State to activate emergency operations centers for Super Bowl
State officials are ramping up emergency operations for Super Bowl 54 as if they were waiting for a hurricane.
The state will activate its emergency operations centers in Tallahassee, as well as in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, to help support federal Homeland Security officials, said Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
“Because this is an event called an ‘event of significant importance,’ Homeland Security is actually in charge of all that,’’ he said. “We are in a supporting role, not just myself, but other state agencies, so we will have boots on the ground.”
Moskowitz said the Emergency Operations Center “will be ready to support potentially anything” when thousands of people pack into Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens for the contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, but he did not speculate what the potential could include.
Law enforcement has long considered the Super Bowl a potential target for terrorists or other violent extremists, but none of the games has ever been attacked.
Anthony Salisbury, chief of the Homeland Security Investigations office in Miami, told The Associated Press that law enforcement agencies have been preparing for months and officials are ready for everything from people sickened with food poisoning to a detonated bomb.
“It’s all hands on deck,” Salisbury said. “This is a high-profile event. It’s the same with every Super Bowl. Nothing is being taken for granted.”
The state Emergency Operations Center will be activated at Level 2, which usually means a threat is looming but only necessary emergency support personnel are called in to work.
Moskowitz would not say where Gov. Ron DeSantis is going to be spending Super Bowl Sunday. The governor gave statements during the “Emergency Management Day” at the Capitol but refused to answer any reporters’ questions.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 2:19 PM.
