Improved Access

Disasters tend to keep Americans on their toes in terms of emergency planning. But when Mother Nature is quiet and things are running smoothly, it's easy for emergency response agencies to become complacent about their readiness for the next big eventunless you happen to be in Jackson County, Fla.

A few months ago, the Jackson County Emergency Management Administration contracted with the Disaster Resistant Communities Group, a private consulting organization, to develop an initiativeOperation Full Access--to facilitate better planning and preparedness for the county's most vulnerable citizens: those with special medical needs, senior citizens, the transportation-disadvantaged and those with limited English. In Jackson County, that includes about a third of the population.

"The primary emphasis is to identify the current disaster readiness status for those stakeholder individuals, as well as the readiness levels of the various organizations that support those individuals," explains Chris Floyd, a vice president for the DRC Group. "As we've moved through the project, we've looked at the county's current plans, processes and procedures, and found there was mention here and there about things like dealing with special-needs sheltering, but there wasn't much in terms of how to better educate those individuals to be better prepared."

In September, 47 organizations representing the above-mentioned vulnerable populations participated in a tabletop exercise designed to give stakeholders an opportunity to assess their readiness to continue to provide services to their clients in the aftermath of a hurricane.

"The exercise, called Hurricane ADA [after the Americans with Disability Act], used an online system, called the Onyx System, which allowed a broad spectrum of people representing the stakeholder individuals to play out the exercise at their own operational headquarters," explains Floyd. "About half the scenarios were very general, and others were more specific. For instance, organizations that play roles in transportation were asked, ?How prepared are you as a transportation provider? How many buses do you have? If three-quarters of your buses were damaged or destroyed during a hurricane, do you have a mutual-aid agreement with someone to bring in more buses so you can continue to provide transportation to the disadvantaged?' As they keyed in their responses, we were able to prepare an after-action report that would then coach them on how to reach out to surrounding counties in the future. We're still working on finalizing the initiative and hope it will be done by the end of the year."

So how ready is Jackson County? "I had a 35-year career with the Red Cross, and it's always a challenge to be continuously focusing on the need to be ready," says Floyd. "In Florida, we've gone four years now without any significant hurricanes, so we've found the preparedness level has dropped from what it was after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. After 2005, everyone was geared up to be ready, but as time marches on, we've focused on other activities and some things get put on the back burner. I would say Jackson County is about on the same level as any community in the country. There are good systems, but there's always room for improvement."

For emergency planners interested in developing an initiative similar to Jackson County's to determine readiness in their own system, there are two starting points, says Floyd. "No. 1 is to bring the right players together, and No. 2 is to design and facilitate an exercise that will help determine the current readiness levels of both individuals and stakeholder organizations," he says. "As an example, does the local dialysis center have a generator? Will they be able to provide dialysis services in the days and weeks following a disaster? If not, and there are 197 individuals who need dialysis every couple of days, they have a big problem. You need to help that dialysis center become better prepared by engaging their readiness level, and the best way to do that is via a tabletop or other type of exercise. Once the exercise is over, look at existing plans or existing funding opportunities and begin to develop a meaningful, doable plan--not some pie-in-the-sky document that will never happen."

For more information on Operation Full Access and the Disaster Resistant Communities Group, visit www.drc-group.com/project/disability-florida-jackson.html.