Evacuation plan - Chapel Hill

Evacuation plan - Chapel Hill

I raised with one of our Town Council members - Sally GREENE - the question of whether or not Chapel Hill has an evacuation plan. This may not be needed for a hurricane, but with a relatively nearby nuclear plant, and with hazardous materials resident in, and being transported through, Chapel Hill, it seemed to me that the important question was knowing where to turn for information in the event of emergency.

Below you will find both the first response from Cal HORTON (at the bottom) and my reply (at the top) with a question and a comment. Follwing that exchange you will find HORTON's response to my reply (sorry to make this co complicated!) which I received almost immediately. And, (again, sorry!) the last item is my second response to him.

"Dear Mr. HORTON,

Thank you for getting back to me. And thank you for such a clear explanation.

I have one follow-up question and one comment:

1. If someone wanted to learn more about the Emergency Operations System, is there a place or a person to which or to whom one could turn? I am not that person, but am curious to know if more detailed information is available or whether all the details are kept confidential, only to emerge in the unlikely event of an emergency?

2. The use of multiple media to alert us makes very good sense, but I would think that you would want to establish a couple of places - specific radio station or stations, specific website or websites, specific telephone number or numbers - which would be the very best places to turn for information in the event that we citizens learn that an emergency situation may be starting or may be upon us. In other words, at the moment that someone needs to know what's going on, where can we be as sure as the circumstances permit to find what we need to know from the Town of Chapel Hill, containing information on how we reach any other information that might be provided from another player at the time of the emergency? Finally, it would seem to me that you would want to test this system from time to time in the same way that there are periodic tests of broadcast emergency system (which you did not specifically mention). In part, what I am getting at is exactly what we are seeing today with President BUSH and Admiral ALLEN urging the people of New Orleans to go slower on returning to the city, and Mayor NAGIN urging a faster return. I am wondering if you have run through the communications aspect of this to insure that we are not likely to be hearing instructions from multiple entities in a potentially conflicting manner. There is no substitute for a test in order to reduce this risk to a minimum. One related point - if the Town of Chapel Hill is collecting e-mail addresses to be used as part of the communications plan for such announcements, I would urge you to get on with that in a public fashion and to create an easy-to-use registration page that insures protection of the addresses, yet near certainty that they will be used depending on the emergency.

Thank you again for responding to my query.

(I did not copy all the people you did on your note to me. Feel free to share this if you like.)

Best,
Terry Maguire

At 01:43 PM 9/19/2005, you wrote:

Dear Mr. Maguire:

Thank you for letting us know of your concern about emergency preparedness. Specifically, you asked whether the Town of Chapel Hill has an evacuation plan.

The Town of Chapel Hill developed an Emergency Operations System about fifteen years ago and has regularly updated it. The system establishes a framework for leadership, decision-making, planning, organization, operations and communications in a wide variety of natural disasters and human-caused emergency conditions. Later this year we will take the steps necessary to conform our emergency Operations system to the new National Incident Management System, with additional training for all department heads and key emergency operations staff.

Evacuation of all or part of the Town could be required in some circumstances, for example: a major incident at the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant or a large hazardous materials transportation incident on Interstate 40. We are not in the area of immediate impact for the Harris Plant where specific warning devices and evacuation routes have been established, but there are procedures in place to provide warnings to the other areas (such as Chapel Hill) that might be affected by an incident. In the case of a hazardous materials incident on the Interstate, local government first-responders would initiate actions based on their on-site assessments. An incident of sufficient magnitude would result in a declared emergency and the emergency response system would be invoked.

A decision to evacuate all or part of the Town would be made based on the facts of the situation and an assessment of the threat.

Primary media for announcements would include radio and television; web-based announcements and e-mail messages also would be used. If required, mobile units would be dispatched to specific areas to broadcast messages through public address equipment.

Most transportation would be by private vehicles; public transit buses and other publicly owned vehicles would be used to transport those not having personal transportation.

We would invoke mutual aid agreements already established with other North Carolina governments as necessary to obtain personnel and equipment needed.

The Town of Chapel Hill has substantial experience in managing emergency operations, including recovery from Hurricane Fran and other weather events of historic proportions over the past two decades. Since the 9-11 tragedy, we have given even greater attention to emergency preparedness and development of joint response capabilities with our neighbors.

We believe that our Emergency Operations System establishes the framework needed to manage a wide variety of community emergencies, including the evacuation of citizens if necessary.

Please give me a call if you need additional information.

Sincerely,
Cal Horton

************************************

W. Calvin Horton
Town Manager
405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514
919-968-2744 Office
919-967-2626 Home
919-969-2063 FAX
www.townofchapelhill.org
calhorton@townofchapelhill.org

Response received to reply above:

"Mr. Maguire:

Below I respond to your additional inquiries.

1. Fire Chief Dan Jones is our key representative for emergency management. He can be reached at djones@townofchapelhill.org
2. WCHL 1360 continues to serve as our key emergency notice station. Other radio stations and television stations also pick up major stories. Channel 18 on the Time Warner cablevision service carries notices in emergencies. The Town’s website http://www.townofchapelhill.org/ is the primary web address for emergency information.
3. We have tested the system each year in actual events, principally snow and ice storms, but also as we prepare for and manage the Halloween event and other major events each year.
4. We speak with one voice in Chapel Hill during emergencies.
5. We will add your address to our list of citizen e-mail addresses. We are collecting addresses through our new website, as well as through individual contacts with citizens.
6. The list of persons who received the earlier message included the Town Council, candidates for election to the Council and the staff of the Manager and Attorney. A copy of the message also was provided to the Town’s media file for review by reporters.
We cannot provide security for addresses. All addresses in our system are part of the public record under the law as we understand it.

Please feel free to communicate with me or Chief Jones if you need additional information.

Sincerely,

Cal Horton"

My second response:

"Dear Mr. HORTON,

Unable to reach you by phone, let me make a couple of points here as briefly as I can.

Your point 2. - In what way do you communicate to us as citizens that WCHL is the "key emergency notice station"? I missed it if it was sent to us in the 6 years we have lived here, and that is entirely possible! I believe you mean Channel 14, no? Is that, too, noted in communications of some sort from the Town to us residents? I would think you would want to have a newspaper website as part of your network as well or at least tell us we should go to your website for information.

Your point 3. - Have the tests included the media part of it, including your own website? They should if they have not.

Your point 4. - I would not question the internal coordination in the Town's government. I have no reason to doubt what you say. What concerns me is how the Town is set to coordinate for OUR benefit the messages we receive in all those media that may come from the County, the State and the federal government. How do you insure that what goes onto the website, for example, is not going to conflict with what is put on the County website, if that is what the County does. Ditto the State.

Your point 5. - I would urge you to rethink the collection process for e-mail addresses. I saw nothing on the website that told me I should sign up to receive emergency information. There is a signup but it does not mention emergencies. If that is what you are talking about, it should be made clear. And I believe you need to affirmatively ask - in writing - that all citizens add their e-mail addresses.

Your point 6. - As a media lawyer, I find the point about the e-mail address privacy a fascinating one. I have no response to your point. And I would always argue for openness anyway. It should be clear on the website, however. That's only fair. And I would, of course, expect this exchange to be a part of the public record!

Thank you,

Terry Maguire