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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEvaluation G J ' , BRAZOS H e - COUNTY o ' mo o • 0 • JAKE CANGLOSE OFFICE OF P. HARRY STITELER COUNTY DIRECTOR AND CHAIRMAN TEXAS A& M UNIVERSITY DIRECTOR E.E. BURNS CIVIL DEFENSE & EMERGENCY PLANNING GEORGE L. HUEBNER COUNTY DEPUTY DIRECTOR COUNTY COURTHOUSE COLLEGE STATION DIRECTOR ERNEST R. CLARK BRYAN,TEXAS 77801 NORTH BARDELL BRYAN DIRECTOR COLLEGE STATION DEPUTY DIRECTOR July 10, 1980 R. J. Holmgreen - Brazos County Judge Bobby Yeager - Brazos County Sheriff Ernest Clark - Bryan City Manager B. G. Maddox - Bryan Police Department - Major North Bardell - College Station City Manager Thomas R. Parsons - TAMU Director of Security & Traffic Sam M. Saxon - Dept. of Public Safety - Communications Thomas W. Comstock - Brazos County RACES Officer Gentlemen: Enclosed are evaluations of the June 19 Brazos County Civil Defense RACES and Communications Exercise. These pertinent observations and recommendations will be useful if they are incorporated in our emergency plans. These evaluations that you have submitted are very much appreciated. Thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely yours, ke Canglose +unty Director and Chairman Brazos County Civil Defense JC /cs P U B L I C A S S I S T A N C E A N A L Y S I S T E A M S BRAZOS COUNTY: Business Phone Home Phone County Judge: R. J. "Dick" Holmgreen 822 -7373 ext.211 823 -0364 County Commissioners: Precinct 1: Bill Cooley 822 -7373 ext.246 846 -5142 Precinct 2: Walter Wilcox 822 -7373 ext.246 823 -3204 Precinct 3: Bud Cargill 822 -7373 ext.246 822 -5369 Precinct 4: W. A. "Bill" Stasny 822 -7373 ext.246 823 -2734 CITY OF BRYAN: City Manager: Ernest R. Clark 823 -0071 779 -1874 City Planner: Hubert Nelson 823 -0071 ext.253 822 -3247 or ext.254 Fire Chief: Don Van Huss 822 -7531 822 -7244 Health Officer: Dr. Geo. R. Mcllhaney 693 -7717 696 -1467 Dir. of Public Works: Jack Cornish 823 -0071 ext.286 823 -8422 Power outages: Bob Pohl 823 -0971 ext. 45 822 -1065 Kyle Kuntz ext. 36 846 -2074 Dir, of Utilities: Gailord M. White 823 -0071 ext.212 822 -2985 CITY OF COLLEGE STATION: City Manager: North Bardell 696 -8868 696 -7588 City Planner: William Koehler 696 -8860 1/279 -2950 Dir. of Public Works: George R. Ford 696 -8886 822 -4303 Fire Chief: Douglas W. Landua 696 -8280 696 -7335 Supt. of Water and Sewage: Bennie H. Luedke 696 -8868 693 -0234 BRAZOS COUNTY CD OFFICE: County Director: Jake Canglose 845 -6016 846 -9049 County Damage Analysis Officer: Carroll W. Bell 693 -7004 693 -0488 Revised -10- April 1979 BRAZOS COUNTY CIVIL DEFENSE RACES AND COMMUNICATIONS EXERCISE June 19, 1980 The purpose of the exercise was to test the capability of two -way radio systems (equipped with auxiliary power), particulary RACES, to support communications within the local area between key operational points, with the state control center, and with other points in the state in the absence of landline forms of communication (other than messenger and direct observation). The control EOC for this exercise was set up in Bryan at the Medallion Room of the Utilities Building. Major B. G. Maddox coordinated preparation of the exercise scenario. This was initiated by Jake Canglose and Tom Comstock. Captain Warren Heffington (MOBDES) prepared and wrote an Ex- ercise Plan that was used in implementing this Exercise. This Exercise began at 5 P.M. and the Bryan EOC ended at 6:20 P.M. The RACES activities continued an hour longer with communications for Red Cross, Houston DPS and others. The RACES set up and communicated with these at the follow- ing locations: Bryan EOC - Control - Tom Comstock, Linton Jones and J. R. Youngblood College Station EOC Sheriffs Office DPS Red Cross Thirty local RACES people participated. The local RACES was in contact with the Houston DPS and thru them sent a simu- lated message to the Austin DPS. Forty people participated in this Exercise at the Bryan EOC. Mr. Jake Canglose closed the Exercise with evaluation part- icipation by each section as to the good and the limited results. It was a good Exercise and should result in further improve- ments. BRAZOS COUNTY CIVIL DEFENSE RACES AND COMMUNICATIONS EXERCISE June 19, 1980 CITY MANAGERS AND EMERGENCY COORDINATORS Jake