Lessons Taking Hold

The cover story in this issue of Emergency Management could be dropped into one of our initial issues nearly a decade ago and not look out of place.

That’s not a condemnation of public safety and emergency management progress over the years, but it’s not that flattering either. For instance, Mark Spross, communications manager for the Clackamas County, Ore., 911 call center, had a lot to say about some of the lessons learned from that fateful day Dec. 11, 2012, when a gunman opened fire in a local mall. His observations included:

• Fire and law enforcement don’t tell us much.
• Fire and police don’t talk.

Spross said the mall had viable plans in place and that “it would have been nice to know them” on that day. He also said the SWAT had terms for its teams, which would have been nice to know as well. In addition, off-duty police from within driving distance were calling dispatchers at the 911 call center asking if they should report. It would have been nice for the officers to have someone else to call. He said the EOC redirected traffic swiftly and that if he’d known that was so easy to do, he’d have helped clear the scene around the mall more quickly.

Of course, since the time of the shooting, things have improved and that’s good. But Spross wondered why it had to take so long. 

In Texas, Waco-McLennan County Emergency Management Coordinator Frank Patterson arrived at the scene of a fertilizer plant explosion in April 2013 and quickly learned he’d be taking charge of the command post. What followed was hours of chaotic communication among myriad agencies, arriving on the scene ready to help.

Communicating with them all was a constant problem, and at one point he decided to have regular “briefings” where he would basically holler from the back of a truck to keep people abreast of what was happening.

It was difficult to get everyone on the same radio frequency. Patterson managed to patch things together through the decade-old ACU-T Tactical Interconnect System he had in the trunk of his car.

Up in the state of Washington, John Pennington, director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, was overwhelmed at first upon realizing the extent of the mudslide last March. It was difficult early on to get real situational awareness, and communication, already a challenge in the rural community, was nonexistent. “We have 800 MHz issues in that area because of the terrain. They truly were isolated and it got dark,” he explained. “You think about the psychological elements of that.”

Pennington was able to contact a local mayor through Facebook, which is a victory and something we wouldn’t have written about in one of the early issues of this magazine. And there were numerous victories and lessons learned.

Back in Oregon, things have gotten better. There was another shooting and the communication was better. The mall, police, fire and dispatch personnel are talking more. But does it always take a disaster to hit a community before these lessons take hold?