Roundtable: Managers discuss their roles in helping protect buildings, operations and occupantstest
By Dave Lubach, Associate Editor
April 2014
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Maintenance and engineering managers in institutional and commercial facilities play a central role in helping develop emergency response plans for situations such as weather- and equipment-related emergencies, terror attacks, and health scares. These managers discuss their experiences with preparation, training, and lessons learned from their facilities' emergency situations.
Q: What are the key elements of an emergency preparedness plan related to maintenance and engineering?
CROWLEY: The first (step) is to make certain all employees are and remain safe. It is important that there is a well-thought-out response plan for addressing appropriate shutdown procedures for critical systems, such as power, water, gas, and controls, and that staff is cross-trained in these procedures. Critical to a quality plan are well-written procedures detailing the sequence of shutdowns, as well as practice drills, so that there is testing and adjusting of plans as a continuous learning tool. Documenting and easy retrieval of response partners is also paramount to a good emergency operations plan. Rarely will an organization have in-house staff or equipment to adequately address larger emergency response and recovery operations. Having established partnerships with contractors, suppliers and vendors will provide the additional support mechanisms required to respond and recover more effectively.
TURNER: The most important elements include identification of the vulnerabilities, identification of the various types of emergencies that could occur that could adversely affect buildings and building systems, and the identification of the resources that are available to mitigate the identified vulnerabilities. It is necessary to compose an action plan to protect vulnerable elements beginning with the most critical situation and repair those that are damaged by an emergency event, and replace those that can't be repaired. This list should be complete with suppliers of each item that may be compromised by an emergency event and all suppliers' complete contact information. If at all possible, an emergency recovery agreement should be put in place with suppliers of all critical elements. Composition of an interim relief plan provides for continuity of operations until all repairs are completed.
PRETZMAN: We support Risk and Emergency Management (REM), a university department, in their planning for emergency preparation. Our role is to understand how we can best support them and communicate the resources that we need. It's understanding how we support the bigger picture because the bigger the university, the bigger this challenge becomes. We are a small city here, in effect. We have over 600 acres, and 60,000-80,000 people here on any given day. So when you talk about emergency planning and preparation, it's not just what happens at the building level when you have a power outage. It goes well beyond that. You are thinking big picture. You have to get many groups involved in coming up with a plan. It's the police, parking and transit, the technology office, and facilities. The elements that are the most important are having the right people at the table, having everybody understanding their roles, communicating what's needed, and providing the right information.
Q: What role did you play in developing your emergency plan?
TURNER: As director of facilities for a local government organization, I work with my emergency management team to outline a continuity of operations plan. I then work with my staff to fill in the outline with discrete action items to be carried out in various types of emergencies. In a coastal beach community, our facilities and building systems are exposed to tidal surges, hurricanes, tornadoes, hail, torrential rainstorms, high wind events, drought, fire, and lightning strikes, along with a host of other natural events. In addition, we have the world's largest Air Force base located in our area, which brings a heightened risk of terrorism, along with normal theft and vandalism.
CROWLEY: At the time our airport was revising and improving the emergency operations program, I was the acting deputy director and main point of contact for the facilities and engineering division and major stakeholder for this portion of the company. The deputy director for facilities was temporarily assigned to drive the effort for the emergency operations center (EOC) program, so there were two critical facilities representatives for this effort. This provided a critical balance of the business functions to be explored and addressed within the written plan. I also was able to participate in the layout and construction of the EOC command center to provide the space and functionality for running an EOC when required to address emergencies.
PRETZMAN: For us in facilities management, one of our biggest roles was identifying the resources we have available, whether they are personnel or physical resources. We are asked to provide data on what our building systems are capable of. In other words, which buildings have emergency generators, and what portions of the buildings are powered by emergency generators? We have to let the rest of the group understand what would really happen in the event of a power outage. I'm using power outages as an example. We take the information from the maintenance side of the organization — the boots on the ground, so to speak, the guys who really know the buildings, and communicate that information, making sure the preparation group really understands what we do, what services would be available, what services would not be available, who the contact people are, and what our emergency services are in facilities. Here at Arizona State University, we have a standby system, where we've got representatives from each of the maintenance shops on a standby list. We're not manned 24/7 with all of our trades. If something happens in the middle of the night, our standby person is going to get a call, whether it's electrical, plumbing, or HVAC. It's explaining that process to the emergency-planning group and making sure they understand how we can support the police department or whoever is running that incident at that time. It's vital for them to understand how we can help support the effort.
Q: How often does your department review and practice emergency preparedness plans?
TURNER: At least annually. The county's emergency preparedness team conducts at least one mock hurricane exercise complete with full tabletop exercise. In addition, we provide opportunities for interagency exercises that involve active shooter neutralization, train derailment with a variety of spills and casualties, and plane crashes in dense civilian areas. In addition, the department goes through a complete resource check and data list update prior to June 1, the official beginning of hurricane season in this area, of each year.
PRETZMAN: Approximately once a year. A lot of what we do is in support of the REM group that actually manages the overall plan. They basically drive that schedule and drive that coordination effort. We support them, and we meet as required, which is generally once a year.
