Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
By TERESA LANE
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The sky was bleak and the tension high Saturday as an oversized military jeep rumbled along the back woods of Fort Pierce, hauling survivors of a cataclysmic hurricane to an Army tent for food.
Just as the jeep reached a clearing, a deafening boom rang out. Canal water shot 200 feet skyward and bodies were tossed like confetti as a dazed military officer shuffled along, dragging his rifle amid the carnage.
Lucky for the “victims,” students of Indian River Community College’s new disaster relief course were waiting nearby, ready to ferry patients to a makeshift clinic.
The mock disaster was the final exam for 15 students enrolled in the college’s first disaster relief and humanitarian operations class, a precursor to a $20 million homeland security complex IRCC plans to build this fall.
From fighting terrorism and biological warfare to providing medical aid during a natural disaster, IRCC President Ed Massey said course graduates are getting a real-life taste of disaster.
“This is the application of all the theories we teach in class,” Massey said. “We’re planning to offer an associate’s degree in the subject that could lead to the first four-year degree” offered at the community college.
State legislators earmarked $1.8 million last year to design the building, which will combine existing police academy, fire science and emergency medical technical courses with a new regional crime lab and four-county medical examiner office adjacent to the college’s main campus on South 35th Street.
New courses in counterterrorism and rendering humanitarian aid will be added, and a former emergency planner at Florida Atlantic University was hired to oversee the new offerings. Dr. Paul Forage said it’s important for local agencies and residents to receive disaster training because they are the first responders in hurricanes or other catastrophes.
This weekend’s exercise simulated a Category 5 hurricane in the make-believe, war-torn Caribbean island of Atlantica. ''I wanted a better understanding of what goes on in a disaster,” said Port St. Lucie student Shondra Neumeister, an engineer who advises officials at utility plants on emergency response planning. “Until you experience it, you don’t know quite what to expect.”