Emergency Preparedness - Next Practices

IAEM Conference - Kansas City - November 19, 2008

IAEM Conference

My first IAEM Conference - The International Association of Emergency Managers brought more than 1500 people from Around the world to Kansas City this past week to meet, greet and learn what's hot and what's not.  I had a chance to "interview" on the record more than a dozen industry leaders on emerging trends, "next practices" and plans for the future for "The Preparedness Report" (www.getprepared.org)

Some of the really important issues to consider centered around new technologies, new disciplines and new methods or refinements of existing methods to deal with disasters, communications, response, recovery and most important, mitigation.

What was really interesting is the agreement on "next practices" that need to become part of the discipline.

An example is the development and use of social media and web based technology.  I will, over the next few days,  share some of these ideas.

People I Met:     

Monday Morning, while getting a cup of coffee I noticed a tall distinguished looking gentleman waiting in line for his coffee.  I immediately recognized Lt. General Russel Honore, Retired from the U.S. Army and of New Orleans, and Katrina fame.  He was the officer put in charge of operations in New Orleans, (finally someone was in charge) to get things moving after the storm and after it became evident that no one was in charge.

He is famous for the first camera shots on CNN and others, as he arrived in New Orleans, got off his vehicle, looked around and saw some soldiers with machine guns and M-16's deployed and at the ready.  As soon as his feet hit the ground he announced in his very loud and official way to the troops: "Put down those damn guns." He is truly a soldiers soldier and absolutely a guy that get things done. Now retired he is traveling around the county speaking to groups and promoting his "culture of preparedness" message.

General Honore needed to chomp on his cigar so we went outside and in the cold morning in Kansas spent about 20 minutes talking privately, while I recorded our conversation about his thoughts for getting the country more prepared for disasters.  He was to be the luncheon keynote speaker and was planning to tell 1500 emergency managers to get prepared themselves and help and convince others that preparedness is a partnership with government, education and the private sector.

General Honore said that "as good as you are you will never be good enough - until you get the people (emergency managers) to focus on their own [families} first."

He talked about evacuation and suggests that even in mandatory evacuations there are exceptions to the rule - people need to stay and man the gas stations, the food stores and other essential services so that when people return they have food and gas and other needed services and supplies.  He says that businesses solve problems and need to become more involved in the preparedness process. He believes that every college and university should certify it graduates in first aid to create a large emergency response corps all across America. 

One of his most important comments came in the form of a question: "Why are people waiting for FEMA to bring them water {after a disaster]? Hello?"

Watch for the full interview on "The Preparedness Report". (www.getprepared.org)

FEMA's Future?

Does FEMA have a future...inside the DHS?  There is a growing movement at the conference, and elsewhere to take a look at moving FEMA outside of the DHS and give it its own cabinet position in the administration.

The politicians are probably against it and the people who know and understand the level of coordination and especially collaboration necessary in preparation, response and recovery from a disater certainly feel that the president needs direct access and need to give direct information to FEMA with out filitering or other interference.  It takes a lot to move a department but perhaps the message can be made clear how important this change could be to avoiding more medicore support efforts and confusion that continues to plague the relationship that exist during disasters. IKE and Gustav continued to show the weaknesses that still exist.  Give me your thoughts?

Citizen Preparedness Message - Needs Hollywood Help

In a recent interview on "The Preparedness Report (www.wgpnradio.com)
Gunnar J. Kuepper, President, International Association of Emergency Managers, Region 9, spoke of using Hollywood Talent to get the preparedness message out to the community.  He suggested using professionals, including the entertainment industry as a way to get the preparedness message out to the public.  Great idea but how do we do it? Will it take money? What else?

Now Francis Townsend, former Homeland Security Advisor, in a recent interview (incaseofemergencyblog.com)
in discussing citizen preparedness suggests that the entertainment industry could be enlisted to bring attention to preparedness.  Way to go Francis, another great suggestion.  But how do we get it done?

Ok, here is a suggestion.  How many

Hollywood

mouths (entertainers) (Michael Moore, Matt Damon, Oprah, John Voight, etc) are exercising their rights as a citizen and publicly promoting a presidential party and candidate for the upcoming election?  Answer, Plenty of them.

So, let's get their attention and tell them that after the election their help could be used again for another public project: promoting citizen preparedness in this country.  I am sure the next group of citizens that experience what the

Texas

folks are feeling right now would appreciate the community issue support in providing meaningful disaster communications.

Hurrican Ike is no "IKE"

Unlike our former President and Supreme Commander, Hurricane Ike was an unfriendly monster.

Walking With the Alligators

 

Don’t Walk in the Water!

 

Many people have heard of the famous Florida road known as Alligator Alley that cuts

across the state of Florida connecting both coasts.  But now, after four days of

heavy rain from tropical storm Fay, Florida has alligator streets! 

 

The rain, over 25 inches in some locations, has left many residents trapped in their homes.  Yet, the television reports seem to enjoy broadcasting pictures of residents standing and walking in the flooded streets. 

 

News channels and the internet have also been buzzing with the news that the flooding caused by Fay has led to the sighting of alligators, snakes, catfish and other wildlife swimming in the streets and yards of residents. 

 

One of the important disaster/emergency preparedness concerns is that one should not drive nor walk through floodwaters, but here we have the stations zeroing in on men, women, and children playing in the flooded streets.  At the same time they show these pictures, they discuss the wildlife brought out by the floods as if there are no consequences of their presence.

