|
| |
|
October 14, 1999 DES MOINES, Iowa-- The experience of an emergency or disaster is usually accompanied by words such as fear, anxiety and panic. The Iowa Emergency Management Division works with counties and citizens to help provide routines to follow and directions to guide people during such incidents. The Iowa Emergency Management Division is divided by county, allowing it to handle emergencies on a smaller scale. Robert Goldhammer, emergency management coordinator for Polk County, oversees training and preparation for emergencies, and a large part of the preparation is keeping emergency operations plans updated. The overall plan for emergency operations is updated about every four years, Goldhammer said. He said portions of the report are completed each year over a four-year span. In addition, schools and businesses are required to have their own emergency plans. Goldhammer said these institutions usually base their plans on the emergency operations plan and then work with emergency management to see if the plan will work. There are four different ways to prepare for an emergency: drills, tabletop exercises, functional exercises and full-scale exercises. In addition to fire and tornado drills, smaller procedures such as making phone calls to employees to check a contact database (a phone chain used in case of emergencies) are also important, Goldhammer said. Tabletop exercises are discussions where scenarios of various emergencies are discussed. In full-scale exercises, which are performed about once every two years, fire trucks and ambulances actually go out on a staged emergency. "Different agencies are a little more involved," Goldhammer said. "They'll have a person hook up the hose, have the paramedics transporting patients; people perform actions rather than just talk about them." When emergencies do occur in Iowa, Goldhammer said emergency management is competent in handling them, even though some emergency management coordinators work only part-time. "From what I see, emergency management coordinators in bigger cities are very active and have good programs," Goldhammer said. "Some communities don't, perhaps, have as much background, but then they don't have as many threats. They work hard too, and probably with the history of events that occur in Iowa, people are up to speed with what's going on" Goldhammer said the two biggest hazards in Des Moines in the past year were a propane fire and severe weather. Emergency management evacuated 5,000 people as a result of the propane fire, which happened Dec. 30, 1998, on 14th Street, Goldhammer said. He said emergency management thought the truck was holding 30,000 gallons, which prompted the evacuation. "In that case, we had to notify the public and did that, we had to take care of sheltering and did that, we had to provide transportation and did that, and we had to have fire-fighters," Goldhammer said. In the severe weather during the summer of 1998, consequences included flooding, power outages and loss of air conditioning. Goldhammer said as a result of the floods, cooling stations had to be set up to accommodate residents who had lost air conditioning. He said a few injuries, but no deaths, resulted from the incident. "There were problems for us to work on, but overall, yes, I think it went well," he said. After each incident, Goldhammer said meetings are held to discuss "what I like to call the good, the bad and the ugly" to help prepare for future incidents. Flooding and hazardous materials incidents are the two most prevalent emergencies in Iowa, Goldhammer said. But in addition to knowing emergencies common to Iowa, each county must prepare a hazard analysis listing the 20 most frequent emergencies in its area. A.J. Mumm, hazard mitigation planner, began working on an updated analysis for Polk County Jan. 4 and recently completed it. "The last one was done in '97, and they're not done every year, but it's nice to go through it on a somewhat regular basis and take into account different hazards that have happened in the meantime," Mumm said. "The main impact of this priority list is to take the list and move to take action on high-priority hazards. The most frequent hazards need to be taken care of first." Natural, man-made and technological hazards are ranked by six categories: the number of times a hazard has occurred in a community in the past; the likelihood that the hazard will occur; vulnerability, or the percentage of people and property that will be affected; maximum threat, or the extent of the community that might be affected; severity of impact; and speed of onset. A hazard receives a ranking from one to nine in each category, and then total points are added up for each hazard. Hazards are ranked under three priority groups and then are ranked in the groups according to points. The emergencies that are of highest priority in Iowa include hazardous materials incidents, terrorism and air incidents. The lowest priority are railway incidents, extreme heat and drought. Goldhammer and Mumm said they make it a priority to prepare for emergencies highest on the list. "When we prepare for the [emergencies] most likely to happen, we also prepare for the other ones, because response activities would be the same," Goldhammer said. Mumm said 44 outside agencies helped contribute to the hazard analysis report. For example, the Des Moines Fire Department, the Iowa Department of Transportation and the Des Moines Hazardous Materials team worked with Mumm to make sure ratings for frequency of disasters were accurate. To determine the amount of power outages a year, Mumm sent a survey to Mid American Energy Company. While the Iowa Emergency Management Division may be prepared for disasters, preparation of citizens is just as important to overall safety. One way for citizens to be informed is to visit their county's Web site. Polk County's site will soon include the hazard analysis and currently provides emergency information, such as information on hazardous materials, how to donate items in case of a disaster, and what to do with pets in the event of an emergency, Goldhammer said. Mumm also said education of the public is important. "In the midst of an emergency, to say 'I didn't know' at that point might not be the right time to learn," Mumm said. "By learning in advance, you can minimize the effects of an emergency." |