NJBFBENSNJANPHA Disaster Sheltering PublicPrivate Partnerships in Action

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NJBF-BENS/NJANPHADisaster Sheltering
Public-Private Partnerships in Action

• Notes From
• Presentations
• and
• Open Discussion
• Lessons Learned Action Steps
• October 4, 2006

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NJBF-BENS/NJANPHADisaster Sheltering
Public-Private Partnerships in Action

• Outline
• NJ Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness
  (NJ OHSP)
• NJ Office of Emergency Management (NJOEM)
• Shelter Management Principles
• Shelter Activation
• Shelter Logistics
• Special Needs Sheltering
• Sheltering the Elderly
• Evacuation
• Sheltering In-Place for Businesses
• Legal Side of Sheltering
• Disaster Sheltering Considerations
• Closing Thoughts/ Observations

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• NJ OHSP Perspective
• OHSP Oriented toward All-Hazards
• Emphases on Preparedness with no operational
  control
• Philosophy Plan, Exercise, Train
• Functions
• Grant distribution oversight
• Exercising
• Training of law enforcement disaster response
  agencies
• Clearinghouse for legislation
• Protecting Critical Infrastructure
• Within NJ 85-90 privately owned
• Security while Safeguarding Civil Rights
  Liberties
• OHSP represents all citizens demographic areas
• Currently studying in depth problems of
  evacuating metropolitan centers
• Government cannot be everywhere do everything
• Must inform prepare the public
• 211 System now operational
• Source of information accessible by the public

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• NJOEM Strategy
• Synergy of Effort
• Buildings blocks starts at local level
• Meetings w/ Stakeholders
• Volunteerism, e.g., Citizen Corps Initiative
• Preparedness
• Education
• Family Disaster Planning
• Local Emergency Management
• Exercising includes
• Information sharing
• Private Sector Partnerships
• New Regional Operations Intelligence Center
  (ROIC) nearly ready
• Fusion center for information sharing
• Replaces old EOC
• Includes state Federal agencies, NGOs, Private
  Sector

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• NJOEM Strategy (cont.)
• Evacuation Scenarios
• Invacuation relocation movement into core of
  building
• Shelter-in-Place stationary posture
• Evacuation orderly/controlled exit
• Population Protection Shelter Activation
• Public-Private Partnerships Synergy
• Cement partnerships including Private Sector to
  address needs of New Jersey
• Information sharing key to Response Recovery
• Involve local officials in evacuation planning
• Regionalization strategies for mass evacuations
• Harnessing volunteers CERT, Watch Programs
• Level of preparedness is greatly increased with
  an informed public
• NJOEM Website features sections on emergency
  preparedness including on evacuation sheltering
  activities
• Reverse 911

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Shelter Management Principles
• Recommended actions for sheltering-in-place
• Pre-event planning stockpiling
• Instill a sense of well-being (Attitudinal)
• Turn building into safe haven (Physical)
• Prepare building
• Base storage of necessities on hours not days
• Determine who will arrive at shelter in what
  condition
• Have adequate supplies of essential items
• Capacity to communicate important to counter
  rumors
• Take advantage of training opportunities
• Prepare train workforce
• Know what local resources are available
• Private Sector involvement essential
• Liaison with local American Red Cross Salvation
  Army
• Encourage employees to take shelter management
  other courses
• In-house preparedness pool of trained people to
  assist communities

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Shelter Activation Making the Call
• Most difficult decision NJ DHSS faces
• System has to touch the victim at the disaster
  site
• Who, What, When Where
• Benefits of opening shelters must outweigh
  liabilities
• Shelters are only buildings without
• Proper sanitation
• Health care medications
• Food water
• Identify logistics chain for medicines medical
  supplies
• Special health needs for populations a new
  approach
• Prepare for all circumstances
• Different populations based on different
  scenarios
• Mental health needs
• Evacuation of long-term facilities is problematic
• ARC does not run specialty needs shelters
• NJ DHSS tracks every shelter monitors health
  requirements

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Shelter Logistics
• Reverse prevailing parochial attitudes toward
  sheltering
• Local shelters to consolidate into larger
  regional operations - pooling
• NJ lacks experience with mass evacuations
• NJ will support only 500 bed shelter facilities
• Shortfalls
• Trained shelter management personnel
• Non-government Organizations are an available
  resource
• Train Private Sector employees through volunteer
  programs
• Suitable facilities - Many unknowns at play
• Some registered sites may be unavailable during
  crisises
• Material support
• Limited units restrictions make temporary
  housing a vexing problem
• Not enough cots
• Expectations of public, do not know what to do
  nor to whom to turn
• Public information programs must be developed
• Private Sector key for addressing identified
  issues
• Possesses expertise resources
• Potential source of manpower during emergencies

