Katrina: Could It Happen Here?
By Scott R. Cooper, Crook County Judge
Published in the Central Oregonian, September 2005
Published in the Central Oregonian, September 2005
Local Disaster Management Plans Go Beyond Hope of Federal Help
If you were in Prineville on May 31, 1998, you probably have some vivid memories.
Perhaps you recall Ochoco Creek jumping its banks and inundating the entirety of Ochoco Creek Park. Perhaps you remember rescuers trying to reach people trapped on the south side of the creek after their flatcar bridges washed away. Or perhaps you remember the swamp which developed along NW Fifth Street, where houses stood with water running into the doors and windows.
Do you remember the National Guard troops in our streets? What about the news trucks with their mounted satellite dishes and big booms? How about the checkpoint at the top of the grade to limit access to residents only?
Surely you haven’t forgotten the arrival of FEMA. Following a Presidential declaration of emergency, the agency took its own sweet time arriving. Disdainful of an offer to use the Ochoco Grade School, the agency set up shop in Redmond—because it had to have air conditioning…in Prineville…in June. Plus, FEMA insisted, the hotels in Prineville just wouldn’t cut it, lacking as they did at that time, adequate amenities, meaning pools, bars and attached restaurants.
I remember the entire episode. At the time, I was a member of the Prineville City Council. I, the rest of the Council and the then-County Court all watched with increasing frustration as FEMA bungled the relief and recovery effort. Within days it was clear to everyone in local government that FEMA didn’t know its own rules, that FEMA was so tied up in red tape and paperwork of its own making that most folks who had suffered catastrophe would be required to leave long before they could get any help from the federal government and that what FEMA does best is dictate rules to local governments about how to rebuild, long after the disaster that brought them around in the first place has ended.
With all this in mind, I watched two tragedies unfold in the Southeast last week. First, came Hurricane Katrina with devastating damage brought about by wind and flooding. Then came the second disaster: the arrival of federal aid--tardy, disorganized and inadequate. The party in power may have changed in Washington, D.C., but good old FEMA remains as incompetent under George Bush as it was under Bill Clinton.
When I took office in January 2001, I decided that I didn’t want my community to be at the mercy of FEMA the next time disaster comes along. My fellow commissioners and the rest of the county’s elected officials felt the same. The events of September 11, 2001, only strengthened our resolve to do what we could to increase our preparedness locally to handle whatever calamities might come our way.
Without a lot of fanfare, we began to invest in an upgraded emergency management program. We added a full-time staff person in the sheriff’s office to plan and coordinate emergency response, and we have recently begun training a second senior officer in emergency management. The budget for emergency management, which in 1999-2000 was just short of $5,000 today is more than $164,000 in General Fund plus another $232,000 in grant funding projected to be received this year.
We have engaged our partners in the emergency management field, with special emphasis on working with the medical community to test the limits of our local system. We have drilled our emergency responders to deal with simulated fire, flood, disease outbreak, dam breaks and terrorist attacks. We continue to find new and creative exercises each year.
We have new (expensive) satellite communications equipment, which is supposed to enable our emergency responders to continue communicating, even in the worst-case scenario. We worked with the fire department and Qwest to make sure the new fire halls in Powell Butte and Juniper Canyon could be commandeered and made ready on short notice to act as emergency response centers for the entire community. We are working with the National Guard to obtain space in the new armory to set up a back-up 911 center and multi-agency command post which would be operable in the event of an emergency. The effort to bring the Guard to Prineville was, in part, an effort to make sure we had a corps of emergency responders in our back yard.
In addition to stocking up on equipment and facilities, we have revamped our internal procedures to create clear guidelines for continuance of government, for allowing decisions to be made as rapidly as needed without getting bound up in red tape and for ensuring the availability of resources to deal with an emergency. We continue to work on our mutual aid agreements to ensure that we can call and receive help from other governments as soon as it becomes apparent we have a disaster too big for local folks to handle.
We even have a “reverse 9-1-1” system in place so that we can rapidly contact the entire county (or any portion of it) by telephone and provide a recorded message giving instructions about potential threats or evacuations.
I can say with confidence, that we are much better prepared in 2005 than we were in 1998 for whatever disaster comes our way.
Despite all that, we still have much to do. Katrina has taught us a few lessons. We need to revisit our program for evacuating special needs populations. We need to reconsider our plan for evacuating individuals who do not have access to private transportation. We need to consider our plan for managing a shelter of last resort so that we don’t experience the chaos of a Superdome. We probably need to work with our partners, the schools, to craft a plan for continuing the education of children in the aftermath of a large-scale displacement. There is always more work to be done, and each disaster provides new opportunities to consider the weaknesses in our own planning.
I don’t really know if we are “ready” to deal with the next catastrophe. I suspect we aren’t because true emergency management is about being prepared and being flexibly enough to respond to everything for which you didn’t plan. We’ll never really “know” if we’re ready until the moment we have to react, ready or not. That will be the true test, and the one I hope never comes.
