To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. FROM FLORIDA TO FEMA ments were made to homeland security as Fugate and others fortified ports, agricultural shipments and airline traffic while establishing a centralized command structure to coordinate response. underbelly of the state. Wayne Sallade, Charlotte County emergency manager, remembered walking outside the morning after Hurricane Charley took a quick right and slammed into Port Charlotte, about 70 miles south of Tampa Bay, as a Category 4-strength storm in August 2004. Charley became the template upon which other hurricane responses would be judged. “We were ground zero and we were the Petri dish,” Sallade recalled. In the immediate aftermath, among the victims and local responders was an unexpected but not unwelcome face. Fugate was already there. Fugate would say later that valuable lessons were learned from Charley. Despite a deluge of aid pouring into the region, for example, local distribution of relief supplies was not as efficient as it could have been. As hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne rolled through, other flaws became apparent. Businesses, for example, were not in the response loop. As responders looked for distribution points, more than a few were set up in shopping mall parking lots, a stone’s throw from a nearbyWal-Mart, Kmart or major supermarket chain. Why not bring them and their vast distribution infrastructure and expertise into the response mix and let them do what they do best: take care of their employees and their customers? wondered Fugate. He gave major retailers a seat at the state’s hurricane response table. Over the course of two years, local responders, with Fugate’s support and state assistance, reduced response times and learned from their mistakes. They may have done too good a job. When ice and water weren’t immediately available after Hurricane Wilma hit Southeast Florida in October 2005, Fugate and Bush took heat Fugate goes to the show: The 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons If anything could have prepared Fugate to run an agency facing multiple threats, the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons were just the ticket. Over the course of those two hurricane seasons, Florida was struck by seven hurricanes and three tropical storms. Fugate and then-Gov. Jeb Bush (R) would become nightly reminders to millions of television viewers who watched as Florida prepared and recovered from storms that hit in rapid succession at various points along more than 1,800 miles of coastline and up the The waffle house test In introducing Fugate at his April 22 Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) recalled that Fugate taught him that one way to measure the impact of a hurricane is what Fugate called “the waffle house test.” “If after a hurricane there is power and water, then the waffle houses will be open,” said Nelson. “If they’re closed, it’s a bad situation and there’s no power or water. If they’re open but it only have a limited menu, it means that at some point the power was out and everything in the freezer spoiled.” —David Silverberg CIRCULA TION SUSCI FLUID RE TAT I O N PA C I N G You want to improve survival rates. ZOLL® wants to help. We know code events in military-unique environments are complex. We also believe that products and solutions that encompass multiple facets of resuscitation, and work as a system, can help you improve survival rates. You can feel confident that every ZOLL product provides superior performance independently, and as part of our vision of a fully integrated resuscitation system. And with our Guidelines Guarantee, you can be sure that our products will take you into the future. We invite you to join us, to the benefit of patients, in advancing resuscitation today, both in our homeland and to the forward edge. For more information contact your ZOLL Sales Representative, call 1-800-804-4356, or visit ww.zoll.com/homelandsecurity. E Series® AutoPulse® ZOLL® Infuser R Series® V E N T I L AT I O N D E F I B R I L L AT I O N D O C U M E N TAT I O N I N F O R M AT I O N M ANAGEMENT AED Pro® AED Plus® CodeNet® M Series® CCT ©2008 ZOLL Medical Corporation, Chelmsford, MA, USA. “Advancing Resuscitation. Today.” , AED Plus, AED Pro, AutoPulse, CodeNet, E Series, M Series, R Series and ZOLL are registered trademarks of ZOLL Medical Corporation. 30 June 2009 | Homeland Security Today Magazine This month’s issue is now available online at…