Gulf States Hurricane Conference June 3, 2010

1. Gulf States Hurricane Conference June 3, 2010

2. Agenda Your local Red Cross Red Cross Response Coordination Across State Lines Sheltering Hot Topics State Specific Plans

3. Tri-State Stats There are 43 American Red Cross Chapters providing services to a population of 12.1 Million within AL/LA/MS. There are 4,154 Disaster Services Human Resources (DSHR) members Red Cross in the States of AL/LA/MS have sheltered a total of 602,888 people during the last 20 years

5. What does ARC do within the community? Provide immediate relief to disaster victims Promote disaster preparedness, mitigation and education First Aid and CPR Classes Blood products Services to armed forces International tracing

6. Red Cross Response

7. = Scaling-up Scaling- down Disaster Happens DAT Responds Red Cross Disaster Response National Support State/Area Support Capacity Regional Grouping Support Chapter Disaster Management Team Response Time

8. Hurricane Response Plan H-120: Impacted States will initiate Disaster Relief Operation (DRO) activities Assess current situation including resource availability Determine volunteer availability Request and distribute materials and equipment State EOC Liaison contacts state EMA to discuss state readiness and evacuation sheltering/feeding projections Chapters contact county/parish EMA to discuss readiness and projected needs Conduct conference calls with affected chapters and National Headquarters to discuss operational requirements and close any potential resource gaps

9. H-72 • Staff EOCs • Open and staff shelters • Enter shelter info into NSS • Activate feeding plans and agreements • Operations team arrives at DRO • DSHR Teams continue to deploy from in-processing areas to assigned chapter locations • Activate other required vendor agreements

10. H-24 • Continue to operate shelters • Ensure clients and workers in shelter are safe • Ensure resources/preparations are in place to continue mass care when storm passes • Report information to partners as required • Staff movement stops

11. Post Landfall • Continue to staff EOC’s • Continue sheltering • Begin post-landfall mass care • Initiate disaster assessment • Prepare for mobile feeding • Support ongoing service delivery • Initiate fundraising

12. State Level Agency Coordination Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi staff have been working to build capacity for qualified, properly trained government liaisons that will be working at local and state EOC’s. In the Gulf States, full-time staff has been assigned to work directly with state level partners, both government and non-government, for the purposes of response planning, coordination and collaboration.

13. State Emergency Management Program Managers • Alabama-Julie Schoening • Louisiana-Rosa Hill • Mississippi-Warren Miller

14. Decision Makers Decision Makers Operations Government Operations is committed to sharing consistent and reliable information with our government partners to assist in the decisions that will impact service delivery, and to providing subject matter experts to ensure the mass care needs of those impacted by a disaster are met. Provide Decision Makers with Situational Awareness Develop plans, metrics, triggers, seams, gaps etc Paint Picture for Operational Decision-Makers Plan & convey big picture to FEMA DOC FEMA Senior Leadership VTCs Gov’t ops Lead Red Cross REPS to FEMA Big Picture on ARC ops and plans Joint Field Office (If stood up) Daily “baseball card” & shelter count Red Cross REP Fema M C R E Q U E S T S F O R I N F O vals DRO FEMA Mass Care State EM PS Admin FEMA Ops Gov’t Ops Manager Red Cross REP NRCC vals FEMA Vals Chapter Local EM Red Cross REP Regional Mass Care Disaster Regional Vals RRCC

15. Mass Care

16. Mass Care Activities Includes: Sheltering Feeding Welfare Inquiry Bulk Distribution

17. Sheltering

18. Needs Assessment How is a Needs Assessment useful? How many spaces do I need? What issues are there related to political jurisdictions? What is the average shelter size for my area?

19. Shelter Selection Why do we select shelters? 4496 and other risks Least Risk Decision Making Process Occupancy/Risk walkthrough Where do I find State specific information?

