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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTwister II Exercise Planning Seminar 1986 f ' TWISTER II EXERCISE February 27, 1986 This is a seminar of planning exercises as opposed to an operations exercise. And what we plan to do as we go along in this exercise we will have an actual situation occuring and this will only be occuring in the rural area of Brazos County. So what we're doing at this point is bringing our Brazos County Emergency 'Plans up to where we can look at them and each one of you has a plan situation, you have your notebook,) as you reach a problem that affects you make notes on what you know is missing from your area's plans. Put down what you're not aware of in your area's plans. When you get through,/ hopefully, your notebook will contain the information you will need to have in an actual emergency. Does that make sense to you? The information you b E A j hu,V i5 and the actions that you are supposed to take . Now, we have representatives here from and we have them from Bryan /College Station. Now, the reason for that is because we dove -tail uh -- 2 a complete exercise county -wide, all of you will be working together on this. And so this way you will take back with you the information that we need to fill in and you can also give us the information we need to fill in. Now, this is a two -way street. have to plan for this and this comes to be our problems and our problems we'll sit down and we'll work on them. So this is the purpose and this is where you plan to operate. Now, we will be interfacing with the State office and the Sheriff's Dept. J with messages coming in on .TwiST and . (Chris,sdn. message to the Sheriff's Office saying that the exercise is beginning and giving them a phone number where they can relieve the law enforcement radio system of messages.) We also have a RACES backup that will have contact with Austin and also the local area as a backup in communications system. .Let's keep that in mind at this point. Now, let me go over something real briefly and then we'll get started. This TWISTER II exercise is based on a severe weather scenario. Now, what I have on the board -2- is something you need to know. You'll want to take a good look at this board, because you need to know what'watch is and what a warning is and you need to know what an "advisory" is and what a "bulletin" is. Now, all the watches are issued by the National Weather Service. Nobody else issues a watch. NOAA, Waco is our home office. And, this is something that is important for you to know, all that a watch means is that, in a given area, and a specified time, usually 3 -4 hours, it gives the possibility of severe weather occuring in that area. That area C6-& _.d1 Z" miles long, 60 miles wide. It may miss our area entirely, but situations stress that this has been developed. Right now we're under a watch at this point in the exercise and { s,iys 5QAJQ thunderstorms and flash floods. Now a warning is when the actual happening occurs. A warning is much more difficult. The National Weather Service then has to rely on a report or radar signals to determine if a tornado or severe thunderstorm is at hand. They can do it much better for flash floods and severe thunderstorms because they have things that will give them that information. But tornadoes are more difficult. So a lot of the information that determines a warning of a tornado is developed by the law enforcement, fire, and citizens, and people in the community who are reporting the tornado and it goes to National Weather Service and it, in turn, is put back out as a warning for that area. Now let me mention something else about a tornado warning. A tornado warning will be given, for example, for Brazos County if there is a tornado occuring anywhere in Brazos County. It can be occuring in Kurten, it can be occuring in Millican, it doesn't matter, Brazos County is under the tornado warning. So listen closely to the message when a warning comes out. In other words, don't jump in a hole every time a warning is issued for Brazos County, or you're going to find that you're wasting a lot of time. But you'll want to turn NOAA radio on and listen carefully. If it says tornado is located in Kurten due east, then stay tuned to that thing. Because another one may occur behind you, but at that particular point, Gt , as far as an individual comparison is termed, is to wait and see what the damage is. Question: "Who issues the warning "? The National Weather Service out of Waco. Also,any warnings can be issued by the local authority. This civil defense authority. -3- You hear these warnings come out and these advisories. Now, advisories are bulletins telling you to watch out. Those of you in schools and city (20.4*.