MEMORANDUM

To: City Council

From: David J. Deutsch, City Manager

Subject: Emergency Preparedness Follow-up

Date: March 21, 2007

On November 13, 2006, staff presented an overview of emergency preparedness in the City. This overview and subsequent discussion prompted an interest and request that Council receive timely updates on the continuing status of emergency preparedness. This memo will serve as an update on those issues. During the March 26, 2007 Worksession, staff will review the City’s progress on emergency preparedness, expand upon the bulleted items below, and will be prepared for discussion of the issues.

Communication

• Alert Bowie
  This service was offered to the public in September of 2006. To date, 577 users have signed up (almost double the number since November) to receive text messages from the City via email and on their cell phone or other electronic device. Alerts were sent out during the February ice storm regarding downed power lines and shelter openings. Alert Bowie sign-up information was distributed at the recent BGE meeting held at City Hall. More efforts to market the system are planned, including instant signups at Bowiefest.
  
• WARN
  WARN is Prince George’s County’s alert system. It can generate telephone calls to “land lines” in the entire County or to a particular geographic area within the County. Staff has been in contact with the system’s management company, discussed access and user fees, and is currently analyzing the viability of the system. The value of this approach is that it can reach those without cell phones and it can be used in most cases, even when the power is out.
  
• Outreach
  Staff has met, and will continue to meet, with representatives of local businesses, tenant associations, and other community groups to dispense information and answer questions about emergency preparedness. During the ice storm, staff contacted local businesses to ensure that food and water could be delivered or provided to City Hall when it served as a warming center/shelter. FY08 budget proposals include an objective to work with the Greater Bowie Chamber of Commerce in signing up their members for Alert Bowie.

Exercises/Training/Incidents

• Training
  Staff members regularly attend training classes, seminars, and conferences related to the many facets of emergency preparedness. Ideas, real-world experiences and plans are in turn discussed and shared with other staff members and integrated into the City’s website, outreach material, and operational plans and actions.
  
  Since last November, staff members have attended training and certification classes in the National Incident Management System (NIMS), an ICMA-sponsored pandemic flu seminar, Council of Government meetings, and Health Department presentations. Scheduled training includes MEMA-sponsored storm management classes, shelter training, and accelerated NIMS classes.

Emergency Plan

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
  Staff has developed a standard form for City units that are tasked with response operations. Designed to be user-friendly, it delineates the command order, contact numbers, tasks, and other information that are vital to an effective response. While City staff members often have years, in some instances decades, of institutional history and experience, the response plans are not always outlined in a form that would be easily understood if responsibility was transferred to a new supervisor or employee. The intent of these SOP’s is to enable the City government to have continuity of operations should a catastrophe or illness disable certain employees.
  
• Outreach
  Readiness by citizens and government is the single most important aspect of surviving an incident. City staff makes preparation plans and guidelines available on-line, at City facilities and other local public buildings. Materials are also distributed at community meetings, and in settings where businesses, organizations, or other government entities are meeting.

Shelters

• Role of Prince George’s County
  The Prince George’s Office of Emergency Management is the agency primarily responsible for shelters in the County. The decision to open a County shelter is made based on the type of emergency, the location, the number of individuals affected by it, and the probable duration of the emergency. The County has agreements with MNCPPC and the School System to use their facilities as shelters if the need arises.
  
• City Shelters
  In 2003, the City decided that it would be prudent to have City of Bowie shelters in addition to County shelters. This decision was made following Hurricane Isabel when the closest County shelter available to City residents was in Greenbelt. City Hall and the Senior Center were identified as logical locations for a Bowie shelter. A dedicated emergency generator was installed at City Hall to ensure that City operations, including telephone service, were not interrupted during power outages. It also made it possible to use City Hall as a shelter if necessary. The Senior Center received its own generator in 2006. It has allowed the Senior Center to stay open when power is out in the area and to be another City of Bowie shelter site.
  
