Storm Spotter App

During the recent outbreak I used the Storm Spotter App for my iPad. It worked flawlessly constantly updates the Watches and Warnings. With single tap on a list of the Watches and Warning you are immediately taken to the geographic area of the notification. Even when there was as many as nineteen different Tornado Warnings I was able to keep up with the rapidly changing situation with little effort. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storm-spotter/id329385154?mt=8

Essential Elements of Information during a Disaster

Milton Fire Rescue and Law Enforcement Agencies The link is an excellent learning/training tool. It is the radio traffic of the law enforcement and fire departments just before and after the tornado struck. The messages, their timing and the information that can be gleaned from there is an excellent example of the confusion and fragmentary nature of the information that an emergency manager will receive after such an event. How should you prepare to pull together the information? There will be other information sources in addition to the radio traffic you hear how do you sort it and begin to get a picture of your community and what has been done?

A list of Essential Elements of Information would be an ideal tool for your EOC. EEI's specific to each ESF and for the community as a whole would be a good first step. This list should be specific to your community and developed long before a disaster strikes. It should be a check list with a simple grading system to allow for a quick size up. It could be as simple as green, yellow and red. Green would mean the asset or facility was up and running and in service. A yellow would mean that it was damaged but still capable of performing most of it's duties. A red would mean it either destroyed and out of service. Everything should be considered a red until information proving otherwise was obtained. This simple system would go a long way to preparing a community for a sudden disaster. 

Hurricane Irene the Press and Social Media

I watched a discussion on MSNBC last night where three talking head debated the response to Hurricane Irene. Was it too aggressive? Was it really necessary? This was a political discussion show. They were people who made their living talking about politics. Yet they felt perfectly comfortable talking about the response in political terms. None of the participants were response experts. They did not discuss the repeated warnings by the National Weather Service and their own weather people that a catastrophic flood was likely a day or two after the storm. The focused on New York City and the "inconvenience" they and the other New Yorkers felt.

None of this is surprising. What was surprising was the hosts comments at the end. He said that it was up to the media to keep the elected officials informed so they could make the right decisions. It was as if the whole emergency management apparatus and National Weather Service did not exist. He drew a picture of the elected officials hanging on every word from the various TV weathermen and women for the information to make their decisions.

The political aspects of a disaster and the media's over emphasis of it's own importance is about to change if the emergency management community will take advantage of it. That tool is social media in all it forms from Facebook to Twitter. Emergency management now has a way to directly communicate with the public. The local elected officials and emergency managers no longer have to depend entirely on the media to get the word out. Local officials can be on top of and even ahead of the media in informing the public of needed information. Yet these new tools are going to take a paradigm shift in thinking for emergency managers and elected officials.

The ability to communicate directly with the public during disasters is a powerful and sophisticated tool. Who will be responsible for it's use? Who will decide what and when information is posted? Who will manage the technology necessary? Is the PIO the best person or should there be a others involved? Will the PIO need a bigger staff? These are just a few of the questions that will have to be answered if emergency management is to take full advantage of social media phenomenon. There has much discussion in blogs and professional sites but I think it is time we began to answer not if we are going to use it but the nuts and bolts of how. 

Social Media and Disasters

Seventy-two percent of Americans belong to some sort of social network. These numbers must drive emergency management organizations at every level to develop plans and to become involved in social networking sites and services. Craig Fugate the head of FEMA said recently that he was able to determine the severity of the Jopin Tornado because of pictures he received over Twitter of the hospital and the surrounding neighborhood. Yet there are some caveats to that statistic.


In a recent Sachs/Mason-Dixon Poll 45% of those questioned stated that they would use social media for both gathering and sharing critical information during and after a natural disaster. Those 18 to 34 were much more likely to use social networks during a disaster with 63% stating they would use them during a disaster. While these numbers are impressive more than 50% of those responding to the poll stated they would continue to rely on home and cell phones. And less than 50% of those over 60 are members of social networks.