- /'11/ w , 0'1 I'll call you up and say "This is an advisory. You've got severe thunderstorms, hail, high winds, etc.,etc., etc., six inches of rain." e . We do this to compare hoi public safety " and what might hit us. t 2 .' In other words, if Waco has its` "� " ` { � tt Yo g t it from me and on, your teletype you get it again out of Waco. . But time is of extreme importance. We try to get it out fast. Now, how we do that is with a local tornado warning team. Now these are volunteers that work out of the meteorology department and the radar station. Any time a warning is issued, day or night, 7 days a week, some official is notified by Waco or DPS. DPS "will get,` teletype and they'll call us. 1 if - 'A ata 1 ( ; a �r > ► - f This happens a lot. Interr, pti 7J r 4 . Anyway, let's talk about this thing again. There's more included now. spotters, rain gauge network, all the law enforcement and fire people, from the county and the cities, trying to get information when you get a hit or things are getting bad, where we can turn it around . If we send the message out on the CB radio, DPS puts it on the teletype and it goes right on through the police net( ?). The news media gets it and goes on the air with it. National Weather Service turns it on on NOAA. The Sheriff's Office calls the Fire Depts. to keep them informed of what's going on out there and' �4 t are notified by the city. Now that's briefly what happens there. The National Weather Service sends the information to us . All tornado reports, and this I want you to put in the back of your mind, need to go to the DPS. That should be an order of business. In other words, you get a tornado report out here from some of your people, get that to the DPS immediately for several reasons. One reason is all the systems and requests now as we go in `the exercise and the problem are going to be handled through the DPS state office. The other reason is the highway patrol will send a unit out there to work with our Sheriff -4- and our fire department people, Ok? They'll send a unit out there to provide communications system to the state office. All right? Now, I'm going to touch on one other thing and that's mutual aid. Most of you in this operation has a mutual aid agreement with your neighbors. When you're in trouble out there, you activate that mutual aid. You just work together and get the help you need. When this problem gets so big that you need mutual aid 4`: , for example, the Sheriff's Dept. winds up, all they've got is 20 men and you need 40, 50 men, and it's beyond the scope of help that you can get from Bryan or College Station, then go to the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive, then, in this case since it's out in the county, is the County Judge and I'll be there to guide him and get the infor- mation out to his people Now, this is kind of critical insomuch as that some of this assistance that we're talking about beyond our mutual agreement costs money and At L, this also is ' paid for by the political subdivision that brings it in. Which means that 40 fl) (jcf -for $100,000.00 worth of equipment, somebody's going to pay that bill. So this means that your mayor or your CD director has to approve that request ' CL 1 61. As long as you have mutual aid agreements,Ay re working with each other, activate it. If you need 10 policemen from Bryan, call and say I need 10 policemen bad, this is the situation. So that's the kind of operation then overall that we're looking at. Now, in this exercise, we're going to get started very shortly, we're going to get a message that we've had a hit. The way we're going to run this exercise is rather unique. We've never put on one like this and we're doing it this way because all of us from Brazos County, the cities and the county felt like what we ought to do is look at what our procedures and plans are, dust them off, bring them up to date and then plan for a field exercise operation, then go for the big one with the national field operation. And I think it's an excellent idea. This is what they agreed to at the Civil Defense Council meeting and to begin, we'll tie into TWISTER II and we're going to keep our exercise right here on this table. -5- Now, some of you are going to be wound up with solving a problem. We're going to solve problems as they occur. You're going to do it. And you're going to be asked to provide certain things. OK, let's go ahead and look at it realistically, just like you're the Chief of Police or the Mayor of Bryan. Let's do it that way, and see what you think you can provide and what you think you can't provide. And come back and say, "I can't do this ", so we take that problem. Now write these things down on your pad so if you notice , "Gee, I hadn't thought of that. I'd better do something about it "., write that down, and when you go back and get your list, it applies to all of it. It applies to the hospital, it applies to fire department, law enforcement, everybody involved. And what you see here at this table is basically the people who will handle the disaster. Now, how many of you know Mr. Eubanks? All of you do? He's the County Engineer. Take a good look at this man, if there's anything occuring out in the county, him and the Sheriff's Office are going to be the