Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans ICS Experience

Hurricane Katrina and
New Orleans ICS Experience
Pre-Katrina Preparedness
Experience with weathering small storms left them underprepared
for a major storm in spite of dire warnings from researchers
•While many understood the flooding potential, they had not experienced first
had devastation of what a flood can do.
•The mindset was that ‘we will be back home in 24-48 hours’.
• There were no plans for Evacuation, Sheltering, Mass Care for those who did
not have the means to leave on their own or found injured
•Incident Plans existed only as documents and not used to respond under a
structured framework like ICS or similar command structure
•No pre-vision on how to operationalize such plans
Planning for a Storm and not Flood
caused all Rescue Equipment 10ft under
water, rendering them useless.
What We Saw When We Arrived
Pre-Katrina Preparedness (2)
•ICS was only being used for fire incidents by the Fire
Department
•The EOC staff was not trained in ICS
•They operated under a different, but effective management
structure.
•Due to the devastation, the EOC staff were all victims
themselves
•The department heads were skeptical at best to try ICS
Much of the Infrastructure
was Compromised
• Significant infrastructure
failures…
• Roadways were blocked or
destroyed -Supply lines
were compromised
• A lack of pre-positioned
food, water and fuel
created a logistics crisis
Volunteers Showed Up in
Droves
• Volunteers from
all over came
with boats to try
to help...
No plan or
process for
tracking them…
Logistical
nightmare
Assistance Teams Arrived
to Find a State of Chaos
• A “temporary” EOC
was constructed at
the Hyatt Hotel
What We Did About It.
EOC/Control Room,
Incident Response Teams
and ICS
• Support Systems
had to be
implemented “onthe-fly”
• Establishing
Command and
Control was a
nightmare!
Deployed Emergency Systems (Unisys)
• Immediately
deployed a satellitebased
communications
system to support
voice / data
communications
• Connected City Hall,
the EOC, State
Federal Govt., and
NGOs.
Deployed Emergency Systems
• Deployed 100
computer
stations in the
Hyatt Hotel to
handle 24-hour
vital work by
officials and
agencies
Ed Minyard, Juan Godoy
Assisting Organizations brought ICS
Principles and Tools
Responding Incident Management Teams
•Introduced and trained ICS to the EOC staff and government officials
at city level
• Set up a 20
position Public
Information
Center (311) –
also in the Hyatt
Additional Problems Identified
•There was no on-site coordination between the line departments…
IE: the water department was on one corner, electric company
on another but not talking to each other
•State/Local plans were not consistent with national terminology
•Provided trained & experienced “Deputies” to support the local ICS
“Section Chiefs”
I.T. solution (Previstar CPS) was
introduced to operationalize ICS
•ICS Forms and Daily Briefs
•Decision support, Resource
Deployment
•Community Support (311 center)
•Damage Assessment
•Cost Recovery
•Military Personnel, and National Guards had their own command structure
and were not ready to deviate.
Conclusion: Attempting to change management structures during an
event is not ideal– people under stress are reluctant to deviate from the
familiar
ICS Applied to the EOC
Organization Assignment ICS 207
(ICS implementation was actually a hybrid)
•First an Organization Assignment List (ICS 203/207) /Command Structure was
created.
Placards were placed on tables to make sure EOC staff immediately knew their ICS Groups.
External IMT members that were not city employees served as “Deputies” and not Chiefs because govt.
employees will only recognize their elected or selected leaders.
•City departments were divided into Branches & Groups under Operations Section
based on their functions.
It was difficult in the beginning due to unfamiliarity and lack of buy-in. But within a week each
department started to get the benefits from an unified command structure, organized workflow
and better decision support.
Operations Section (ICS 207)…Continued
ICS Applied to the EOC …Continued
•A “daily brief” was conducted by various departments (ICS Groups)
reflecting their status for the last operational period lead by the Planning,
Operations, Logistics, and Finance Section Chiefs.
•Following the brief, a planning meeting was conducted by the City’s Chief
Operating Officer representing the Mayor resulting in the preparation of
Incident Action Plan (IAP)
•This internal briefing was also sanitized by the Pubic Information Officer
(assigned to mayor’s chief of staff) and given to the press/media.
