Emergency Management Assistance Compact - PowerPoint Presentation

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Emergency Management Assistance Compact

Fire/Rescue Tabletop Exercise

Module 4: Ongoing Operations

The Month of September

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Close Quarters

The devastation caused by the hurricane becomes more sobering as the weeks progress. Thousands of people, including emergency and disaster recovery workers, are housed in temporary shelters and camps throughout the region. Health and medical personnel are seeing increases in cases of communicable and mosquito-borne illnesses.

Public water treatment systems are still offline in several of the affected cities and counties, and the ones that are on are having problems with water that is contaminated with petroleum and other chemicals from refinery spills and run-off from the shipping channels that brought in oil spills from storm-damaged, off-shore rigs. Additionally, many individuals are being affected by heat-related illnesses in varying degrees due to the lack of sufficient shelter and power to run fans or air conditioners.

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Death is Everywhere

Disaster workers and surviving family and friends discover hundreds of dead in rubble throughout the affected region. Numerous bodies have been found in flooded areas, as well

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Assistance is needed throughout the region in dealing with mass fatalities. Many individuals, both residents and aid workers, require grief counseling to deal with the devastation that they are witnessing.

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Health Concerns for Area Operations

Nutrition and sanitation issues abound. Most people are relying on canned and dry goods that were undamaged in the hurricane. Fresh and frozen foods, including meats and vegetables, rot in damaged buildings and flooded fields

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Because of the massive scale of the disaster, debris is widespread and there is a shortage of both refuse-removal vehicles and designated trash haul areas.

Various vectors for communicable diseases are increasing as decaying matter, spoiling food, and trash accumulate in the open. Flies are multiplying on the decaying matter, open sewage, and waste, as well as on human and animal corpses.

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Resource Coordination and Command Structure Improving

The regional/State response management and coordination throughout the affected areas in Texas and Louisiana is much more organized and accounted for

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The freelancing has all but ceased, and all mutual-aid support is currently accounted for and contracted for later reimbursement. Several of the initial EMAC fire/rescue mission teams that have been operating around southeast Texas are rotating out and being relieved by fresh fire/rescue resources brought in via EMAC missions.

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Formal Demobilization Lacking

This issue has created problems with personnel and equipment accountability, as well as tracking resources for later reimbursement. There are even cases of entire mission crews going missing for several days. Either they were sent to another operating area without the process of a REQ-A change, or they returned to their home communities without the Assisting or Receiving State being notified.

Even though resource coordination has improved as operations move on, there have still been lingering problems with proper demobilization. Many of the initial response resources brought in under MAAs, when released from duty, were not processed out using official demobilization procedures.

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Dangers of Mosquito-Borne Illness’

A firefighter support package out of Arkansas returned after a three-and-a-half-week deployment. The day they arrived back at Hot Springs, 12 of the mission firefighters experienced fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, and lethargy. Most of them attribute it to a bug they picked up from being tired, and self-treated with over-the-counter (OTC) cold medicines. Four of the ill firefighters are admitted to the hospital within two days for seizures and paralysis. They are diagnosed with La Crosse Encephalitis.

There have been multiple incidents over the past week of fire/rescue resources that are ill when demobilizing, or becoming ill when returning to their home States. A USAR team from Oklahoma had to demobilize a week early because nine members of the team were infected with West Nile Virus.

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So Sorry, but

Gotta

Run…

This quickly becomes an unfortunate situation because another hurricane is moving up out of the Caribbean and heading toward the east coast of the United States.

As relief efforts move forward, teams brought into the affected areas under EMAC need to be demobilized to return home. They must be replaced with teams from other jurisdictions. By sheer coincidence, more than 75% of the fire/rescue/IMT resources that have been brought in as relief over the last two weeks have come from the southeast United States.

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So Sorry, but

Gotta

Run… (cont)

The sudden cease in operations and demobilization efforts, not to mention the need to immediately replace those resources, causes frantic coordination, requesting, and processing for the Texas and Louisiana EMAC A-Teams, as well as the regional EMAC coordinating team.

It is currently a Category 2 storm, but is forecast to hit the Carolinas within three days as a Category 4 or larger hurricane. Four, Type I IMTs, 5 firefighter relief units (100 firefighters), 3 fire engine strike teams (15 engines and 60 firefighters), and 3, Type I USAR teams are all immediately recalled to their home States (GA, SC, NC, and VA).

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Demobilization & Replacement

Coordination

of the demobilization of one team and the handoff to the replacement teams will reoccur throughout the Texas and Louisiana coastal region for some time to come.

