Be Prepared ! - Benefits of a Comprehensive Emergency Plan

by Gunnar J. Kuepper

"There was a sense that the casualty count had to be extraordinary because of the buildings that were down and because of the fires that were beginning. For about an hour there was no sense of authority. There was no help. Nobody was coming to rescue us. I guess that's kind of what we as citizens anticipate, that someone's going to come and help and rescue us"
32-year-old citizen involved in a catastrophic incident in an US-city in 1989

To fulfill the legitimate demands of disaster-victims the community needs to be prepared for the worst. An effective, working plan should be ready to go at a moment's notice. Experience has shown again and again that lives can be saved and damage can be reduced by preparing for the impact of a catastrophic situation before it occurs. Emergency/Disaster Planning will consume a great deal of time and effort. But, in the end, the community will be better able to react and respond to emergency situations in a prepared and organized way.

Disaster planning begins with community awareness. Without the support and funding of your government, senior management, elected officials, other departments (law enforcement, health and hospitals, school districts, utilities, public works & engineering, sanitation & trash disposal, animal & environmental protection) as well as private organizations and companies (Red Cross, Salvation Army, Chambers of Commerce, telecommunications, media & neighborhood groups, churches) the project will neither start nor work.
A planning prerequisite is the commitment and support of public leadership. You will need to convince all in your community about the benefits of building a "disaster resistant community". As much as possible, involve as many organizations as you can recruit in the planning process. Different entities will add distinct views and support with ideas, solutions and resources. Once you have organized this planning committee, the next step is to determine the hazards in your area (natural disasters, technical disasters and human acts) as described in the Hazard Chart.
After determining the hazards, you will need to analyze risks and vulnerabilities. Risk is defined as the combination of the expected frequency (how often) and the consequences of these events (impact on the community). -see Risk Matrix- For example, it may not be very likely that an earthquake with a magnitude of 7 occurs, but it will have a catastrophic impact in a dense populated area. It is extremely important to take account of all the "hidden" hazards and risks. For instance, water was never seen as a high risk in Chicago. However, the potential threat became clear in April 1992. Due to a construction accident, the Chicago River flooded into the basement tunnel system of the downtown area and shut down power and communications. For days more than 20,000 employees in the high-rise buildings were not able to work. The loss to businesses, in terms of revenue and productivity, was tremendous. Terrorist threats and attacks can happen everywhere. The unexpected bombing in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 that killed 169 and injured 475 people is an unfortunate but appropriate example.

There are hidden traps in determining risks and vulnerabilities. Consider every unthinkable event (like the "unsinkable" Titanic in 1912) and its worst case scenario, as something that can happen to your community tomorrow. A 747-Jetliner with 400 passengers aboard could leave its traffic route and crash into your community's chemical plant.

Emergency policies should be evaluated and reviewed by all particpants on a regular basis, as with airport disaster drill in
Orange County (CA).

If you need to find information, an excellent source to determine hazards and risks can be your local universities, local geological and building associations, FEMA, organizations like NFPA, NSC and many other experts. Do not forget to use the Internet for planning research (i.e. http://www.oes.ca.gov).

After you have determined the potential hazards, you need to begin with Comprehensive Emergency Management (CEM). CEM is a concept that contains the four related phases Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery.

Mitigation describes procedures that eliminate or reduce the occurrence or the impacts of an incident. Some of these preventive measures are zoning regulations, building codes, and safety inspections.

Preparedness is a society's task. You need to inform neighborhoods and citizens about disaster potential and prevention; what you expect from them and what level of response they can expect from you. Offer CPR/First Aid courses and consider establishing Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) programs. These CERT are already established in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Orlando. The program's participants, all volunteers, are trained in light search and rescue, first aid, basic fire fighting, and are able to assist victims and local responders until sufficient help has arrived.

An often-overlooked, but extremely beneficial resource is the National Guard and the Military. They have the organized and trained manpower, heavy equipment, helicopters, and -believe it or not- the interest to serve and protect the public in a disaster. Use this tremendous asset if they are based in your neighborhood. Get in contact with the commanding officer; involve them in the planning process.

Make sure that emergency equipment in the region is compatible within all responding entities. Try to find a standard for products (fire fighting & rescue, medical, hazmat) in all parts of public and private sector as well as neighboring jurisdictions. Fire and EMS Departments, as the leading providers, should give recommendations, based on their daily experiences.