people that will be setting up out there and working. OK? (Conversation with Billy Eubanks that I couldn't hear). Ok, now. Let me run briefly over some things here. You may not like it or you may like it. I don't care. If you've got a problem with it, I want to know about it. But these are some of the things as I see it, that you have a responsibility for. Now, let's start with the Sheriff's Office. Probably out in the rural area, he's the most important man you've got. If you get a report from out there, he has several basic responsibilities. He has to go out there, fire department, get a basic survey of damage which the fire department probably already gave to him, the injured, damaged, that sort of thing. In other words, the people in command have got to know what's happening, have got to know exactly what the problems are. And so that's his first shot when he gets out there. He's got to set up a command post out there, a rural command post. This applies to Fire Department, this applies to Sheriff's Office, this applies to Mr. Eubanks. When you hit that area, and we're talking about a major damage situation, you set upconmiand post, in other words, a place that we know you're going to be so we can contact you. That command post then responds back. If you're using the Sheriff's radio, it comes into the Sheriff's Office. If you establish an EOC, it comes in the EOC. -6- And that establishes a field control and then authority control for the the county. Does that make sense to you? It also estab- lishes for assistance. It also tells the hospital that they have got a problem and then how big that problem is so they can set up to handle people that are injured. It also tells the Red Cross ha , you've got people out there that are going to need shelter, ,�tt`�W' assistance and whatever so they can set up. `�c+OK? This is really simple. It will also set up t.ife back resources. In other words, we can • . Ok, now, what is the Sheriff's Office responsible for when they set up that command post �`�` ++.py r communication link coming back now to the EOC of the Sheriff's Office. They're responsible for traffic control in the field. If they've got to cordon an area that's their responsibility, they're going to cordon that area, they're going to set up a barricade or do whatever. OK? And they're responsible for assisting the fire department in evacuation. If it's a case of evacuation, (you notice I'm getting broad out here now), but it has material problems, whatever, then we'll assist the fire depart- ment in its evacuation. Now, that kind of gives you a thumbnail sketch of the operation. Let's talk a little bit about the fire department. The key people of the fire department, sheriff's office ., The fire department have primary responsibility for fire, rescue, getting people out, coordination of the ambulance, and then coordination of the hospitals and evacuation. OK? Now, don't tell me that you can't do all of these things, its too big a job because if it happens you're going to be doing it. Ok, now the County Engineer. The County Engineer controls and runs the facilities of the county. He's knowledgeable of all the equipment in the entire county. This job is to provide the fire and police in those damaged areas with whatever they need in the way of transportation, heavy equipment, special equipment needed in that area, roads fixed or cut out of there in case it comes to that, A washed out, or whatever. You see, his responsibility P " " back with the commissioner of that precinct. So he notifies his precinct `f. Al and he gets the word. He coordinates the heavy equipment needs, traffic, etc. etc. Ok. The hospital, 1 think, is self - explanatory. -7- Interruption That was Austin wanting to know what our situation was and this is very typical. I told them we had various thunderstorms move into our area. at this point. OK, now. Is there any questions about what we've covered so far? I think you have a pretty good idea then where we're coming from. And as we develop our problem, as I said, I want you to start keeping your notes and then try to make those things work if some- thing were to happen. Ok, Jerry. There are two things we need to get started on. One thing is I need this message of a hit. iChris:Steve Beachy called from College Station and said they've activated their EOC and they're in touch with DPS. OK, mighty good. ' OK, now the first message you've got at this point is that a tornado has been sighted on the ground by a Sheriff's deputy at the intersection of Grassburr and FM 1179. Now, you have your maps in front of you, we have it blocked out on the board over here in red so the first thing you need to do iS outline that area so you know what's involved. Now, you're assuming this tornado is on the ground. Chris: Brazos County REACT is on the air in case you need any assistance. _2- :Appreciate it, thank you very much. What she has just noted there is contact by Brazos County REACT. This happens in an emergency. The agencies will respond to you if they know