All Hazards Planning

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All Hazards Planning

• Edward P. Richards
• Director, Program in Law, Science, and Public
  Health
• Harvey A. Peltier Professor of Law
• LSU Law Center
• richards_at_lsu.edu

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Problems with Emergency Powers Laws and Thinking

• Jurisprudential
• Overly specific
• Disrupts established legal precedent and legal
  chains of authority
• Creates the illusion that laws solve emergency
  problems
• Practical
• Real emergency problems almost never have legal
  solutions that only apply in emergencies

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All Hazards Planning

• Preparing for Bird Flu
• Evacuation of New Orleans for Katrina

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Episode-based Plans"Plans to Plan"

• Episode-based plans
• Bird flu plans
• Anthrax plans
• Bomb plans
• Plans to plan
• What you need to think about, not what you need
  to do
• No operational detail

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What is an All Hazards Plan?

• A unified plan that, as much as possible, uses
  common strategies for emergency response
• Emergency response is built on day-to-day
  procedures and resources
• All Hazards plans are operational plans
• They tell you what to do, not just what to plan
• The public is fully informed and an integral part
  of the emergency response

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Elements of an All Hazards Plan

• Analysis of common factors in the different types
  of emergencies
• Relation of these common factors to routine
  procedures
• Modification of existing procedures to
  incorporate elements that will be needed in
  emergencies
• Public information and education

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Assumptions Behind All Hazards Planning

• Equipment and materiel that is not routinely
  exercised will not be maintained and will not
  function when needed
• Emergencies are the worst time to change
  procedures
• Public cooperation depends on pre-event education
  and buy-in

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Example

• Transforming a Bird Flu Plan into an All Hazards
  Plan

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Episode Planning Bird Flu

• Plans for emergency quarantine
• Plans for ethical guidelines on vaccine
  allocation
• Plans for stockpiles of PPE
• Plans to work with public health, including an
  MOU that says we will play nicely
• Plans for how to plan to handle the SNS
• Maybe some training on how to put on a mask

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All Hazard Planning Bird Flu

• What are core problems?
• Protecting staff from infection
• Assuring adequate staff for operations
• What are related issues?
• Yearly flu pandemic
• Exposure to tuberculosis and other communicable
  diseases in the workplace

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All Hazards RecommendationsVaccinations

• Assure vaccination status of employees
• Mumps, measles, etc, which can disable a force
• Yearly flu
• Benefits
• Reduction in lost time from work
• Readiness if there is an outbreak
• Resolves individual and union opposition to
  vaccination before there is an emergency

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All Hazards RecommendationsWorking Sick

• US culture and especially law enforcement
  encourages people to work sick
• Limits on sick days
• Rules that you cannot be on special teams
• Increases the spread of diseases such as the flu
  in the workplace
• Set up criteria for exclusion of contagious
  workers
• Change work rules to eliminate punishment for
  being excluded so employees will not hide illness

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All Hazards RecommendationsPersonal Protection

• Key personal protection
• hand washing
• behavior limitations - handshaking, etc.
• goggles, masks
• Recommendations
• Train and equip all officers
• Use these for regular flu and other possible
  disease exposures
• Make behavioral modifications so these become
  routine

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All Hazards RecommendationsPublic Information

• There maybe a need to limit travel or impose home
  quarantine
• The public should be educated about all aspects
  of these possible limitations
• What is their role?
• Why is it important?
• How will essential services be provided?
• How will you assure families will not be
  separated?
• This will identify problematic areas and reduce
  confusion in an emergency

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All Hazards PlanningStaffing

• Staffing in emergencies
• Any emergency that threatens the general public
  will threaten the employees families
• You have to provide for the families if you want
  staff to show up
• Develop a general plan for family issues

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Evaluation Episode Based Planning

• Episode based plans are invisible until there is
  an emergency
• These are very low probability events
• The only testing is by artificial exercises
• Quality control theory (Demings, etc.)
• You can only achieve quality through iterative
  improvement based on data analysis and feedback
• This is impossible with an episode based plan

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Evaluation All Hazards Planning

• All Hazards planning does fit the criteria for
  proper quality control
• Elements of the plan are in operation at all
  times
• This provides intermediate data, i.e., things to
  measure short of a disaster happening
• Improves routine operations
• There is almost no data on communicable diseases
  in most workplaces

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Political Reality

• The public (legislature) has a short attention
  span and will not support emergency response once
  they move on to the next crisis de jure
• Reality Check
• 23 states, including most of the most populous,
  have done away with mandatory childhood
  vaccinations
• Are you health department employees fully
  immunized?
• What if you had to investigate the recent mumps
  epidemic?

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Lessons from Katrina

• The Blind Men and the Elephant
• Why the Evacuation Failed

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Transportation IssuesSurface Causes

• Evacuation not triggered until too late
• No provision for moving folks without
  transportation
• When transport was available - school busses -
  there was no provision for drivers
• No provisions for jails and hospitals
• No provision for secondary evacuation form the
  Superdome and other facilities

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Transportation IssuesSurface Solutions

• Better plans
• More modes of transportation
• Earlier evacuations
• "Manditory" evacuations
• All sound, but all miss the point

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Transportation IssuesRoot Causes

• New Orleans has flooded frequently
• Most of the land that flooded is reclaimed bay
  and swamp that is up to 20 feet below sea level,
  not historic New Orleans
• People lived next to levees with water 5 feet
  over street level every day
• Flood insurance was not required because it was
  assumed that the levees could not break

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The Implications of a Real Evacuation

• The only reason to really evacuate is if the
  levees fail, which was ruled out
• The Superdome and shelters of last resort
• Delaying the call for evacuation
• Why?
• 40 years of false alarms
• Admitting the levees could fail would destroy the
  real estate values in New Orleans
• Routine serious evacuations destroy business

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The Real Lessons from Katrina

• Plans based on politically unacceptable actions
  will not be carried out
• Long term prevention loses out to short term
  economic and political considerations
• Do not build in dangerous areas
• Require realistic risk analysis for insurance
• Do not downplay risks that cannot be managed

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How Would All Hazards Planning Have Changed the
Outcome?

• Focus would have been on the risks of living
  below sea level, not just on the evacuation
• Planning would have explicitly included levee
  failure
• Flood insurance
• Business interruption insurance
• Meeting appropriate life-safety codes for
  hospitals
• Personal evacuation planning
• Addressing these would have changed the political
  dynamic, allowing a proper evacuation

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