Hurricane Harvey, possibly the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, has just finished pummeling Texas.
Inconceivable amounts of rain and historic flooding will make the rebuilding efforts and cleanup costs at least as expensive as Hurricane Katrina, which cost approximately $125 billion dollars.
Hindsight is supposed to be 20/20, yet one has to wonder, “Has Nassau County’s Office of Emergency Management learned anything from its chaotic response to Hurricane Sandy?”
A quick look at Nassau’s OEM website doesn’t instill much confidence.
You can sign up for alerts, and watch a Hurricane Preparedness Video. There is also a link to a flood zone map that is not interactive. But sadly, that’s it.
Nassau County’s 2017 OEM budget slashed the full-time employee head count this year by 33 percent, leaving just eight people.
Oddly, the salaries allotted only went down 4.2 percent.
Can eight people coordinate a massive relief effort for over 1.3 million Nassau residents? I doubt it.
To make matters worse, both Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano (under federal indictment) and his Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker (under federal investigation) have their hands full as they try to stay out of jail.
Mangano, who has chosen not to run for re-election, can best be described as a “lame duck” county executive, so is he focused on governing?
Except for the boilerplate “purchase water and batteries mailer,” there hasn’t been much from Mineola about hurricane preparedness this season.
There is a disaster preparedness seminar Sept. 20 at the Huntington Hilton.
Suffolk County Executive, Steve Bellone and Jon Kaiman, deputy Suffolk County executive for Shared Services, are seminar panelists.
Not a single Nassau government official will be presenting at this conference.
For those in the know, a big concern is that Nassau County’s local fire departments operate on different radio bands and frequencies.
This will make coordinating rescue efforts difficult during a natural disaster.
On a positive note, Nassau County police have an excellent emergency radio system that uses the T-Band spectrum of frequencies.
The only problem is there is a mandate that public-safety agencies vacate the T-Band airwaves after the FCC auctions them by 2021, and a new radio system is going to be very expensive.
I have learned quite a bit from my experiences in disaster recovery, working with All Hands Volunteers. Here then is a list of suggestions, for local government and residents, to prepare for the next big hurricane:
What Government Can Do
• In the event of a declaration of a disaster by the county executive, the commissioner of Emergency Management should be granted cross-agency jurisdiction, with the authority to direct resources from all agencies until the crisis is over.
• The commissioner of Emergency Management needs to develop and maintain an inventory of county assets that may be called into service during an emergency, including: shelter locations; warming, charging and showering stations; emergency medical care options; generators; emergency transportation; and, any other assets that may be needed.
The commissioner shall also, to the degree possible, maintain similar inventories of assets in the governmental entities in and near Nassau County.
• Create regional disaster response information based on Nassau’s 19 legislative districts so the public knows whom to contact and legislators can help coordinate distribution of information.
Legislators or their designees will coordinate with the Office of Emergency Management and emergency personnel to keep the public informed.
The Office of Emergency Management will take the lead coordinating operations between the county, local governments and nonprofit entities (such as Red Cross and All Hands Volunteers) to minimize duplication and conflict among organizations, find areas of cooperation to make better use of taxpayer dollars, and improve outcomes for citizens and communities.
• The Office of Emergency Management needs to create a multi-pronged system of disseminating information to the public with regularly scheduled intervals above and beyond phone and text alerts including: TV, radio, and social media.
• Create social media, mobile technology platforms and tools to allow citizens to report local issues and serve as first-line reporters and damage assessors. Enter into a joint purchasing agreement with Suffolk County for an AM broadcast channel to disburse Long Island specific emergency information.
• The Office of Emergency Management needs to be empowered to pre-screen and competitively select contracting entities for disaster response services in advance of hurricane season that begins on June 1.
• The Office of Emergency Management will develop new regulations to ensure that certain vital businesses, including gas stations, remain operational in the event of a prolonged power failure. Heavy fines and penalties for price gouging need to be put in place.
• The county executive, in conjunction with the Office of Emergency Management, will hold yearly community forums to gather input on how to improve disaster response.
Being proactive about hurricane preparedness will save lives
• Nassau County will develop a special needs registry to help locate and evacuate residents who will need assistance. The creation of a Home Health Emergency Preparedness Committee is necessary to identify and help those in need of special services during a disaster.
What Residents Can Do
• Store important paperwork, such as wills, insurance cards and financial documents in waterproof files.
• Download Apps such as iUDAME and ManDown, which can alert friends and authorities during a disaster. The app Scanner Radio let’s you hear live feeds from police and fire departments.
• Create a seven-day Shelter-In-Place Kit.
• Places of business and schools need to have a disaster protocol in place.
What good are life experiences if we don’t learn from them?
Nassau County needs to do a better job of preparing and communicating how it will provide emergency services to its residents in case a hurricane strikes. Our community’s lives depend on it.
