Canton on Emergency Management: February 2014

Economic recovery or safety - are they mutually exclusive?

The aftermath of a disaster is often a complex time when competing interests can pit public safety agencies against their own citizens. The government, concerned about the immediate safety of its citizens, places restrictions on reentry to damaged areas. But people are more worried on about their future livelihood and often see these restrictions as detrimental.

On February 14^th, Mount Kelud on Java Island in Indonesia erupted, throwing debris 12 miles into the atmosphere, displacing over 100,000 people, and killing four. Aside from the immediate impacts, the eruption also brought the risk of future landslides as rains wash the debris down river beds that pass through many of the villages. For this reason, the government has banned residents from returning to their homes if they live within 6 miles of the volcano. But the residents aren't listening.

Their reasons are many. For farmers, there is the need to return and tend crops and livestock or risk losing their livelihood. But for others, the eruption represents a windfall of sorts. The building industry pays well for volcanic ash and debris as it can be used to make a particularly strong cement. People who earn their living supplying sand to building companies can make almost twice as much for the volcanic ash as they do for regular sand. Given the potential profits, evading security patrols is just a cost of doing business.

The lesson here is that while safety is always a priority, responders must be able to accommodate people who have a need to reenter a restricted area. You cannot just dismiss concerns over economic survival - people are entitled to a level of understanding on the part of their government. Limited, controlled access is always safer than chasing trespassers.

Posted by Lucien Canton on 02/27/2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Threat Averted: Woody's six gun seized at Heathrow

My kids were big Power Rangers fans when they were little. My wife even made them Power Ranger suits that were the envy of all their friends one Halloween. So when my son asked for a particular figure for Christmas, I did my best to track it down without success. You know how it is – they’re everywhere until you need it.

Several months later while on a FEMA operation in Pasadena, I regularly haunted the local toy store with no luck. I did manage to score two Power Ranger pistols, though, which were extremely rare, to take them home as consolation prizes.

These were the halcyon days before TSA and increased airport security so imagine my surprise when my “firearms” were confiscated by security screeners. Even though they were clear plastic and very “space age” looking they were considered dangerous, they had to be transported by the crew. (I think the fold-out rubber blade may have had something to do with it.) And, of course, the crew couldn’t find them when the plane landed – guess their kids were fans as well. I did finally get them back the next day after raising a fuss. And my son eventually got his figure.

What made me think about this was an article in London’s Daily Mail about security screeners at Heathrow confiscating the pistol on a child’s toy. Yep, Woody from Toy Story was busted for trying to take his six shooter on board an aircraft. He’s probably on the terrorist watch list now.

Bad enough that the screener felt this was an issue. What makes it worse is he seemed to have consulted others who felt that the plastic replica posed a threat. And for those of you who are into crisis communications, the Department of Transport spokesperson told reporters essentially “no comment,” which we all know if the kiss of death. Here is his statement:

We do not comment on specific incidents or details of our security regime. Airports and airlines can use their discretion to remove any item being carried in hand luggage when they believe it may be perceived as a threat.

My last blog talked about an over-commitment to process that led to a death in Washington DC. This incident isn’t anywhere near that serious but it is part of the same problem – allowing process to trump common sense. When we eliminate discretion from our front line workers, they do exactly as their told, no matter how stupid or embarrassing the consequences.

And somewhere a child is lamenting the loss of his toy.

Posted by Lucien Canton on 02/12/2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over-commitment to process leads to death in DC

At a training course many years ago, I was introduced to the idea that people could be roughly divided into four basic types: action, idea, process, and people. The quintessential example of a process person was one of my work colleagues. He made a copy of every document he dealt with, stapled a typed cover sheet describing the content to the document, and then filed it away in a neatly labeled folder. He was always behind in his filing and once did a time-motion study that showed his job really needed 1.25 people. Some months later I took over his job, stopped keeping unneeded copies of documents, eliminated cover sheets and used batch processing. Within a few weeks I reported to my boss that I was ready to take on more work as I estimated that I had 20% of my time free.

This example may be a bit over the top, but we see this type of slavish devotion to process every day and it can have tragic consequences. Last January a 77-year old man collapsed with a heart attack across the street from DC fire station. When onlookers rushed to the station for help, they were told that they needed to call 911 before anyone could help them. There were a number of other complicating factors (the responding ambulance was sent to the wrong location, for example) but the bottom line is the man died only feet away from the help that might have saved him.

The rule against self-dispatching was implemented for very good reasons and violating it can and should have serious consequences. But it shouldn’t trump common sense. While the fire department is investigating and has remained largely silent about the incident, it is significant that the lieutenant in charge of the station was relieved and is taking retirement.

Don’t get me wrong. We need process people or else idea people like me would never get anything done. We need form and structure, we need planning, and we need organization. But when process gets in the way of doing the right thing, there’s something wrong with our thinking.