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Key Issues

Thousands of residents and disaster workers are housed in temporary shelters and camps. Health and medical personnel are seeing increases in cases of communicable and mosquito-borne illnesses.

Wide-scale disruptions of basic utilities still affect daily life for local survivors and disaster workers.

Hundreds of dead are still being found in rubble and flooded areas throughout the affected region.

Many individuals, both survivors and relief workers, require grief counseling to deal with the stress they are experiencing.

Pockets of disaster rescue staff operating across the affected area are becoming ill in the field, or returning to their home States with apparent viral afflictions.

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Key Issues

(cont.)

Despite better resources coordination, there are still problems with formal changing of assignments and demobilization of deployed response resources.

Another large hurricane is now poised to strike the southeastern U.S. coastline within days.

Many of the relief resources brought in to replace EMAC missions that rotated out are now being immediately recalled to their home States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia due to the approaching Atlantic hurricane.

As relief efforts move forward, teams brought into the affected areas under EMAC need to be demobilized and returned home.

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Discussion - State EM & SEOC

What are the main priorities for the affected State EM/EOC one month from the initial hurricane response (think strategically about what role State EM/EOC plays in this incident)? How have those priorities changed from the initial priorities set in Module 1 (compare the two)?

What resources has the State EM/EOC needed (and continues to need) in order to fulfill its strategic role in the incident? Where have those resources been coming from, and how did they get there?

What are the CI/KR in the affected State(s) that would still be inoperable 30 days from the initial disaster (i.e., CI/KR needed to support response and recovery efforts in the affected areas)?

Where will the State get the assistance to restore those remaining CI/KRs, and how long will it take?

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Discussion - State EM & SEOC

(cont)

How are the Assisting and Requesting States dealing with the issue of the EMAC-deployed resources being exposed to contaminants and contagions, and then returning to their home States?

Who is ultimately responsible for this problem?

How will the currently affected State(s) deal with requesting and coordinating resources through EMAC when there is a potential competing disaster in another part of the Nation (as per the Atlantic hurricane threat identified in Module 4)?

What are some of the long-term problems (i.e., 60 to 90 days and longer) that may arise in neighboring States (other than the contagion issue)?

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Discussion - State Fire/Emergency Services Coordination

What are the main priorities for the affected State fire services/emergency services coordination one month from the initial disaster (think strategically about what role State fire services/emergency services coordination plays in this incident)? How have those priorities changed from the initial priorities set in Module 1 (compare the two)?

What resources has the fire services/emergency services coordination needed (and continues to need) in order to fulfill its strategic role in the incident? Where have those resources been coming from, and how did they get there?

What

is being done at the State level by fire services/emergency services coordination to solve the post-traumatic stress issues identified in Module 4?

Are additional outside resources needed to alleviate the problem?

Where are those resources coming from and how are they getting there?

Who is managing those resources at the local level once they arrive?

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Discussion - State Fire/Emergency Services Coordination

(cont)

What is being done at the State level by fire services/emergency services coordination to solve—and prepare incoming resources for—the increases in communicable and mosquito-borne illnesses in field staff who are housed in temporary camps and operating in low-lying areas as per the issue identified in Module 4?

Are additional outside resources needed to alleviate the problem?

Where are those resources coming from and how are they getting there?

Who is managing those resources at the local level once they arrive?

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Discussion - Local Fire/Rescue

How are local fire/rescue agencies dealing with problems such as continuously operating in extreme temperatures; lack of sanitation and constant exposure to chemical contaminants; constant threat of communicable and mosquito-borne illnesses; and post-traumatic stress?

What resources are needed at the local level to control or mitigate these issues?

How will these resources be acquired?

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Discussion - Local EM & EOC

How are local EM/EOCs dealing with thousands of people housed in temporary shelters and camps, maintaining basic local public safety (PS)/security, and providing grief counseling with a damaged infrastructure and field personnel from many different states on the front line?

List the different challenges for local EM/EOCs dealing with these issues identified in Module 4 (field level).

What resources are needed at the local EM/EOCs to control or mitigate these issues?

How will these resources be acquired?

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Discussion - Local EM & EOC

(cont)

How are mutual-aid resources being coordinated and accounted for?

Is there a local staging area/base camp for checking in and checking out?

What are the processes for checking in to a mutual-aid resource, and who is notified upon their arrival?

What are the processes for checking out a mutual-aid resource, and who is notified upon their demobilization?

If a resource is being reassigned to another operating base than the initial mission agreement, what action steps need to be executed (for EMAC and the resource)?

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QUESTIONS on Module 4?

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