Canglose - County Director Brazos County Civil Defense Ed Burns - Deputy County Director Brazos County Civil Defense Bill Koehler for Bardell - College Station Robert Stiteler - TAMU Ernest Clark - Bryan City Manager OFFICIALS - CITY - COUNTY - TAMU Bud Cargill - County Commissioner - Brazos County POLICE Charles Phelps - Bryan B. G. Maddox - Bryan Gene Knowles - Bryan Louis Gaston - Bryan Mike Orozco - Bryan Larry Locke - Reserve - Bryan D. M. Richardson - Reserve - Bryan Jerry Mosley - Reserve - Bryan Marvin Byrd - College Station Sam Saxon - DPS George Garrett - DPS Bobby Yeager - County Sheriff - Bryan Thomas Parsons - TAMU BRAZOS COUNTY CIVIL DEFENSE Carroll Bell Warren Heffington Ben Wormeli NEWS MEDIA John Morris - Eagle Frank May - Eagle Robert Bunch - Eagle Bill Davis - KAMU -TV Jeff Brown - KAMU -TV Leanne Wakefield - WTAW FIRE, RESCUE AND AMBULANCE Doug Landua - College Station Bill Skopik - Bryan Tom Robinson - TAMU Laura Kitzmiller - TAMU PUBLIC WORKS, ENGINEERING AND UTILITIES John Young - Bryan Gailord White - Bryan Tom Jones - Bryan Jack Cornish - Bryan Robert Pohl - Bryan M. J. Ryan - Texas Highway Department RED CROSS NOT REPRESENTED RACES Tom Comstock J. R. Youngblood Linton Jones -2- BRAZOS COUNTY CIVIL DEFENSE RACES AND COMMUNICATIONS EXERCISE June 19, 1980 NAME TITLE REPRESENTING Warren Heffington Capt.USAFR Brazos Co. C.D. Carroll Bell Col.USAFR Brazos Co. C.D. Tom Comstock RACES Officer Brazos Co. C.D. B. G. Maddox Major Bryan P.D. Charles W. Phelps Chief Bryan P.D. Jake Canglose C.D. Dir. Brazos Co. C.D. Gene E. Knowles Lt. Bryan P.D. Louis Gaston Traffic Coord. City of Bryan J.R. Youngblood Communications Bryan, Texas Doug Landua Fire Dept.Coll.Sta. College Sta.F.D. Tom W. Robinson Training Specialist Eng.Ex.Ser.TAMU Linton Jones RACES EOC Bryan Larry Locke Capt.Bryan Reserve Police Bryan Don Richardson Lt.Bryan Reserve Police Bryan Mike Orozco Lt. Bryan P.D. John A. Young Supt.of Water Distribution &Waste Water Collection Bryan Marvin Byrd Chief Police C.S.P.D. Gailord White Dir.Elect Utilities Bryan Bill Koehler Building Official C.S.Public Works Sam Saxon Comm.S.P. DPS Melvin.aRyan Communications HWY.Dept.(Texas) John Morris Reporter Eagle Tom Jones Asst.Street Super. City of Bryan Bill Davis KAMU -TV Jeff Brown KAMU -TV Jack Cornish Dir.Public Works City of Bryan Bill Skopik Training Chief -F.D. City of Bryan H.L.(Bud)Cargill County Commissioner County Judge Res.Lt.Jerry R. Mosley BPD Bryan Police Laura Kitzmiller Dir.Emerg.Med.Care Prog. H.& P.E TAMU E. E. Burns Deputy Dir.Civil Defense Brazos County Frank May Reporter Eagle Robert H. Pohl Electric Distr.Supt. Bryan, Texas Bobby H. Yeager Sheriff Brazos County Robert H. Stiteler TAMU C. D. Director TAMU Robert Bunch Photographer Eagle Ernest R. Clark City Manager Bryan Leanne Wakefield News Director WTAW Thomas R. Parsons Dir.Sec.& Traffic TAMU George Garrett T.H.P. DPS Bryan Ben Wormeli Admin. Officer Brazos Co. C.D. TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY 5805 N. LAMAR BLVD. - BOX 4087 - AUSTIN, TEXAS 78773 \ P.O. Box 3861 Bryan, Texas 77801 COMMISSION JAMES B. ADAMS ROBERT R. SHELTON DIRECTOR CHAIRMAN June 20, 1980 WILLIAM B. BLAKEMORE, II LEO E. GOSSETT CHARLES D. NASH ASST. DIRECTOR COMMISSIONERS Mr. Jake Canglose County Director and Chairman Brazos County Civil Defense County Courthouse Bryan, Texas Dear Mr. Canglose: The following is my assessment of the Brazos County Civil Defense Races and Communications Exercise June 19, 1980. It appears that the Police /Fire communications portion of the exercise was very workable and overall satisfactory. However, in the event of a real disaster of this type, these communications would rapidly become overloaded. All of the Police /Fire communications in this area have the capability to operate without telephone lines and electric power by use of auxiliary power units. This capability is essential to the operation of any police or fire service. The communications in regards to the support services such as the street department, sanatation, water, etc. would encounter delays in contacting their personnel to respond to the areas where they would be needed in the event of an actual emergency. The use of RACES and REACT communications would be vital to these support services. The