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Parks & Rec Business
| parks + playgrounds What a Disaster... The importance of emergency preparation and what you can do... By William Potter The threat of hurricanes coming ashore along the East and Gulf Coasts is diminishing as the weather cools, and the storm season winds down. We are all breathing a collective sigh of relief. Natural disasters, not just hurricanes, come in all shapes and sizes. There are floods, tornadoes, blizzards and wild fires, just to name some. Should you and your community be struck by any of these events, it is quite likely that your agency will be called upon to provide support and recovery relief. In addition, there will be a need to protect your fiscal and human resources. Are We Really Prepared To Respond? I have always thought the one thing government does very well is to provide protective services and disaster relief. Unfortunately, one has to rethink that assumption in the wake of the hurricanes that devastated the Gulf regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Therefore, maybe we should take on more of this responsibility at the local level. We in parks and recreation must ask ourselves specific questions: Are we prepared to really respond? Can we provide useful aid to our communities in advance and in the wake of natural and health disasters? I know that we all have plenty of work to do each and every day. Putting together a disaster plan is not at the top of the list. If you don’t have one in writing, or you trust emergency services to direct any disaster-management operations, you will probably be overwhelmed and unprepared if a disaster befalls your community. We were when three hurricanes struck our county within a three-month period in 2004. Here are some ideas and considerations for effective and efficient preparation in the event of a natural disaster or health emergency. Before The Event Your Facilities: Inventory everything in your park system. This should include filming and/or photographing all park sites, the interior and exterior of every structure at every park. Keep these records protected and update the history every year. Should you experience a catastrophic event, you may be hard-pressed to prove that structures and amenities previously existed. If you can’t prove it, you will have a difficult time making a successful claim for disaster-relief funds in recovery. If you have notice of an impending event, you should be able to prepare and protect both your facilities and staff. Some steps, such as pre-positioning equipment, filling portable fuel containers and topping off the fuel tanks of rolling stock are a given. There are other considerations: Your Staff Do you have a current and accurate call-to-duty list? How sure are you that your staff will respond to a call back? Staff is understandably worried about the welfare of their families. Plan to offer secure facilities, such as recreation centers, etc., as family shelters for call-to-duty staff. Prepare the facilities with sufficient potable water, food and toilet accommodations. Allow families to bring pets to the shelter in carriers. In recent disasters many people refused to leave their homes when they could not take their pets with them to a shelter. We found that the single, most important factor in recovery after a natural disaster is the restoration of electricity. Clearing streets of debris for utility crews is very important. Give serious thought to the installation of capacity electric generators for the shelter. Air conditioning, heat and warm showers make a stressful situation much more manageable. Can You Communicate? Communication with staff and families is a key element of efficient response. Have sufficient portable radios. Cell-phone communication is unreliable at best, especially shortly after a major event. How much will staff be paid? Establish written guidelines for call back pay, emergency responder pay, etc., and the conditions under which each employee falls in the pay categories. Nothing will wreck morale faster than pay issues after the fact. Since recovery will put a huge hit on operating budgets, the need to predetermine pay rates and call back status in advance is another reason to think this through. During The Event Stay Safe During your pre-planning, work with emergency services to determine any requirements for the use of heavy equipment or staff during a natural disaster emergency. Make sure that staff knows these requirements, and get members properly trained. Otherwise, hunker down, stay informed and communicate with emergency management. Recovery This is the time in which our work really begins. If you have prepared well, your parks and recreation agency can make a significant contribution to the recovery of the community. Facilities After the storms, our parks were used as temporary sites for debris collected from stricken neighborhoods. In part, the reason for this was to place no more material in our landfill than necessary. The damage to the tree canopy in the county was extreme. We chipped this material to reduce its volume. Subsequently, we transported much of the resulting material to be used as a fuel source for electrical generation. If this is your plan, understand that the parks will be out of service for an extended period of time. Damage will inevitably be done to facilities and grounds as a result. Keep detailed records for reimbursement claims. Finally, you will need to inventory the condition of the park prior to the commencement of the clean-up effort. (Photos are very effective.) This will support claims against any subcontractors employed in the clean-up efforts that use your parks for dumping, staging, etc. Have a source of replacement and repair parts identified and on hand. You will run through things like chain-saw chains, bar oil, dust masks, protective clothing, etc. Keep detailed records. If you don’t, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will become your worst nightmare. Examine all records collected regarding work performed by subcontractors and your staff every day of the recovery effort. Assign a detail-oriented person to liaison with FEMA reps. Often FEMA will employ temporary personnel to implement its rules and policies. Suffice it to say that often these individuals are not thoroughly trained and prepared. Thus, they can and do make arbitrary decisions regarding field policies. Someone needs to stay on top of this if you hope to recover the reimbursements that you and your agency are entitled to. Look after staff engaged in the recovery operations. Plan to employ as many of your staff in meaningful work as possible. Many people work from paycheck to paycheck. If your operations are off-line for any significant period of time, some of the staff will have a hard time paying bills. To help, consider allowing staff to bring the children to work until schools open. Use other staff to initiate childcare. Talk to the administration about allowing staff to stay on payroll, even after paid leaves have been exhausted. Establish a repayment program in advance. Your staff is your organization’s lifeblood. In closing, please take the time during this winter season to consider the role that your parks and recreation agency could and should play in any disaster plan. Finally, join me in saying a prayer to your higher power for the victims of the storms that have recently ravaged our nation’s Gulf Coast. Let’s all pray for a renewal of communities and livelihoods and the restoration of their American Dream. William Potter is the parks and recreation division manager for Orange County Parks, Florida. He can be reached at william.potter@ocfl.net. |
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