21. Evacuation Sheltering v/s Traditional Sheltering • Evacuation Sheltering: • Provide for a safe place to weather the hurricane • Common assumptions include: • 20 sq ft per person allowed • Only 10% of population will utilize a cot (elderly, pregnant, children, etc) • Blankets may be provided • Hot meals will not always be available • Shelter will be generally be open less than 72 hours • Some evacuation shelters may transition to traditional shelter if residents unable to return home (consolidation of shelters)

22. Evacuation Sheltering v/s Traditional Sheltering Traditional Sheltering May include short term hurricane shelters (post landfall) and other post-event shelters Common assumptions include: 40 sq ft per person Cots, blankets will be provided Hot meals will be provided, typically 2 hot meals, cold breakfast Shelter will be open longer than 3 days

23. Sheltering Who works in our shelters? ARC Volunteers Other affiliated volunteers Partners National Level Partnerships State Specific Partnerships Local Specific Partnerships

24. “Mega” Shelters • May accommodate 2,000 to 25,000 clients • A mega shelter is: • Activated by the State or Local Government • A joint multi-agency/organization effort • Able to accommodate clients with long term needs • Usually in a large congregate facility such as Civic Center or Arena • Post-event, longer term sheltering 30 days+ • ARC is usually a partner within the sheltering operation, not owner and operator

25. “Mega” Shelters ARC Areas of Expertise w/ Mega Sheltering: Management of Dormitory Operation Resident registration Planning and coordination of logistical needs Training of ARC and other agency staff in shelter ops Information dissemination and media relations Support in health, mental health and first aid Access to Safe and Well Coordination of other voluntary agencies Feeding Support

26. Sheltering How do we communicate sheltering information? National Shelter System(NSS) Official record for ARC Live feed to redcross.org Feed to FEMA NSS Public Broadcasting DOT signage 211 211 is used throughout tri-state area to provide public with shelter information 211 is accessible across state lines

27. Feeding Mobile v/s Fixed Feeding Mobile feeding occurs in the affected area ERVs Fixed feeding Shelter Site Feeding Partners Southern Baptists How feeding is activated?

28. Welfare Inquiry Safe and Well Initiated by evacuee or someone looking for an evacuee Self registration on line or by calling 866-Get Info and operator will register individual https://disastersafe.redcross.org or www.Redcross.org

29. Bulk Distribution Clean-up kits Clothing Household Items Mattresses Etc

30. Hot Topics “Special Needs” sheltering Who can come into an ARC shelter? Functional Needs Sex Offenders Service Animals Special Medical Needs sheltering Differing definitions amongst the States Temporary Infirmaries

31. State Specific Plans

32. Alabama

33. Alabama Hurricane Sheltering Two main hurricane sheltering scenarios for hurricane/TS threats to Alabama: 1. Recommended evacuation of mobile homes and citizens in low-lying and storm surge areas of Mobile & Baldwin Counties 2. Full or partial mandatory evacuation from Mobile and/or Baldwin County

34. 1. Recommended evacuation of mobile homes and citizens in low-lying and storm surge areas of Mobile & Baldwin Counties Sheltering in safe locations within the coastal counties - typically used for: Tropical storms CAT 1 – CAT 3 hurricanes Safety of citizens with critical transportation needs

35. 2. Full or partial mandatory evacuation from coastal counties. Transportation of evacuees to large shelters in Birmingham metro area - typically used for: CAT 3 – CAT 5 hurricanes and high predicted storm surge Evacuations recommended by State EMA Director and ordered by Governor Riley

36. Alabama Hurricane Sheltering Goal - shelter all vulnerable citizens on the coast within Mobile and Baldwin Counties and avoid expensive and inconvenient large scale bus evacuations. Strategy - Seek grant monies from FEMA et al to harden strategically-located school and community shelters and increase local capacity.

37. Louisiana

38. LA has 3 sheltering areas with basic plan to fill in northern part of State first and keep space available further south for stragglers • Also supporting in state sheltering of CTN population by using past excess general population spaces • Passed legislation to move towards sheltering independence by 2014 • Funds to retrofit-build new shelter facilities

39. Mississippi

40. Expect approximately 110,000 hurricane self-evacuees from LA • State communications plan encourages evacuees to travel north of I-20 for sheltering • Shelters along Gulf Coast, to include Hattiesburg, don not open until 12 hours pre-landfall to ensure evacuees travel father north for safe sheltering and ensure evacuees from MS have shelter space • Mandatory evacuees from MS supported by “361” shelters north of I-10.  Three “361” shelters along Gulf Coast will be open this hurricane season. • Transportation to 361 shelters will be coordinated by County emergency management.

41. Questions?