arrangement of the EOC was very good with the various services grouped together. It is suggested that in the event of an actual disaster, the Communications equipment (RACES) be located in an adjacent easily accessible room to the EOC in order to reduce interference and distraction to personnel in the EOC. We found it hard to hear and understand at times, due to radio interference in the room. The RACES organization did a very good job in passing communications traffic concerning the exercise. It is felt that they would be absolutely essential in the event of actual disaster. It is recommended that any future exercise include the actual operation of the State Disaster and Emergency Services EOC located at the Texas Department of Public Safety in Austin. COURTESY • SERVICE PROTECTION Page 2 Overall, we believe the exercise was handled very well and each agency and department that participated greatly benefitted from it. It reinforced our opinion that Brazos County is in a high degree of readiness to respond to an actual disaster in a timely and efficient manner. If we can be of further assistance, please call. Sincerely, 14A274. am M. Saxon Jr. Supervisor Police Communications Facility TEXAS ABM UNIVERSITY COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS ZIP CODE 77843 OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY POLICE COURTESY PROTECTION SERVICE June 20, 1980 Brazos County Civil Defense County Courthouse Bryan, Texas 77801 Texas A$M University Police Department participated in the Brazos County Civil Defense RACES and Communications Exercise on June 19, 1980 at 5:00 P.M. Comments on the exercise are submitted as requested on page 3 of the Exercise Plan. 1. Opinion of readiness of county to respond to an actual disaster of this type. I believe the county could respond. Level of interest of all involved agencies is high. It is enlightening to see first line administrators participating in exercises of this type. 2. General opinion of test. The Exercise Plan was well written and the scenario was realistic. I am confident that exercise objectives were met. 3. Problems or deficiencies observed and suggested corrections: a. The use of RACES for administrative traffic between EOC and the various Police Departments is essential as a back -up in the event a particular radio net is either inoperative or overloaded. However, I believe it would be more effective for agency representatives at the Main EOC to communicate directly with their respective departments. The Bryan Police Department net would probably have been overloaded in this situation but I'm sure that the University net could have handled its own traffic. There is less chance for error and RACES would be more available to users who had a need. b. RACES operators used the FCC call signs of the various agencies contacted. We are not familiar with these call signs and, in an emergency situation, would not choose to search a list to determine who is being called. I would recommend that RACES use the name of the agency being called. I doubt FCC would question this in a real emergency situation. c. The University Police Department has an emergency plan but the success of the plan will depend upon the effectiveness of our notification system. Telephone is, of course, primary means.. All personnel have been informed that they should check with the dispatcher if they receive information of a disaster within the county and to report to duty if they are unable to contact the dispatcher. We believe that most personnel would be responsive. I would support a suggestion that I heard during the exercise asking local radio $ TV to make an announcement during future exercises to the effect that "This is a Brazos County Civil Defense Exercise Message. All off -duty police and fire department personnel of all departments are requested to contact their respective dispatcher. REPEAT, this is a Brazos County Civil Defense Exercise Message." d. The University must also develop some means of notification to other resource personnel - i.e. Firemans Training School, Grounds Maintenance, Transportation, Housing etc. The resources are of no use without people. k OW% 0 - YkA Thomas R. Parsons Director of Security and Traffic TRP /cjn cc: Mr. Howard Perry Mr. Harry Stitler y w 1` rrr r rrr Yr i „. rtagillir R-1 it 1 BRYANHF POST OFFICE BOX 1000 • TELEPHONE 822 -1596 • AREA CODE 713 • BRYAN, TEXAS 77801 Office of The Chief of Police June 30, 1980 Brazos County Civil Defense Brazos County Courthouse Bryan, Texas 77801 RE: Brazos County Civil Defense Races and Communications Exercise June, 1980 Dear Jake: In reference to the Brazos County Civil Defense Races and Communications Exercise, I observed the following problems or deficiencies. 