“New Orleans was not prepared at any level for Hurricane Katrina.
There was no declaration of a state of emergency there. That
declaration can be made by a mayor in a city or by a county official or
by a state governor. That declaration triggers National Guard
deployment, FEMA activity, and work by the Corps of Engineers.” You can
see that Mayor Allen Green got right down to the nitty-gritty in
hurricane-related crisis management. Mayor Green, speaking to the
January “Men's 710” meeting at Zion Lutheran Church in Silverhill,
discussed disaster planning from a first-hand perspective. He
explained how the evacuation zones in Baldwin County were arrived at,
and how interaction of mayors, Emergency Management, and other levels
of government were ultimately responsible for the redirecting of the
I-65 freeway north for evacuation in hurricanes hitting our Alabama
Gulf.
It became apparent that one of the reasons Alabama is getting it right
is that Alabama is involved with planning on the local level. Local
officials know what higher levels of government are unable to readily
discover. The reason that ice, water, and food were staged and ready
to go from Montgomery in the days after Katrina related specifically to
the integration of local planners into state level planning BEFORE
these recent catastrophic events in the first years of this century.
It is a sidebar of history that what was planned for Alabama emergency
was redirected to Mississippi and Louisiana when much of Katrina missed
us. But it was Alabama local planning that made the materials ready to
go.
Mayor Green discussed the use of National Guard in any disaster
scenario. By having the Guard at hand immediately before a storm hits,
there is control of break-ins and looting during--yes, during
storms--and immediately after. It is a much simpler job for the Guard
and health and safety officials when people evacuate, but under Alabama
law there can be no “mandatory” evacuation because people cannot be
forced to leave their property.
What does a major do when an Ivan or Katrina comes bearing down on the
coast? Mayor Green had a simple answer. “I went out and prayed. I
wanted to know what I was going to do!” Did you catch that whole
phrase, “I wanted to know what I was going to do”? It turns out that
governmental agencies need to have contracts in place with FEMA
“before” money can be released for clean up after the fact! One of the
reasons that Hurricane Ivan clean-up progressed quickly for Baldwin was
the presence of those pre-storm contracts.
FEMA does have local issues problems because it typically ships in its
bureaucracy from outside the state involved. There is a real
disconnect between local needs and getting the job done. From a local
advocacy perspective, look at Mayor Green's community. Silverhill had
a contract in place to take care of the massive amounts of debris from
Ivan, but FEMA and consulting engineers came in just to “oversee” the
contracts, which had been pre-storm, negotiated. “Local people have
wisdom we need to hear.” There is great comfort in listening to the
wisdom of those who have gone through previous storms and who have
designed buildings and structures that have weathered past
devastations.
This does not mean that new strategies for handling storm emergencies
are not needed. Five emergency centers were needed and are now fact in
Baldwin. Health care coverage is needed and commitments have been
made. First responders need to be talking to one another--Southern
Link was set-up as the governmental communication mechanism just before
Katrina, available to all units of government as well as those
emergency centers. When the Red Cross will not service a building
unrated for a 110 mile per hour wind, there has to be other planning
for health care. Technically, this is not a FEMA issue. Enter here,
the local communities. A local community like Silverhill, joining with
other local units of government, with the County and with the State of
Alabama, can have a strategic voice in planning for disaster.
Do you remember the severe fuel shortage after Katrina? There now is a
commitment for the gas tanks of governmental units to be maintained
post-disaster. In addition, Wal-Marts in Baldwin County will keep fuel
available for citizens. The National Guard is committed and will keep
shipments of fuel going to distribution sites after storms. Towns like
Silverhill will address power needs post-storm. In the case of
beautiful Silverhill, there is a back-up generator coming just for such
an eventuality.
Mayor Green shared several publications, which detail our Baldwin
preparation for emergencies: “Baldwin County Emergency Management
Agency: It's Hurricane Season: Be Aware and Be Prepared”; “Hurricane
Preparedness in Alabama”; and, Weather Awareness Guide: Baldwin
County.” These publications are available to the public at
Silverhill's Town Hall on the corner of Highways 55 and 104.
