With Hurricane Dorian picking up speed and intensity the State of Florida has requested assistance from the State of California through the National Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) to assist with response efforts. As a result, Governor Newsom has approved the deployment of an Incident Management Team (IMT) and specialists in mass care and resource management from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS).
The 10-person Incident Management Team (IMT) is made up of emergency management specialists from Cal OES, as well as a specialist from CDSS. The IMT will depart on Saturday, August 31, 2019 to Tallahassee, Florida. In addition an advance team of three resource management specialists have already deployed to the Florida State Operations Center to assist in overall coordination of EMAC resources. Cal OES staff will also be in place to support the IMT and response operations with logistics expertise here at the State Operations Center in Mather.
“The potential destruction by Hurricane Dorian, currently a Category 3 hurricane, could be severe and widespread,” said Cal OES Director Mark Ghilarducci. “The teams we’ve assembled are top-notch and very experienced and bring a whole lot of world-class training and we are very happy to assist our counterparts in Florida in their time of need.”
This IMT, which includes emergency services personnel skilled in incident command, disaster operations, planning, logistics, communications and resource coordination will support Emergency Operations Center efforts in impacted counties as designated by the State of Florida and coordinate closely with local emergency management officials. They will also remain connected to the California State Operations Center, keeping the SOC briefed throughout their deployment.
In October 2018, Cal OES deployed a 10-person Incident Management Team to Florida in response to Hurricane Michael, and in September that same year, Cal OES deployed emergency and incident management specialists to assist with emergency response efforts for Hurricane Florence. Their primary duties included the support of Logistics and Points of Distribution (POD) commodity coordination in Columbia, S.C. at the South Carolina State Emergency Operations Center.
Since 1992, Cal OES has deployed numerous California-based Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Task Forces and Swift Water Rescue Teams to a long list of other state, national, and even international disasters including Hurricane Barry, 2017’s Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, 1992 Hurricane Iniki (Hawaii), the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami catastrophe, several hurricanes, last year’s earthquake disaster near Mexico City, and the 2015 Nepal Earthquake. For more information follow this link: Cal OES Special Operations
For more information on the Emergency Management Assistance Compact follow this link.
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