MEMORANDUM

To: City Council

From: David J. Deutsch, City Manager

Subject: Emergency Preparedness

Date: November 23, 2005

Council requested that the November 28, 2005 Worksession include a discussion on emergency preparedness in the City. We are providing a brief overview highlighting some of the main subjects of possible concern that might be helpful in guiding the discussion.

History Overview -- How We Got Here

The City’s emergency preparedness awareness has certainly been influenced in the last five years by international, national, and local events of both the man-made and natural form. These would include:

• 9/11 terrorist attacks.
• Anthrax attacks (including a City Hall incident) in Fall 2001.
• Sniper attacks of Fall 2002 (including shooting at Benjamin Tasker Middle School on October 7, 2002).
• Wind shear damage to Meadowbrook section in August 2003 with extensive power outages.
• Hurricane Isabelle in September 2003 with extensive power outages.
• Winter snowstorms.
• Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

We had no warning for some of these incidents, and the citizens and staff worked together to repair the damage. Some of the incidents were predictable and the citizens and staff, through planning, were able to lessen the effect of the damages. Some had no physical effect at all on our City, but put us on notice that all components in the City --residents, businesses, staff, Council -- have a responsibility to prepare individually for an incident as best as they can, so that collectively we can assist those who may have trouble preparing for themselves. All of these incidents continue to remind us that emergency preparedness is ongoing and that preparedness education and timely information to residents and businesses is paramount to effectively prepare for and recover from any type of disaster.

Actions Taken

Since 9/11, we have been involved in ongoing educational and infrastructure improvement initiatives for our staff, City property, residents, and local first responders (Bowie Volunteer Fire Department). Some of these actions include:

• Council and staff attendance at County and regional emergency preparedness seminars.
• The City has hosted one such meeting.
• Development of a City Emergency Plan and Standard Operating Procedures for individual City departments.
• Staff training and awareness of the Incident Command System.
• Outreach to citizens through the use of the City’s website, local media, and distribution of informational material.
• Partnership with Metropolitan Council of Governments (COG) and the Roam Secure Alert Network to provide a wide variety of immediate information streams to citizens, businesses and staff.
• Infrastructure and security improvements through City tax dollars and grants for our Water Plant facility.
• Back-up generator for City Hall.
• Back-up generator for Public Works.
• Back-up generators planned for FY06 and FY07 for the Senior Center and Ice Rink.
• Purchase of Nextel phones as primary form of communication for essential City employees during an incident.
• City funding assistance to the BVFD for purchase of emergency and hazardous materials identification equipment.
• After-action staff critiques of events.

Major Issues

Some major issues that are ongoing and present a challenge during any incident are:

• Communication.
  • Whether it is between governments, governments and the public, or between responders, the ability to communicate immediately and effectively is paramount.
    
  • As a member of COG, the City is part of the Regional Incident Coordination Communications System (RICCS). This system, now administered by Roam Secure, provides the leaders in the COG community with timely updates on incidents and the ability to participate in the decision- making process during incidents. The system was used extensively in the sniper incidents in 2002 and Hurricane Isabelle in 2003.
    
• The City is providing Nextel phones to those employees who are essential to the process of preparing for and responding to an incident.
  
• The City has two-way radios in its trucks and fleet cars, with a base station at Public Works.
  
• The City is in the process of obtaining a grant to fund satellite phones for our use during incidents. The grant is from the Department of Homeland Security, through the Prince George’s County Government.
  
• The City is partnering with COG to implement the Roam Secure text messaging alert system. This service will begin with selected employees during 2005 and then be available to residents in 2006.
  
• Mass media is the most common and preferred method for residents to receive emergency information. The City can also disperse information through its website, as well as the City’s cable channel. Roam Secure text messaging will be available in 2006. Major television and radio networks have the ability to transmit from other locations outside of our National Capitol Region (NCR). Should lack of commercial electricity be an issue, then the importance of preparing one’s house with a battery-operated television and/or radio becomes underscored.
  
• Shelters.
  • Displaced victims, responders, and support personnel all require appropriate living space should their normal homes not be available. Certified and trained personnel need to be available to attend to the needs of those who can’t attend to themselves. Supplies and resources need to be available for use. Shelters are incident specific. Most incidents do not displace residents from their homes.
    
• “Shelter in place” is the term that all citizens need to understand. The ability for an individual or family to take care of themselves, in their own home if they can, for a minimum of three days is the goal. Appropriate amounts of water, food, medical supplies, etc., should be stored in the home. The City provides a checklist of preparation supplies on its website. Staff also keeps pamphlets available at City Hall, the library, and the local community centers that detail the recommended supplies.
  
• The County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has the responsibility of designating shelters in the County. All public schools are approved as shelters; however, all may not be appropriate for use as a shelter depending upon the type of incident. For example, a school that does not have a back-up generator for electricity may not be appropriate for shelter use in an area where commercial power supplies have been interrupted. However, that same school may be used to house people who have been displaced from another part of the City because of an incident that did not affect the electric power of the sheltering school.
  
• The American Red Cross organization works with OEM to manage the designated shelters once they have been opened.
  
• The City has identified three City-owned properties that are appropriate to be used as temporary shelters for displaced persons. This information has been forwarded to the County to be included in the resource bank of possible shelters. The three properties are City Hall, the Senior Center, and the Gymnasium.
  
• Evacuations.
  • Like shelters, evacuations are incident specific. Planning will enable residents to focus on a legitimate destination out of their area that can shelter them. Knowledge of local and distant roadways, along with road maps, will help residents in their travels.
    
  • Residents should not evacuate an area until told to do so by the entity managing the incident.

The above highlighted discussion points are not the only issues facing residents and staff in their efforts to prepare for emergencies. Lessons learned from other emergency responses can be a valuable method in helping to form our own response to incidents. One local group, the St. Matthew’s Methodist Early Response Team, was formed to assist victims of natural and man-made disasters. Operating under the umbrella of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), this group of local residents has responded to the tornado destruction in La Plata, Maryland in 2002, Hurricane Isabelle victims in Southern Maryland in 2003, as well as Hurricane Katrina victims in 2005. A copy of their response report is included in Attachment A. Representatives of the group are expected to make a short presentation in front of Council at the November 28, 2005 Worksession.

DJD/AC

Attachment A
Attachment B