Coastal Conflagration An Island Evacuation Tabletop Exercise

Coastal Conflagration An Island Evacuation Tabletop Exercise
Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group – www.drc-group.com
Saturday Afternoon It is 3:37PM on a hot and dry Saturday during a long Memorial Day weekend. Most of the residences on St George Island are occupied by either their owners or vacationers enjoying the beginning of the summer season with friends or family away from their daily lives. Everyone is enjoying their much need time off relaxing and swimming on the island’s beaches or taking advantage of the amenities of St George Island State Park. Young and old alike are bicycling and hiking the roads and paths throughout the island. Some residents and visitors have taken to the gulf and bay waters for sailing, canoeing and fishing. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Memorial Day Weekend The many restaurants, stores and rental agencies on the island are enjoying an increase in business due to the high number of individuals and families visiting the island during this year’s Memorial Day weekend. The country’s economy is good and business owners are looking forward to a very profitable summer vacation season. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Drought Conditions The Southeastern United States has been suffering through a severe drought for the past nine months. The current weather condition on St George Island is 98 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than normal for early summer, with an extremely low humidity of only 11 percent. A very strong breeze has been blowing from the east all day long, sometimes gusting to as high as 30 miles per hour. Florida’s Division of Forestry’s (DOF) Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KDBI) for Franklin County has been in the 745 to 785 range daily for the past 9 days. These KBDI readings are higher than the 1998 readings during the worst wildfire season in Florida’s recent history. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Franklin Wildfire At the present time Florida’s Division of Forestry and other fire suppression agencies are working numerous wildfires through the state. Since Tuesday a wildfire has been burring in the eastern portion of Franklin County on St James Island. This fire has consumed approximately 2,400 acres and is now approximately 85 percent contained. The wildfire was limited to the uninhabited portions of St James Island so there has not been a need for any evacuation orders to be issued for any of the residents or visitors to the leave area. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Franklin Wildfire The DOF Incident Commander (IC) estimates that the fire should be 100 percent contained by Sunday evening and that plans are in place to begin mop-up operations on Monday along with releasing some of the resources (men and equipment) that were deployed to the St James Island wildfire. The IC has also stated that the entire wildfire response team should complete mop-up operations by Wednesday or Thursday and the remained of the resources will be released from this incident. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Emergency Management The Franklin County Emergency Management’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), located at the Apalachicola Airport, has been at Level 1 since the wildfire was reported on St James Island. While at a Level 1 their hours of operation have been from 7:00AM until 9:00PM. There has not been a need for the EOC to remain operational overnight. However the various EOC liaisons have remained on call in case there is an unexpected flare up of the wildfire during the overnight hours. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Emergency Management Because the wildfire is expected to be fully contained by Sunday evening, county emergency management officials have changed the EOC operations to a Level 2. Level 2 requires a partial staffing of the EOC to monitor conditions and activities. On Saturday the EOC only has one staff person assigned. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Law Enforcement Local law enforcement organizations, such as the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Highway Patrol are at their normal holiday weekend operational levels with deputies and troopers patrolling the neighborhoods and roads in Franklin County. The county’s various Volunteer Fire Departments, who were heavily involved in the first few days of the St James Island wildfire response, have been looking forward to a nice quite Memorial Day weekend with many of their volunteers taking long weekend trips of their own. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Burn Ban Due to the extreme drought conditions, Franklin County’s Board of County Commissioners has issued a Burn Ban restricting all outdoor fires. Information regarding the Burn Ban has not been aggressively circulated throughout the county. Very few of the weekend residents and vacationers on St George Island for the long Memorial Day weekend are even aware of the extreme high threat of wildfires in Florida’s Big Bend Region. Even fewer know about the Burn Ban which includes outdoor charcoal fires. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Luau Cookout A vacationer renting a beachfront home between west 9th and 10th streets is busily making preparations for a luau that a group of her friends and relatives will be attending latter that evening. BBQ ribs are on the menu so she steps outside to ignite the homes charcoal grill. After making sure the fire is burning, she returns inside the rental house to ready the pork ribs that she plans to cook for the evening’s festivities. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Luau Cookout Within minutes of the vacationer going inside a strong gust of wind blows sparks from the charcoal fire into the extremely dry palmetto bushes just behind the grill. Almost instantly the palmetto bushes explode into flames and begin to spread to nearby undergrowth. With a steady wind of 23 miles per hour blowing from the east the wildfire jumps across West Gorrie Drive and begins to spread towards Apalachicola Bay intensifying as it burns. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Island Fire Beach homes begin to go up in flames as St George Island begins to be consumed by a COASTAL CONFLAGRATION! The first 911 call is made to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office reporting the wildfire and asking for help. Within 10 minutes over 100 calls to the Sheriff’s 911 Communications Center have been received notifying emergency response personal that the wildfire on St George Island is moving very fast and that residents and vacationers downwind from the fire may be trapped because the fire has burned across all of the east-west roads on St George Island. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Island Fire The Sheriff’s 911 Communications Center begins to dispatch the county’s emergency responders to St George Island. Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Forward Movement Timeline # 1 Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Forward Movement Copyright - Disaster Resistant Communities Group –

Coastal Conflagration An Island Evacuation Tabletop Exercise

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "Coastal Conflagration An Island Evacuation Tabletop Exercise"— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback

Log in

Auth with social network:

Coastal Conflagration An Island Evacuation Tabletop Exercise

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "Coastal Conflagration An Island Evacuation Tabletop Exercise"— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback