Our thoughts are with the people of California; those who lost their lives or their homes, the thousands who are responding, and the tens of thousands who are still evacuated.
As the climate changes, Colorado’s population grows, and our wildland urban interfaces expand, we are once again reminded of the grim reality that we must face; that destructive events such as what the Los Angeles area is experiencing, and what we experienced with the Marshall fire, will become more common.
While this topic was planned prior to California's wildfires, and Colorado has snow on the ground and is anticipating dangerously cold temperatures in some areas, the current events are a great reminder to check in as a community and ensure we know our roles in responding to future emergencies.
We chatted with DOLA Regional Manager for the North Central Region, Chris La May, Director of Disaster Management for the City of Boulder and Boulder County, Mike Chard, and Weld County Director of Emergency Management, Roy Rudisill. All have seen their fair share of a wide range of disasters. The insights they share below can help your community better respond to a natural disaster or other disruptive event.
Local Response
What are some key responsibilities that a local government has in emergency response?
Roy Rudisill: Each jurisdiction is responsible for maintaining operations, even during an emergency. Continuity of Operations is a key responsibility for every community. Financial management of emergencies is also a key issue - understanding how this works and best practices is a must. Train your staff and leadership to be able to respond to emergencies or disasters.
Chris La May: Most incidents begin and end locally and are managed at the local level, though some may require a unified response from local agencies, the private sector, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Some incidents may require additional support from neighboring jurisdictions or state governments.
A smaller number of incidents require Federal support or are led by the Federal Government. National response protocols are structured to provide tiered levels of support when additional resources or capabilities are needed. As incidents change in size, scope, and complexity, response efforts must adapt to meet evolving requirements. The number, type, and sources of resources must be able to expand rapidly to meet the changing needs associated with a given incident and its cascading effects.
Mike Chard: Mitigation - developing policies that create the proper codes and ordinances, programs, and resources to mitigate risks associated with the local hazard profile of their community. This includes:
- performing threat and hazard vulnerability assessments or referred to as THIRA;
- actions to define the risk profile for the community; and
- assessing the local government’s exposures, gaps and capabilities related to this assessment.
Develop a plan to address these three areas based on community desire, funding, and the living risk tolerance level. Local communities should access their local emergency manager as they may have the ability to provide the training and road map resources to develop these capabilities. Another resource is the DHSEM field manager who can direct local government to training opportunities, assist with THIRA assessments, mitigation programs and the state recovery office.
What are some key systems or resources a local government should have in place to respond to a disaster or other emergency?
Chris:
- An Emergency Operation Plan (EOP)
- Exercise the EOP
- Interoperable Communication Systems
- Pre-Disaster Plan
- Exercise the Pre-Disaster Plan
- Finance policies to account for disasters (may be included in existing procurement policy, EOP, or other)
- Risk Reduction - Hazard Mitigation Plan
- Land Use/Building Codes
Mike: Preparedness is so critical. This helps to manage expectations in the community and how to prepare the community to assume personal responsibility for the safety, and resilience to withstand disasters and their impacts.
Roy: Understand no one expects perfection, but we all need to find the systems and resources that work for our community.
How can communities that are smaller or have fewer resources scale down their approach?
Mike: You don’t have to spend a lot of money to be able to respond to an emergency. If you are limited on funding:
- Work with other jurisdictions to identify best practices and train on how to implement your emergency plan, and how to manage an emergency.
- Utilize Incident Management Teams for training and support to your community.
- Work with DOLA and DHSEM to support training opportunities.
- Utilize Mutual-Aid Agreements with surrounding jurisdictions.
- Most FEMA courses are free unless you have to travel (they do cover some costs but not everything).
- Utilize the Homeland Security region to help support training classes and seek out State Resources (instructors/trainers) for classes and training.
- Utilize larger counties with more staff to help train your personnel.
The type of program you develop is dependent upon what level of risk you are willing to live with, what you can afford, and what value you find in emergency management. The biggest challenge for communities with resource limitations is the competition with other funding priorities of the community. There are a few options:
- Make emergency management an official duty as an add-on to a role in the local government’s structure rather than a “check the box” program.
