Category Emergency Management

Preparedness Exercise a Best Practice

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager Leave a comment

Over the last few months I’ve been working with a county health department through my role as chair of our local VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster).  This work has revolved around an exercise that is required of them for Points of Distribution, or PODs.  PODs, if you don’t know, are designated locations where a local health department can bring in citizens for inoculations or prophylaxis in the event of an epidemic or other severe health event.  PODs can also be used for distribution of commodities, such as food, water, or tarps, in the event of other disasters.  There exist standards of practice for PODs – from the management system (the incident command system, or ICS), to the stations the POD is organized in.  The exercises are required by way of the state and federal health preparedness grants that the local health departments receive to ensure that the plans are tested and the personnel are practiced.

Early in the planning stages for this exercise, the health department decided they would use this exercise as a way of contributing to the preparedness of the community.  They had the funding available to provide basic preparedness kits for 300 families and would use the POD stations to provide information and kit materials to those who went through it.  What a great idea!

The local health department could have done this on their own, but instead chose to invite several community partners to join them.  These included the local chapter of the American Red Cross, local Salvation Army Corps, the county Department of Emergency Services, the new Regional Volunteer Center, the County Animal Response Team (CART), and others, including the VOAD.  The partnership was hugely beneficial, leveraging the resources and talents of all participants for the exercise.  The local health department was able to obtain the kit materials and handle promotional activities such as a local commercial featuring the county executive, radio ads, local news paper mentions, and posters for print and e-mail distribution.  They also handled the on-line registration for the event.  The assisting agencies provided their expertise and knowledge of various preparedness areas, providing speakers and print materials for the event.  Our area is very culturally diverse and the assisting agencies were able to provide the print materials in a variety of languages, and some agencies provided much needed services of interpretation.

Two days before the event registration reached 300 – the cut off based on the kit materials we had available.  I’m confident that, had we the materials, we could have accepted registrations upward of 400 or even 450.  Clearly this was an indicator of an interested community and the need to do this again!

The event itself went very well, with even the host facility – who has a catering service – providing refreshments and snacks for both staff and attendees.  The schedule was tight… with only about 20 minutes being given per group to go through the POD.  Groups averaged between 15 and 20 people, and a new group was ushered in every 10 minutes (when people pre-registered for the event they chose a time slot).  There were some late comers, early arrivals, and a few walks in – all of which were accommodated with a bit of coordination.  We had parking attendants ensuring a good flow of traffic, sign in staff ensuring that people were getting in, and other staff to help folks all along the way through the POD.

Comments made by people as they went through, along with the brief surveys they took at the end, were all quite positive.  The event had local media exposure, with the county executive and health department director being interviewed, as well as some attendees.  The attendees received information on the importance of preparedness, local hazards and information, how to be alerted in the event of an emergency, information on special family needs, and, of course, the kit itself.

Many health departments conduct POD exercises by cycling volunteers through and handing out candy or breath mints – which is fine if you don’t have much funding – it still accomplishes the goal of the exercise.  Using a POD to conduct flu clinics is common practice and very functional.  This idea, though, was creative and provided an excellent opportunity to give something back to the community.  It increased awareness of members of the community and helped them to be better prepared.  Obviously we hope they will all tell their friends and family about what they learned.  We know that any future events like this would be very successful.  I absolutely encourage others to something like this – it’s a true best practice.

Tim Riecker

The National Preparedness Report: Community Perspective

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager Leave a comment

The National Preparedness Report (NPR) was published by the US Department of Homeland Security at the end of March.  It is a requirement of PPD-8  and is intended to provide an annual report summarizing the nation’s progress on various preparedness measures as they are identified through the core capabilities.  The data for the NPR is derived from state preparedness reports where the states self assess their confidence and progress in each of these core capabilities.  While the results shown in the report are reflective of a national snap-shot, they may or may not be reflective of the state of preparedness in any given community around the nation.  That said, reviewing the NPR provides a good opportunity to consider the state of preparedness in your own community.

As the chairperson of the VOAD in my area, I wanted to share the information contained in the NPR with our member agencies and organizations but wanted to target specific capabilities and data points to show direct relevance to our collective mission.  This was fairly easy to do since the core capabilities largely define many of the objectives we want to achieve or sustain through our partnerships.  Below are some of the core capabilities I chose to share with our membership.  These are relevant in every community across the nation.  How does your community rate?

Community Resilience

The NPR identifies this as a strength that continues to trend upward nationally.  This is a core capability directly related to the formation of VOADs and other similar groups.  It is defined as ‘…engaging with whole community partners… to strengthen community preparedness.’    This type of community engagement is a proven advantage not only in theUS, but across the globe.  The more organizations and people that can be reached result in better preparedness for the community.  Unfortunately, despite the national push we’ve experienced for the formation of entities such as VOAD and Citizen Corps, the vast majority of communities across the nation don’t have them in place.   Does yours?  If not, why not?

