Introduction
Strategic planning is a management tool that serves various purposes in organizations. It provides a framework for developing appropriate courses of action in organizations after an analysis of current organizational operations and outcomes. Strategic planning also helps organizations adapt to changes in the face of complexities and diversification of factors.
In order to determine the suitability of plans to their purpose, an analysis of the plans is necessary in case the plans need modification or require the organization to abandon them and rethink its position. Goodstein, Nolan, and Pfeiffer (1993) provide a detailed explanation of nine necessary aspects for the creation of an effective strategic plan for an organization.
These aspects include planning to plan, values scan, mission formulation, strategic modeling of business, performance audit, gap analysis, integrating action plans, contingency planning, and implementation (Goodstein, Nolan & Pfeiffer, 1993).
This paper looks at two organizations, viz. the New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD) and the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) in relation to their strategic planning dynamics concerning emergency preparedness and disaster response within the larger U.S. government as an organization in itself.
In the case of the FDNY, the paper analyzes details of the New York City’s governance, its effects on the fire department coupled with how these aspects, in turn, affect the station’s strategic planning for emergency response by using Hurricane Sandy as a case study.
For the New Orleans case study, the paper analyzes the NOFD’s involvement during and after Hurricane Katrina, changes in the fire department’s strategic plans, and effect of New Orleans’ government strategic plans on the department’s plans. It also provides a comparison between the two departments by indicating similarities, differences, and lessons available for each of them from the other.
Disaster management
Disaster management forms part of the core functions of most disaster-response units in most countries, including fire departments. The uncertainty and the unexpectedness of disaster make disaster management techniques an incredibly difficult subject, as they mostly strike when least expected (Abbott, 2005). Disasters expose people to both primary and secondary effects.
Varghese (2002) notes that natural disasters have “immediate impacts on human health, as well as secondary impacts causing further death and suffering from floods causing landslides, earthquakes resulting in fires, tsunamis causing widespread flooding, and typhoons sinking ferries” (p.102).
Responding appropriately to disasters require embracement of concepts such as disaster preparedness, disaster recovery, disaster relief, and disaster prevention. Disaster preparedness entails all activities designed to ensure that damages and losses of life reduce should a disaster strike (Smith, 2006, p.13).
These activities include “removing people and property from a threatened location and facilitating timely and effective rescue, relief, and rehabilitations” (Hansen & Schramm, 1993, p.56). Disaster relief refers to multi-agency coordinated responses to enhance the mitigation of the effects of disasters coupled with their results in the long term.
Some of the relief activities the agencies conducted in the event of a disaster include repairing the vital utility lines that the disaster destroyed, foods provision to the affected, and relocation of people (evacuation) in the effort to escape the ramifications of disasters. Others include provision of health care, provision of temporary shelter until the disaster is passed on, and rescue of the affected people among other activities.
Disaster recovery efforts, on the other hand, encompass activities such as rehabilitation and reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructures. Once disasters strike, measures for protection from exposure to similar disasters in the future is necessary for all affected people, which calls for the development of strategies for disaster prevention.
These strategies include “activities designed to provide permanent protection from disasters” (Nicholson, 2003, p.67). Considering the concerns of disasters management, disaster management organizations should execute their roles to restore normalcy amongst people.
New York City overview
In order to understand the significance of FDNY’s strategic plans, it is important to explore some facts on the city of New York that impact on the government and fire department’s strategic planning process and possible outcomes. The city lies on one of the world’s largest natural harbors and is home to the United Nations headquarters.
The city’s architecture comprises some of the most famous buildings in the world, including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and the Statue of Liberty. As at 2012, the city’s population was 8.4 million over an area of seven hundred and eighty-three square kilometers.
Additionally, the metropolitan area population is approximately 19.8 million. An interesting fact is that more than fifty percent of the city’s dwellers do not own personal transportation as the same would be counterproductive, given the city’s population.
New York’s government structure has remained the same since 1898. Although the government has made a few changes concerning some rules of governance such as direct management of the city’s budget by the mayor, the composition has remained the same. The city’s government is central and comprises a mayor and a governor, who both form part of a fifty-one member council in charge of the city’s policymaking.
In order to cater for the population’s needs, the council has enacted policies that support public transportation through the introduction of the New York subway system, one of the most intricate rapid transit systems in the world. It provides for the city’s transport needs while easing traffic on city roads.
It is also cheaper for most of the residents in terms of income expenditure. The establishment of law enforcement, healthcare and first responder service centers in the city has also eased the pressure on the residents in the metropolitan area.
The New York Fire Department (FDNY)
The New York Fire department is one of the many basic service delivery institutions that the government established to ensure efficiency in dealing with the residents’ needs as part of its strategic planning process. Although the city has one fire department, the department has various stations throughout the city for effective service delivery.
