Assignment Task:
Perform research to identify a different disaster that has occurred and summarize the details of the disaster. Explain any challenges that were encountered during the response to your selected disaster that could be seen as a failure.
Generate solutions with rationalizations that could have helped in your selected disaster response to overcome these failures. Need Professional Help?
Case Study:
Orlando Nightclub Shooting-Pulse
In order to respond effectively to the onset of a disaster, many different organizations and persons need to work in unison to effectively manage the needs of the community impacted. This response is possible when communication is clear and proper planning and protocols are put in place. However, even under the best of circumstances there are times when the unexpected happens and although the overall outcome is seen as a success there are aspects of the response that could have caused much more destruction. These are challenges that any governing body or health facility may face when trying to plan for all possible aspects of a disaster. There are a variety of challenges that may arise during a disaster response including miscommunications, unpreparedness and then simply the unexpected nature of the disaster itself.
Orlando Florida faced an unprecedented act of terror in 2016 when a lone gunman opened fire in the early morning hours of a downtown nightclub PULSE. Many different organizations were involved in this response and although the gunman was eventually contained there were some issues cited from those involved in the shooting and ideas of what could have been done differently. One major factor in the communication fails that plagued the response to this shooting was the Orlando Police Department (OPD) and the Orlando Fire Department (OFD). The lack of communication between these departments resulted in the loss of 49 lives and 50 injured (Aboraya, n.d.).
A typical response when community resources such as the Police, Fire and EMTs are involved are to keep EMTs out of the scene until it is deemed safe for these individuals to enter and begin life-saving triage and treatment. Due to miscommunications during planning for an active shooter and during this response at Pulse Nightclub the EMTs remained across the street and were unable to perform any life-saving actions---which one after-action report concluded that approximately 10 lives may have been saved had EMTs gotten to these victims sooner (Aboraya, n.d.).
Preparation and change of policy for responding to an active shooter started years before the Pulse Night Club Shooting in 2013 when a former University of Central Florida student armed with a rifle had a planned rampage that went awry when the rifle jammed and the shooter was killed by his own handgun-this initiated the OFD to begin the process of creating a policy to respond to an active shooter. Unfortunately, lines of communication were crossed within the fire department and at one point in time two plans were being created, tactical vests that contained life-saving equipment were ordered, but no official plan was ever fully implemented or prepared for. Making matters worse, the night of the Pulse shooting the tactical life-saving vests were not even used because the fire fighters were never trained on how to use them
(Aboraya, n.d.).
As word of the shooting spread early that morning, other fire departments from the area showed up to assist in this response but were all responding independently for a large portion of an hour until efforts began to be coordinated by the Orlando Police Department. Unfortunately, the Orlando Fire Department was not a part of this coordinated effort and some feel it was because the Fire Chief was not present-although he was sent a page (as is the method for contact) he did not show up on the scene until after the shooter was killed. A follow-up and change after this miscommunication are to now call the chief on the phone if the page goes unanswered for three minutes (Aboraya, n.d.).
As the response continued, the OPD and the OFD continued to fail to coordinate their responses and never even were on the same radio channels for communication. Whether or not a coordinated effort would have helped save lives and permitted life-saving individuals to enter the nightclub sooner will remain unknown.