Combine resources and pool funding to hire a professional and have them work amongst the participating communities as defined through an IGA or MOU. - A watch-out point here is that one-person shops struggle because the relationship building, and collaboration work competes with the essential planning and program work then one or the other suffers. Try to fund 2 positions to be successful and maintain a level of connectivity and service that communities investing find valuable.
- An administrative program style is to hire a person who really is skillful at doing emergency management related to planning, grant management, documentation, and program management. This model addresses the administrative duties and then focuses the work of participation in these areas on personnel within local government to be engaged in developing plans and delivering programs.
Roy: Understand that no one expects perfection. The best approach is to identify what your capability is (what can you respond to without asking for assistance) and work to meet that capability. A small community may need to seek mutual aid sooner than a larger community or county. Encourage your emergency manager to seek support from surrounding jurisdictions in all areas.
- Work with DHSEM or other Counties to develop MOU’s or IGA’s. Colorado has a great Emergency Management
- Association and any one of the members would be willing to help.
- Elected Officials should seek agreements and make it a goal to get trained, and make sure they support the department heads and local officials to participate in the training and exercises as well.
What are some lessons learned from recent disasters that you wish you knew before they happened and how did you integrate those lessons learned?
Mike: The after-action review process and development of a meaningful improvement plan is where real capacity and capability to handle a disaster is forged.
If you do not get disasters frequently then conducting functional and full-scale exercises substitutes for real world incidents and can create a solid AAR – IP continuous improvement program. There is no classroom substitute for experience, but you do need the knowledge to apply it in the moment of truth to gain the experience. If you have leadership that supports learning from mistakes, then real progress can be achieved.
Having a solid mission focus for disaster response and recovery is important. If you cannot describe what you need to do in each space right now before the disaster you are positioned to have an extremely bad week, month, and years ahead. Learn from others who have experienced disasters, determine from their experience what you want from your program, be honest with what you can create and build relationships in the areas that you cannot perform on your own.
Roy: First, understanding FEMA’s role in damage assessment prior to their arrival. FEMA doesn’t do an entire assessment; they only look at damage to meet the disaster threshold (county dollar amount).
Next, understanding the process for Public Assistance. FEMA does not control the recovery. We are seeking their assistance, and they are a support agency. They are not running the incident. If you have control issues or the FEMA staff are not supporting you the way you think they should, talk with DHSEM, the Region 8 Director or Federal Congressmen/Congresswomen to get the support you need.
State Response
What activates a State response?
Chris: When local governments become overwhelmed, they may request assistance from the State. The State, through its various departments and agencies may provide available assistance at any time, but it is really through the issuance of a Governor’s Executive Order activating, all or portions of, the Colorado State Emergency Operations Plan (SEOP).
Activation of the plan through executive order identifies that the Director of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) within the Department of Public Safety will lead state disaster or emergency response and recovery efforts. Once the plan is activated, all state departments and offices are mandated under the authority of the Colorado Disaster Emergency Act and the SEOP to carry out assigned activities related to mitigating effects of an emergency or disaster and to cooperate fully with each other, the OEM, and other political subdivisions in providing emergency assistance. Local Emergency Managers then work with and through DHSEM Field Managers.
Additionally, there is more than one purpose to declaring an emergency. It is important to remember that a declaration may allow the implementation of emergency operation plans, and the authority to take immediate actions to protect property and residents during a crisis, often removing some of the bureaucratic processes that may slow response.
If an incident rises to the level of a Federal declaration, not following federal procurement processes may hinder or prevent federal reimbursements.
Mike: During wildfires a local government does escalate to the state for financial ownership and then it is delegated back to local control in some cases. This is specifically for wildfire operational response and does not include consequence management areas of responsibility. In other hazards, local control is always maintained and many people apply wildfire escalation statutes in other disasters to their detriment.
What does DHSEM do versus DOLA and how do they work together?
Chris: In accordance with the State Emergency Operation Plan, the Director of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) within the Department of Public Safety leads state disaster or emergency response and recovery efforts. DOLA is the lead in the Housing Recovery (DOH) and Community Recovery Support Functions (DLG).
What are Recovery Support Functions?
Chris: The National Disaster Recovery Framework identifies six Recovery Support Functions (RSF) as the coordinating structure for key areas of recovery assistance: Infrastructure Systems, Economic Recovery, Natural and Cultural Resource; Health and Social Services, Community Assistance, and Housing Recovery.
