Emergency managers in Alabama say we’ve entered what’s traditionally the roughest part of the hurricane season. While forecasters watch for new storms, local disaster officials are taking part in the first of its kind weather drill in the continental United States.
The crowd filling the Baldwin County Emergency Operations Center watched the storm track as a major hurricane approached the Alabama coast. While the scenario was a drill, the activity in the EOC and other locations was as realistic as possible. The idea is to be ready when the next real hurricane hits. Hurricane drills are not new, but this one was unique in a way.
“In fact, it’s the first type of exercise, which is an integrated capstone exercise, in the continental United States,” said Zach Hood, Baldwin County emergency management director. “What FEMA and the CDP, the Center for Domestic Preparedness wanted to do was say, 'Hey, we see that this is a need in communities such as Baldwin and what they wanted to be able to do is meet that need.'"
The center is an arm of FEMA which prepares local residents and governments to respond to disasters. More than 150 people in the Gulf coast region participated in the drill. They represented agencies from local food banks, to elected officials to the Coast Guard, National Guard and city, county and state first responders. In addition to making plans to evacuate tens of thousands of residents and tourists as a hurricane approached, organizers threw in other complications.
“The main lesson is we have to be ready for anything and this particular case, we do have an evacuation situation for this exercise, so we’re dealing with a storm that we have a high-level of confidence that it’s going to impact the Gulf Coast, particularly in our area and during the evacuation process, there was a hazmat incident that occurred with possible fatalities,” Hood said.
In the drill scenario, an 18-wheeler carrying hazardous materials overturned on I-10, closing that road, a nearby highway and threatening an elementary school. At least 12 people are dead. Hood said these are situations you have to prepare for.
“Evacuation is obviously a huge undertaking, traffic congestion, traffic issues and there are a number of hazardous materials that move up and down the roadways, so that threat is realistic. That hazard index is there for us,” Hood said.
Hurricanes don’t follow set plans. That’s something Clarke County EMA Director Roy Waite saw last year during Hurricane Zeta.
“Our big lessons from Hurricane Zeta was probably being a little more prepared when things are coming in farther away,” Waite said. “So, if it’s coming in Mobile County, Baldwin County or maybe even over in Harrison, we’re more prepared. We stand up our operations a little higher than we did for this one because it was coming in all the way over near Louisiana. Things that we always look at is how big the storm is, the radius of it, obviously the wind speed, but then also that forward speed. What we didn’t anticipate well enough was how quickly it was going to get to Clarke County and how strong it was still going to be when it got there.”
Drills not only help prepare for the unexpected. They’re a chance to work with the same people you’ll be depending on when the real storm hits.
“It’s a good learning experience," Waite said. “Today, you have some people with a lot of experience that have done these before and then you have quite a few people in here today that are new at being in the emergency operations center. Maybe they’re normally out in the field, whether it be a police officer or firefighter or Coast Guard or someone else, so they’re not as familiar with what happens in the emergency operations center. So this give them a good opportunity to see what works within the emergency operations center and what information we need from the field in order to better assist them.”
Officials will be going over the results of the drill in upcoming weeks. Hood said they’ll be looking for what went right and what didn’t go as planned.
“And at the end of the day, what matters is let’s identify our gaps,” Hood said. “Let’s identify what we do well and what we didn’t well and let’s start building a program that has some depth and resilience for the years to come and that’s what you see.”
Hurricane Sally showed that communication is one area where improvements are needed. More people now get their news from outside sources and not traditional newscasts. Hood said that led to some folks missing important information and bulletins from local officials and media during last year’s busy hurricane season.
“We’re going to give you the best prediction,” Hood said. “We’re going to make sure that you have the best forecast and we’re always going to point to our local weather service, our local media outlets. We’re going to share those if those sources are reliable. We’re going to make sure that that gets out to you for you. It was a major problem in Sally and as far as lessons learned, if you can do one that is know your local emergency management officials.”
Hood said they’ll be working to fix the problems they find and look at how to resolve other issues that come up as the Gulf population grows in the future.
“This is not a one and done type deal,” Hood said. “What we want this to do is last for the remainder of the season and into next year and then next year, I’m hopeful that we get to do this again. So that’s the strategy here is to continue to sharpen the saw and work together to identify any kind of gaps that the county dynamics are changing very quickly in Baldwin.”