• Ice Storm Experience
  During the ice storm emergency, City Hall opened as a warming center/shelter. City Hall was chosen over the Senior Center, because, at the outset it seemed to meet the needs of likely shelterees, it was potentially less disruptive to senior center users, and it was easier for City staff to manage. Given the number of residents who used it over the course of four days, it worked out well. However, if the power had stayed out longer, if conditions had deteriorated and residents could not bring or go out for their own meals, or if a lot more residents chose to spend the night in our shelter, we would have exceeded our capacity and would have had to move to the Senior Center. At that point, we would have also needed to call in the Red Cross.
  
• Role of American Red Cross
  Staff has been working with the American Red Cross to understand its role in shelter management and to get certain of our facilities certified as Red Cross shelter sites. When the County opens a shelter, the Red Cross runs it. Control of the building is temporarily turned over to the Red Cross and other uses of the building are halted. The City is willing to do this for a large-scale Bowie area emergency, if the need arises. However, having City Hall as a shelter site provides us with an alternative, and allows us to be flexible and to keep control of the situation in smaller emergencies.

Special Populations

• The challenges of preparing, evacuating, sheltering and communicating with special populations were made painfully clear during Hurricane Katrina. During our recent emergency, the disabled, the infirm and seniors were particularly affected by the lack of power and heat. Three senior housing facilities in the City were without electricity for an extended period of time –Evergreen Apartments, The Willows Apartments, and Somerset House. We also heard from many who depended on electricity to operate their medical equipment.
  
• Much work needs to be done on helping to get these residents better prepared with supplies, with food that can be eaten cold, and with a back up plan. We hope to enlist houses of worship, clubs, homeowners associations, and fraternal organizations in this effort. Initially, there is a need to educate all residents on the value of becoming better prepared. An important aspect of preparation is making sure they have a means of receiving emergency information. Then we would like to coordinate a “buddy system” with these groups as a way to make sure that those in the City who are elderly, infirm or housebound have someone looking out for them during an emergency.
  
• Another point noted from the ice storm was that many who used our shelter to warm up during the day were reluctant to spend the night because of pets at home. Most shelters do not allow pets, although the County Office of Emergency Preparedness is exploring some pet sheltering possibilities since federal law now mandates that states and localities must plan for sheltering pets or risk losing FEMA funding. The City’s Animal Control Office has compiled a list of pet-friendly hotels/motels in the area. This information is posted on the city’s website along with information from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) about emergency planning for pet owners.

Working with Other Agencies

• Staff Outreach
  Staff has continued to promote a positive and proactive working relationship within the hierarchy of emergency management in our area. Since November 2006 staff has met with the County’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), County Health Department, Bowie Volunteer Fire Department, American Red Cross, District Of Columbia Emergency Management Agency (DCEMA), and the City of Laurel Emergency Manager. In addition, phone discussions have taken place between staff and the Public Safety Officer for Bowie State University (with a meeting planned), College Park staff, as well as other agencies that provide first responder and support services to incidents. These relationships have proved beneficial and timely, particularly in light of last month’s events.
  
• Avian/Pandemic Flu
  Staff participated in an ICMA-sponsored seminar on pandemic flu and continuity of operations planning (COOP). In addition, staff recently attended a County Health Department seminar on vaccine distribution during emergency situations. Staff is analyzing a proposal to work with the Health Department to designate at least one City facility as a distribution point for vaccines during an emergency.

Summary

Staff continues to enhance the state of preparedness for employees, residents, and businesses in the City through ongoing education, training, and relationship building. The recent training in the area of emergency management, the networking with external entities, and the policy of conducting after-incident critiques have enabled the City to better respond to incidents. The ideas and questions brought forth by Council and citizens at last year’s meeting have spurred actions that have benefited the City. Much has been learned and much effort has been made to distribute the information. Staff will continue to seek out grants and partnerships with entities in the emergency management arena. Staff will continue to provide regular updates to Council and is always available for questions and comments from the Council or residents.

DJD/AC