Its organizational structure consists of a central department with divisions according to function, which responds simultaneously as a unit. FDNY has 10,725 uniformed firefighters, over 2,000 paramedics, more than 100 fire marshals and approximately 200 fire inspectors.
Although the city’s population is large, having a single department centralizes operations and makes it easier to coordinate operations throughout the entire city according to need and availability. The FDNY offers first responder services for fires, public safety and medical emergencies and disasters, both natural and fabricated.
For instance, the department played a key role during the September 9, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, in conjunction with other departments such as the New York Police Department and the National Guard. One of its core duties is to ensure the protection of lives and property of New York residents and visitors and advance public safety.
It achieves these goals through public safety education programs, investigations on possible fire hazards, installation of preventive measures such as fire alarms, responding to distress calls and providing aid during the recovery process after disasters (The New York Fire Department, 2013).
In ensuring that the department accomplishes its goals and objectives, mainly in relation to disaster preparedness and response, the FDNY formulates and implements various strategic plans, one of which is the centralization of the department’s operations.
Other plans include continuous firefighter training, contingency plan formulation in the face of disasters, civilian education, coordination with other government agencies and setting up recovery programs for victims and department personnel.
Continuous training of fire fighters enhances endurance and adaptability to new environments and techniques, a property that makes up numbers. Although the department does not have enough fire fighters in relation to the city’s population, proper training ensures that they are able to deal with emergencies appropriately.
Central administration also plays a crucial role as it enables the department evaluates situations and determines priority in dealing with emergencies. It also ensures that communication links remain intact, increasing efficiency during disaster response. Coordination with other state departments provides the fire department with enough workforces in instances of proportionate disaster response.
An example of these strategies in application is evident in the department’s response to Hurricane Sandy, one of the most devastating natural disasters to hit the city. Although the hurricane hit a number of states along the Gulf Coast, New York and New Jersey experienced most of its wrath.
The presence of inland rivers and large coastline made the city susceptible to flooding. Shortly past midday on October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit New York’s coastline with a storm surge consisting mostly of ghastly wings with significant precipitation.
The storm surge caused flooding of the New York subway system, most of the streets, almost all road tunnels going into Manhattan and severe destruction of property. At least forty people lost their lives during the storm, with thousands of others losing their homes and businesses. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) suspended trading for two consecutive days and most Hospitals in the city closed down.
Heavy winds disrupted electricity supply as trees and debris from buildings fell on power lines. The damage on electricity lines and gas leaks also resulted in fires that destroyed millions of dollars worth of property. In Breezy Point, Queens, over ninety homes went up in flames leaving families stranded.
On October 28, 2012, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the entire state of New York, including a pre-disaster declaration that came into effect after hurricane Katrina, as a measure to mobilize federal finding to deal with Sandy’s aftermath.
The FDNY disaster preparedness procedure coupled with central administration, provided firefighters with pertinent information, enabling the department evacuate thousands of residents, especially in areas near the coastline and those with low altitudes such as lower Manhattan, much of Staten Island, City Island and areas north of Route 25A, to higher altitude areas.
By the evening of October 28, most of the railways and bus services had suspended their operations and bridges had closed until October 30. The fire department’s main obligation arose after the disaster on October 30, as firefighters had to put out more than fifty fires in areas all over the city, most of which arose at Breezy Point.
The department also helped clear debris blocking roads and remove trees and other obstructions from electricity lines. The presence of a paramedics unit also made it possible for the department to cater to medical emergencies including recovery of people from the rubble and transportation of the injured to hospitals all over the city, supplementing efforts by Homeland Security.
The government set up support centers around the city including areas of Coney Island, Rockaway and Staten Island to help displaced people access food, water, gas and mobile phone connections.
The fire department helped deliver the supplies to areas where victims needed them most and attended to simple medical procedures at the centers. The department was also helpful in collecting data on the number of injured people and populations at the support centers, enabling the government to respond appropriately.
An analysis based on these facts proves that the department’s strategic plans were sufficient in addressing disaster preparedness and response, with fluid execution leading to the desirable outcome in terms of the department’s primary objective to safeguard life, health and property. The plans present efficiency with regard to service to the population, even with the low number of firefighters available at the department.
As part of the recovery process, the department set up the Fire Safety Program in November after the disaster, with the aim reducing vulnerability of the elderly to disasters, because most of the people who died during the disaster and in fires after the disaster were above seventy years.
This age bracket formed more than forty percent of deaths from fire during and after the disaster. The program’s funding came from the Department of Homeland Security.
New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD)
The New Orleans provides a comparison to the FDNY in terms of strategic planning for disaster preparedness and response. Unlike the FDNY, the NOFD’s strategic plans comply with policies that go further back in history, creating a problem in terms of adaptation to population changes and the environment.
