Emergency Management Planning New York Style

MaryAnn E. MarrocoloAssistant Commissioner Planning and PreparednessNew York City Office of Emergency Management

Emergency Management PlanningNew York Style

Agenda

What have we learned?

What does this mean for emergency planning?

Creating Plans to Facilitate Execution and Action

In Summary…

What have we learned?

Question

Comparing major urban centers and small town/rural areas, there are more similarities than differences in emergency preparedness.

a. True

b. False

Hurricane Andrew

Inadequate communication between levels of government concerning specific needs

Lack of full awareness of supply inventories and agency capabilities

Failure to have a single person in charge with a clear chain of command

Inability to cut through bureaucratic red tape

Oklahoma City Bombing

The IEMS and ICS weakened early due to:

– Immediate response of numerous local, state, and federal agencies

– Three separate locations of the Incident Command Post

– Deployment of many Mobile Command Posts, representing support agencies

Lack of knowledge of IEMS, disaster response/ recovery planning and implementation, and emergency management functions

9/11 Initial Response

Response operation lacked integrated communications and unified command, both within and among individual responding agencies

Crucial information for informed decision-making was not shared among agencies.

2004-2005 Sonoma County Grand Jury Report

Written plans and checklists are not consistent among county, cities, agencies, and departments

In some cases written plans are non-existent.

The spasmodic use of checklists misses a great opportunity to put effective planning into action at times of great personal stress and confusion.

Most senior management and elected officials interviewed were distanced from, and in some cases ignorant of, salient pieces of the plans.

Hurricane Katrina

Command and Control was impaired at all levels of government

Failure to heed past lessons learned from exercises and actual events

Leaders were not well versed in protocol and failed to successfully implement the National Response Plan, and with it, NIMS

Question

In my experience, the most important of the following factors which leads to an inadequate response is:

a. Lack of clarity of who is in charge

b. Confusion about roles and responsibilities

c. People’s failure to follow the plan

d. Poor communication with “end users”

Have we learned anything at all?

It is unclear who is in charge or what their job is.– Roles and responsibilities

are confused.

People do not execute the plan.

WHY? Our plans fail to

communicate to the “end user” what is to be done.

What does this mean for emergency planning?

Re-thinking the Traditional

Emergency planning guidance is antiquated and does not meet the needs of modern emergency response.

– SLG 101 was last updated in 1996 and made no structural changes to its predecessor CPG 1-8 (1990).

Increasingly complex emergencies require plans that clearly articulate:

– Roles and responsibilities

– Response options

– Actions and tasks

Moving from Concept to Action

Action & Execution

Options

Roles

Tasks

Creating Plans to Facilitate Execution and Action

Plan Simplification

Plan Simplification (cont.)

A Format that Clearly Answers…

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

How?

A Format that Links Options and Tasks to Operational Phases

Operational Overview

CIMS Phases of an Incident

– Activation and implementation

– Investigative operations

– Life safety operations

– Recovery and restoration operations

Case Study: Transit Strike

A Format that Relates Options to Tasks

Operational Strategies

Connective tissue for options and tasks

Case Study: Transit Strike (cont.)

A Format that Relates Roles to Tasks

Agency Operations

Field Operations

ESF Operations

OEM Operations

Exec OperationsLevel of Detail

Case Study: Transit Strike (cont.)

Case Study: Transit Strike (cont.)

Question

In my jurisdiction, we have simplified our public health response plan into practical checklists for the end users.

a. True

b. False

Case Study: Transit Strike (cont.)

Case Study: Transit Strike (cont.)

In Summary…

Don’t learn the same lesson twice.

Don’t forget the end user… it’s not you.

Don’t forget to link options, roles, and tasks.

Questions?

mmarrocolo@oem.nyc.gov718-422-4385