1. The radios were found to be too noisy. Earphones used by the operators may be used to control the noise. 2. An increase in the number of boards, perhaps 5 or 6, due to the lack of room. (Status boards) 3. Representatives of other agencies did not sit at tables designated which caused problems during testing. Overall the test appeared to go as expected. Sincerely, B. G. Maddox Major Bryan Police Department BGM:cg The City of Bryan owns and operates the Municipal and Rural Electric Systems, including Generation • r � f ATTACHMENT 4 AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT Exercise Planning: - The scenario inputs were developed by people with field experience. Each sit- uation had as its objective the exercise of some particular function of our emergency organization. The writers attempted to allow sufficient time between inputs that responses could be made rationally and so that any problems arising from a response could manifest themselves. As with any scenario, realism was balanced against real time constraints to meet learning objectives. We consider this approach to have been successful. It can be much improved by soliciting training objectives (not specific roblems) f the use of one scenario team member from each major department and by soliciting j _.._ __ _. ._. P.._. from suportin agencies. In this way we can avoid slighting any'ageney whTEh could reasonably benefit from and contribute to the exercise. We have learned that any exercise which involves general administration or public works personnel should be scheduled for working hours. We know that it would notbe economically feasible to mobilize our entire work forces on a holiday for anything but a real situation. We found that public works and administration functions cannot be carried out without the support of staff, even though the need of any one person may be only momentary. This problem exists in lesser de- gree for Police and Fire services who are geared and staffed for round - the -clock operation. It would be possible to carry out a limited participation exercise during working hours without disrupting most city functions, and there would be access to staff members as necessary. The Emergency Operations Center: The greatest single problem at the EOC was internal communications. We found that radio operators too remote from the department head for voice con- tact introduces delay and compounds other problems of information flow in the EOC. It is desirable to have radio operators, for each department, but the de- partment head should be capable of communicating directly with his field officer where appropriate. The radios we used were "bleeding over" on the other frequencies used. This pro- blem should be solved by whatever means necessary. We found that hand -held units could not transmit to anywhere outside of the building. Any transmission made through an operator should be written and a usable message ,. , form_ should�be w developed and provided - fQ� y ,t,Y�� purpose r We have no provision for radio communications from the EOC for supporting agencies. We do not know how much of a hindrance this was in Sunday's problem, but it could be significant in later operations. The acoustic characteristics of the room were hideous, at best. This should be improved by some form of sound deadening material if the room is to continue in this use. The lack of a "status board " an adequate map and _people trained to maintain}.them was the most serious flaw in internal communications„in, Supporting agen- cies were not kept_informed of the situation, which was a serious error. It has been pointed out that we lost a great deal of the potential of the agencies present by addressing requests for aid to specific agencies without posting the problem on a board. Other agencies who might have had a solution