How Prepared is St. Louis for an Emergency?
For a class project at SLU I was going through the list of city departments/agencies and noticed one that I had never really looked at before, the St. Louis City Emergency Management Agency. After 9/11 and Katrina we’ve all seen how municipal response teams can be overwhelmed. We as tax paying citizens have expectations about services we expect from our local government but all too often we wait until a situation arises before concerns are addressed.
Having now viewed the website for the city’s Emergency Management Agency (http://www.stlouiscityema.com) I can say I’m not feeling as safe as I did beforehand. The agency’s mission is:
To coordinate, cooperate, and communicate with all agencies that have a responsibility in the area of Emergency Management and Homeland Security for the City of St. Louis. This includes but is not limited to the Mitigation, Prevention, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery from any manmade / national disaster that takes place in the City of St. Louis.
To work as a region to protect the citizens of St. Louis and the surrounding communities from all hazards.
From the outward appearances of the agency, they couldn’t do much for themselves let along protect “protect the citizens of St. Louis and the surrounding communities from all hazards.” What is my basis for such a harsh statement?
For starters, the website would have been considered amateurish a decade ago. For example, the page for upcoming events:
Each page is a different color and clearly the designer had a CD (or maybe a 5-1/4″ floppy disk) of clipart. More substantially, the information is half a decade out of date!
Perhaps you want to volunteer to help out?
Well, that page is under construction at this time. Note how the background image covers the navigation buttons at the top of the page.
On another page at least they give us links to other sites where perhaps we can find some good information:
You can’t tell from the above screen shot but the lights on the ambulances blink on the actual page. Not at all comforting.
The site has been updated enough to send folks elsewhere for training this year:
Maybe this is the norm? What about St. Louis County, I thought.
For St. Louis County they have the Office of Emergency Management through the St. Louis County Police. From their site I was able to download a PDF of their 100+ page Basic Emergency Operations Plan, see the list of members on their Local Emergency Planning Committee and so on. I know that:
The unit operates from the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), a uniquely designed self-contained underground structure. In the event of disaster, the facility is able to function independent of all common utilities. The OEM is tasked with preparing members of local government, law enforcement, and the public and private sectors, with how to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.
The city’s Emergency folks operate out of the lower level of the Solders Memorial. Is it, like the county’s, able to function separately from normal utilities? While I’ve not read the full county plan it does appear they have a clear plan for communications — whom to call and when and so on.
The person responsible at City Hall, up the chain, is the recently named new Director of Public Safety, Charles Bryson. Of course, this lack of information predates his time on the job — going back to Sam Simon who was in the position from 2002 to 2007. He recently left the job to take a new position at SLU, the Director of Emergency Preparedness. From SLU’s announcement:
Simon has directed city emergency responses, including Hurricane Katrina relief operations at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and helped develop emergency preparedness planning for the recent World Series.
Simon came to SLU with extensive credentials in the area of emergency preparedness. He was the metropolitan area’s coordinator for Homeland Security and currently is completing the Homeland Security Executive Leadership Program at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, Calif. He also has served as an adjunct professor in SLU’s School of Public Health.
Of course, FEMA never actually used the relief operations at the airport so we don’t really know how well that was planned. Still, Simon appears to have the right credentials. So maybe the city is better prepared than the website lets on?
Those of us that live/work downtown are probably a little better off than the rest of the city — we have the Downtown St. Louis Emergency Preparedness Operation (or DSTEP). This information is only a couple of years out of date (references to SBC, now AT&T, for example). The “testimonials” section includes a quote from Fire Chief Sherman George — more recently out of date. Many of the website sections such as Evacuations Plans, Emergency Supplies, Credentialing, News & Media and Downtown Residents all simply state “coming soon.” The copyright on the pages is 2005. Interesting, they talk about two initiatives for the operation — the first:
1) The creation of a website that provides pertinent information about emergency preparedness. It offers a wealth of specific information to downtown St. Louis, provides contact information and offers more information about DSTEP as well. Please visit the website at (www.DSTEP.org).
Well, they’ve failed to accomplish their first item! With so many of our “leader” and “good corporate citizens” involved how can they simply drop the ball and not finish what they started?
Emergencies are, by their nature, never planned. They strike when you least expect them to and we have an expectation that our governments are prepared to coordinate efforts when the worst does happen. From what I have seen thus far I have little confidence the City of St. Louis is prepared to handle a large emergency. Let’s all hope it is not tested, but if it is, that I am very wrong.
I think the important thing is to make peace with your own mortality…
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However, websites really do say a lot, for better or for worse, about the company or organization they represent. For instance: attention to detail, management qualities, motivation, and so on. These days, making a functional website is hardly rocket science, so you’d hope that an organization whose goal is too protect us from disasters could handle it.