Fatality Management

Identified by the NPR as an area that still needs improvement despite progress.  Likely because this capability is very comprehensive – body recovery, victim identification, coordination with state and local authorities for temporary mortuaries, sharing information with mass care services (a task handled by many community organizations) for the purposes of reunifying family members and caregivers with missing persons/remains, and proving counseling services to the bereaved (another heavy task for community organizations).  A mass fatality incident also represents the worst case scenario for communities and is difficult to pull together a comprehensive plan for.  Given this, there exists a huge planning gap for fatality management.  It is a capability that must be planned for and thoroughly exercised.  There are a number of resources found on both the open internet as well as LLS to aid in planning.  Consider reaching out to communities that have been unfortunate enough to deal with a mass fatality incident – they usually assemble a model plan based upon their lessons learned.

Mass Care Services

The NPR states that ‘Public and private partners providing mass care have the resources to support feeding and hydration needs of survivors following a catastrophic event, but distribution of these resources presents challenges.’  All the more reason to strengthen our private partnerships and strive for strong private sector participation with emergency management preparedness efforts and with community groups such as VOAD and Citizen Corps.

Public and Private Sector Resources

Similar to the statements made in the NPR on Mass Care Services, whole community stakeholders have a demonstrated ability to provide for commodities such as meals, water, generators, blankets, cots, medical equipment and medications, as the NPR states.  Most communities certainly have the right private sector resources (big box stores, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.) to accomplish this but it still require the formation and maintenance of strong partnerships between government and non government organizations to determine needs, obtain the resources, and distribute them to the public.  Consider memorandums of understanding with private sector partners and engage them and their employees in your planning efforts.

Economic Recovery

If area farms, business, and industry can’t get back on their feet, the community can’t recover.  The NPR identifies some progress in this area.  Concepts of COOP are catching on and are being reinforced in various industry standards (the ISO just released their updated preparedness standards).   There is a great opportunity for partnership, outreach, and education of the private sector in terms of preparedness activities.  Additionally, while government is often times resistant to provide direct assistance to private entities, the benefits of getting a community grocery store cleaned up or access to a generator so they can re-open has a major impact on the community recovering.  Remember, the private sector has a lot at stake in the event of a disaster… it impacts their business facilities and operations, supply lines, employees, and customers.  Community partnerships will benefit them as well.

Housing

Perhaps the largest shortfall nationally.  It seems that no one has the capabilities to deal with long-term housing issues.  While Federal assistance is sometimes available, we must keep in mind that all disasters begin and end locally… so the care of the community is left to community organizations in the end.

Further information on PPD8 and the NPR can be found at http://www.fema.gov/prepared/ppd8.shtm.

 

Tim Riecker

Learning from Cuba – Building a Culture of Preparedness

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 1 Comment

With the official start of hurricane season next week, there have been a number of articles reflecting on past hurricanes, hurricane preparedness, and similar topics.  One particular article mentioned a report written just a few years ago by Oxfam – an international confederation of organizations centered on human rights with a goal of ending poverty which includes the response to emergencies.  Despite having been in Emergency Management for fifteen years, I’ve never read much on Cuba – only cringed when a hurricane would hit them head-on, thinking that a third-world nation didn’t stand a chance.  It turns out that my assumptions couldn’t be more wrong.

The full report from Oxfam can be found at http://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/cuba-weathering-the-storm/.  It’s titled ‘Weathering the Storm: Lessons in Risk Reduction from Cuba’.  Structurally, their model is reminiscent of our old Civil Defense model where citizens were recruited for the roles of wardens in their neighborhoods.  These wardens reported to a government person who coordinated efforts for the  community.  Cuba uses this model very successfully.  The ‘wardens’ are responsible for spreading information and  conducting local drills in coordination with whole-government efforts.  The  wardens know their neighborhoods.  They know who might need special assistance in the  event of an evacuation.  The results are staggering.  The report cites that in the seven years between 1996 and 2002, six major hurricanes struck Cuba, yet only 16 people died as a result.  Compare this with hurricane Isabel which hit the mid-Atlantic  US in September 2003.  It was directly responsible for 22 deaths.

The report provides information on planning efforts, communication, education and awareness beginning  with small children, and – like it or not – a political commitment in the nation to protect its people from disasters.  In the end, I feel the most significant factor is the culture of preparedness and community which exists amongst the people.  It is perhaps the most valuable lesson to be learned and quite likely the most difficult to transfer.  Not impossible, though.

There are localized efforts all around our nation for community preparedness.  These efforts need to be encouraged, both in concept and financially, by Federal and state governments alike.  It all starts with individuals, as individuals make a community.  Every person out there can make a difference.  There are volunteer opportunities in every community.  Volunteer Match can help you to identify opportunities that fit your interests and skills.  Or perhaps you have a favorite organization, such as the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army or your local fire department.  Chances are that your church has involvement in disaster preparedness and response efforts, such as Lutheran Disaster Response or Catholic Charities.  It all starts with you.  Then your family.  Then it spreads to your friends and your neighbors.  Then to your community.  Make a difference!

The motto of my consulting firm, Emergency Preparedness Solutions, LLC, is ‘Be proactive and be prepared’.  It’s a challenge to everyone to be involved.  At the very least make sure that you and your family are prepared, but please consider donating some of your time to a local organization and help build a culture of preparedness.

-T. Riecker