 

Shouldn’t they be warning people to stay out of the streets and yards until the flood water recedes?    Rather than concentrating on the oddity of roaming wildlife, responsible reports should be reminding viewers about the importance of being prepared for such weather circumstances and emphasizing safe behavior!  Those bubbles in the water may be coming from a pair of eyes, with a long tail and a big mouth.

Some Thoughts about T.S. Fay: The “New Reality”.

 

The real story is that there is no real story. Some mild winds and rain! Another “non-event”.  Much ado about nothing.  Those seem to be the prevalent attitudes regarding tropical storm Fay here in South Florida

The media, the emergency managers and local officials have been saying for years now, “get prepared.”  The ’04 and 05 storms, Katrina, Rita, Wilma, wildfires in the west all point to a business community and families that need to anticipate and prepare for an emergency or disaster.

I’ve been spending a few days in South Florida visiting family and sweating in the hot, humid summer weather.  Suddenly, we were watching the progress of a tropical storm.

What did I see?  Despite intense media coverage over the last few days, well before the actual intensity of the storm would be known, people didn’t seem to be affected by the expectation of a possibly damaging storm.

Other than some slight increased sales of water, there wasn’t much evidence of the public rushing out for those much-needed preparedness supplies.  It was business as usual according to numerous merchants.

We know with certainty that this casual attitude toward an expected storm doesn’t mean everyone is prepared or unprepared.  Rather, it’s just another example of the apathy affecting people when it comes to being ready for emergencies.  This “creeping complacency”, as it’s been called by security authorities, is spreading and remains a growing problem. The new reality is that complacency, apathy, the need for new messages, using humor or whatever is being replaced by indifference and no preparedness action but for a different reason. “We prepare and nothing happens, so why bother.”

The Mason-Dixon poll conducted in May, 2008 found that Americans living in coastal and Gulf states were unprepared for hurricanes, lacked adequate disaster plans and even knowledge about how to become prepared.

Almost seven years after 9/11 and several years after the destructive hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, people still ignore the necessity of preparedness.  But now ignoring preparedness is not because of lack or time, money, or concern but the reality that it is “not necessary.”

This “crisis of complacency”, as it was termed by the CDC, tells us that the message of preparedness still is not being heard.  We must find a new way to convince the public that they must take preparedness seriously.  Emergency managers have been fighting complacency for some time.  Now they have to work twice as hard.

Northern Illinois University - Another Lesson in Tragedy

As the country attempts to get its arms around yet another mass shooting tragedy, first, at the Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, Illinois and now at Northern Illinois University, school officials say that "it's unlikely that anyone could have stopped [the] shooter."

NIU Police Chief Don Grady said: "It's a horrendous circumstance, and as much as we do, it's unlikely that anyone would ever have the ability to stop an incident like this from beginning."

But the real question needs to include not only how well schools and other places where people gather to conduct their business are prepared, communicate and respond but also how can we deter these mass shooting events.  Can we? Are we satisfied in concluding that "there is only so much that schools can do" to prepare or prevent these types of events?

I think not!  Have we been able to control, prevent and prepare for other types of tragedies such as hijacking of airlines?  Despite the costs, the imperfections of the system of pre-screening passengers and baggage, the use of air marshals as a possible deterrent and other techniques to make the skies safer is there only so much we can do?  Have we done it yet?  Is there enough of a brain trust effort already convened to look at the issues from more angles and come up with more and better solutions?  Perhaps we need classroom and library and residence hall marshals in our schools.  Most higher learning schools probably have enough military or law enforcement trained personnel among its population to build a trained force of "citizens corps" such as the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) that will be equipped to respond or perhaps diffuse some of these situations.  While this may not be the answer the point is to consider have we done all we can do or is there more to get prepared for emergencies, if we just continue to find solutions in an organized way with a countrywide focus.  This is no longer an nice to have or an option.  Lives are worth more than money as we seem to have plenty of that despite the economy, mortage and real estate crises and political campaigning.

Priorities and common sense needs to prevail.

New Realities of Emergency Management

With the new year, traditionally people and their business pursuits, be it government, education, for-profit or not-for-profit organizations take a long sigh and begin again as if the calendar automatically causes an opportunity to fix, refresh, start again, erase or redevelop all that preceded and change what was done.

Like a handful of clay, carefully molded, shaped and designed, and in an instant it can be reshaped and started all over again.

So it goes with so many disciplines and emergency management is no exception.  We need to continue to look at the way we have always done things and yet ask ourselves do we need to develop more "best practices" to get better results with the next disaster or develop " "the next practices" that take into account the discovery that government is not really the "first responder" we think it is.  The challenges of emergency preparedness for the emergency manager are radically different from what it was when most traditional thinking about emergency management was developed and when many of today's emergency agencies were formed.  We believe that there are new realities and they demand new strategies.  The Emergency Preparedness Institute, people who have lots of practical experience in safety management, many of whom are now part of our "Preparedness Coalition" (www.getprepared.org) are a leading source of fresh, forward looking ideas and create an invaluable resource of emerging strategies for anyone interested in emergency management.

Those ideas are presented to us in live interviews on our Internet Radio Show "The Preparedness Report" at
www.wgpnradio.com.  We welcome inquiries about guests that have an idea to share about the next generation of emergency managers, the new realities and emerging strategies in emergency preparedness @ norris@getprepared.org.