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Emergency Management

Emergency Management plays an important role in keeping the UWF campus community safe before, during and after an emergency

Stock a disaster supply kit that lasts your household, including pets, for at least 7+ days

2024 Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holidays
Saturday, Aug 24 through Friday, Sept 6

Hurricane Season
June 1 through Nov 30

This year, House Bill 7073, was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis on May 7. This tax relief package included the 2024 Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday, which provides residents with the opportunity to purchase qualifying disaster preparedness supplies tax-free during two 14-day sales tax holidays. The first tax-free holiday was held in June and the second will begin August 24.

Each year, the Division of Emergency Management encourages residents to take advantage of this tax holiday to prepare for hurricane season.

Eligible items include:

  • Pet leashes, collars and muzzles costing $20 or less;
  • Flashlights, lanterns and pet beds costing $40 or less;
  • Batteries and weather radios costing $50 or less;
  • Coolers costing $60 or less;
  • Smoke Detectors costing $70 or less;
  • Tarps costing $100 or less; and
  • Generators costing $3,000 or less.

A full list of tax-free items is available at FloridaRevenue.com/DisasterPrep.

The Division encourages residents to stock a disaster supply kit that can last the entire household, including pets, for at least seven days. The Division’s complete disaster supply kit checklist is available for download at FloridaDisaster.org/Kit.

Download the 2024 Florida Hurricane Guide

UWF Plans & Prepares

UWF's Emergency Management department is responsible for Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness. Emergency Management's goals align with the FEMA Disaster Preparedness cycle. This mindset towards Emergency Management guarantees a proactive approach to addressing all hazards or disasters.

Emergency managers think of disasters as recurring events with four phases: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. The diagram to the right illustrates the relationship of the four phases of emergency management.

What does the preparedness cycle do for UWF?

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) defines preparedness as “a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective active in an effort to ensure effective coordination during incident response.” The cycle is one element of a broader system to prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate against natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.

Mission

The mission of the University of West Florida’s Emergency Management Department is to administer a comprehensive emergency management program in partnership with UWF administration, operations divisions, support organizations, academic departments, staff, and community partners in order to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to and recover from all hazards and threats.