Help a Fellow Member: Terrorism Preparedness Survey

[chovesh 1]

To my fellow first responders:

I am working on a paper about disaster preparedness. I would love to get some comments/quotes/ideas from you all. You can either post them here or PM me. (Please include what department/specialty you fall under: Law Enforcement, EMS, Fire, Rescue, Communications, DES, etc.) Feel free to answer any/all/none of the questions:

Do you feel you are well prepared for large scale disaster on the magnitude of 9/11?

Do you feel you are being provided adequate training? Does your department/municipality conduct drills?

Do you feel prepared for a non-conventional attack? (i.e. Chemical, Biological, Nuclear)

Do you believe we are better prepared now than ten years ago?

In what areas do you feel we still need improvement?

Have you been trained in recognizing/responding to terrorist attacks? (Special scene safety issues etc)

Have you ever attended a drill?

Thank you for your help.

Edited February 19, 2009 by chovesh

[Goose 188]

the simple answer is the following:

Westchester County is not prepared for any disaster, big or small, be it man-made, terrorist, accidental or natural

Edited February 19, 2009 by Goose

[99subi 121]

sadly i kinda have to agree

[helicopper 1,050]

the simple answer is the following:

Westchester County is not prepared for any disaster, big or small, be it man-made, terrorist, accidental or natural

That's a pretty broad and sweeping statement. Would you care to elaborate or justify it? While there are certainly weaknesses, there are still a tremendous number of resources in the County and some really exceptional responders.

Everyone: If you haven't already, please take a few minutes and help out a fellow member with an interesting project. Chovesh, good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Goose 188]

That's a pretty broad and sweeping statement. Would you care to elaborate or justify it? While there are certainly weaknesses, there are still a tremendous number of resources in the County and some really exceptional responders.

Everyone: If you haven't already, please take a few minutes and help out a fellow member with an interesting project. Chovesh, good luck and let us know how it turns out.

You're kidding, right? Broad, sweeping and the truth. From top to bottom the county is not prepared. ~150 911 ambulances in the county and not enough personnel to staff them, god knows how many pieces of fire apparatus...but i guarantee it exceeds the amount of fully qualified firefighters. One ambulance call overwhelms most EMS agencies and most fire departments respond with a chief's car on routine alarms - forget major emergencies we can't even handle the bread and butter in Westchester. What exercises have we done? Oh, you mean the airport drill at 10 AM on Sunday morning?

What's the County's emergency operations plan? Oh...wait...there isn't one.. And no the Indian Point and Airport "plans" don't really count because they are requirements of the NRC and FAA respectively. Any County-wide threat/hazard assessments and mitigation plans?

We've got a LONG way to go before we can even think about handling any disaster.

Edited February 27, 2009 by Goose

[firemoose827 324]

Well, I would be glad to help you out on your project. I am a Hazardous Materials Technician with 2 special classes; Weapons of Mass Destruction; Awareness, and Weapons of Mass Destruction; Operations. I have belonged to our County Haz-Mat Team since 2000, and have helped write our SOP's. We currently have a Disaster Response Plan set up and every department in the County has received training in its implementation. Our team, as did all the teams in NYS, has received the fully loaded WMD trailer with enough Haz-Mat equipment to get started including meters (Multi-Rae, Draeger, Ludlum) and Level "A" suits. We also invited the State Haz-Mat guys out to give us the WMD Trailer Training course that went over all of the meters and equipment, its usage and maintenance.

On an annual basis, in order to maintain the WMD assistance money and equipment, our County is to host and run a large scale WMD Drill with a different department and scenario. Last year it was in Richmondville, and we had a small delivery truck carrying pesticides crash in front of a school. We had to isolate the contamination, evacuate the school and surrounding homes, decon a few hundred people and transport them to the ER, who was also drilling with their hospital based Decontamination team.

So, In some ways you can say we are as ready as we can be, but in some ways we are still lacking in most areas. Like our Haz-Mat team...Including myself we have 6 Technicians for entry. If we do not get 4...we are decon only and can not do entry. So more personnel would be great.

If you have any questions please feel free to send me a PM or E-mail, I would be happy to help you out with anything. Good luck on the project.

PS- This was my 1,000th post...

[NJMedic 96]

A suggestion.....

Go to www.surveymonkey.com

You will be able to produce a ten question survey for free. For an additional cost you can produce reports, download analysis, etc.