The State of Colorado, through annexes to the SEOP, includes the following Recovery Support Function (RSFs): Housing, Infrastructure Systems, Hazard Mitigation, Economic, Community, Damage Assessment, Assistance for Individuals, Households and Small Business Recovery, Consumer Protection, Debris Management, Donations Management, Volunteer Coordination, Environmental, Historic and Cultural Resources, and Public and Behavioral Health.
A number of the Recovery Support Functions (RSFs) lead agencies have regional support staff or managers that can assist local governments before, during, and after disasters or emergencies. Regional support staff or managers are established within the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM), and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
What Exactly Are Their Roles?
Chris: DHSEM Field Managers afford support to local governments to achieve their emergency management goals by providing technical assistance with respect to strategic planning, emergency plan development, community preparedness, disaster response and recovery, hazard mitigation, and training and exercise support.
DOLA Regional Managers provide technical and financial assistance to local governments in governance, financial assistance, resource identification in recovery. May also provide subject matter expertise on disaster assistance centers and disaster recovery centers; informally assess a community’s capability and capacity to help determine needs; provide subject matter expertise on continuity of operations; assist communities with getting themselves organized and understanding their roles and responsibilities and help manage expectations.
CDPHE Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response (OEPR) Field Managers provide emergency management technical assistance to local, state, and Tribal government agencies, with emphasis on emergency management organizations before, during, and following a major emergency, natural, or human-caused disaster
DOLA-Division of Local Government, Colorado Resiliency Office interfaces with communities on long term recovery and resiliency, recovery and resiliency planning, and supports community recovery groups and committees.
Anything else local governments should know about higher levels of response?
Chris: Just because you declare an emergency, does not mean financial assistance from the State or feds will come. Local governments should ensure they have adequate financial reserves to aid in emergency response and recovery.
Transitioning from Response to Recovery
What triggers the recovery phase?
Chris: Recovery is local led and community driven. Short term recovery starts during or immediately after an incident, and transitions to mid-term and long term recovery weeks to months after the disaster. There is not always a distinct trigger when moving from short to intermediate to long term recovery.
The National Disaster Recovery Framework Diagram (DHS/FEMA, September 2011) See page 8, Figure 1. is something we often use to describe the various stages of recovery. Note that there is considerable overlap among recovery tasks during the short term, intermediate term and long term phases of an incident.
The DHSEM Recovery Section leads the state recovery process. This includes coordinating the federal disaster declaration process with other members of DHSEM, other state agencies, FEMA and the impacted local jurisdictions.
Mike: We transition into a recovery structure in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) while the recovery structure is being developed. We have a transition to recovery plan that outlines the roles, responsibilities, mission areas and EOC structure for this period.
*Please note, the recovery phase of emergency responses will be covered in-depth at a future Local Government Resources Call.
Anything else local governments should know?
Roy: Disaster recovery takes longer than anyone expects. Each disaster has its own characteristics. Encourage your County or community leaders to stay the course, make sure they don’t get burned out, and provide them time to rest (this may require bringing in a support team to provide time off). Encourage your citizens, and seek their input, not everyone will understand the process but encourage them to work as a team on recovery. Share the success stories.
Mike: You will some day be affected by a disaster. It may be a natural hazard, a human caused one, an infrastructure failure, or a technical hazard. Hope is not a strategy, plans will not always be useful, but the process of planning is essential because it helps people understand the goals, their responsibilities, and the strength of their team. Solid planning assumptions start to help people understand the situation or environment that they will have to operate within.
Funding and Training Opportunities
- DHSEM Training Opportunities & Resources
- DHSEM Grant Opportunities
- Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Public Safety Communication System Resources
- FEMA Developing and maintaining emergency operations plans: Comprehensive preparedness guide (CPG) 101
- FEMA Disaster Financial Management Guide
- FEMA Continuity Resource Toolkit
- Colorado Resiliency Office Post Disaster Quick Links
Other State Resources
- DLG Disaster and Resiliency Rebuilding Program
- Colorado Department of Health and Environment - Vital Records
- Department of Revenue - Division of Motor Vehicles
- Department of Regulatory Agencies - Division of Insurance
- Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT) - Colorado Small Business Development Center Network (SBDC)