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Florida Hurricane Preparation and Response with WebEOC: By the Numbers

In late August, approaching Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, forecasts showed Hurricane Dorian as already a strong Category 5 hurricane and projected it to turn towards the U.S. coast. The entire state of Florida, as well as the Georgia coast, sat well in the projected path of potentially the strongest storm to ever make landfall on the mainland U.S.

After ravaging the Bahamas for nearly two days with 185 mph winds and a 23-foot storm surge, Dorian made its turn towards the Florida coast, and emergency managers began ramping up preparations for what could be a disastrous event. To help organize and streamline their preparations and response, nearly all of the state’s emergency management agencies relied on WebEOC.

All but one of the 67 counties in Florida, as well as a number of local municipalities and federal agencies, use WebEOC emergency management platform to plan for and respond to emergencies. As they began activating emergency operations centers across the state, each agency leveraged WebEOC to help make sure none of their activities fell through the cracks.

Using WebEOC, emergency managers tracked all aspects of the preparations, giving them a comprehensive, real-time common operating picture for supporting emergency response. With the platform’s informative, easy, at-a-glance dashboard, EOC staff established a comprehensive common operating picture containing all activities and information including information requests, deployment of equipment and personnel, shelter availability, requests for resources, situation reports, and public messaging.

How did Juvare’s WebEOC help state and local emergency managers so communities could be ready and brace for this massive hurricane? The numbers compiled here are statistics from activities tracked in WebEOC by Florida EOC’s. (note: the figures represent only totals tracked in WebEOC, not the total numbers of activities across the state).

The beginning of the tracking period was August 26 to September 6, when the hurricane threat had passed.

hurricane dorian webeoc incidents across florida

 

  • 4,575 – total number of activity log entries. This is the total number of incidents and activities entered throughout the duration of the hurricane threat.
  • 106 – total significant events. From the total number of log entries, significant events might require more careful or immediate review or attention for additional situational awareness to make meaningful real-time decisions.
  • 2,469 – total missions and resource requests. This number pertains to any time a county or state agency needs a team, a resource, equipment, consumables like food, water, diapers, etc. If the resources needed cannot be obtained locally, a request is made and all those requests are tracked in WebEOC.
  • 700 – total shelters tracked. WebEOC’s real-time dashboards allow emergency management agencies to track and visualize the active status of shelters – how many there are in a given area, their open/closed status, total capacity, how many beds are available, etc.
  • 164 – total deployments. It is important to know at a glance what equipment (i.e., a generator, vehicles, etc.) and personnel have been deployed, as well as when and where it has been deployed.
  • 819 – total information messages. WebEOC helps to keep track of information disseminated to the public or to emergency teams, including situation reports, storm tracking, notifications, press releases, and other information vital to creating a real-time Common Operating Picture (COP).
  • 2,475 – total community calls. This is the number of citizens calling information lines, being routed to specific locations, needing shelter, medications or medical supplies, transportation, evac assistance, needing information.

By tracking every aspect of planning and response during Hurricane Dorian, emergency management agencies using WebEOC were able to focus on the job at hand. Having a system in place to coordinate and share information made sure none of these important actions slipped through the cracks.

For this reason, Juvare’s WebEOC platform and other emergency management solutions continue to be the go-to technology almost every jurisdiction in the state of Florida, and for local, state, and federal government agencies in 49 states to plan for and respond to unexpected incidents and disasters.

Hospitals, healthcare facilities, businesses and corporations, higher education institutions, and other organizations can also benefit from the Juvare solutions these agencies found to be so useful to connect, collaborate, and avoid being isolated or siloed in response to an emergency.

With Juvare, when the unexpected happens, you’re not in it alone. There is a whole Juvare Community™ using the system, in close proximity, with whom you can reach out to share information and resources.

Written by

Akshay Birla

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