City Emergency Plan
Does the City of Lawrence have one, and if so, where is it and is the plan reviewed and updated on an annual basis? I can’t seem to find a city emergency plan. However, we do know that the Lawrence Fire Chief is the Emergency Management Director when things of disasters occur in Lawrence. He does an emergency disaster plan and Rumbo is inquiring about a disaster plan for all other non-public safety employees.
A comprehensive city emergency plan should be in place specifying the assignments to be executed by specific agencies, departments at projected times and places based on proven objectives, assumptions, and assessment of capabilities. It’s really a document that outlines, more importantly, should detail, how people will be protected in an emergency.
The Fire Chief’s plan includes mitigating the loss of life and damage to property, using systems, plans, and resources to save lives, and reducing damage and aid in recovery. This was evident during the Lawrence gas fires and explosion.
The amount of training provided to the city’s firefighters showed the true professionalism of that unit, complemented by the Lawrence Police task of saving lives and protecting property.
The Lawrence Fire Dispatch Center recordings from September 13 & 14, 2018 showed how truly knowledgeable and calm the Fire Department’s response was to this event. The fire dispatcher’s calmness and response to actually identifying the hundreds of calls being reported, the call to mutual aid, and the task of requesting emergency command truly shows how Fire Chief and the leaders of the Fire Department train their staff.
Additionally, the knowledge of firefighters on the scene as to the nature of the explosions and fires (pressurized gas line) showed how truly trained and experience the Lawrence Fire Department seems to be in regards to events like these. You should go to YouTube and hear the first hour of this truly amazing response (https://youtu.be/T7HYA_HjbP4)
The only missing piece to the City’s complete emergency plan is the city non-safety portion. The services to support the city’s safety officials preparedness is completely missing. The City Council is missing out in passing ordinances that give the Directors power to take control of certain areas or roles. Here are just a few of the areas that I feel needed to be addressed in a yet to be written emergency plan.
Communication – not only to the press but to city residents and people in general by the best means to reach that message, taking into account the language(s) that are spoken in the city. Also, allow the Fire Chief and Police Chief to message its residents through visual and radio means.
Whenever there’s an emergency for any reason in this country, all the departments involved in the event stand behind the podium and one by one is given the opportunity to address the media and explain their effort and progress. In this case, the mayor monopolized the TV.
A Public Information Officer position should be created to serve as the coordination point for all public information, media relations, and internal information sources for the Emergency Group and for the residents. Complete, accurate and consistent information is needed to include; health advisories, relief and assistance programs, and other vital information to maintain positive relations with the media.
Probably recognizing this need, the mayor assigned Librarian Jessica Valentín to contact the media. You might not believe it but the only thing she did was place two short messages, a press release from the Red Cross and the two flyers from Columbia Gas with a blue background advising where to go sign up for assistance in the library twitter account. Who would have thought of looking at the library’s twitter account with the name LawFreeLibrary? Only Jessica.
It may seem unbelievable that the only information available on radio was thanks to Councilors Brian DePeña, Ana Levy and Pavel Payano. The City of Lawrence provided ZERO press releases and apparently forbade Fire Chief Moriarty and Police Chief Vasque to speak to the media because they were only standing in back while the mayor tried to impress Governor Baker in his handling of an emergency situation. Instead he embarrassed himself losing his cool with reporters.
Mayor Rivera should be eternally grateful to the city councilors who took over the management of the Arlington and Parthum schools shelters with no directions from anyone to make him look good. Thanks to Councilor DePeña for using his contacts with the business community to arrange for plenty of food that was provided for days to all volunteers and sheltered victims.
Assignment – obtain vital supplies, equipment and such other properties found lacking and needed for the protection of the life and property of the people and to bind the city for the fair value thereof, and, if required immediately, to commandeer the same for public use.
These are just two areas. The city needs to think about recovery activities, transportation, public health, human service, auditor services, attorney services, assessment services, community development response, Information Technology services, community volunteers, and more.
You may think the City of Lawrence had a plan because it executed many things accordingly. They do not have a plan. The city, except for safety personnel, ran by the seat of their pants and we should thank the many employees stood out and took control to make things happen. Most of these decisions were made on the spot.
They also had the support of thousands of people throughout New England responding to the call of help by donations. This was a good response. But it’s an election year, so the elected officials came out to support and fight for Lawrence. But what happens when it’s not an election year? Will the City get the kind of response it received from the elected officials for emergency situations?
We remember the year 2006 when it rained for nearly nine days in a row. It was tropical rains for 9 days! The entire city flooded. There was no non-safety emergency plan in place then. The city did well in running things with a couple of employees who took control of the situation. We needed a plan then or at the very least begin to write one immediately after the floods occurred. Three mayors have been in office since then, and the city still does not have a non-safety public emergency repose plan in place.
Running by the seat of our pants!