where the EOC is at and you'll start getting all the help you can imagine come in. Now we've got the command post and coordination where we can generate this stuff out. Ok, now the tornado is on the ground at the intersection of Grassburr and 1179 and,contrary to the law of physics, this baby's moving straight south down towards Steep Hollow , the intersection of what, Steep Hollow Circle ?, no take it further down, yes, Elmo Weeden. All right, now. This is the first report of a funnel down on the ground. Ok, the tornado travels south, it's 300 -400 feet wide. Now, this information that I'm giving you comes from the Sheriff's deputy on the site out there. Many buildings have been reported heavily damaged along 1179 or completely destroyed.. Ok, now. The Sheriff's office, as soon as he gets this tornado report, notifies the people. (We went through that earlier who he's got to notify). In all cases, the DPS is immediately notified. We've got all the rural fire departments notified, we've got Eubanks on his way out there, we've got the Sheriff's office command post out there, we've got our first damage report coming in telling us that we've got a biggee. Ok? -8- Which means that at this point we've got to set up an EOC somewhere to handle it. And it will be set up and you'll get the information 0-,ere- kc `" "c. 44n to start coordinating the work. Now, at this same time, did we show any people hurt at this yet? Ok, next message. You know that were going to go though this thing real fast.? e report 1=n.dicates that at least 20 homes have been heavily damaged or total_— destroyed and there are reports of many injured and also possible deaths. (Chris, call Austin to report this) . r!U' All right, Fire...what are you doing at this time ?4 If we've got homes destroyed, then we may have fire situations. We'll need to check for that. Also, there may be need to have some evacuations coming up so we'll have to start checking with the Sheriff's office and find out Jake: What is the first thing you're going to do? The first thing you're going �h OC4,41 *,r to do is get every rural fire department . Ask them to move all the equipment into that area. You've got a problem out there of such a magnitude that you need it all. You need "Search and Rescue ". The next thing you're going to do is contact ,),_ and see how much equipment and manpower they can spare in handling this. tow this is going to be tough, see, handling it is your bailiwick. You're also going to have to ask the Sheriff to notify the hospital and tell them roughly what kind of situation we got here because they need to get over there. They need to call in all their doctors and if you need triage, you can ask them, the doctors. Now, let's get our thinking straightened out. Those are priorities, first things we've got to roll with. All right, then you go into "Search and Rescue ", getting the injured out in the ambulances. Now, the call comes in - -- Bryan, how many ambulances can you send out? It said many injured and possible deaths, so we're looking at 30, 40 , 50 or 100 people. NPOVY iA 175( i ) uld Too many. College Station, how many can you send out ? imagine all of them, I'm not sure how many we have, there's one at each station, three ?" - OK, that's five ambulances. All right, you're going to be running into a situation now that you're going to need more and a better way of getting those people out. Now, what are you going to do Fire Dept. and Sheriff? You're going to start thinking, aren't you. If you get a quick triage and you've got somebody who's got a broken arm, he can ride in a car, can't he? Mr. Eubanks, you're transportation. You have to call in some school buses, county buses, you know, you've got them, you know where to look. You get them out there. You may have already done that as -9- soon as you realized the situation. And all those people transportable that aren't life- threatening are going to go by that mode of transport. Ok? The ambulances are going to be concentrated on the most serious cases, people that are real serious. We'll be trying to get those people out without hurting them any more. You're going to be needing heavy equipment so you're going to be talking 4t Lvba -Aks ? . If you need a cherry picker or a special hydraulic jack or whatever. Now, you get your notes down and some of it I'm not going to cover, but you know what they are because you're 44_ C ,(ci af' - t and I'm not. T don't know anything about Fire Dept., Sheriff's Office or anything like that. Eldon Sanders: Can I say something? Jake: You bet. Eldon: We're glossing over some things pretty fast here. We're making assumptions that you're going to rush all the equipment you possibly can to this site. We're overlooking the fact that we still have some primary missions to resolve. I believe that we should ask the people who are involved in this entire department, what equipment they're going to send there, don't say you're going to send all of it because if you say we're going to send all of this equinrient END OF TAPE.