On Thursday, 40 Central Florida hospitals and 1,500 students will be part of the region’s largest disaster drill ever — a massive logistical effort that stretches from the Kennedy Space Center and Daytona Speedway to Walt Disney World to the University of Central Florida.
“Usually we only do three counties — Orange, Seminole and Osceola — and once in a while we’d toss in Lake,” said David Freeman, executive director of the Central Florida Disaster Medical Coalition, a nonprofit that helps health-care facilities prepare for mass casualties. “Now we’re doing nine counties, which is a daunting task. It’s probably going to be the last time we’re going to try to do something of this scale.”
The drill is part of a statewide emergency response system established after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In large part, it will test the ability of local hospitals, emergency workers and law enforcement agencies to handle a sudden influx of hundreds of patients. But it also involves emergency management officials, public school districts and representatives from Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties.
The lessons learned during previous drills were critical when it came to the real tragedies of Orlando’s Pulse nightclub attack and South Florida’s Parkland school shooting, officials have said.
The public should not be affected by the exercise, Freeman said. But if you’re at a hospital during the drill, you may see what looks like a lot of activity.
He doesn’t want to be specific about the details.
“We don’t want the hospitals to know in advance. That’s actually part of the exercise,” Freeman said. “But it’s going to be a large series of incidents, not just one, that leads to large numbers of casualties, and they’ll be different types of casualties. Some will be exposed to something — an irritant — and others will have been involved in an explosive-type event.”
The “victims” are local public and private school students who have volunteered — and have parental consent. They’ll start as early as 6 a.m. and be transported to the hospitals by bus after being made up to simulate injuries.
The cost, paid for through grants, is expected to run into the tens of thousands of dollars, Freeman said.
“It has been a worthwhile effort because it has given us a chance to reach out to some of the agencies that have typically not participated in our efforts,” he added. “But it has also taught us an important lesson that smaller is better.”
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