You will also be provided an web address that you can share with anyone you want to invite to complete the survey.

It might help you in getting better data.

PM if you need any help.

[helicopper 1,050]

You're kidding, right? Broad, sweeping and the truth. From top to bottom the county is not prepared. ~150 911 ambulances in the county and not enough personnel to staff them, god knows how many pieces of fire apparatus...but i guarantee it exceeds the amount of fully qualified firefighters. One ambulance call overwhelms most EMS agencies and most fire departments respond with a chief's car on routine alarms - forget major emergencies we can't even handle the bread and butter in Westchester. What exercises have we done? Oh, you mean the airport drill at 10 AM on Sunday morning?

What's the County's emergency operations plan? Oh...wait...there isn't one.. And no the Indian Point and Airport "plans" don't really count because they are requirements of the NRC and FAA respectively. Any County-wide threat/hazard assessments and mitigation plans?

We've got a LONG way to go before we can even think about handling any disaster.

Goose, while I'll be the first to agree that there's plenty of room for improvement, more training and exercise, and better organization, you said that Westchester County is not prepared for "any disaster, big or small, be it man-made, terrorist, accidental or natural". Not only do you insult yourself with that statement but you insult every other responder who works in the county. Westchester responders respond to incidents large and small every day and do so effectively.

Your statement was a sweeping condemnation of everyone in the county and while I think I understand your point, you're ignoring the 99% of the work that does get done, effectively, year in and year out.

You criticize the airport plan; do you know how far the airport plan has come? You can't possibly know - you were trying figure out how to color inside the lines when other members of this forum and many others were working with the Airport to make a plan that could work. Do you know how bad the drills were 10-15 years ago? Do you know how much better they are today? I'm not knocking you or your age, I'm simply pointing out that you have no idea where we are and where we've been or how hard people have worked to get us to where we are now. Without knowing the history, you're missing out on a lot. Just because the plan was tested on a weekend morning doesn't make it ineffective.

Westchester County has a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP). There have been county level and local level threat/hazard assessments. Do you really think they're going to be published for public consumption? Your statements are simply incorrect.

Are we well prepared? Perhaps, perhaps not. There is always room for improvement and I will always be a staunch advocate for making those improvements. But when you make a purportedly informed statement so rife with inaccuracies and opinions veiled as fact, I am compelled to respond.

When you consider where we were 10 years ago and where we are today, it is a slap in all our faces when you make the remarks you do. Preparedness is always a work in progress and we're no exception. Your issue with day to day operations is noted and should be addressed but the fact is we're more prepared than you think. As prepared as we can be or should be? That's a subject for future discussion.

NJmedic, thanks for bringing up SurveyMonkey. That's a great idea.

Edited February 28, 2009 by Chris192

[helicopper 1,050]

My previous post (above) generated some interesting conversations with some peers about the subject of preparedness in Westchester County. It was interesting to hear some of the perspectives of some of my very learned, very experienced colleagues.

As a result, I am revising my statement in part. There are some incredibly dedicated individuals in this county who are lobbying for change and to increase preparedness in a meaningful, effective way. They represent agencies, serve on committees and task forces, and work above and beyond their regular duties to do this. Often, these people serve as subject matter experts not even representing an agency but rather just supporting "the cause".

On the other hand, there is an institutional resistance to progress and improvement or meaningful preparedness. There are individuals, agencies, municipalities and governmental entities that are the epitome of complacency and apathy or are so afraid of change or have such fragile egos that they resist any effort to really make things better and improve our preparedness.

For example, members of a department fighting a requirement that they train four hours per month. One hour a week and they think that's too much to be an effective emergency responder?

Or agencies that refuse to participate in mutual aid plans?

Or departments that are so territorial that they resist any effort that would require collaboration or sharing of responsibility and/or information. I guess they believe that they can do it all.

Or people who still think that knowledge is power and keep everything a secret.

Until the institutional resistance is overcome (either by election, legislation, or firing the obstructionists), Westchester County will never be as prepared as it should be.

[Bnechis 3,961]

Chris you hit the nail right on the head

[Guest DFC278]

A suggestion.....

Go to www.surveymonkey.com

You will be able to produce a ten question survey for free. For an additional cost you can produce reports, download analysis, etc.

You will also be provided an web address that you can share with anyone you want to invite to complete the survey.

It might help you in getting better data.

PM if you need any help.

Good idea. I may be a bit paranoid but I don't believe an unsecured website is the place for this information.