That website needs a nice soothing midi file…
“After 9/11 and Katrina we’ve all seen how municipal response teams can be overwhelmed.”
This supports why people have to really plan to depend on themselves during emergencies – at least in the initial stages. If we count on the government to swoop in and save us…we don’t stand a chance. By keeping a supply of essential items on hand to survive for the first few days of any disaster, or having a plan in place and a kit on hand to facilitate evacuation you not only protect yourself, but you also relieve a lot of the stress placed on government agencies.
Don’t overlook the role of the St. Louis Area Regional Response System (STARRS). STARRS handles coordination between the various EMAs in the region. They also take care of some aspects of emergency management that others might overlook, like making sure that hospitals and nursing homes affected by disasters (or simple power outages) can find facilities who will accept their critical patients.
I took the Emergency Preparedness Course offered here at the School of Public Health. It was team taught with Sam Simon (when he was director of Public Safety for the City), Mike Thomas (of the Heartland Center and former intermin public health director), Bob Crecelius (Chief Parole and Corrections Officer for the City), Bill Siedhoff (Director of Human Services for the City), Jim Romeis (Health Policy at SLU), and Gary Christmann (Chief of Emergency Management) as well as many guest speakers including the guru of emergency preparedness, Ian Mitroff.
After this course which was totally hands-on with a lot of evidence-based best practices, I feel as though the City is really safe. What was built at Lambert we saw first-hand I was incredibly impressed. I was impressed with both the aptitiude of our instructors and the dedication they have to making the metropolitan area safer.
Before you criticize a website, take pause to examine and understand who those folks are at the agency. Homeland Security comes to the School of Public Health’s Heartland Center and Institute for Biosecurity to train their staff in conjunction with service delivery from Emergency Management. Just because a website isn’t super cool doesn’t mean the players aren’t the best in the business.
The city’s public servants are failing on so many levels that I would have to believe that they are doing no better on emergency preparedness. The police department can’t handle the crime, the fire department can’t agree on when or why promotions should be made, and the city can’t lean on developers seeking public financing hard enough to have a major portion of downtown St. Louis (ballpark village) rebuilt in a timely manner. Hope that major earthquake doesn’t happen.
I have mixed feelings. Yes, we need emergency capabilities in place. I just question whether judging an agency’s competence (or lack thereof) by their website is valid or not. Most EMA’s are ad hoc affairs to start with, drawing on people and resources from other departmants. Updating a website is (and should be) a relatively low priority – if you have time to be doing it you probably either have too much time on your hands or you’re letting your other “real” duties slip.
“From what I have seen thus far I have little confidence the City of St. Louis is prepared to handle a large emergency. Let’s all hope it is not tested, but if it is, that I am very wrong.”
We’ve already had two decent sized disasters in St. Louis recently that showed the coordination efforts between the difference response agencies. Over 500,000 people wee ut of power for a week on the hottest days of the year in 2005, then a few months later over 500,000 people were out of power again for about a week on the coldest days of the year.
St. Louis was also a major hub for Hurricane Katrina survivors. I spent two days helping set up one shelter at the airport that was stocked up with enough food, water, bedding, phones, clothing, bathroom kits and showers for thousands of people while water was being pumped out of their city. The material/volunteers was largely donated by local disaster response agencies and local businesses.
I can say from first hand experience that the set up of this massive shelter was very well coordinated. Now, how well they could maintain it once people arrived is unknown. The material support and volunteers were there. All they needed was good leaders and management.
Luckily, we’ll never know because the feds decided to spend tax dollars to put people up in trailers and cruise ships instead.
Although… now that I think about it I don’t know if this had anything to do with city disaster management. It could have been St. Louis county.
By the way, 10’s of thousands of those trailers are now being stored unprotected out in fields. You wouldn’t believe how much they are paying local land owners to just let those things sit there and rot away in the Louisiana swampy climate.
The biggest problem with local disaster response management in St. Louis is that the city doesn’t share enough information about their plans to the general public. There is a massive break down of communication here between city and lots and lots of potential civilian volunteers.
“Just because a website isn’t super cool doesn’t mean the players aren’t the best in the business.”
Agreed, but they are wasting a huge resource here.
I just emailed the email addresses I could find on stlouiscityema.com and offered volunteer website development services.
Hopefully, someone still checks the emails coming from that website.
‘all too often we wait until a situation arises before concerns are addressed.’
Steve, this is how America works. We wait for a family of six to get run over by a dump truck on a known unsafe highway entrance before we fix it. I’m not saying that’s how you or I do things but you’d think denial is a river in America not Egypt.