To be better prepared in response to a disaster, everybody involved needs training and exercises on a regular basis. Make sure that public and private entities use the same procedures so that they can interact in the real world.

Make every training exercise as real as possible. A theoretical evacuation neither encourages results in planning nor provides a real working experience. Let people find out how to use a hose with real water, how to leave a building without power or lighting.

Implement the Incident Command System (ICS) and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Procedures and exercise them with all key agencies on an ongoing basis. Communication, Coordination and Command are the most critical parts in disaster management. Emergency workers, commanding officers and politicians tend to be in charge all over the world. This seems to be the nature of their job. Prior to an incident, it is crucial to determine who is in charge of what, in what jurisdiction. Every department head, elected official and affected business executive management has to be educated and must know what his or her role will be in an emergency event. In tabletop scenarios exercising ICS and EOC standards, chiefs can learn to let go of their egos and work together, face to face, for organized support. This process will significantly reduce competition, confusion and misunderstanding in the real event.

You must train the deputy chiefs of every department as to the specific roles and responsibilities of their superiors. As a general rule, disaster strikes when the "chief is out of town". Even a fire chief can be hit. The fire chief of San Francisco was a fatal victim during the 1906 earthquake, when a brick wall collapsed in his bedroom.

Invite other agencies and/or experts to your exercises. This way you will receive an independent review of how your plan works and what could be improved.

Advanced table-top scenarios will give realistic impressions of impacts and necessary operations, visually simulating disaster management with a scale model of your jurisdiction.


Response:

The keywords for emergency response are "stay calm". Always remember to assess and deliberate any situation before taking action, to be safe, to use ICS, to communicate and coordinate.

Safety is the most significant issue in response, but it is too often forgotten. Assessment of the scene is the first goal to ensure the safety of victims and first responders. One hundred thirty-five (135) responding rescue & fire personnel suffered nerve gas exposure during the Sarin Attack on the Tokyo Subway in March 20, 1995. These injuries could perhaps have been prevented if the city had been properly prepared.

You need to implement emergency teams that are capable, trained and equipped to fulfill their missions.

Response also includes communication and information. Prepare in advance how to deal with victims, their families, social groups and the mass media in a catastrophic event. These groups are crucial factors in either preventing or aiding a disaster's growth. Include mass media and neighborhood groups in your planning process. Let them know what your strategies are and what you expect them to do in a catastrophe. People want to be informed and will be interested in assisting you in any way they can.

Journalists can become your worst enemy or your best friend, depending on whether you let them know you are allies. Plan and learn to work with them. Mass media is the most efficient tool you can utilize to receive additional information as well as to spread messages to the community.

Be prepared to deal with multiple agencies that will show up and investigate the incident. This can include federal, state and other officials from FEMA, FBI, FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), OSHA etc. All have their own agendas and procedures. At the least, make sure you know their local bureaus in advance. Always include their jurisdictions and expectations in the plan and let them know what your policies are. Be prepared to deal with the visits of high profile politicians.

Recovery is sometimes overlooked in the planning steps. This final phase of CEM nevertheless needs important consideration, because its goal is "getting back to normal".

After the plan is tested and approved you will have to distribute one copy to all entities affected. The plan must be maintained on a current basis and exercised periodically. Make certain you communicate any and all changes (key-personnel, phone-numbers etc.) and distribute to all participants. Give out clear and understandable manuals or excerpts, but not limited, to emergency response teams. These selections of the plan must follow the KISS-principle (Keep It Simple/ Short).

Never forget to prepare plan B. Experience has shown that, despite excellent planning, equipment and vehicles will fail, qualified manpower will not show up in time and other unforeseen circumstances will hinder emergency operations. A second plan is then necessary to bypass challenges.

Some pitfalls in the planning project are: department heads do not attend ICS or EOC exercises; the plan is not tested under real circumstances or maintained on an actual basis; the plan is thick and muddled like the phone book of Los Angeles and the excerpts do not follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple/ Short).

Conclusion:

Always be aware that emergency planning needs teamwork. Avoid single actions when failure is not an option. The goal of emergency planning is to reduce loss of lives, damage to property, and the impact on environment and community. The strategy is to create is a comprehensive planning process and a well-exercised emergency management. Additional prerequisites are commitment, analysis, planning, training, communication and cooperation.

Can we eliminate disasters? Not yet. However, we can reduce the negative impact on our lives by planning and preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.