Supporting Florida Incident Management Teams in Emergencies

Florida’s disaster environment demands more than plans on paper. It requires trained people, tested systems, reliable logistics, and strong relationships before the next emergency occurs. That is why the 2026 Florida All-Hazards Incident Management Teams Summit was held March 24–25, 2026, at the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s new Florida Central Operations and Coordination Office, or FL-COCO, in Auburndale, represents an important milestone for Florida disaster preparedness and resilience.

Members of the Southeast Regional All-Hazards Incident Management Team tour the new Florida Central Operations and Coordination Office, (FL-COCO) in Auburndale, FL. Photo by FIMTF.

Understanding the Role of Supporting Florida Incident Management Teams in Emergencies

Presented by the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the inaugural AHIMT Summit brought together members of Florida’s five regional All-Hazards Incident Management Teams and rural county emergency managers for two days of training and education. The stated goal is to strengthen Florida’s disaster response and incident management capabilities through targeted training, exercises, and a dedicated logistics showcase at FL-COCO. The summit is also intended to provide a forum for team members and local emergency managers to share knowledge, build partnerships, and discuss strategies that enhance response and recovery capabilities across the state.

Why the Location Matters

The summit’s location is especially significant. In August 2025, FDEM opened FL-COCO as a major investment in Florida’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. The Auburndale facility is a 421,600-square-foot logistics and coordination hub located in Central Florida. According to FDEM, the facility was already 91% utilized at opening and is intended to support faster staging and deployment of lifesaving supplies such as food, water, flood prevention resources, and generators.

FL-COCO includes major operational improvements over the previous State Logistics Response Center, including:

• 400 trailer spaces

• More than 100 sleeping quarters

• Three hazardous materials closets with air-quality monitoring and leak detection

• Drive-in loading capability so trailers can be loaded and deployed indoors

• A helipad capable of supporting Florida National Guard aircraft
  

For an AHIMT summit, this setting is more than symbolic. It places incident management professionals inside one of the state’s most important disaster logistics environments. That helps connect classroom training with the real-world systems that move resources, support field operations, and sustain response missions during major disasters.

Executive-Level Training and Statewide Alignment

FDEM Executive Director Kevin Guthrie and his team conducted training sessions for AHIMT participants at the summit, reinforcing the importance of statewide alignment between incident management teams, state emergency operations, logistics, and local emergency management partners.

The first day of the summit includes:

• Introduction and welcome message from the Director

• Tour of the warehouse and logistics showcase

• Training plan discussion

• Mutual aid and resource management

• Qualification evaluation and textbook discussion

• Team integration
  

These topics go directly to the heart of what makes incident management work. During a disaster, success depends on more than technical knowledge. It depends on shared expectations, clear roles, consistent qualifications, mutual aid discipline, and the ability to integrate teams quickly into a larger response structure.

Florida Central Operations and Coordination Office, or FL-COCO

Preparing for Complex Scenarios

The second day of the summit emphasizes applied learning. Scheduled morning training sessions include an Incident Commander State Response Team overview, crisis leadership, tabletop exercises, and optional Fire College training. The tabletop track includes scenarios involving out-of-state deployment and a multi-storm impact involving flooding and building or complex incident conditions. The afternoon includes a Rural County Support Panel, followed by a State Qualifications Review Committee meeting for SQRC members.

These are highly relevant topics for Florida. A multi-storm environment is not theoretical for the state. Hurricanes, tropical storms, inland flooding, tornado outbreaks, wildfire conditions, and infrastructure disruptions can overlap in ways that quickly overwhelm local capacity. Incident management teams must be able to operate across jurisdictions, support extended operational periods, and adapt to rapidly changing conditions.

Why Rural County Participation Is Important

The inclusion of rural county emergency managers is especially meaningful. Rural communities often face the same disaster impacts as larger jurisdictions but with fewer staff, fewer specialized resources, and greater dependence on mutual aid. By bringing regional AHIMT members and rural emergency managers together, the summit supports relationship-building before the emergency.

That matters because disaster response is built on trust. When local emergency managers already understand how AHIMTs operate, how mutual aid is requested, and how state support flows through the system, they are better positioned to ask for help early and integrate that help effectively.

Building Florida’s Resilience Before the Next Disaster

The 2026 AHIMT Summit reflects a larger truth about emergency management: resilience is built before disaster strikes. Training sessions, warehouse tours, tabletop exercises, logistics discussions, and qualification reviews may not attract public attention, but they are the quiet work that makes future response operations more effective.

The summit strengthens Florida by helping participants:

• Improve incident management knowledge

• Build regional and state-level relationships

• Understand logistics capabilities at FL-COCO

• Strengthen mutual aid and resource management practices

• Promote consistent qualification standards

• Prepare for complex, multi-jurisdictional incidents

• Support rural county emergency management capacity
  

Conclusion

The 2026 Florida AHIMT Summit at FL-COCO is more than a training event. It is an investment in Florida’s ability to manage complexity when communities are under stress. By bringing together regional incident management teams, rural emergency managers, FDEM leadership, and state training personnel, the summit helps strengthen the systems that support disaster response and recovery across Florida.

When the next major hurricane, wildfire, flood, or complex emergency occurs, Floridians will depend not only on responders in the field, but also on the incident management professionals who help coordinate the mission. The work conducted at this summit helps ensure those professionals are trained, connected, and ready to support Florida communities on their worst days.