A record turnout of more than 2,500 conferees are attending the 2005 Governor’s Conference at the Tampa Convention Center, where they are learning about hurricane prediction, precautions and disaster management. The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
On Monday and Tuesday, more than 140 workshops and courses focused on specialized training for emergency management and other public safety officials. Sessions included training in first aid, planning, debris management and decision-making. During these events presenters included representatives from first responders to federal officials who shared what went right, what went wrong and how to be better prepared to respond to single or multiple strikes in the future.
The conference is the nation’s foremost opportunity to learn from those with firsthand experiences from multiple hurricanes with varied characteristics and outcomes. Most conference-goers are emergency officials who attend formal classes about emergency management and hurricane preparation.
Tomorrow at 8 a.m., the hurricane-related equipment and materials will be featured when the exhibit center opens, followed later with the inauguration and opening of the general session.
Moderator Frank Koutnik, chief of the Bureau of Recovery and Mitigation will introduce the governor; followed up by Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management; Michael D. Brown, FEMA undersecretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response; and Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Other experts speaking at the event include: Wayne Sallade, Charlotte County director of emergency management, who weathered the brunt of last year’s hurricanes; and Dr. William Gray, the Colorado State University scientist who specializes in hurricane season modeling. Gray recently predicted there will be 13 named storms this summer, seven of which will become hurricanes.
Gray, head of Colorado State University’s Tropical Meteorology Project, says there is a 41 percent probability that a major hurricane will hit the Gulf Coast. Last year Gray predicted a 40 percent chance and last century’s average was 30 percent.
Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Hurricane Training Development
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