In the event of a major flood, do you know what to do?
That was a question posed at the Extreme Event Workshop led by the Pennsylvania Silver Jackets on Thursday. Community leaders and stakeholders took part in an hour-long game that challenged them to budget for resources and work with other teams to solve hypothetical problems that could appear during a flooding scenario.
The workshop was led by Patricia Usher, community planner and public involvement specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District, who previously worked for the Huntingdon Silver Jackets team and completed several workshops with West Virginia groups.
“We’re hoping to do a lot more of these,” she said, “because it’s a great way to get people to learn about the planning process.”
Among the participants was Indiana County Commissioner Sherene Hess.
“(I wanted to gain) some knowledge,” she said, “about what I can do in my role to be the most effective for when these events do occur, and to meet all these partners — local, federal and state — and there’s lots of good opportunities here.”
Set in the hypothetical River City — complete with all the right conditions for a major flood, including recent snow melt and incoming heavy rain — participants were split amongst six sectors: First Responders, Households, Businesses, Community Groups, Federal Officials and Local/State Officials.
Their first task was to take 24 cards, representing hypothetical manpower, equipment and other important resources typically allocated by different sectors, and asked to budget for 12. Participants had no additional details other than basic facts about River City and the knowledge of an incoming flood emergency.
With a crack of thunder and steady rainfall, the flood waters came and presented a new challenge to the participants. Now split amongst six different neighborhoods within River City, they had to work together to allocate as many resources to different issues as possible.
In one neighborhood, the hydroelectric power station was damaged, forcing responders to choose to divert power to the local hospital or nursing homes and emergency shelters. Another had to choose to flood the historic district or allow rising waters to consume the local research laboratories.
The room was just as chaotic as an actual disaster, with participants bartering amongst a loud and busy room for resources to solve their unique issues.
In the end, only the Meadowland residents, who faced a decision to transfer inmates in the local prison to neighboring towns or to set up a temporary shelter in the city, was able to allocate enough resources to successfully transfer these imaginary inmates to other regional prisons.
“We were unaware of a (secure shelter) may be,” Planning Section Deputy Director of the Indiana County Planning and Development Office Josh Krug said, “and knew that there were other communities, and we were hopeful that we could come to some agreement to be able to transfer some of the inmates.”
Many noted challenges in the planning process and communication. One team discarded their warm clothing and heaters “resources” as they noted the warm weather and determined those wouldn’t be as important, but for many scenarios, that was the key element that was missing.
“One of the things that was noticeable, if we were able to talk to each other across sectors — picking our resources — we would have picked differently, and that is kind of the point. We’re not talking to each other. We’re working in our own little vacuums to prepare for things, so that when it happens, you wouldn’t know what’s going on.”
When discussion solutions to these communications and planning issues, FEMA Region 3 Interagency Recover Coordination Branch Chief Wynne Kwan said that it is important to identify resources across all partners.
“One of the things we constantly talk about and really promote,” she said, “is really get to know your partners because everybody in a community has some resource.”
Tammy Collazzo, Indiana Borough council member, advocated getting to know the people you live next to and how they could possibly help in the event of a disaster — a personal motto she practices, including sharing extra food with her neighbors.
“I know it may never happen,” she said, “but in the event of an emergency, how many of your neighbors do you know? How many children do you recognize? None of them.
“What matters is, can you walk to your neighbors, feel welcome, give help and enjoy life?”
The workshop concluded with a Q&A session where participants asked about available resources for disaster prevention and preparation, including about preventing flooding that occurred in Clymer back in April.
“I learned that communication is so important,” Hess said. “It’s clear to me that being prepared is one things and being able to communicate is another. Thank you to all of the first responders that put their lives on the line to protect our lives and property.”
View the full article at indianagazette.com.