Emergency Communications: Lessons Learned from UMDNJ

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Emergency CommunicationsLessons Learned from
UMDNJ

• Brendan McCluskey
• Executive Director
• UMDNJ Office of Emergency Management and
  Occupational Health and Safety

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Outline of Presentation

• Emergency Management Concepts
• Emergency Planning
• Emergency Communications
• UMDNJ Experience
• Case studies
• Changes to the Higher Education Act of 1965
  (S.1642 and H.R.4137)

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Quick Poll

• How many of your institutions have a separate
  emergency management office with dedicated staff?
• How often do you interact with that person/office?

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Emergency Management

• History
• Many of the functions have been performed for
  over 200 years
• Federal government had over 50 agencies
  performing this function at one time
• FEMA created in 1979 and the concept of
  comprehensive emergency management was
  institutionalized
• Homeland Security integrates emergency management
  with intelligence and prevention

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Emergency Management

• Change in orientation away from specialized
  preparedness for a single type of incident or
  narrowly defined categories of hazards
• All Hazards approach potential attack,
  natural, and technological threats to life and
  property

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Emergency Management

• Specific Objectives
• Save lives and protect property threatened by
  hazards
• Reduce duplication of efforts and resources
• Increase flexibility in the capacity to handle
  all hazards
• Integrate support and objectives from other
  jurisdictions

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Comprehensive Emergency Management

• Based on three interrelated principles and
  components
• All types of hazards
• Emergency management partnership
• Emergency lifecycle

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All Types of Hazards

• Commonalities among all types of technological,
  natural, and other man-made disasters strongly
  suggest that many of the same management
  strategies can apply to all such emergencies

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Emergency Management Partnership

• The burden of disaster management, and the
  resources for it, require a close working
  partnership among all levels of government and
  other industrial sectors

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Incident Command System (ICS)
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Planning Assumptions

• Disasters and emergencies will occur
• Plan for up to a worst case scenario and
  maintain a high level of readiness using concept
  of all hazards
• Be capable of implementing plans with and without
  warning
• Maximize use of existing critical
  infrastructures, facilities, and resources

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Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)

• The purpose of the EOP is to
• Safeguard lives, property, and facilities
• Describe the array of resources available within
  the organization
• Prevent or minimize the impact of emergencies and
  disasters and,
• Develop and maintain implementation plans to
  prevent, mitigate against, prepare for, respond
  to, and recover from emergencies and disasters.

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Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)

• Basic Plan
• Responsibilities
• Appendices
• Annexes
• Procedures and Guidelines
• Policy

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Communications Methods

• Telephones, Cell Phones, Voice Mail
• SMS/SMTP Text Messaging
• Email
• Intranet/Internet
• Loudspeakers
• Fire Alarm System
• Video Monitors

• Sirens
• Flashing Lights
• Radio and Television
• Walkie-Talkies
• Pop-up Messages
• Pagers
• Word-of-Mouth
• What else???

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Emergency Communications Plan

• Communications devices worthless without plan to
  use them
• Plan must address
• Triggering events (when will plan/system be used)
• Who can activate plan and systems
• Who crafts, approves, and sends the messages
• How often is plan and system tested

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Emergency Communications Plan

• Scripted/pre-formatted messages
• Disaster messages are most effective if are
• Tailored to the specific emergency
• Tailored to the populations at highest risk
• Integrate hazard information management with
  public response

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Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)

• Standardizes the content of alerts and
  notifications
• Standard format replaces range of single-purpose
  interfaces among warning sources and
  disseminations channels
• Activation of multiple warning systems with a
  single input
• Provides exact corroboration of warning through
  multiple channels

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National Communication System

• National Security and Emergency Preparedness
  (NS/EP) Communications Services
• Government Emergency Telecommunication System
  (GETS)
• Wireless Priority Service (WPS)
• Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP)

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University of Medicine and Dentistry of New
Jersey (UMDNJ)

• Statewide institution
• 8 Schools
• 2 Healthcare Units
• 6 Campuses
• Faculty practices
• Hundreds of affiliates
• Central Administration

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UMDNJ Experience

• Emergency planning since 2001
• Little support (2001-2006)
• OEM established (October 2006)
• UMDNJs Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) being
  developed/revised
• Also have BCP/COOP Plan and Department-specific
  Disaster Plans (DSDP)
• EOP contains base plan, plus annexes and
  appendices

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UMDNJ Experience

• Post-Virginia Tech text messaging!
• Governor convenes meeting
• Announces formation of Campus Security Task Force
• Solution use existing technology
• Communicator! NXT
• Case study Shooting (Newark) off campus

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UMDNJ Experience

• Alert, Warning, and Notification is one of the
  EOP Support Annexes
• This is also known as the Emergency
  Communications and Notification Plan
• Case Study Hazardous Weather
• Public Safety, University Affairs, IST, Physical
  Plant, Logistical Services, and Emergency
  Management are key stakeholders

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UMDNJ Experience

• Plan establishes the Emergency Communications
  Coordination Group (ECCG)
• Responsible for pre-incident planning, all
  emergency communications during an incident,
  post-incident analysis, planning for future
  initiatives, etc.
• Plan uses Incident Command System (ICS) concept
  of Joint Information Center (JIC)
• Gets the right people together (in person or
  virtually) to implement plan
• Standardized emergency messages include essential
  information, action(s) to be taken by message
  recipients, and where to go for more information

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UMDNJ Experience

• Plan addresses communications with multiple
  constituencies
• Plan includes multiple mechanisms to get messages
  out
• Includes email system (internal), telephone
  systems, radios, the Portal and UMDNJ Website,
  and the Communicator! NXT platform, among others
• Emergency Communication vs. Emergency
  Notification
• Case Study Bomb Threat and Power Outage

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UMDNJ Experience

• Plan establishes responsibilities of key UMDNJ
  individuals and organizations
• Including the President, especially during major
  disasters
• Plan provides the steps that are taken when
  emergency notification is instituted
• This also allows for post-incident quality
  management and analysis of response
• Case Study Noxious Fumes in Building
• Plan provides for regular testing of the plan and
  various systems for emergency notification
• Plan also addresses media interaction and release
  of information, as well as coordination with
  other organizations (internal and external)

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Higher Education Act of 1965

• U.S. Senate passed S.1642 on July 24, 2007
• The U.S. House of Representatives Education and
  Labor Committee passed H.R.4137 on November 15,
  2007
• No further action by full House as of today
• Both have provisions that will impact campus
  emergency notification procedures

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S.1642 and H.R.4137

• S.1642

• H.R.4137

• Requires policies to notify the campus community
  in a reasonable and timely manner in the event of
  an emergency that involves an immediate threat to
  the campus community and which occurs on the
  campus

• Requires policies to notify the campus community
  within 30 minutes in the event of an emergency
  that involves an immediate threat to the campus
  community and which occurs on or off campus,
  including in public buildings

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Thank You! Questions?

• Brendan McCluskey
• Executive Director
• UMDNJ Office of Emergency Management and
  Occupational Health and Safety
• 30 Bergen Street ADMC 304
• Newark, NJ 07101-1709 USA
• 973-972-6164 (office)
• 973-972-6104 (fax)
• 973-445-9083 (mobile)
• 856-535-0103 (mobile)
• brendan.mccluskey_at_umdnj.edu (email)
• http//ready.umdnj.edu (web)