Planning for disaster

This is an interesting topic (to me, anyway). Usually people plan to avoid disaster. But being unprepared for a disaster when it comes only serves to exacerbate the problems when they inevitably come. We see the results of poor planning in many places the world over. Hurricane Katrina highlighted many of these deficiencies closer to home. Lessons were learned from that, making Hurricane Ike much more easily overcome. But there are still lessons to be learned and steps to be taken to ensure we are more resilient as a community, better able to respond to the disasters as they occur.

The planning takes four basic phases: pre-event (long term), pre-event (short term), post-event (short term), and post-event (long term).

Pre-event (long term) planning involves the idea of resilience and defensive measures enacted to ensure minimal impact to infrastructure, homes, and personnel. It includes things like strengthening building regulations, publishing educational materials, establishing communication and transportation efforts, creating an emergency command system, and training for essential personnel. The City of Mont Belvieu, in connection with State and County agencies and industrial responders, has established all of these things. This is what enabled us to respond to past events as successfully as we have. Further, each of our key personnel here at the City has been trained extensively on how to respond to these situations. The first responders in the City utilize this command structure on an almost daily basis - sometimes several times daily - which keeps us all fresh on what needs to be done and how to best accomplish it.

Lessons learned from Hurricane Ike deal with storm surge (which was greater than expected), wind damage (which was about what was expected), power outages (which caused other connected infrastructure problems, including sanitary sewer failures), the evacuation order (which largely went unheeded), and the questions regarding what to do with folks who did not or could not leave town. Many of the problems we faced, and the response that was required to help all of these folks, stemmed from the ignoring of the evacuation order. We live in a mandatory evacuation county - people are required to leave for the reasons mentioned above. The sanitary sewer issue, for example, was heavily exacerbated by (not to be indelicate) people flushing, washing, and otherwise burdening a system that was not designed for it.

Pre-event (short term) planning involves getting people out. It means that first responders have what they need to, well, respond. It means having staff on hand to enact command structures and contingency plans. And it means that things are secured in advance of storm/event so that minimal damage is done and that we can effectively respond to the situation as it unfolds. Not all events give us the luxury of advance warning - like hurricanes do. Our emergency responders are well trained and flexible in handling rapidly changing situations. The best thing we can do for them is get out of their way.

Post-event (short term) planning begins as soon as possible after the event. It may include things like setting up shelters and procuring supplies, establishing command structure, and coordinating efforts using pre-event planning. It also involves assisting those in need, re-establishing the vital infrastructure (transportation and least damaged first, then the more heavily impacted stuff), and clean-up. The initial clean-up involves things that help get the community back to a basic functioning level, while further stages of clean-up may take months or years to complete.

Finally, there's the post-event (long term) planning. This involves a review of what happened during the event. Things that went well are strengthened and remembered, while things that went poorly are reviewed for lessons learned and needs assessment. In this way, the community is stronger and more resilient, better prepared for the next event. This involves resiliency and strengthening in areas including infrastructure, evacuation and contingencies planning and coordination, collaborative efforts, communication channels, etc. It also means that those who are involved with event command and control are constantly vigilant and trained. This is something our community first responders do exceedingly well. Our community is stronger and better prepared to handle future events each time we deal with an emergency situation because we are constantly learning and implementing new and innovative strategies to combat the issues that arise.