On Sunday, Aug. 18, APCO 2013 attendees had the opportunity to attend an educational session titled Surviving Sandy: Lessons from the Superstorm. Presented by Christopher Carver from the City of New York Fire Department, the session focused on the experiences of FDNY’s fire communications personnel as they dispatched over 25,000 incidents during the first two days of Superstorm Sandy.

Carver discussed the days leading up to Sandy during his presentation and shared that, for public safety communications, the hurricane wasn’t a surprise—they knew it was coming—and they knew they weren’t ready for it. There was no fire dispatch storm plan in place, and not having a plan resulted in several significant impacts:  personnel were unprepared and operations were not as prepared as they could have been. Perhaps most significantly, dispatch personnel succeeded only because they were able to improvise and had a good foundation. But Carver was quick to point out that dispatchers should not have to improvise to ensure success, as that can create overwhelming stress and pressure.

Looking first at what went badly, Carver shared that disaster planning needs to be event triggered, not person triggered. The facility that his comm center was set up in was not designed for these types of operations, and the effectiveness of the efforts of personnel was impacted accordingly. The comm center didn’t have a hurricane plan or a continuity of operations plan. The comm center had also failed to learn from previous disasters—lessons from previous events were not captured.

During the storm, the comm center didn’t have adequate extra positions or radio channels to meet demand, didn’t have effective situational awareness of areas they couldn’t respond to, had no effective way to manage calls they couldn’t get to at the time and couldn’t get personnel to take adequate breaks. Once the worst of the storm had passed, efforts to address PTSD and verify the needs of members were belittled and there was no recognition for line personnel (there has still been no departmental recognition of dispatch efforts).

So what went well? The number of lives saved numbered in the 1000’s. The FDNY comm center also never lost their CAD, radio or phone systems and was able to work well with EMS and police dispatchers.

Moving forward from the disaster of Sandy, Carver stated that there are three things that will help ensure that an agency has a better chance to meet any challenge. Called The First Three Rules, the rules included:  1) Public safety communications is a profession, 2) Dispatchers determine by their actions if the crisis will be controlled chaos or just chaos, and 3) Any successful organization must be able to perform much like a highly functional family.

There were two lessons Carver took away from his experiences during Superstorm Sandy. The first lesson was that we must ensure that our personnel plan and prepare for disasters and we must support them in the process. That includes ensuring that their needs are met so they can excel (security, food, shelter, rest). Lesson number two was that we need professional and effective leadership, and individuals must be willing to become leaders of their agencies if those who should be leading aren’t.

Superstorm Sandy provided the FDNY’s fire communications personnel with crazy days that forced 75 men and women to do the best they could under the worst possible conditions. Carver stated that overcoming the crazy days requires an understanding that we have a responsibility as professionals to be the best that we can be—as dispatchers, supervisors, leaders and managers.

Details on education sessions and other speakers are available at www.apco2013.org.

About APCO International
APCO International is the world’s largest organization of public safety communications professionals. It serves the needs of public safety communications practitioners worldwide—and the welfare of the general public as a whole—by providing complete expertise, professional development, technical assistance, advocacy and outreach. www.apcointl.org