The website may not indicate whether or not the people running the agencies are good at what they do. But, the website shows that they aren’t even trying to get disaster preparedness into the public’s mind. After a major disaster (I would imagine that New Madrid II + unreinforced masonry = major disaster), even the best team won’t be able to help everyone right away. There has to be some sort of effective public education and communication. Here in San Francisco, there are ads everywhere for 72hours.org. This website essentially tells you everything you need to know in three languages for a disaster and encourages everyone to be prepared to survive for a few days until help arrives. It also has a system called AlertSF that sends text messages and emails out to anyone who registers for it. People can register for messages regarding any portion of the city they may be in and the messages can be anything from a high wind warning to post-disaster info when other lines of communication are down. The text-messaging system is nice, but a good, well-marketed website for public education is essential.
To Steve and all others:
I do understand that you have concerns about the website as a place for emergency prepardness information. I do apologize for the current condition, which Steve graciously has stated occured before I became the Director. But ignorance is no excuse, especially as it relates to the safety of our citizens.
As the Director of Public Safety, which includes the City Emergency Management Agency, I can guarantee that we will make significant strides in the very near future to increase the functionality of the website.
Your point is right on here Steve. Whether or not the people in charge are competent is not really important if they are not disseminating an emergency plan or even awareness of what to do amongst the public. I suppose I’m like most people and don’t lose sleep thinking about major disasters, but the one I do worry about, and would like to think the emergency responders have a plan for, is a major earthquake. If you look at a map of St. Louis City and County there is only one significant route that does not require a bridge to cross a major river to evacuate the area. (And no, I’m not saying what the route is.) I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t like the chances of those bridges holding up in ‘the big one.’ Again, I would really like to know that the people that will be in charge of emergency services after a major earthquake have thought this one through, but I don’t know that and am not inspired to confidence if their website has a picture of a funny bartender cleaning a glass and flashing ambulance lights. If the money and the staff are already there, put my tax dollars to work people.
If/when a disaster happens, I doubt many people will be able to surf the net to find answers, aid or resources. And prior to a disaster, most people won’t bother looking for the answers that are already available to them.
Check out this map of estimated damages (in dollars) by county for a 7.7 magnitude New Madrid quake: http://www.ewgateway.org/pdffiles/maplibrary/HAZUS.pdf
I’ve had the opportunity to serve in the disaster response field for several years. In that time, I saw a lot of problems with a number of agencies, as well as some strengths they had. During that time, I served with the city, county, state, and feds on numerous disaster operations (yes, St. Louis, you have technically had numerous disasters over the past few years) in Missouri and elsewhere.
In addressing your post, my comment would be that St. Louis City does have strengths and weaknesses. I, personally, believe that they are well prepared for an anti-terrorism response. However, I would argue that they are lacking in their ability to successfully manage emergent volunteers. That is no easy task, and, on a large scale it requires more preparation than many imagine. Of course, this could be due to a lack of funding, or a lack in planning for those disasters that require 1000s of volunteers who usually just “show up” (for a real-life example of this, look at the Hurricane Katrina response). Some would say that the state and fed should deal with the influx of volunteers. I’d say that may be true, but St. Louis County is already doing a good job of preparing for that.
I don’t think there is argument that the website is crappy. However, I would also argue that most Americans’ “plan” for a disaster is fairly crappy too. How many of you actually keep a supply kit in your car, office, AND home? It is widely understood that for the first 72 hours of any disaster, you should never expect someone to come help you – that includes food and water.
We all need to do a better job.
Who really cares if St. Louis is wiped out by a disaster? I came here with Urban Revitalization and Growth Opportunities on the mind, and was beaten down by the institutional apathy and cronyism in less than a year.
There’s no disaster plan because this whole city is already a blighted disaster. I’ll be fleeing as quickly as humanly possible.
Steve – not sure whether this comment will reach you on an old story. If you saw the article in STL Today earlier this week, a new Director of Public Safety has been hired at SLU. What has happened to Sam Simon? Mike Lauer? And, further, in reading your article here which I realize is two years old, do you not know about STARRS? The acronym stands for St. Louis Area Regional Response System and is under the umbrella of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments. I've been with them for over two years and your article above is totally void of any comment about us. ???
Before I forget, as I type, STARRS has a project underway (contract yet to be awarded) for dissemination of information for public preparedness. Mr. Bryson currently serves on the STARRS Board of Directors. Gary Christmann is the co-chair of the STARRS Advisory Council. There are many, many disciplines represented on the STARRS Board, AC and committees.
Thanks for the info!