Hurricane Marsha ravaged Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay Campus last week.
But it wasn’t a real storm.
The university’s Academy for International Disaster Preparedness held a simulation of the aftermath of a Category five hurricane as a part of their 11-week graduate course.
Fifty students of all ages and professional backgrounds spent four days and three nights in the blazing heat learning how to lead a response team.
Each day took participants through the different stages of a disaster operation from setting up camp to riding in boats and helicopeters learning how to survey damaged areas.
The students experienced the realities of deployment by sleeping on cots in a tent and eating ready-to-eat military foods.
Participant Rebecca George said it tested her survival skills.
“It's not every day you get to sleep with a bunch of different people,” she said. “I was lucky and got a shower yesterday, but today will not be so nice.”
She said she learned a lot of transferable skills such as team work and time management that could be used in a disaster management career.
Dulce Suarez, the academy's assistant director, said students are getting the experience of living outside and how it would feel if they were actually aiding hurricane relief efforts.
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“You can learn in a classroom how to assess damage, but it is different to do it yourself within a group, without Wi-Fi, without a help, without the assistance of Google, Chat GPT or any technology,” she said.
Different local, state and national agencies participated including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Florida Department of Health and the Miami-Dade Police Department.
The nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission was on hand to show students how to pack and distribute necessity kits for families who would be affected.
Patrick Lynn, the chief development officer, said they packed the kits, put them on pallets and simulated them being distributed.
The exercise was also beneficial for the organization.
“We also get to identify strengths and weak points,” he said. “We're doing it with a real life exercise so when the next disaster comes, we'll be that much more prepared to respond.”
After the exercise, the kits were donated to FIU’s student pantry.
Through this program and exercise, the students were able to gain hands-on experience in the field.
