It Takes a Community

We’re all familiar with the phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child.” A similar mantra holds true for disaster management: It takes a village (or an entire community) to successfully manage a disaster.

Every community faces the potential for a natural or human-caused disaster. The Atlantic Coast and Gulf areas are subject to hurricanes, the Northeast is subject to Nor’easters and tornado Alley cuts through the heartland. Wildland fires are a tremendous threat to most of the West and can threaten any area hit by drought, as seen in the fires that recently hit Georgia. Blizzards, earthquakes and floods have the potential to impact the rest of our country. And of course, we must be prepared for human-caused disasters, brought to the forefront of our attention on 9/11.

If a disaster strikes your community, is your department prepared to facilitate emergency response and management activities during the initial operational period (first 12 hours) of the event, prior to the arrival of state and/or federal resources and assistance? Where will you get the necessary additional resources?
Where will you temporarily house your evacuees? What about their pets? How will you feed the evacuees? How will you answer their questions?

Public/public and public/private partnerships are essential to answering these critical questions effectively and efficiently. Such partnerships can mean the difference between success and failure when it comes to managing a disaster in a given community.

The 5 Cs
Successful community partnerships involve elements I call the “Five Cs”: cooperation, coordination, communication, collaboration and compromise. Let’s take a look at each element.

Cooperation—Traditionally, fire and police agencies are the sole participants in emergency planning efforts. In reality, however, many more organizations and groups should be involved. These “nontraditional” partners include:

• Elected officials (local/county/state political considerations)
• Chamber of Commerce (control of potential negative publicity)
• Local animal shelters or the Humane Society (pet/animal evacuation)
• Grocery stores (food)
• School administrators (access to schools for evacuation shelters and school buses for mass transportation)
• Utility companies (utility control)
• Libraries (information resource center)
• Public works (access to heavy equipment, sand, etc.)
• Hospitals (mass casualty preparation)
• Red Cross (mass casualty preparation)
• Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) (additional assistance)
• Civic organizations (additional assistance)
• Church groups (spiritual assistance)
• Local media (information sharing)

Department personnel must bring any constituent that can potentially resolve an unsolved emergency response component to the table prior to the disaster’s occurrence.

Coordination—All of the aforementioned resources must be effectively managed before, during and after the incident. Coordination starts with bringing all parties to the table in an initial meeting; the fire department may need to assume this role. Schedule a half-day emergency preparedness workshop and invite representatives from each of the groups. At this session, educate participants about their roles during a disaster, and share your department’s goals and procedures relating to disaster management. You might also provide basic instruction relating to the Incident Command System and the National Incident Management System.

Remember: Gather emergency contact information from the attendees to generate an emergency contact list for all parties. It’s extremely difficult to locate the animal shelter folks at 3 a.m. without such a list.

Communication—Sharing critical information is essential to achieving understanding from nontraditional participants. Because these organizations may not be familiar with emergency response and recovery objectives, you must be extremely diligent in sharing information and conveying your expectation of their roles.

Collaboration—When it comes to methods for building strong partnerships, be creative. Generally speaking, the aforementioned civic, private and political groups want to be part of the solution. They just need some strategic information about how they fit into the big picture of disaster preparation, response and recovery objectives.

Compromise—Vulnerability helps build trust. Giving a little will enhance the chances of your partnerships’ success. It may seem like you’re exposing your vulnerabilities and surrendering operational control by telling community members where your service gaps are and what you’ll need help with in the event of a large-scale disaster. But by doing so, you enhance community members’ understanding regarding their key role in emergency management. At the same time, don’t allow compromises to shift your focus. Stay the course on the goals identified in your initial meeting.

Initial Meeting
During the initial training session, focus on helping the nontraditional partners understand their roles in disaster management and the dynamic response plan. Anticipate each organization asking, “Why are we here?” Answers could include:

• Animal shelter—If we must evacuate large numbers of folks from their homes, we must also address animal evacuation. When a community is impacted by a disaster and neighborhoods are evacuated, residents can be temporarily housed in the gymnasium of the local high school. Generally speaking, however, high schools do not permit animals (including pets) on the school premises. The animal shelter can provide critical assistance with pet management.
• School—If mass transportation is an issue, school involvement can help fine-tune the use of school buses to move residents. Plus, schools themselves make perfect temporary shelters due to their large open areas, parking lots and cooking and shower facilities.
• CERT—CERT personnel can help control traffic and manage evacuation shelters.
• Grocery stores—Grocery store managers can discuss the possibility of “donating” water and food to the local response and recovery efforts.

When these partnerships are forged prior to a potential event, they permit local fire and police agencies to focus on structured fire and police-oriented issues. Nontraditional players will also possess a basic understanding of their new role in disaster management and can take initiative in the event of a real emergency.

Follow-Up Training
After the initial meeting, conduct a second session that builds upon the first. The second component is focused on training; it should include the same participants as the initial exercise and should be scheduled 6–12 weeks after the initial meeting. This session should be a slow, tabletop walk-through of a mock scenario for a given community.

Choose a scenario that’s realistic to the region (e.g., a wildland/urban interface fire for the wildland-fire impacted communities, tornadic activity for the heartland, flooding for the coastal region). As you walk through the scenario, discuss each group’s role. How fast after the event will they be required to respond? What if their own facilities are destroyed? Who should they contact? Allow representatives of the groups to ask questions, while ensuring your answers are as specific as possible.

This second session is essential to instilling a sense of responsibility among those players new to emergency management and preparation, response and recovery issues. To further reinforce the partnership, consider holding an annual preparatory event that incorporates a hands-on exercise of the same mock scenario.

A Final Word
Your department’s ability to build partnerships with nontraditional organizations and agencies requires cooperation, coordination, communication, collaboration and compromise—the “Five Cs.” Such partnerships lay the groundwork for ensuring all facets of disaster response—some of which are incorrectly presumed as non-critical, such as pet evacuation—are managed effectively and efficiently.

Today’s planning and preparation ensures tomorrow’s success. We’ve all witnessed the armchair quarterbacking that occurs when an emergency management philosophy goes awry. Dynamic planning and preparation will mitigate the effects of a disaster, when your community needs it most. 

Matt Shobert has been the Sedona (Ariz.) fire chief for 2 years. Shobert has an associate’s degree in Fire Science, a bachelor’s degree in business management and a master’s degree in organizational management. Shobert recently completed his EFOP and was accredited as a CFOD in 2004 and again in 2007.