Introduction
In cases of tragedies such as hurricanes and floods, governments need to have a clear plan for the emergencies. During the time of Hurricane Katrina it was clear that cities of the U.S were not prepared for the response of emergencies. This was because in most of the cities, many people especially the disabled, poor and the minorities were impacted negatively due to the absence of a quick response system.
Therefore, that brought the need to review the current emergency plans of many cities in the U.S. including New York. It was during this period, that the Office of the Emergency Management (OEM) was introduced by the mayor and mandated with the civil defense as well as the city preparedness to disasters.
The last review was conducted in 2005 when the city adopted the City Incident Management System (CIMS), a body which was charged with coordinating multi agency responses to all kinds of disaster. Due to the unacceptable impacts that the Hurricane Katrina had, the city came up with the ‘New York City Emergency and Evacuation plans’ ‘in the event of weather related emergency (Baker, Par 8, 2006).
Jurisdiction or Location Identified
The report on ‘New York City Emergency Response and Evacuation Plans in the Event of a Weather-Related Emergency’ analyzes the preparedness and the vulnerability of the government agencies with the authority of relocating and evacuating people in case of a disaster.
With the department served with the evacuation plans of the city being the OEM. The department relies on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Port Authority and other state and local authorities departments.
In cases of drastic changes in weather conditions such as the Katrina, the City of New York has two kinds of evacuation and emergency response plans.
The first plan concentrates more on the weather issues while the other concerns the evacuation plans in case a disaster hit the city. Whereas the weather related evacuations do not lead to matters of security concern, area evacuation plans are more security sensitive and there is usually reluctance by the administration to reveal the place that requires evacuation.
In the last century, the city of New York City has been hit by numerous hurricanes in an approximate of one per decade with the worst being classified as a category 3. Other than the hurricanes, the city has also been hit by smaller storms which at times have forced schools within the city be closed as well as take enough measures to open evacuation stores and this shows why New York City needs a comprehensive weather plan.
As a result this has made the city of New York one of the most vulnerable cities in the USA behind Miami and New Orleans.
However despite drafting of the city emergency and evacuation plan, there is a need to analyze and understand the plan based on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to understand which sections of the plan are ideal and which needs modification to suite any COOP situation that would arise.
SWOT Analysis
According to the report, the success and reliability of the evacuation plans depends on the number of people being evacuated, availability of evacuation resources and also the distance to where the people need to be evacuated to and finally the lead time needed. How the plan combines the above factors is of major concern as it would contribute to the success or failure of evacuation processes.
Strengths
The New York City plan has made evacuations easier in case a hurricane hit the city by segmenting the city into solar systems with each having a reception center where the people would be accommodated some of these reception centers are also easily accessible.
This is in line with the COOP requirement of establishing alternate facilities which can carry the function when the primary facility is not available. The plan also incorporates the COOP guidelines by ensuring that there is provision of vital services, exercise authority as well as maintaining the safety and the well being of all the affected people.
In the plan, people would be directed to certain buses and trains running on certain routes and any lacking information would be presented during the time of the disaster. The Emergency Office Management uses public transport facilities due to their reliability.
As a result, the reliance on public transportation means more responsibility on MTA and the Port Authority. While it is important that no successful evacuation can take place without a plan, the MTA indicates that they don’t need a plan as they can deliver the transportation assets as directed by EOM.
The New York City plan further indicates that in order to have a successful evacuation process, it would mean having an inventory of the MTA assets and the number each can transport for logistic purposes. This incorporates the COOP requirements of being in possession of all the records needed in supporting the mission essential functions during a COOP situation.
Weaknesses
Despite the provision of the reception centers, the plan fails to cater for accessibility and distance problems for some of these centers whereby not all reception centers are easily accessible through public transport means and in addition the access routes may be destroyed during flooding and this would make it very difficult for the people who are not mobile to have serious difficulties in traveling from their homes to the shelter places.
The New York City plan also fails to explain what would happen to the roads and what time would be required depending on the hurricane category. Therefore the plan fails to explain what would happen in case of a COOP event by not providing alternative communications options as required by FEMA.
The plan also fails to cater for the special populations such as the disabled persons and the elderly. This is a major warning to those responsible in the city of New York that the rescue processes should mostly cater for those with physical and health limitations as they may need more assistance than the normal citizens.
The plan fails in planning on how they could deal with physically non immobile populations or how the citizens who do not understand English within the city will be able to access the reception centers (Transportation Research Boards, 2008).
Self evacuation is another problem which can face the city and which the authorities concerned still overlook. Self evacuation happens when residents in safe places vacate their locations even though they are in no eminent danger due to fear and as a result this would lead to inconveniences on the side of those who really need to be evacuated.
