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Entry bubble Government Practices Disaster Response

By: Jake | May 12, 2008 | Category: General

I didn't get there by helicopter, but I did participate in the government's Continuity of Operations (COOP as we call it) exercise last week. Instead of choppering in, I drove out to our COOP location in Virginia at 6 in the morning to get all kinds of crazy scenarios thrown at me.Emergency Response Tools

My task during the exercise was to maintain basic operations at the National Contact Center, where citizens call for information about government programs and services. I also monitored fake news broadcasts and press releases to keep agents aware of what was going on so they could handle calls, emails and web chats appropriately. Most importantly, I surveyed the center to tell us what the public was asking about.

The exercise involved terrorist attacks in the Pacific Northwest, a hurricane bearing down on the Mid-Atlantic and a potential terrorist threat to DC, so I was busy. But I wasn't as busy as I was during Hurricane Katrina.

During Katrina and its aftermath the contact center got hundreds of thousands of inquiries from survivors and their families looking for assistance and those looking for victims. It was hard to keep up with the answers to these questions. So each day began with an inter-agency call, where I told Federal web managers what people were asking us about in the contact center so they could prepare appropriate services. Though I did what I could, the government knows its response to Katrina can be improved. That's one reason the federal government did such a massive exercise this year (COOP is done every year).

Even though in a real emergency you don't know what or whom you will and won't have available, I noticed a lot of collaboration between agencies during this exercise. I also noticed a lot of backup at agencies with people in regional offices able to handle primary functions usually done in the D.C. area. Of course there were some hiccups. Our emergency phone alert system which is supposed to call and email us when a COOP situation is enacted never chimed in on my office cell phone.

I got to give feedback at the end of the exercise and now it is your turn. How can the Federal government improve response during emergencies? Some people have chimed in with some interesting ideas, so be sure to read what they are saying in the comment section.

| Comments [7] | envelope Email This Entry | Tags: emergencies   government   hurricanes   jake  

Comments:

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The government would do a better job in this country in emergency situations if it were not so worried about WHOSE responsibility it was to react, STATE OR FEDERAL. The government also sends SO MUCH of our money to foreign countries for their emergencies, then are slow here in the United States. I do not understand why it is up to us to supply the world for all their needs and is questionable as to who or what we should response to in this country. The foreign countries do not appreciate anything we do and certainly are not concerned about our needs. We should keep our dollars at home, take care of our own business and our own people and let the rest of the world do the same. Our nation is in trouble.

Posted by Ouida Garrett on May 12, 2008 at 01:57 PM EDT #

I would preposition non-perishables at or close to any or all military airports. Use GSA contracts to cut down on cost. Have a list of all items approved distributed to a national website, available to anybody. Use only items available thru GSA with identifying stock numbers. Use our vast military complex to distribute in time of emergency. Requisition civillan aircraft if necessary. Only provide vast temporary tent sites, complete with as many amenties (Shelter, water, showers, chowhalls, latrines, clinics, hospitals, etc) as necessary to prevent suffering. Appoint someone locally with all authority to cut thru red tape.

Posted by BARNEY on May 12, 2008 at 02:21 PM EDT #

Naive question, maybe...

What is current status at all levels of govt re: making sure your phones, computers, radios and all other communication devices are ABLE TO TALK TO EACH OTHER?

Posted by Bluehawk on May 12, 2008 at 02:46 PM EDT #

It seems to me that too much is centralized and therefore controlled from D. C. it is time to utilize local and state facilitators to act as the controlling people. The more layers of bureaucracy the greater the chance of screwup, witness Katrina. When no one knows what their job is, you have a huge problem, of course whenever politicians get involved, the problems are magnified anyway.
Get rid of the layers of people and let things be handled from the bottom up, not the top down. It is amazing that some states get it and others want the Feds to do it all for them. Let the states take some responsibility for their own care, they are the ones closest to the problem anyway.

Posted by John Quigley on May 13, 2008 at 07:29 AM EDT #

Nice comments everyone and thanks for sharing your ideas. Bluehawk, I'll get to you below. It would be great if the federal, state and local governments could work a little bit better together than they have in the past and it is my hope that they will.

I think these issues are a symptom of how our government was set up the founding fathers--ie, no centralized power. Katrina showed the government it needs to work better together across all levels to respond to emergencies better.

During the excercise, the USA.gov people were reaching out to web manager's and other public information officials in the states affected in the exercise.

As far as the bottom-up idea that John Quigley talks about, that's what I try to help with by reporting what we are hearing at the contact center. People on the ground should do this as well and though I am not involved in the emergency response/first responders realm, I'm betting they are working on this too.

Bluehawk,

They were testing our communications capability at the exercise. During one part the power and phone lines were down so they were testing our ability to communicate by Blackberry Pin. We also have a couple of people with GITS cards and even for the most harrowing situations, our office has a satellite phone. I don't know if that's the practice around government, but I don't think we're the only ones. There is a federal program out there that works on interoperability of communications between emergency crews. It's called SAFECOM. You can read more about it here:
http://www.safecomprogram.gov/SAFECOM/

Thanks for your ideas everyone. Please keep them coming.

Jake

Posted by Jake on May 13, 2008 at 09:23 AM EDT #

Thanks, Jake...

I just wish so much that at the very least, in this amazing time of technological prowess, we could at minimum ensure the ability of our officials to have interoperability.

If nothing else, 9/11 and Katrina surely demonstrated amply how critical that one little piece of the puzzle is, and, for heaven sake, with all we have invested in corporate R&D for there not to be almost total interoperability is purely negligent... mainly on the part of those who manufacture and program the devices government uses to communicate with. One would think they'd see it as their civic duty to make it EASIER and SIMPLER for your devices to cooperate!

I believe that government, and our President, received far too much criticism for the handling of Katrina when, essentially, a key element of the difficulties was this painfully obvious shortfall.


Posted by Bluehawk on May 13, 2008 at 09:59 AM EDT #

I found an interesting article on the DOE site, I don't remember exactly where, but it compared our country to the Roman Empire. It said our above ground electric and utility lines are like Rome's above ground aqueducts, vulnerable to attack. Those with solar power on their homes will have less to worry about, and they are helping slow Global Warming at the same time.

Posted by Citizen Jmaximus on May 13, 2008 at 09:37 PM EDT #

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