Title: In the Eye of the Storm
1In the Eye of the Storm
Emily Palmer Texas Department of State Health
Services 1100 W. 49th Street, M-631 Austin, TX
78756 512-458-7400 National Public Health
Information Coalition October 17, 2005
2The Superheroes
Where are they when you need them?
3No Such Thing as a Perfect Storm
4Headline Expectations
- Evacuation not perfect, but a success
- Response to storm not perfect, but better
5We are all in the eye of the storm.
6 For Texas A series of major events
- Full-Scale Strategic National Stockpile exercise
Early August - Hurricane Katrina
- Late August
- Hurricane Rita
- September
7The SNS Experience
- Four-day real-time exercise
- Seven counties, five hospitals
- 10,000 volunteers
- Multiple partners
- Year of planning
8On-the-job training
- Learned Incident Command System
- Opened the DSHS Emergency Support Center
9Katrina Opening the Doors
10Katrina Mass Shelter
- Texas received a total of 245,000 evacuees from
Hurricane Katrina - 180 shelters in 42 Texas counties set up
- Houston hosted up to 11,500 evacuees in a complex
that got its own ZIP code - Information needed for evacuees and for those who
were to help
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12Waiting for the Storm
13Rita Hunkering Down
14At Home with Rita
- Evacuation 2.7 million people moved inland
- Shelter sites from El Paso to San Antonio
- Flood and wind destruction 17 counties hit
- Special needs physical and mental health
- Reunification finding families
- Repatriation getting people back home
15Finding Shelter
16Finding Comfort
17Finding Help
18PIO Duties That Worked
- Maintaining constant presence in the Emergency
Support Center 24/7 - Establishing hurricane-specific Web site
- Participating in conference calls
- Staying for shift change reports
- Reading the Web EOC reports
- Maintaining the DSHS PIO e-mail site
19PIO Duties That Need Work
- Maintaining media contact reports
- Monitoring media reports
- Methods of news dissemination
- Staying in touch with local PIOs
- Juggling ESC, SOC, JIC, JFO needs
- Going paperless
- Relieving stress
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21 You know you live on the coast when
- You have FEMAs number on your speed dialer.
- You can rattle off the names of three or more
meteorologists with the Weather Channel. - Ice is a valid topic of conversation.
- Having a tree in your living room does not
necessarily mean it is Christmas. - You can wish that other people get hit by a
hurricane and not feel the least bit guilty about
it.