Situation Reports – Hurricane Katrina/Rita
SIGNIFICANT ACTIVITIES
Future 24-48 Hours
Expand RTA bus routes.
Continue to install stop signs or traffic signals for all major intersections including
the “Look and Leave” area
Continue environmental testing (Air, water, Hazmat)
Continue with debris and trash removal in all areas of the city.
Continue Levee repairs and inspections
Restoration of electric, gas, and telephone service.
Continue to provide appropriate Health and Human Services.
Assessment Criteria
SIGNIFICANT ACTIVITIES
Future 24-48 Hours
Continue to provide public information for re-entry and conduct a 311 information
line.
• Green: 75 - 100% functional. (Satisfactory)
• Amber: 25 – 74% functional. (Marginal)
• Red: 0 – 24% functional. (Unsatisfactory)
Ensure public security for reentry and “Look and Leave”.
Operations of DRCs.
Continued support (i.e. feeding centers) of re-entry areas.
Coordinate placement of temporary housing with infrastructure (i.e. water, electric)
capability.
Based on city and outside resources
Focus on inspections and permitting in identified zip codes.
Electricity(Power) Status – Nov.6, 2005
G
G
G
G
A
G
G
A
G
A
R
G
R
U
R
R
G
G
A
G
G
A
G
G
A
G
A
R
G
R
U
A
R
Cty Pk
70119
G
G
G
A
G
G
A
G
G
A
G
A
R
G
R
U
R
R
Gentilly
70122
A
G
A
G
G
G
A
G
G
A
G
G
R
G
R
U
R
R
Downman
126-L
A
G
R
G
G
G
A
G
G
R
G
A
R
G
R
U
R
R
Downman
126-U
A
G
A
G
G
G
A
G
G
R
G
A
R
G
R
U
R
R
NO East
70127
A
G
A
G
G
G
A
G
G
R
G
A
R
G
R
U
R
R
NO East
70128
A
G
A
G
G
G
A
G
G
R
G
G
R
G
R
U
R
R
NO East
70129
A
G
G
A
G
G
A
G
G
R
G
R
R
G
R
U
G
R
9th Ward
117-U
G
G
A
A
G
G
A
G
G
A
G
R
R
G
R
U
R
R
9th Ward
117-L
R
R
R
R
R
G
R
R
G
R
G
R
R
G
R
U
R
R
B
S
eb
r
ld
g
In
Co sp
m
m
Le erc
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ve
e
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un
A
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de
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ou
sin
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sp
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at
w
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fo
Fir
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en
91
t
1
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Xavier
70125
is
EM
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70124
Se
w
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W
at
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D
Assessment Rollup
For ICS to work during a major emergency:
Learning a Lesson
•ICS must be accepted and used by all agencies, including:
Electric/Gas, PWD, Health, police, fire, national guard, military personnel, NGO s etc.
•
Remember that a Hurricane/Cyclone is
one of the very few disasters that you
can at least see coming…
•
Are we prepared for what could
happen tomorrow…or today?
Do we have a plan that can be
activated?
Do we know who is trained in doing
what (Skills/Credentialing) ?
Do we know where are our resources?
Are we familiar with and trained on the
Response Guidelines ?
Have we done exercises with a
solution that we can use during a
response?
•Elected officials must accept and follow the system
•Standardization is necessary to avoid confusion when outside support
arrives. Common terminology is critical especially when working with
•
disparate organizations
•
• The right I.T. solution must be used to support the administration to
•
•
properly manage, process and disseminate information along with making
•
informative decisions.
Conclusion
Incident Response Guidelines
1.All parties must know about it
2.Management must accept it & mandate it,
3.Everyone must train on it and practice it,
4.IT solutions must be used to support any real or
simulated incident.
Bottom Line: ICS must become part
of the organizational culture
Thank You
Himadri Banerjee (C.T.O)
Previstar Inc.
ICS Roles served:
Logistics
Documentation Unit
Incident Response Team Member (Unisys/Previstar)