by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
A team of Federal Emergency Management Agency instructors met with city leaders Thursday to discuss a training plan that will prepare the community for the massive logistic effort involved in carrying out the 2005 Super Bowl.
At the City’s Emergency Operations Center in the Fire Rescue Headquarters on Julia Street, FEMA officials outlined the framework of a four-and-a-half day course that will be taught to various City agencies later this year to help them coordinate their efforts for one of the largest events in city history.
The Integrated Emergency Management Course, taught by FEMA instructors, is designed to cull the best logistical and management ideas from representatives of all of Jacksonville’s independent agencies and help them integrate their efforts into one plan. The course takes into account the endless variables that figure into presenting a large event like the Super Bowl and helps entities like the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the Jacksonville Port Authority, JEA and countless others coordinate their efforts.
Although Jacksonville has some experience in handling large-scale events with Jacksonville Jaguars games, the Super Bowl is an affair far beyond an average Sunday game. FEMA instructors will teach city leaders how to manage and maneuver resources, personnel, ensure fluid traffic flow and maintain a positive security presence. While no one expects pandemonium in Jacksonville when the NFL’s big game comes to town, the big challenge will be to get City agencies on the same page.
“The coordination across agency lines is key,” said Chip Patterson, head of emergency preparedness for the City. “There were a lot of organizations represented here today and we’ll have to get them to coordinate.”
One aspect that will be hard to plan for is the changing landscape of downtown. Over the next three years, the sports district figures to change dramatically with two Better Jacksonville projects — a new arena and ballpark — slated to open where existing facilities now stand. Add to that The Shipyards project and the proposed cruise ships that will augment Jacksonville’s hotel bed quota and there are a lot of nebulous items that can’t be addressed as far as concrete logistics and security plans go.
“I don’t think that will throw us off in training,” said Patterson of the impending changes. “Frankly, the principle is what we’re talking about and the plan that we’re going to be working on is almost independent of that. Now the tactics – where exactly does the traffic security guy need to stand – that’s going to change obviously with the landscape.”
Jacksonville sent 11 representatives to this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans to glean information on how the event is presented. Mike Bouda, a project manager for the JEDC, went to the game this year and stressed that transportation is one of the key areas that must be addressed.
“Certainly, the things that we’ve learned from the last couple of Super Bowls is that transportation and traffic play a very key role,” said Bouda. “You can’t have enough transportation and you can’t plan it out soon enough, even in New Orleans. When you get into Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it’s a maze. There’s gridlock and you have all these people who looking for transportation. We’re going to have to do a better job. But I think by going to these other Super Bowls, we’ve learned what some of the things are that we need to do better and I think we’ll do better.”
While the FEMA course was originally slated for May, scheduling problems have likely postponed it to fall.
Jacksonville is the ninth Florida city to participate in the program, which was started in 1982. The IEMC has virtually become a municipal prerequisite for hosting a large event since the course’s inception. Los Angeles leaders took the course for the 1984 Olympics and Atlanta followed suit in 1996 for their summer games. So did New Orleans for this year’s Super Bowl and Salt Lake City for the ongoing Winter Olympics.