Although New Orleans is a much smaller city then New York, the ratio of firefighters in the department to the existing population is much lower than that in New York, making it difficult for the department to accomplish its goals and objectives.
Although the department’s choice to enroll and train volunteer firefighters as a strategy to increase the department’s workforce works, lack of creativity and adaptability in strategic planning creates problems for the department, limiting its ability to serve the people effectively.
A.A. look at some facts about the department and its effectiveness during and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 proves the department’s inefficiency in strategic planning and implementation in disaster response and recovery.
Contrast with the New York Fire Department further enhances the planning problems and the need for drastic improvements. The New Orleans fire department’s history runs back to 1829, when a group of people came together with the aim of fighting fires within the city. This group referred itself as the Firefighters’ Charitable Associations (FCA).
The group engaged in voluntary fire fighting activities and the title of the group existed until 1891. After 62 years of existence, the FCA changed to the New Orleans Fire Department, abbreviated as NOFD, following the introduction of paid service.
The main reason for the existence of the New Orleans Fire Department is to ensure ardent provision of fire fighting and protection services within New Orleans. Ryan (2006) approximates that NOFD serves “approximately 340,000 people in a 350.2-square-mile (907 km2) area, 180.6 square miles (468 km2) of that is on land while the rest is water” (p.23).
Just like the NYFD, the NOFD’s administration is central, providing ease in communication and operational processes throughout the organization. The New Orleans Fire Department’s organizational structure comprises three levels, which include the special operations and planning, fire suppression, and fire administration. The assistant superintendent acts as the commander of the fire suppression.
It is the largest division of the NOFD. The central priorities of the fire suppression departmental division include ensuring life safety and stabilization of various emergencies related to fires coupled with preservation of property.
According to the City of New Orleans Fire Department, “fire suppression members regularly participate in daily inspections, fire safety educational programs, and numerous other fire-related duties” (2006, p.18). For effective communication in emergency response processes, administration is important for an emergency response organization.
The fire administration departmental division of the NOFD is responsible for executing communication tasks. Under the leadership of the deputy chief, the fire administration also commands investigation on fires and fire prevention coupled with ensuring that training in subdivisions takes place. The division is also responsible for ensuring timely coordination for the responses for all situations involving non-emergency responses.
Other coordination activities of the division include functions such as payrolls preparation, processing of data ensuring timely supplies, budgeting, and administration of personnel, among other tasks. In the effort to enhance disaster preparedness of the organization, the administration departmental division of the NOFD engages in tasks such as coordination of fire equipment and vehicles purchases coupled with repairs.
Special operation and planning divisions of the NOFD are under the command of the special and operations deputy chief. The division plans various anticipated future operations and activities of the New Orleans Fire Department. The deputy chief is in charge of training within the departmental division.
Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest cyclone that hit the region in 2005 during hurricane season. Katrina hit New Orleans on August 28, 2005, leaving unfathomed destruction and loss of lives in the city. Although the U.S. government had warned of the hurricane’s possible impact on the city, a large proportion of the population was unable to leave the city.
Some of the reasons people gave included their belief that their houses could withstand the hurricane’s impact as they had in previous storms, fear of leaving property behind, and lack of personal transportation with which to leave the city.
Although ninety percent of the city’s inhabitants complied with the mandatory evacuation, the government had to intervene and provide last-resort shelter for residents still stranded in the city as the hurricane approached. The Superdome in the center of the city is one of the emergency centers that got the media’s attention owing to the fact that it housed more than twenty thousand people for several days.
The most notable impact of the hurricane was extensive flooding throughout the city owing to poor infrastructural planning and slow completion of levees in a city with a high percentage of water as part of its overall area.
More than 1,400 people lost their lives and property worth billions of dollars was lost to floodwater and fires. In addition, oil and other industrial chemicals turned floodwater toxic, causing diseases. Unlike New York, the city government lacked the capacity to cater for needs such as food, clean drinking water and medical assistance, causing unrest.
Most of the police officers that form part of the New Orleans police department abandoned their posts, some taking government-issued police vehicle and fleeing the city to avoid the aftermath. The combination of these occurrences made it nearly impossible for the fire department to deal with the effects of the hurricane independent of other government departments.
Before the occurrence of the hurricane in 2005, the goal of the NOFD was to ensure evacuation of people from disastrous areas and ensure safety of citizens and property. After the occurrence of the hurricane, the goal was to rescue the affected people and put off possible raging fires to protect property and lives. The two goals reflect the missions and purposes of the organization.
The organization seeks to achieve these goals through its human resource and interventions of various response equipment. Although the evacuation exercise was successful, since accomplishing of the task took place before striking of the hurricane occurred, the hurricane-affected the recovery and rescue mission enormously.
