant director, Dulce Suarez, runs the practice program as a way to get her students trained and ready for real-world emergencies.
“What they’re doing is focusing on what they learned in the classroom, what you should be doing, how to recover, how to assess, how to gather information, how to ask for the right questions, how many victims, who’s dead, who is not,” Suarez explains.
Suarez also strives for authenticity by taking away their devices, electronics, and other variants that may be considered distractions. To her, if a real scenario doesn’t call for technology then they need to learn how to be prepared without it.
She also strives to bring the many emergency workers together, so they know each other and can work together in a more stressful situation.
“Disaster management is all about partnerships,” Suarez says. “And we have amazing partnerships here in the county and outside local, state, federal agencies.”