From the plan, it is not well known how the authorities have considered the problem of self evacuation. As a result, in case a hurricane hit the city, this would cause major strain to the evacuation process.
With the city plan dismissing chances of self evacuation, if the study conducted by FEMA is anything to go by you can be sure if a hurricane hit New York city, the clogging of the streets and public transportation facilities would be worse and people would not evacuate due to the inability of movements and that’s a case which need to be considered and a factor that the city plan does not seem to consider (Eichelberger, 2005).
A situation which the city would fail to manage in case a COOP incidence occurred since FEMA clearly states that there should be in existence clear plans and actions that can respond to the problems people might be facing during COOP activation such as the dismissal procedures and guidelines for communication.
According to the plan, in case evacuations were to take place only a small fraction would be accommodated in the emergency shelters. For example in case a category 4 hurricane hit the city, more than half a million people would be left stranded and thus there is need to increase the evacuation centers as well as shelters.
Another problem which needs to be considered is where the people affected by the hurricane would access food and other basic amenities since the plan does not seem to understand what would happen after accommodating people in the help centers.
Opportunities
The plan explains that if hurricane of category 4 hit New York, it would force evacuation of more than a million people while a hurricane of category 3 would cause an evacuation of even more people.
Due to the different intensities of the hurricane, the people who would need to be evacuated in case it hit also varies as well as their requirements thus there is a need to look into modifications and the resources which would be required to make the plan successful (Barron, Par 11, 2005).
For the evacuation process to be successful and the authorities to feel full prepared, there is a need to coordinate all the municipalities and a clear plan be drawn out since there are suspicions that in case of disaster, some evacuation routes would collide with others bringing problems to the evacuation process a problem that MTA does not explain how their systems would be relied on if there were to be evacuations in the counties with colliding evacuation routes due to the congestion that would result thus there is a need to look further in to this issue(Long Island, 2010).
Campaigns for public awareness and education are needed if the evacuation plan is ever going to succeed. There is a need for effective communication and leadership during the periods of evacuation. Recent conducted studies within New York City showed how people are uninformed with many unaware of what to do in case a hurricane hit.
Many of them also never knew of the evacuation centers or where they would meet in case of a hurricane (Baker, 2006). Campaigns and trainings are needed on all public employees working in the subways as they would help much during the evacuation process. Training would ensure that the evacuations take place faster and in an organized manner. The public employees should also be involved in the training.
The plan notes that for all the responsible departments to achieve successful evacuations, it would wholly depend upon the amount in advance given to the city residents.
Although it is hard to have the exact time, since flooding and high winds may precede the storm, it is assumed that by that time the city residents would have been evacuated. This is as required by the three phases of COOP implementation which are activation, relocation and implementation.
Threats
With the OEM over reliance on public transport, a hurricane of category 4 can destroy bridges and flood tunnels affecting migration negatively and thus given the vulnerability of the situation, it is important to move residents from subways as floods can drown them very easily.
It is important for the city to have a comprehensive plan on how roads, bridges, and tunnels are supposed to be operated in case a hurricane hits the New York City. The report indicates that no one is sure with even the MTA ignorant as to which subway would be safe and which are most susceptible in case of floods.
If the vulnerability of evacuation bridges are assessed way before a hurricane hits, the authorities should review the lead time that would be needed to safely shut all the unsafe routes. It would be thus important for the city authority in line with the template to further develop comprehensive pandemic annexes to the existing COOP plans so as to be able to cope with any disaster that may arise.
Conclusion
There exist serious questions and problems which would hit the city of New York if a hurricane hit the city. The responsible authorities in the name of the city of New York, MTA’s and the Port Authority’s plan for evacuation needs, thorough reviewing and modification in order to accommodate the COOP issues which have been raised such as self evacuations, food and other basic needs supply for the evacuates.
The plan offered by the authorities leaves many questions unanswered or begging for comprehensive solutions and thus the need for the review and enactment of a plan, which is fully comprehensive in covering all the needs that would be required if the city was hit by a hurricane.
Reference List
Baker, S. (2006). There When It Matters. Web.
Barron, J. (2005). Evaluating a What-If Case: New York City’s Evacuation. Web.
Department of Homeland Security. (2004). Continuity of Operations: FEMA. Web.
Eichelberger, C. (2005). City Has Plans In Place In Case A Major Hurricane Ever Happens. The Villager. Volume 75, Number 18. Web.
Long Island. (2010). OEM In the Media – Press Releases: Hurricane Earl and Long Island: Preparation Plans. Web.
Transportation Research Board, (2008). The Role of Transit in Emergency Evacuation. Special Report 294. Web.