Staff Reports
Gov. Rick Scott’s office on Tuesday issued updates on various state agencies’ continuing response to the Orlando shooting. The governor is in Orlando. Here is his office’s press release:
Florida Division of Emergency Management
- The State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Tallahassee remains at a level 1 since the activation at 11 a.m. EST Sunday. The SEOC is coordinating efforts with federal, state and local partners to monitor and respond as needed.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
- All victims have been identified and FDLE has notified all of the victims’ families.
- The FBI is leading the investigation but FDLE will continue to provide assistance with regional assets and coordinate with all involved law enforcement agencies throughout the ongoing investigation.
- FDLE is assisting the FBI investigating links to terrorism, and the Florida Fusion Center continues to share resources, expertise and information to better identify, detect, prevent, apprehend and respond to criminal and terrorist activity utilizing an all crimes/all hazards approach.
- FDLE is also leading the officer-involved shooting investigation. All involved officers have been relieved of duties per normal officer-involved shooting procedure.
- FDLE encourages all Floridians and visitors to report suspicious activity. “If You See Something, Say Something™” by calling 1-855-FLA-SAFE or report online at FDLE.State.FL.US.
Florida Department of Health
- The Florida Department of Health has activated the Florida Emergency Mortuary Operations Response System and continues to offer support to the District 9 Medical Examiner’s Office.
- The department is closely monitoring the supply of blood in the area and is in regular contact with OneBlood and other Orlando area blood banks. Blood banks reported that donation centers are overcrowded with willing donors and the blood center in Orlando is at full capacity. DOH is asking donors to make appointments to donate later in the week. Blood banks outside of the Orlando area are not at capacity. Residents who are interested in donating blood should schedule an appointment later this week via oneblood.org.
- DOH has established contact with the Florida Crisis Consortia and proactively alerted Disaster Behavioral Health Teams to be on standby for future deployments.
Florida Department of Transportation
- The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) remains in constant contact with all local and district partners and stands ready to offer traffic and road closure support.
- FDOT urges all Orlando resident and visitors to monitor local traffic advisories through FL511.com.
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
- The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles continues to stand ready to assist with traffic and road closure support if needed.
- FHP is providing scene security and patrol in the immediate area of the incident. Motorists should plan their routes accordingly and try to avoid the area.
- The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles urges all Floridians to register or update their Emergency Contact Information (ECI). By registering emergency contact information, an individual’s family and loved ones can have peace of mind that law enforcement can reach them in the event of an emergency. Individuals can register or update their ECI here: flhsmv.gov/ECI.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
- The FWC Critical Incident Stress Management Team is available in the Orlando region to provide emotional and psychological support to first responders if needed.
- FWC has additional officers available to provide relief support to Orange County law enforcement agencies if requested.
Florida Department of Education
Florida College System
- Seminole State College has grief counselors available for students and staff at all of its campuses. The college is also encouraging students and staff to use the crisis hotlines as needed; students should call 407-416-9976 and staff should call 800-272-7252.
- Valencia College has grief counselors available for students and staff, as well as reflection spaces, on all campuses. The college has also increased the number of security officers and law enforcement present. Students and staff have access to free counseling via phone by calling 800-878-5470.
- The Department of Education’s Division of Florida Colleges will continue to watch for updates and ensure counselors are available where needed.
K-12 Public School System
- Orange County Public Schools will begin summer school tomorrow, June 15, and crisis teams are in place at all secondary schools to provide grief counseling to students and staff. The district is monitoring elementary schools and will provide assistance as needed.
- District employees have been given information on assistance options for trauma and grief.
- The Department of Education will remain in contact with Orange County Public Schools leadership to ensure its students’ need are met.
Florida Department of Children and Families
- DCF has been working with local providers to offer crisis response such as assisting law enforcement officers in notifying families and friends of the status of their loved ones and offering grief and crisis counseling on site.
Florida Department of Management Services
- DMS continues to monitor both commercial, cellular and public safety land mobile radio to ensure first responders, residents and visitors are able to communicate response and recovery needs.
Florida Department of Economic Opportunity
- The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) is working with businesses in Florida and across the nation that are interested in supporting the victims and families of the Orlando shooting. If your business is interested in providing assistance, please visit the City of Orlando’s volunteer coordination page HERE.
- DEO is also working with businesses that might have been impacted by the shooting. If your business needs assistance, including emergency business loans, please email [email protected] or call 850-410-1403. An example of businesses impacted by the shooting include those in the restricted access area.
- DEO is coordinating with CareerSource Florida to provide dislocated worker funding to the local workforce board to assist affected workers.
- DEO’s mobile unit is prepared to deploy to the area in order to provide access to services available through Florida’s workforce system, including job search assistance, career counseling, training assistance, direct services to the local business community, and help affected employees apply for re-employment assistance benefits.
Volunteer Florida
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Volunteer Florida has worked closely with the Governor’s Office to support the activation of the Florida Disaster Fund, the State of Florida’s official private fund established to assist Florida’s communities as they respond to and recover during times of emergency or disaster. The Florida Disaster Fund will help provide financial support to organizations that serve survivors, their families, and all those in need. To make a contribution, please visit FloridaDisasterFund.org.
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Volunteer Florida is also currently compiling partner resources and determining unmet needs as well as assessing case management capabilities.
2 comments
mary nutter
June 14, 2016 at 4:07 pm
Good job.
Abbie
June 15, 2016 at 2:28 pm
Message to those who believe Orlando was a “hoax” (and to others not sure about what is presently going on): please understand, and please respond with what you believe to be both timely and responsible corrective measures.
What I am witnessing after these events is the immediate arrival of individuals, and groups, more than most realize — and they are arriving with the proposition that impels citizens to be skeptical of more than just a handful of influential events — they are asking us to question the veracity of these events, ad nauseum. Media skeptics, within minutes of these events immediately begin to pinpoint and discuss patterns and reason why citizens should doubt these events. Why, I ask.
It seems that as these horrible scenes unfold BOTH the events — and the skeptical responses that arise from these events — are becoming more frequent, more widespread, more brazen, more informed, more obvious and toxic. If you don’t have the ability to admit this is the case, then stop reading this and continue hating guns, or loving guns, hating Hillary, or loving trump, hating Obama, or hating gays, or loving gays, muslims, latinos, whatever the menu of these events offer. Undoubtedly each new event seems to forcibly make citizens respond with vitriol toward one another’s interpretation of the events.
NOW, with all this obvious chaos that follows these events, i also think it safe and fair to therefore assume that there exists an equally obvious reason as to WHY this is happening.
What I am observing is a 24 hour news cycle (coupled with social media) that has quickly become the means by which, and the conduit(s) thru-which citizenry is being distracted, by design, to fight each other, in-fight, and be divided — and because of this, there unfortunately seems to appear that there is NO likelihood that citizens will involve themselves with due-diligence and do something to unite against the hijacking of a reality that is clearly being shaped by fraud.
…some would refer to where all this is leading as a cluster-f&*%, while others, like me, recognize this division as an expected result of the given circumstances — I also find the situation irrefutably ironic, and it flawlessly demonstrates what a self-fulfilling prophecy looks like.
Stay Calm — and respond in kind. Thank you for your time — most of you can go back to your regularly scheduled yelling match…
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