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Special Needs Sheltering
• Problem areas
• Communications
• Transportation
• Not drop off points for loved ones residents
  must be accompanied
• Private Sector can bridge gaps in sheltering
  programs
• Defining Special Needs difficult
• Diverse group based on numerous variables
• 23 who did not evacuate New Orleans had physical
  mobility issues
• Know who makes up your population
• Demographics not estimates
• Not all with special needs will require a special
  needs shelter
• Know resources for delivery of special services
• Obligated to accommodate special needs
• Seek legal counsel prior to using facilities as
  shelters

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Sheltering the Elderly
• Complex but manageable task
• Prepare for emergencies beyond initial response
• Plans for medications, special care recovery
  actions
• Post-event facility security reconstitution
• Credentials for staff
• Limited capacity of first responders to conduct
  major evacuations
• What the future portends
• Expanded NJ Registry of Special Needs
• Contains 100,000 names
• Blend of special needs facilities
• Greater Public-Private cooperation
• Address areas of capacity
• Leverage Private Sector resources

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceLuncheon Speaker

• Evacuation What would it be like?
• Impetus Northeast Blackout on 8-14-03
• Triggered spontaneous evacuation of NYC
• Complicated by transportation failures
• Identified needs for agreements movement plans
• Planning based on 260,000 people
• Major HAZMAT release could drive another 100-300K
  to NJ
• Next Steps
• UASI 2.5 million FY06 for evacuation
  sheltering
• State funding support
• Establishment of animal shelters
• Special needs populations
• Regionalized shelters
• Traffic/transportation modeling

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceConsiderations

• Evacuation What would it be like? (Cont.)
• Potential Private Sector Actions
• Continuity of Operations Plans
• Protect facilities
• Identify essential employees
• Take care of employees families
• Facilitate communication w/ families
• Release vs. shelter-in-place decisions
• Shelter stranded employees
• Implement agreements w/ local vendors
• Use scenario-based planning
• Get input from employees on evacuation plans
• Familiarize employees w/ planning schemes

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Sheltering In-Place for Businesses
• Top-Down Leadership vital for sheltering programs
• Post-9-11 Strategy
• Strive for self-sufficiency resiliency
• Expect to take care of your own for a length of
  time
• Ensure on-file employee information is updated
  regularly
• Important for reaching employees
• Use a communicator system to contact employees
• Provide instructions during emergencies
• Make good decisions with reliable, actionable
  information
• Build credibility trust in advance of an event
• Communications Strategy Sharing Transparency
• Shelter-in-place program
• Pre-position food cots
• Identify those with special needs
• Build capacity for minimum of 24 hours
• Possess a decontamination capability
• Share information w/ municipal first responders
• More effort needed to grow Public-Private
  partnerships

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Legal Side of Sheltering
• Good Samaritan Law of interest to Private Sector
• Legal responsibility to sheltered population
• State has confiscation compensation authority
• Emergency Health Powers Act grants state special
  authorities
• Private Sector a default if pre-determined
  shelters unavailable
• Governor can commandeer Private Sector assets
  contingent upon just compensation
• Answers not always clear cut law contains
  ambiguities
• Liabilities exist if you shelter or dont shelter
  
• Liabilities may be corporate, personal or
  criminal
• Juries reflect the makeup of its jurors
• Get past liabilities obligated to protect your
  charges
• Issue of reasonable behavior
• Make best decision to save lives under the
  circumstances
• Do everything possible to protect people despite
  liabilities

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New Orleans officials have, to their credit,
crafted a plan to use buses and trains to
evacuate the sick, the disabled and the careless
before the next big hurricane The city
estimates that 15,000 people will need a ride
out. However, state officials have not yet
determined where the trains and buses will take
everyone. Why We Dont Prepare, TIME,
August 28, 2006
Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations
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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• A National Culture of Unpreparedness

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• In June the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
  released an unprecedented analysis of state and
  urban emergency plans around the country
  including assessments of evacuation plans and
  command structures.
• DHS Report concluded most "cannot be
  characterized as fully adequate, feasible, or
  acceptable."
• Dallas, New Orleans and Oklahoma City among worst
  performers
• Florida rated best

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• But it's not just bureaucrats who are unprepared
  for calamity.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Regular people are even less likely to plan
  ahead.
• In a TIME poll, about half of those surveyed said
  they had personally experienced a natural
  disaster or public emergency.
• www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20060828,00.h
  tml