But I know this: if we are called upon to act, we are miles ahead of where we were seven years ago. I’m not saying we won’t need the state or federal government’s help again at some point in the future, but even if they can’t get their act together, we’ll be prepared to do what we can right here at home.
Perhaps you recall Ochoco Creek jumping its banks and inundating the entirety of Ochoco Creek Park. Perhaps you remember rescuers trying to reach people trapped on the south side of the creek after their flatcar bridges washed away. Or perhaps you remember the swamp which developed along NW Fifth Street, where houses stood with water running into the doors and windows.
Do you remember the National Guard troops in our streets? What about the news trucks with their mounted satellite dishes and big booms? How about the checkpoint at the top of the grade to limit access to residents only?
Surely you haven’t forgotten the arrival of FEMA. Following a Presidential declaration of emergency, the agency took its own sweet time arriving. Disdainful of an offer to use the Ochoco Grade School, the agency set up shop in Redmond—because it had to have air conditioning…in Prineville…in June. Plus, FEMA insisted, the hotels in Prineville just wouldn’t cut it, lacking as they did at that time, adequate amenities, meaning pools, bars and attached restaurants.
I remember the entire episode. At the time, I was a member of the Prineville City Council. I, the rest of the Council and the then-County Court all watched with increasing frustration as FEMA bungled the relief and recovery effort. Within days it was clear to everyone in local government that FEMA didn’t know its own rules, that FEMA was so tied up in red tape and paperwork of its own making that most folks who had suffered catastrophe would be required to leave long before they could get any help from the federal government and that what FEMA does best is dictate rules to local governments about how to rebuild, long after the disaster that brought them around in the first place has ended.
With all this in mind, I watched two tragedies unfold in the Southeast last week. First, came Hurricane Katrina with devastating damage brought about by wind and flooding. Then came the second disaster: the arrival of federal aid--tardy, disorganized and inadequate. The party in power may have changed in Washington, D.C., but good old FEMA remains as incompetent under George Bush as it was under Bill Clinton.
When I took office in January 2001, I decided that I didn’t want my community to be at the mercy of FEMA the next time disaster comes along. My fellow commissioners and the rest of the county’s elected officials felt the same. The events of September 11, 2001, only strengthened our resolve to do what we could to increase our preparedness locally to handle whatever calamities might come our way.
Without a lot of fanfare, we began to invest in an upgraded emergency management program. We added a full-time staff person in the sheriff’s office to plan and coordinate emergency response, and we have recently begun training a second senior officer in emergency management. The budget for emergency management, which in 1999-2000 was just short of $5,000 today is more than $164,000 in General Fund plus another $232,000 in grant funding projected to be received this year.
We have engaged our partners in the emergency management field, with special emphasis on working with the medical community to test the limits of our local system. We have drilled our emergency responders to deal with simulated fire, flood, disease outbreak, dam breaks and terrorist attacks. We continue to find new and creative exercises each year.
We have new (expensive) satellite communications equipment, which is supposed to enable our emergency responders to continue communicating, even in the worst-case scenario. We worked with the fire department and Qwest to make sure the new fire halls in Powell Butte and Juniper Canyon could be commandeered and made ready on short notice to act as emergency response centers for the entire community. We are working with the National Guard to obtain space in the new armory to set up a back-up 911 center and multi-agency command post which would be operable in the event of an emergency. The effort to bring the Guard to Prineville was, in part, an effort to make sure we had a corps of emergency responders in our back yard.
In addition to stocking up on equipment and facilities, we have revamped our internal procedures to create clear guidelines for continuance of government, for allowing decisions to be made as rapidly as needed without getting bound up in red tape and for ensuring the availability of resources to deal with an emergency. We continue to work on our mutual aid agreements to ensure that we can call and receive help from other governments as soon as it becomes apparent we have a disaster too big for local folks to handle.
We even have a “reverse 9-1-1” system in place so that we can rapidly contact the entire county (or any portion of it) by telephone and provide a recorded message giving instructions about potential threats or evacuations.
I can say with confidence, that we are much better prepared in 2005 than we were in 1998 for whatever disaster comes our way.
Despite all that, we still have much to do. Katrina has taught us a few lessons. We need to revisit our program for evacuating special needs populations. We need to reconsider our plan for evacuating individuals who do not have access to private transportation. We need to consider our plan for managing a shelter of last resort so that we don’t experience the chaos of a Superdome. We probably need to work with our partners, the schools, to craft a plan for continuing the education of children in the aftermath of a large-scale displacement. There is always more work to be done, and each disaster provides new opportunities to consider the weaknesses in our own planning.
I don’t really know if we are “ready” to deal with the next catastrophe. I suspect we aren’t because true emergency management is about being prepared and being flexibly enough to respond to everything for which you didn’t plan. We’ll never really “know” if we’re ready until the moment we have to react, ready or not. That will be the true test, and the one I hope never comes.
But I know this: if we are called upon to act, we are miles ahead of where we were seven years ago. I’m not saying we won’t need the state or federal government’s help again at some point in the future, but even if they can’t get their act together, we’ll be prepared to do what we can right here at home.
Labels: Local Disaster Management Plans Go Beyond Expectation of Federal Help
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