Hurricanes and Emergency Services

[helicopper 1,050]

GALVESTON, Texas - Massive Hurricane Ike ravaged southeast Texas early Saturday, battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts as residents who decided too late they should have heeded orders to evacuate made futile calls for rescue.

It remained unclear before daybreak how many people may have perished as the worst of Ike was passing over the Houston-Galveston area. But even before the storm had passed and daylight had arrived, damage was already considered extensive. Thousands of homes and government buildings had flooded, roads were washed out, 2.9 million people lost power and several fires burned unabated as crews could not reach them. But the biggest fear was that tens of thousands of people had defied orders to flee and would need to be rescued from submerged homes and neighborhoods.

"The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in ... and put our people in the tough situation to save people who did not choose wisely. We'll probably do the largest search and rescue operation that's ever been conducted in the state of Texas," said Andrew Barlow, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry.

Several fires were burning untended across Houston and 911 operators received about 1,250 calls in 24 hours, said Frank Michel, spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White.

"For us, it was a 10," Galveston Fire Chief Mike Varela said when asked to compare Ike to earlier hurricanes like 2005's Rita. Varela said firefighters responded to about 60 rescue calls before suspending operations around 8 p.m. Friday.

Link to complete article

Do any agencies in this area have actual policies and procedures on when services will be suspended due to something like a hurricane or tropical storm? At what point does it become simply too dangerous to the responders?

[Bnechis 3,961]

Do any agencies in this area have actual policies and procedures on when services will be suspended due to something like a hurricane or tropical storm? At what point does it become simply too dangerous to the responders?

Sustained Gale Force Winds (35 mph) ahead of a hurricane. That does not mean gust, it also does not mean that in a regular storm with winds that high we will not respond, but if the winds are already that high and zero hour (the time the hurricane will hit) is approaching we cant risk sending our responders out into that.

This am I was watching the news on the storm and they were showing one town in texas that someone called 911 to report that the water was up to his neck, inside his house and he needed rescue. The PD advised him they had no way to get to him. Maybe thats why they told everyone to get out of the way.

[ex-commish 490]

Anyone notice when you signed on to AOL in the news section the picture of a guy hanging on to a sign during the hurricane?

[NJMedic 96]

Not unusual for EMS and fire agencies to have policies on when things get too bad to respond. Ambulances are particularly nasty to drive when winds get in the area of 60-70mph. I was driving a Hackney heavy rescue style vehicle when it got hit with a 45-50mph cross wind on a bridge. Not a feeling I want to have again.

Houston apparently pulled back from attacking a fire this morning by to Hurricane Ike. Unsure if it was flloding, high winds, or a combination of both.

[Remember585 815]

I am curious to know if the 1,250 calls received at their 911 Center were for 1,250 different incidents or just 1,250 people calling for possibly the same thing?

In the aftermath of Floyd we were getting hit hard with calls. At one point, all 3 command vehicles died or otherwise became disabled, we had to comandeer DPW trucks, use POVs and walk to some incidents. It got worse when roads washed away, giving us no access. At one point, there was no way for anyone to get in or out of the Mount Airy area. The road washed away on Quaker Bridge Road East preventing us from getting to those homes, and we had water anywhere from waist to chest deep in the center of town on Grand Street which halted vehicles from getting by. We were getting people out of their homes and sending them to our firehouses for a while until they were overcome by water. I'll never forget putting my chock down for E119 on Grand Street to have it get washed away while we were rescuing an old couple from their basement apartment. I found it 2 blocks away later that night.

We all make the comments that we have too many duplicated resources in Westchester, but during that storm and the heavy rains last year that thrashed the Sound Shore communities, I'm not so sure if we can have enough to handle these large scale incidents. And sadly, there's departments that can't handle their day to day operations - how the hell are they going to manage a weather disaster???

WCOEM has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years - I would hope with all these experts, the high paid officials in DES, WCPD and all of the agency heads in Westchester should have something worked out as a basis for all of us to follow and utilize should we get hit with something. Establishing plans on a local level are great, but if it is going to be something wide spread then a lot of planning WAY AHEAD OF TIME needs to be done.

[helicopper 1,050]

WCOEM has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years - I would hope with all these experts, the high paid officials in DES, WCPD and all of the agency heads in Westchester should have something worked out as a basis for all of us to follow and utilize should we get hit with something. Establishing plans on a local level are great, but if it is going to be something wide spread then a lot of planning WAY AHEAD OF TIME needs to be done.

I'd like to see the posts here the day after someone from the County issued such an order. As a fiercely territorial "home-rule" state (and reminded of it frequently), I'm surprised to see someone say that they expect the County to issue such a policy. This is not a regional evacuation order based on storm specific info or a public health order where the authority is vested with the State or County. This is an agency level policy decision and my personal opinion is that every agency should have an SOP now so pooremotionally based decisions aren't made during an emergency. FD's develop pre-plans for all manner of other emergencies, why not major storms?

Sustained Gale Force Winds (35 mph) ahead of a hurricane. That does not mean gust, it also does not mean that in a regular storm with winds that high we will not respond, but if the winds are already that high and zero hour (the time the hurricane will hit) is approaching we cant risk sending our responders out into that.

This am I was watching the news on the storm and they were showing one town in texas that someone called 911 to report that the water was up to his neck, inside his house and he needed rescue. The PD advised him they had no way to get to him. Maybe thats why they told everyone to get out of the way.

Barry, since you're the first to describe an actual policy let me ask a follow-up question... Does "hurricane" mean just that or would a tropical storm or Nor'easter also trigger the same actions? I see that regular thunder storms wouldn't qualify.

[Bnechis 3,961]

Barry, since you're the first to describe an actual policy let me ask a follow-up question... Does "hurricane" mean just that or would a tropical storm or Nor'easter also trigger the same actions? I see that regular thunder storms wouldn't qualify.

Generally not, because those type of storms while very nasty, tend to be steady gale or whole gale with higher gusts, but we are not worried that in minutes or a few hours we will get a major increase in conditions.

Another concern is do you allow your responders to go out when the eye is passing over. Its nice weather then, but in a short time its back to 70-120 mph winds. Our general plan is to only go out to check the conditions of the fire station and prepare for the next hit.

Remeber if you trash your personnel or equipment, you cant help anyone.

[calhobs 110]

Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, and Irvington are waiting to hear from the State to see if they are getting a 75,000 dollar grant to start a Tri-Village emergency plan. It will be interesting to see if this will be just your run of the mill plan or if they will actually put some effort into it.

As of right now Sleepy Hollow follows the County's emergency plan. One thing i find interesting is Sleepy Hollow has an agrement with a local supermarket for water if something was to happen to there water supply. The person I intereviewd for school about the emergency plan did not elaborate much on this. But I was wondering if other Villages have a simialr agreement.