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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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February
2004
Volume 6
- Number 1 |
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Related Sites:
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Hurricane Isabel Response
Assessment – James Lee Witt
Associates, LLC (JLWA) By Bev Burton Isabel
struck Southeast
Coastline as a Category 2 hurricane. Rated
twice at Category 5 prior to landfall, “this
hurricane will not be
remembered for how strong it is… but for how large it is – roughly size
of
Colorado,” said Max Mayfield, D/National Hurricane Center, www.pepco.com/storm_news_101603a.asp Power
outages affected
approximately 6.5 M customers (PEPCO 497,000 ~76% of their customers
simultaneously). Comparatively, 1.3 M
occurred during Hurricane Andrew. Pepco
Holdings, Inc.
(PEPCO) hired JLWA to conduct a review of their Isabel emergency
preparedness
and response. JLWA found PEPCO
performed within industry standards, but addressed the event as a large
electrical outage versus a community-wide disaster; their customers did
not
validate PEPCO’s response as credible. Some
PEPCO customers (Montgomery & Prince George’s
counties &
Washington, D.C.) were without power over 10 days.
JLWA’s review started with a goal of reestablishing
functioning
communities, not just restoring power. Routine
power outages are an inconvenience; large-scale
disasters
compound to impede communities’ ability to function:
public safety, public water/sewage, transportation,
school, and
commerce all suffer. Utilities should
view their power restoration process as an integral part of
comprehensive
community planning, response, and recovery mechanisms. “ We typically look at things as an electric utility has in the past – that’s the standard we’d held ourselves to, but in an event like Isabel and other major disasters that cause such widespread outages, we have to look at it as a community event,” shared Thomas Shaw, Executive PEPCO VP, after reviewing the Assessment. Shaw stated PEPCO intends to act on all 150 recommendations, most within 18 months; others could take five years. www.sunspot.net/news/weather/hurricane JLWA
Recommendation
Categories & Examples: 1. Develop community partnerships
(public/private); jointly establish restoration priorities; increase
emergency
drills/exercises; improve public awareness/education
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Conduct comprehensive
tree management programs, downed trees/limbs - single major cause of
line
damage. Simple? No. Michael Galvin, MD Dept of Natural Resources,
shares,
“PEPCO faces
uphill challenges when dealing with private tree owners.
With more conservation laws on its books
than California, Maryland is a haven for people who love trees and
loathe to
prune aggressively or remove them.” www.gazette.net/200352/weekend/a_section/194611-1.html - Joint
damage assessment
teams: local public works departments,
state transportation, cable/television providers 2. Improve customer service, dissemination of
public information, media relations. Response
perceived as disorganized/slow; upset by lack of
current or
false information. -
Communicate/update
restoration details - relate to neighborhoods, homes, businesses -
Enable realistic
customer expectations -
Eliminate information
flow bottlenecks 3. Elevate emergency management function
priority; emphasize CONOPS - support systems scalable to routine and
mass
outages, all-hazards approach - Adopt
successful
emergency management processes (Incident Command System) -
Enhance mobile
communications - geographic information systems - PEPCO
backtracked to
manual procedures; did not employ current technologies, e.g., did not
use
Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs), insufficient training of line crews –
could not
handle complaints in batches. Perception
is reality was never
truer, as evidenced by PEPCO customers. |