Destruction of the equipment of the NOFD occurred; hence, deterring the realization of the goal of rapid response. However, this does not mount to total failure on the department’s end. Considering the fact that most of the department’s personnel receive training in fire-related response and not much on medical emergencies, it is safe to say that the firefighters and volunteers did their best in adapting to existing circumstances.
Evans and Drabek (2004) posit that managing disasters gives rise to formidable challenges to the government’s emergency and disaster management apparatus since they present a requirement for making difficult decisions on service delivery systems for the affected people (p.45). Therefore, the affected jurisdictions source aid from other jurisdictions not affected by the disaster.
In the absence of a disaster, a given state cannot place diplomatic call for help should an emergency or a disaster occurs in the future. This assertion implies that the internal emergency and disaster management apparatus only have resources adequate for development of emergency and disaster preparedness strategies, but not for relief, rescue, and recovery.
Drawing from the above arguments, the New Orleans disaster management systems could not have prevented Hurricane Katrina from striking the Gulf coast. Hurricane Katrina rendered the Gulf coast roads impassable and destroyed communication networks.
The City of New Orleans Fire Department (2006) posits, “There were hundreds of hazardous material incidences such as overturned tanks cars and runaways barges and ships” (p.6). The entire city of New Orleans also went without power supply accompanied by various incidences of gas leaks in the area where gas supply lines had not drained.
This aspect caused several rages of fire across the city of New Orleans, thus prompting the need for fire management and response services of the NOFD to come for the safety of the city. As water levels continued to rise, the NOFD service personnel got into action to save lives in an environment lacking communication networks.
The NOFD lost vital equipment including fire stations, communication equipment, and vehicles among other facilities required for ardent response. However, with the aid from firefighters based in Louisiana, Illinois, New York, and other places rebuilding of the NOFD was possible.
In the process of rebuilding, the NOFD realized that it needed strategic plans for the recovery process. In the process of making effective strategic plans, an organization has to engage in planning to plan as the first stage of the planning process.
During this step, the NOFD sought the help of the U.S. fire administration coupled with International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) to help in the development of a recovery plan from the events of Hurricane Katrina.
The City of New Orleans Fire Department (2006) reckons, “The NOFD officers and staff aided by many fire services professionals from around the country have formulated a blueprint of recovery for the NOFD” (p.6). Through strategic plans, the NOFD believes that a clear blueprint for responding to disaster enhances aiding the organization to achieve its aim of protecting and rescuing people and property.
In the pre-planning phase, the department addressed several interrogatives based on the model for strategic planning.
These interrogatives included questions seeking to establish the current position of the organization, future anticipated position of the organization, and the mechanisms of ensuring that the NOFD would reach its anticipated position in the future. These departments identified areas of focus and made plans to addresses them through the mission, values, goals, and the visions of the NOFD.
Significant similarities and differences between FDNY and NOFD
The main similarity between the FDNY and the NOFD is that both departments share a central structure in their administration that increases efficiency in communication and prioritization of incidents to which they respond. Secondly, both departments serve a wide area and a larger population in comparison to the sizes of their personnel.
Additionally, they base their strategic planning on government funding for their operations, their goals and objectives.
For instance, preference of public modes of transportation formed an essential consideration when mapping out plans on how to evacuate areas that proved most vulnerable to the effects of the hurricanes. Both cities also have water bodies running through the inland area, an aspect that increased chances of flooding proportionately.
The main difference between the two lies in the creativity of their organizational models. While the NOFD chooses to base its model on fire emergencies, the New York model embraces creative diversity, choosing to incorporate medical emergencies as part of its areas of expertise.
Another notable difference between the two departments in terms of strategic structuring for emergency responses is that the FDNY applies convergence, incorporating other government departments to increase the workforce available, especially in emergencies. In sharp contrast, the NOFD uses volunteer firefighters as an extension of their workforce, creating uncertainty on the exact number of respondents available at any time.
Regarding responses from the two departments in relation to the respective hurricanes, New York had an advantage over New Orleans as it applied lessons from Katrina to enhance its preparedness for disasters. However, the NOFD learned valuable lessons from the disaster and has since made arrangements for better plans, including incorporation of community sensitization programs.
Conclusion
Although it is difficult to prepare adequately for any disaster owing to unpredictability, especially for natural disasters, it is possible to develop measures that make the recovery process easier and reduce damage to property while safeguarding lives.
Assessment of business models, adequate training, diversity in areas of operation, creativity in organizational arrangement and adaptability to circumstances are some of the important elements the true hurricanes brought out as part of the essential components in disaster preparedness and response for both fire departments.
Reference List
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