CROWLEY: The airport attempts to provide quarterly tests of emergency response for evacuations. We are currently still developing written procedures for proper system shutdowns so that staff that isn't a technical specialist can respond and safely to shutdown the systems appropriately.
Q: What steps do managers overlook when putting together an emergency plan?
CROWLEY: The amount of effort and resources required to return to operational status is often overlooked or minimized. The actual response to the initial condition is usually well understood, but recovering from the event is not as well established. Especially in a regional or widespread event, many of the necessary resources for people and materials will be unable to support the volume of demands. Also, the ability for staff to respond can be overlooked, such as, for example, in California, when a severe earthquake strikes and the proximity of people to worksites becomes a critical issue with access roads impassable. One other area that is often missed is the amount of supplies necessary. If the event is regional, the amount of time before outside assistance can reach the affected area could be longer than supplies available to remain self-sufficient.
TURNER: (Managers) always (overlook things), but that's why it helps to schedule regular preparedness exercises. These exercises help to identify weaknesses in the group's readiness in various events.
PRETZMAN: I haven't seen a lot of issues, but every time an emergency comes up, there's always going to be a lessons-learned event, or there will always be things that could have been done better. One of the most important things is for everyone to have a global perspective of the entire campus and how an emergency affects all the units on campus. What information will they need, how does the event affect them, and how does facilities management support them in the event that we're losing service in some way, shape, or form? I think it's just as important to take that step back and think about what impact that given emergency would have on all the groups on campus. One of the things that REM and our emergency director have put together is a tabletop exercise, where they simulate an emergency and bring all the parties to the table. We simulate what would happen and who could support what efforts and who would coordinate with whom. I think that's a good exercise to go through. That really helps engage everybody into everyone else's process so that we have a better understanding of what others' roles will be. We get a better understanding of their roles too.
Q: How have your department's responsibilities changed with regards to emergency preparedness?
TURNER: Approximately 12 hours before a hurricane is projected to make landfall, county offices are closed. Essential staff reports to the emergency operations center (EOC) to reinforce emergency management personnel already there. All non-essential staff is sent home to wait out the storm. Before I became director, my predecessors were sent home. I am the first of my kind to work in the EOC during emergency events. Since then, I've become a National Incident Management System-certified incident commander and I am the lead at an emergency support function in the EOC during declared emergencies.
CROWLEY: The facilities and engineering division's responsibilities are much broader today than in the recent past. As recently as December 2013, we had a significant hot-water-pipe rupture that caused extensive interior damage, fortunately without injuries. This real event demonstrated the recent improvements in facilities' critical role in addressing emergencies and recovery to allow the airport to return to partial operations. During the past two years, training and better development of a total encompassing emergency response program criteria has increased the training, education and awareness of the department and staff.
PRETZMAN: Every time we have some sort of incident, there's that lessons-learned piece, where you go back and make changes to how you do things. REM prepares an after-action report that is used to document issues, which we use to address any holes that were found. Maybe someone didn't have the right phone number. We didn't expect to lose communication one way or another, but we did. If you have an event, it helps you prepare better the next time. I think if you find out where issues are, you change your approach to it, and you're better prepared the next time. Our overall responsibilities have not changed a lot, other than the fact that we learn to change what we do to make it better and prepare ourselves better for the next time we have an event. If anything, I think we've become more involved in the planning process. That's probably one way that it's changed. The REM group understands the role of facilities and the importance of having facilities management support, and I think if anything, it's made us more visible and given us a key role in preparing for an event.
Q: What lessons have you learned from preparing and executing the emergency preparedness plan?
TURNER: Having a written plan is key to successfully managing an emergency. Practicing carrying out your written plan in a wide variety of emergency scenarios strengthens the validity, utility, and completeness of the plan. Be certain that all persons involved with emergency preparedness and recovery are properly trained, understand the value of the training, and contribute to the plan's refinement over time.
PRETZMAN: One lesson is, it's probably more complex than most people realize when they start out on that path. You tend to think that an emergency plan doesn't sound all that difficult, but when you start to dig into it and look at all the different aspects that have to be covered and accounted for, it becomes more complex than first imagined. I think certainly communication is important, and having the right people at the table is important. It's just a massive coordination effort, and rehearsing with tabletop exercises is certainly a key thing. We learn a lot of from that. I know that our police department works hard with our local municipality to coordinate communications, and we make sure our radio systems can communicate and that we are completely tied together if there's an event. You find little holes, you fix them and figure out a workaround and think about any potential points of failure where something could go wrong that could impede our process to recover, and you put a contingency plan in place.
CROWLEY: The amount of effort and resources required to return to operational status has been an awareness factor. The original focus of the airport's emergency planning preparations was concentrated on airfield situations, simply due to the fact we are an airport. Improved awareness of the critical need for the organization to be aware of a broader vision of emergency planning regarding infrastructure, weather, or pandemics has resulted in enhanced training across the entire department. All staff is now trained in Incident Command System (ICS) standards 100, 200 and 700, and upper-level managers are required to take additional training courses, minimally ICS 300, 400, and 800. The focus on the airport's EOC program also has benefitted the department in that there is closer coordination with the city departments and regional emergency response coordinators. There are also improved training exercises that are focusing on a quarterly basis for practicing for these unplanned events.