So these numbers point to more involvement for emergency management in social media it also points to a more sophisticated public information and communication plan for a jurisdiction. There must be a mix of the use of social media and of  the local news media to get any word out to the public. By using both social media and the local news outlets the likelihood of the word reaching all of the needed audience is dramatically increased. So any communication plan must address both social networking and news outlets.

The other side of the social networking coin though is the anecdote is used at the beginning of the blog. Properly used the public is a invaluable source of information in the first hours and days of a response. If the systems are in place to track the calls for assistance and to evaluate the photos coming from the public can be a huge help in the initial assessment and response. This type of capability requires planning, organization and a social media presence in the community.

So while you many not be able to depend on social media alone to keep your citizens informed is it a critical part of any communications plan for a disaster. More importantly it is turning into an invaluable resource of information for your response. If the head of FEMA can gain situational awareness from social media then the local emergency management can certainly use it as a part of his or her disaster response plan.

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

Are we planning too much?

The emphasis placed on planning by emergency management today is misplaced. Too much time and effort is put into plans that go unused when a disaster strikes. They go unused not because they are bad plans or the effort put into them was not sufficient. They go unused because they rarely match the realities on the ground after the event and the personnel responsible for implementing that plan cannot improvise to make the plan fit the reality.

The military has a saying "no plan survives first contact with the enemy." I could not agree more and came up with my own saying when I was an emergency manager on the line. No plan survives the first rain bands of a hurricane. Plans are based on a ground truth that changes almost daily in every community. When it come to execute them little is relevant. Try writing a plan for the Joplin tornado where it leveled one third of the community knocked out a fire station, the waste water treatment plant and the drinking water treatment plant. Set those priorities before it happened. It is next to impossible.

The emphasis instead should be on team building and training the Emergency Operations Center staff. If they can be trained to be able to make decisions under the pressure of too little information, not enough resources and not enough time to gather all of the facts then a community can begin to feel as if they are prepared.

Training the men and women who ordinarily do not face such decisions will better prepare a community than any plan. Most of those who man the EOC do not come from emergency response agencies or operational departments like public works. Instead they are used to careful and consensus building non-emergency decision making. They must be prepared to shift to crisis decision making or no matter how good the plan is it will not be effective. They must be prepared to go through the plan and if they must start at G instead of A because everything in between does not make sense then the plan might be useful.

It is the people who will make the difference not the plan. Train the people to make crisis decisions and any plan can be made to work. 

Standing Orders- A Lesson Reinforced by the Joplin Tornado

If a community is to respond to a disaster of this magnitude and ferocity then it must be prepared before the disaster. A simple set of orders for all personnel who work for a community could jump start the response without direction from above.

As a paramedic I worked under a set of Standing Orders, if a patient has certain set of symptoms we followed a specific set of protocols then contacted the physician. We started the treatment we knew they would order before contacting the physician thereby saving time and starting critical treatment for the patient. We need to establish the same type of system in emergency management.

After a sudden event like the Joplin tornado or an earthquake all of the critical response departments within that jurisdiction should have a set of Standing Orders (this is NOT repeat NOT a criticism of the Joplin response I am only using it as an example). The Public Works, Transportation, Law Enforcement and Fire Departments should all know exactly what to do without being told.

1. All units and facilities must report their status to the next higher up in their chain of command. The report should include if they can still perform your assignments and if not what is their status. The first and most important thing a jurisdiction must establish after an event like Joplin is what do we have left to respond. What are our most critical needs. 
2. All personnel and units should begin immediate operations. Public works and transportation should begin clearing major streets, the fire department and law enforcement should immediately check all critical infrastructure such as hospitals, nursing home and other designated sites. Report their findings and immediately begin search and rescue operations should they be needed. 
3. Any units, stations, vehicles, facilities not reporting in to the EOC should be considered out of service until some sort of communication with them has been established and their status can be determined. 
4. All off duty personnel of the jurisdiction should report to their normal places of duty for the additional manpower that will be needed. 

These Standing Orders should reflect the communities profile but clearing streets and search and rescue should be the primary priorities, followed by communications. Simple straight forward Standing Orders will prevent confusion and delays in the response.