Memo 05-157

To: Walt Wrede, City Manager

From: Bob Painter, Fire Chief/Director of Emergency Services

CC:

Date: October 4, 2005

Re: Disaster Preparedness

With the events impacting the Gulf Coast of the United States and the potential for a similar, wide-spread event impacting Alaska now is the perfect time to revisit the issue of disaster preparedness and mitigation. As you may know I have asked in the past for funding to revise and update the City of Homer Disaster Plan and to survey critical infrastructure in and around Homer to determine its vulnerability to withstand potential manmade or natural disaster. This issue needs to be given additional consideration to locate potential funding sources to fund the revisions (Borough, State, FEMA), though we have the ability in-house to perform risk and vulnerability assessments (with the exception of structural engineering assessments).

Background Information:

To bring you up to speed on what is currently in place as far as our disaster preparedness is concerned we in essence have two disaster plans: one from the Kenai Peninsula Borough and a “Draft” Plan for the City of Homer. Both plans were created by William (Pinky) Morse in the mid 1990s. The Kenai Peninsula Borough contracted with Mr. Morse last year to revise the Borough Plan but I have yet to see any changes made to the plan. The plan itself is made up of several volumes: EOC Guide, Admin Guide, Resource Guide and contain useful background information and check sheets for each of the primary threats to each of the KPB Zones. The Resource Guide is updated every couple of years to ensure that phone numbers and contacts are correct and potential shelters are still usable and willing to provide shelter in case of disaster. For the most part all KPB schools are listed as potential shelters as are most local churches. Each of the local schools has back-up power generation capability and limited stores of food and water on hand. A couple of the local churches have some cots and blankets provided by the American Red Cross and stored in a minimal “disaster cache”. In all I would hesitate to guess that we have a hundred cots and blankets in and around Homer for shelter use.

Perceived Needs:

1. Update the Homer Disaster Plan. Contract with a consultant to update the plan. David Gibbs seems to be interested in making the plan more “user friendly” and useful than those that currently exist.

2. Conduct a survey of all critical infrastructures that provide Homer with services: HEA, Public Works, medical treatment (hospitals, clinics), Water/waste-water treatment facilities, refuse pickup/disposal, food distribution networks, fuel supplies and transportation (how do we receive goods and services if the road system is unusable?). How are they prepared to operate in disaster situations to provide treated water, food, fuel, waste -water treatment, power generation etc. Contingencies need to be thought out on how to provide essential services to people in an emergency, i.e. how do we provide patient care if the hospital if destroyed or rendered unusable due to structural failure or compromise.

3. Designate shelters and provide them with caches of water, emergency rations, cots and blankets for the number of their individual capacities. Focus on those with emergency power generation capacities, shower/restroom facilities (gravity flow) and low vulnerability (built to earthquake standards, out of flood zones etc.) The Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management recommend that residents plan on at least 7 days before any substantial help will arrive (if at all, depending on the scope of the situation).

4. Harden our own critical infrastructure to be more disaster resistant. Instead of building to “earthquake” standard of emergency egress, build to a “continuation of services” standard. In short, most buildings (even those designed and built to earthquake zone IV standard) only provide for the short term survival of the structure (time for the occupants to escape relatively unharmed). Critical infrastructure should be designed or hardened to be able to function with minimal disruption of services (minor damage, mostly cosmetic in nature).

5. City Training and Education. No disaster plan is complete (ever). Plans left on a shelf never get practiced and never get followed. We need to begin by training all of our city personnel (paid, volunteer and elected) in disaster response and survival so that they can continue to function in an emergency and not have to worry about their own families and homes. Every one of the city staff should be trained in the incident command system and how to fill potential roles in a disaster command structure: finance, planning, public works, logistics, operations are all necessary and critical roles that will need to be filled by local people for at least 72 hours following a large scale incident. There is not one city employee that can’t be trained to a minimal level. Department and Division Heads need to be familiar with the plan and their roles within that command structure.

6. Public Education and Participation. Obviously in a wide-spread disaster we lack the resources to provide all the services necessary and can only provide the most basic rescue, emergency medical and fire services before we will be overwhelmed. All requests for aid will have to be “triaged” so that our limited resources are not over committed for minor situations. One way that can be accomplished is by training members of the public to be more self-sufficient in case of disaster. Community Emergency Response Technician (CERT) training was developed specifically with that goal in mind. CERT trained people are shown very basic procedures to assist themselves and their neighbors with surviving a disaster: how to shut off water and fuel lines, how to use simple hand tools to rescue trapped victims, and very basic first aid. More importantly they learn how to be better prepared themselves and are less likely to need our assistance unless really necessary. The KPB OEM is currently training people in CERT and has a class planned in Homer in October. We should endorse this training and perhaps assist in the organization of these trained responders to supplement our more highly trained EMT’s and firefighters to free them up for more important tasks. To accomplish this we would need to provide them with a means to be notified and a means to communicate with them in the field in a disaster (FRS/GMR radios, inexpensive pagers, CAN system etc.). In addition, the fire department/City should sponsor a annual Disaster Preparedness Conference for the public to re-educate them on how to be ready in an emergency.

7. Mitigation has become a vivid reality in light of the serious lack of planning for communities along the Gulf Coast. Where the City of Homer has jurisdiction over planning and zoning we need to give serious consideration to declaring areas “off limits” to building. It should be impossible to build (especially critical infrastructure) in flood zones, tsunami inundation zones, steep slopes subject to sliding/sloughing etc. (like most of the Homer bluffs) without first dealing with more important issues than aesthetics. For instance, if you want to build in a flood zone, there are methods of construction and designs that are available that permit construction but limit the amount of structural damage to a building. Steep slope development is a serious issue facing the City of Homer at this time. Delivery of services to areas designated as “steep slope” is impractical and potentially hazardous to responders. I’m sure there are structures right now that we could not respond a fire truck to because of inadequate driveway widths or capacities, or too steep a grade.