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• But only 16 said they were "very well
  prepared" for the next one. Of the rest, about
  half explained their lack of preparedness by
  saying they don't live in a high-risk area.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• There are four stages of denial
• One It won't happen.
• Two - If it does happen, it won't happen to me.
• Three - If it does happen to me, it won't be that
  bad.
• And four - If it happens to me and it's bad,
  there's nothing I can do to stop it anyway.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• What we know A serious hurricane is due to
  strike New York City, just as one did in 1821 and
  1938.
• Experts predict that such a storm would swamp
  lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Jersey City, N.J.,
  force the evacuation of more than 3 million
  people and cost more than twice as much as
  Katrina.
• An insurance-industry risk assessment ranked New
  York City as No. 2 on a list of the worst places
  for a hurricane to strike Miami came in first.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• The conventional wisdom after Katrina was that
  most of the people who failed to evacuate were
  too poor to do so.
• Overall, 33 said they would not leave or were
  not sure whether they would leave if an
  evacuation order was given.
• But it was homeowners, at 39, who were
  particularly stubborn.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Lack of funds or transportation does play a
  role for stay-behinds, but according to the poll,
  a greater consideration is a vague belief that
  their home is built well enough to survive a
  storm - a justification offered by a whopping 68.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• People cherry-pick the lessons of Katrina to
  avoid taking action.
• 54 of those who say they wouldn't evacuate are
  worried that the roads would be too crowded.
• 67 believe shelters would be dangerous.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• One of the most damaging legacies of Katrina are
  TV images of looting and graphic rumors of
  violence that crystallized our belief that we
  turn into savages in a disaster.
• www.artdiamondblog.com/images/NewOrleansLooting
  -thumb.jpg

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• A notion that is demonstrably untrue.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Ironically, 66 of those surveyed were also
  confident that if they stayed at home, they would
  eventually be rescued - a faith hardly justified
  by the Katrina experience.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Ours is a strange culture of irrational distrust
  - buoyed by irrational optimism.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• When Americans cannot be trusted to save
  themselves, the government does it for them - at
  least that's the story of mandatory car
  insurance, seat-belt laws and smoking bans.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Historically, humans get serious about avoiding
  disasters only after one has just smacked them
  across the face.
• What this means is that the emergency management
  community will be forced into a situation where
  it plans in a vacuum to assist the population it
  spite of itself.
• If this assertion becomes an operating assumption
  and a majority of people do not prepare
  adequately, then sound sheltering strategies must
  begin in the pre-event stage.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• The issue is much more difficult and basic
• It goes to the heart of personal
  responsibility and the role of the emergency
  response community.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• There is only so much the emergency response
  community can do.  There is no question that in
  general it must take more effort to inform,
  involve and advise the public on plans and
  programs but there is only so much they can do
  without individuals taking some responsibility.

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Continuity of Community

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Shelterees vs. Shelter Residents
• The longer the period the more difficult shelter
  operations become
• Short- vs. longer-term residents
• Once occupied, how do you get people out of
  shelters?
• Information management and rumor control
• Support structure
• Psychological issues
• Return to Normal

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• After insisting for months that it can
  provide only short-term assistance to victims of
  Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency
  Management Agency is beginning to allow outside
  groups to plan for a longer future for its
  trailer parks. FEMA and the nonprofit
  organization Save the Children jointly announced
  in July a plan to open a community center on the
  450-trailer Diamond Group Site in Plaquemines
  Parish, La. -- the kind of space that FEMA has
  resisted providing at other sites. Save the
  Children and local charities will work with
  residents to secure child care and other social
  services, and to create play areas. (National
  Journal)

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Disaster Sheltering ConferenceOpen Discussion -
Considerations

• Closing Thoughts/ Observations
• NJs geography presents real planning challenges
• Goal of Disaster Sheltering is to maintain
  Business People Continuity
• Sheltering is no longer the sole domain of the
  state
• Nature of the event determines the factors faced
• Know the demographic composition of your
  workforce
• Liabilities are a fact of life
• Dont let fear of liabilities prevent you from
  doing the right thing
• Public-Private Partnership is a force multiplier
• Conference Paean Plan, Train Exercise

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Disaster Sheltering Conference Wrap-Up

• Facilitator Observations
• 9-11 changed our perspectives toward emergencies
• Continuity of Community
• Share plans transparency are key to employee
  cooperation
• Successful shelter management is dependant on
  logistics
• Shelters operations are detailed involve
  varying levels of training
• Shelter operations contain complex challenges
• Health Medical
• Special Needs
• Liabilities
• Staffing

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Disaster Sheltering Conference Wrap-Up

• Facilitator Observations (Cont.)
• Plan for special needs populations
• A very diverse group
• Know demographics requirements of shelter
  population
• Understand fully discharge obligations
• Liability is a balance between doing the right
  thing vs. obligations under the law
• Katrina validated Response Communitys
  unpreparedness
• Change of culture needed
• Educate shelter staff about their
  responsibilities
• Training exercising is essential for success