The 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season officially began on June 1. Government meteorologists are predicting that several major hurricanes may hit our region which is why communities must begin to plan.
The destructive impact of hurricanes can be deadly and far-reaching causing significant damage to infrastructures, disrupting essential services, and posing severe risks to public safety.
Local mayors and town managers must now begin preparations to effectively deal with potential power outages, road flooding and closures, water and sewage plant disruptions, and serious structural damage to homes and businesses.
Unfortunately, many of our local city and town managers do not have a high level of experience directing an emergency response to a major hurricane impacting their community. This is why each community in our region must begin a risk assessment to identify vulnerabilities and ways to mitigate and respond to storm damage. A risk and response multi-disciplinary team must be created, including leaders from police, fire, emergency management, emergency medical service, public works, utility providers and those volunteers responsible for community emergency response teams or medical reserve corps. This team needs to address staffing and equipment needs during and in the aftermath of a severe hurricane, whether emergency generators in municipal buildings and shelters are ready to provide power for an extended period of time during an outage and who will staff shelters that will provide a safe haven for local residents, many of whom will be experiencing anxiety, medical problems and mental health issues? And let’s not forget sheltering family pets.
Other areas include preparing for a mass casualty incident resulting from severe structural damage to an apartment or condo complex. A public information spokesman must be appointed to assure that all official municipal risk and emergency communications are delivered in a timely fashion, with honesty, repetition and consistency. The spokesman must be familiar with using all social media platforms, reverse 911 messaging, a special landing page on the town website, local access cable TV and newspaper websites as a way of disseminating storm news to community stakeholders.
A study just released by New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation cited many failures in Buffalo’s response to the deadly blizzard which killed dozens last year. Last years confluence of snow with winds as high as 70 miles per hour created snow drifts as high as 15 feet. The report cited inadequate emergency communications and warnings from city officials about the severity of the storm. For example, government messaging did not quickly and effectively stress the dangers of travel by foot and car resulting in stranded motorists and pedestrians. Residents said city officials did not request employers to cancel work as the storm approached with increased intensity. Many city storm responders were stuck in their homes and unable to assist with emergency management duties, while 911 dispatchers were overwhelmed with calls for help. Shelters lost power and heat because some emergency generators failed to work.
Every mayor, town administrator and emergency manager should read the NYU report. Be prepared for the worst, and hope for the best is a motto that every community should follow right now.
Billerica resident Rick Pozniak has served on the emergency management team of several hospitals during hurricanes and is FEMA credentialed in disaster communications and incident command