Wednesday, January 20, 2010

FLORIDA’S EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM MEMBERS MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN HAITI AND FLORIDA

Florida-based disaster response teams continue to assist in the international response and recovery efforts of last week’s 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. Today is day eight of emergency operations both on the island nation and the Sunshine State.

“I want to congratulate our state – based teams for the incredible work they are doing under extreme conditions in Haiti,” said Interim Director David Halstead. “Their success clearly demonstrates the importance of having highly trained and well-equipped teams, and reminds us why we work so hard to be ready to answer the call where there are lives on the line.”

Response efforts by the state of Florida to date include:

On Friday, Governor Charlie Crist issued an Executive Order (#10-06) in response to the earthquake. The State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) remains operational at a Level 2 or partial activation.

To date, six U.S. urban search and rescue teams, including two South Florida teams with personnel from Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami, have rescued a total of 42 people from collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince.

The State Emergency Response Team has established a Flight Following Cell at the State EOC to track incoming flights from Haiti to Florida. To date, 191 flights with 6,836 passengers have returned to Florida airports.

Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) has provided services to 2731 Americans returning from Haiti to the United States since January 13. On Wednesday DCF serviced 1,611persons.

Volunteer Florida is currently coordinating and assisting 37 community and faith-based organizations that are on the ground or providing services in support of the survivors in Haiti. For a complete list of relief agencies working in Haiti that are taking donations, please visit www.volunteerflorida.org

The Florida Department of Heath reports that 154 persons have been received at Florida hospitals, 138 have been received in South Florida and 16 have been received in Orlando.

No comments:

Post a Comment