at hand were never made a- ware of the problem. Our own departments found themselves "running rabbits" after a problem had already been solved, and the effect was probably more pronounced for supporting agencies. We had problems in keeping up with the disposition of units in the field which could have been remedied by map maintenance and by periodic reporting from the field com- mand post. The layout of the EOC could have been improved. Supporting agencies should be grouped by general function and in close proximity to the City officer responsible for that function. We believe that we should try also to retain voice contact among the City department heads by any arrangement that we adopt. We found that most of our people in the EOC will require their own clerical support close at hand. This is necessary in order to keep up with a developing situation-- - such an individual may assist in analyzing the situation for periodic briefings or reports. Supporting agencies will probably face the same need in an extended operation. Clerical needs together with a functial layout brings about a potential space problem and will require a different telephone set up. We consider tailoring the EOC personnel to each operation as it developes and providing alternate space for functions which could meet demands of a given situation without intimate contact with the EOC itself. It was pointed out that early contact with the Department of Public Safety and regular advisory contact is beneficial. Their "standing procedures for notification of other agencies provides a backup to our own notification procedures. We demon- strated that each of our departments should devote some study to available support and services and preplan their potential uses. Field Command Post: The command post suffered some of the same problems which beset the EOC. Our Standing Operating Procedures call for the three officers on the scene to group their vehicles so that they can have voice contact with one another and constant. - <. use of their radios. This was not done, and internal communication within the CP This contributed to communications problems at t was not what it could have been. T the EOC and led directly to some misrouted radio traffic. The public works OIC was not utilized in the problem to the extent he might have been, and this too was reflected in some confusion at the EOC. Our field commanders must religiously ob- serve an arrangement that allows them to communicate with one another. With present equipment we know of no other way to do it. • N� Elrey -- Continue Comments Lt. Newton Field Operations-- Police Department and attached units Charles Yeager Field Operations -Fire Department Field Operations- Public Works: Public Works was not scheduled to function in the field. In an actual situation they would have initially been assigned tasks similar to those performed by Texas State Guard personnel. 41 1 COMMAND POST CRITiQUF - POLICE DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATIONS WAS GOOD BETr €EN THE POST AND THE E.O.C. FOR THE POLICE DEPAR '.ENT. THERE WERE FEW DELAYS OR NON CONTACT BETWEEN THE E.O.C. RADIO OPERATOR AND MYSELF. OUR COMMUNICA- TIONS BETWEEN THE THREE CITY OFFICERS ON THE POST SUFFERED DUE TO OUR POSITION, HOWEVER TO POSITION THE VEHICLES FOR MAXIMUM RESULTS WOULD HAVE MEANT A ROADBLOCK, WHICH WAS INAPPROPRIATE FOR A SIMULATION HAZARD. WE DO KNOW THAT IF THE REAL THING HAPPENS, WS HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO POSITION THE POST VEHICLES FOR MAXIMUM CO MUNICATION BETWEEN . US AND ALSO SERVE AS A ROADBLOCK WHERE NECCESSARY. COMMUNI- CATIONS BETWEEN THE POST AND THE STATE GUARD WAS NIL. THEY HAD NO ONE AT THE POST WITH A RADIO WHICH CAUSED DELAYS AND UNCERTAINTY. THEY WERE MADE AWARE OF THIS AND SHOULD USE THE INFORMATION IN THE FUTURE. UNNECCESSARY TRANSMISSIONS ON THE POLICE RADIO COULD HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED BY THE USE OF A STATUS BOARD AT THE E.O.C. AND AT THE COMMAND POST. FOR A SIMULATED EXERCISE, I THOUGHT THE DRILL WENT FAIRLY WELL IN THE FIELD, SINCE IT WAS DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH ASSUMPTIONS AND SIMULATIONS AND NOT BEING AMR TO SEE OR KNOW THE ACTUAL HAZARDS AND REMEDIES AND NORMAL TIME SEQUENCE OF EVENTS. M.A. NEWTON, LT. •