Moving forward from a "Lessons Learned" framework - mindset

Lessons Learned are not learned unless actions are taken to correct the problems identified. Also lessons learned does not necessarily mean what was done wrong. That is another misnomer of the phrase. I have seen organizations and people afraid of lessons learned in AAR's because they point out where they made mistakes. It can be a reinforcement for some actions and a source of information for the correction of others. 

It has been my experience that there are plenty of lessons learned produced but the attitude in the industry is not one of learning from them. I hate to keep harping on the military use of lessons learned but there is a correlation between the military profession and our own. I'll always remember when General Schwarzkopf giving a briefing after the first Gulf War about the overall tactics of the war. He mentioned a Civil War battle that he had studied at West Point as the basis for his determining the tactics he would use. That is the example of how lessons learned should be used in our profession. I'll never forget one official after Katrina stating that one of the most difficult and unexpected problem after the storm was the total destruction of so much of the communication infrastructure. That lesson was learned after Hugo and Andrew close to twenty years previous. Until we as a profession begin study disasters and the various problems they produce to create our plans we will continue to repeat our mistakes.

What are the ABC's for emergency management?

Like the ABC's used in EMS for every patient; airway, breathing and circulation. What are the first three most important things an emergency manager must know to begin their response to any disaster? Are there three over arching pieces of information that should guide emergency managers in the initial hours or days of a response.

In my book using the Observe Orient Decide Act (OODA Loop) as my guide I came up with What do you have? What do you need to do? What do you need to do it? Repeat. Repeating the Three Questions would keep everyone in a constant state of evaluation until a clear picture has been established. My objective was try to find out how to begin. What do you do every time no matter how big or small the incident (a tornado or tsunami or earthquake) in the first minutes, hours or days to be able to properly size up and respond to an event. But I still feel as if there is a better more complete set of questions or basic principals out there. 

Part of the answer has to be the ICS/EOC interface. The people with their feet on the ground are your only assets in the beginning. One of the answers it would seem to me is: what assets are still capable of responding and what are they doing. This would include fire, law enforcement, public works, hospitals etc. What is their condition and have the been impacted by the incident and have they begun operations. This would be reported by the IC or if the incident was large enough multiple IC's. It goes back to the old question we used in the field when we walked up on an incident. What you got?

Mobile device use in recovery and early response

Mobile IT is at the center of emergency management of the future. I saw a video tape (that is how long ago it was) about an earthquake in California close to fifteen years ago. It was showing what the future held for the use of technology in a disaster. First it showed an earthquake warning system altering civilians and giving them a few seconds warning, enough to take cover. Japan has this system in place today and was used during the Mega Quake. It gave as much as thirty seconds warning depending on how far you were away from the epicenter. There is a wave that an earthquake produces that travels faster than the physical movement and can be recorded. Tens of thousands of residents received a warning on their cell phones. It was used even to trip some factories to shut off prior to the physical effects were felt.

Next it showed CERT team members using what is now an IPad to report damage and injuries to the EOC. It showed the same type of technology being used by the first responders to report progress or report damage. In Haiti they used a program to map the local of incoming calls of damage and injuries using cell phone location. These maps were used by the Marine Corp and Coast Guard to decide on the best use of their resources. So it is already beginning to happen.

I think the use of drones with live feeds to the EOC to receive an early damage assessment are the next big thing. Think if they could have been launched immediately after the tornado in Joplin.

I am not even touching on the power of social media to warn as well as collection information from the public.

So IT and mobile devices are at the center of emergency management. The biggest question is how to integrate it with current operations.

The Future of Emergency Management

I have seen the future of emergency management and it is in Rio de Janeiro. There is a New York Times article today about an IBM project that lays out the blueprint for every emergency management office in the country. It is called Mission Control Built for Cities (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/business/ibm-takes-smarter-cities-concept-to-rio-de-janeiro.html?pagewanted=1.) Rio is a huge metropolis that covers hundreds of square miles. To run the city more efficiently each day they have brought all of the "data collection sensors, video cameras and GPS devices" of the various departments of the the city into a single Operations Center room. From this Center technicians and representatives of the various city departments monitor and direct the City's resources.

They created four categories of occurrences: events, incidents, emergencies and crises. An event might be a loud party report to law enforcement. People assaulting one another at the party would become an incident.  If the fighting spread to the neighborhood the event would escalated to an emergency and finally if someone was killed during the riot then the incident would be classified as a crisis. Each of these levels would require different responses by the city's resources and the various departments would be coordinated through this Center. The center is able to receive Twitters with pictures from the public of incidents even before they are reported and it able to send out updates from their own Twitter account. Finally since all of the various agencies are in one place the center collates the data from the various departments uses it to begin to model City's activities and then use the City's resources more efficiently.

What does this have to do with emergency management? Everything! Emergency management needs to carve out an everyday role within the community. It must be seen as the coordinator not just during disasters but everyday by other departments as well as the public. The role of city wide coordinator is the ideal role. You are not "in charge" of the other departments you are simply doing what you would do during a disaster. You are helping to maximize the communities resources. Every technological tool in that Operations Center would be needed during a disaster. The more you use the technology the better you will become at using the technology. The more different departments work together the better they will work together during a disaster. The combination of daily use of the technology and the benefits of daily coordination of various departments with Emergency Management in the role of coordinator will create a community wide team that will work together efficiently day to day and during disaster. This is our future and it not only helps emergency management but it helps the entire city to run more efficiently. 

The Reality of a Disaster

As we discuss the various ways to manage disasters I think we sometimes loose sight just how overwhelming and confusing one can be in it's initial stages. In an Emergency Operations Center your communication systems are your only direct line to the reality outside that building. So the radio traffic and other forms of communication are your only tool to begin to understand the scope and severity of what your community faces. To try and put together a coherent picture of that reality just from communications traffic is daunting but when it is the scope and size of the Joplin tornado it is overwhelming.

The link is a recording to the Emergency Services radio traffic as the tornado approaches and afterward. It is a unique learning tool for anyone who job is to man an EOC. It is not is real time but the myriad of different reports and messages gives a window into the confusion and at times the desperation of those men and women out on the streets.

This would be an excellent class for any EOC staff. Just play the recording and then discuss what they heard. The various disciplines would be hearing the radio traffic through their own filters and would have different and unique takes on the traffic. It is worth the 36:14 minutes to listen and get some idea of what a disaster sounds like.

The following are a few of the discussion points you could use for training that are heard on the recording. Some of the incidents mentioned, multiple hazardous materials incidents, multiple mass causality sites, multiple people trapped, own personnel trapped, multiple deaths at multiple sites, Joplin radio system down, hospital being evacuated, multiple mutual aid units responding, multiple requests for mutual aid and much more.

Joplin Emergency Service Radio Traffic 5/22/11