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All-Hazards Recovery Plan in the Works in ‘Disaster Laboratory’ East Baton Rouge Parish

Whole community approach and following the National Disaster Recovery Framework is the goal of the East Baton Rouge plan.

East Baton Rouge Parish is still in recovery mode from devastating flooding in August 2016, and with some residents still out of their homes, East Baton Rouge has begun developing a more efficient, all-hazards recovery plan.

The plan is the vision of Sharon Weston Broome, who in the year after being elected Mayor-President and dealing with the ongoing recovery efforts, as well as other scenarios, such as police shootings, wanted the old recovery plan scrapped and a new, all-hazards one developed in the mold of the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF).

That has fallen largely on the shoulders of Clay Rives, director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. “It’s a really good exercise in looking back,” Rives said. “We have a recovery plan, but it wasn’t divided up in the recovery support functions that the framework follows.”

The area is prone to disasters, including hurricanes and floods, and has tended to be in a perpetual response mode. “We call ourselves the disaster laboratory because of where we’re located, we have lots of natural disasters,” Rives said. “We feel that having our recovery plan match up with the state, which is doing the same thing, will make for a smooth transition from response to recovery.”

As much as anything, the plan will take a whole community approach and put everyone on the same page when it comes to recovery. It will also tackle drainage issues and provide templates for applying for health and human service grants and long-term rebuilding of the local economy. The effort includes the Center for Planning Excellence and FEMA.

“We’re very fortunate that we are going to be able to address some of our drainage issues,” Rives said. “In each Baton Rouge Parish [there are four] we have a really good drainage system, but not a great one, and we’ll have the opportunity to address that.”

The plan is not project driven but driven by overall goals and will try to follow the NDRF. “The goal is to have our whole community, our first responders, our emergency managers, our citizens and everybody on the same page,” said Kellie McGaha, assistant director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. “We’re trying to document the recovery operation that will take place and that way we help eliminate the use of tax dollars by making better informed decisions because we’ll have a process that is already established, and everyone will know what they are supposed to do.”

The NDRF offers the following definitions:
•    Core recovery principles
•    Roles and responsibilities of recovery coordinators and other stakeholders
•    A coordinating structure that facilitates communication and collaboration
•    Guidance for pre- and-post-disaster recovery planning
•    The overall process by which communities can capitalize on opportunities to rebuild stronger, smarter and safer.

East Baton Rouge Parish has turned to the public for guidance as well, holding four public meetings during which residents offer suggestions and discuss their experiences with recent disasters. Some of those residents are still out of home as a result of the 2016 floods.

“When we do our public meetings, the flood is the last disaster on people’s minds, but we’ve had so many disasters that we’re looking at is an all-hazard plan,” Rives said. He said the plan will go to the city council in January or February.