Canton on Emergency Management

Emergency Management Solutions: December 2021

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Featured Articles

Why Your Emergency Plan Will Fail: Ignoring Inclusiveness

    by Lucien Canton

Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management

    by Timothy "Tim" Riecker

The Risk, Reward and Responsibility of Maintaining Local Emergency Code

    by George Whitney

Why Business Continuity Needs Crisis Communications

    by Erik Bernstein

Why Your Emergency Plan Will Fail: Ignoring Inclusiveness

Some years ago, I was tasked with reviewing the evacuation plan for a large metropolitan area. The plan looked pretty good and seemed to address all the critical issues. Things began to fall apart quickly when I started asking questions about how the plan was developed. It turned out that the plan had been written by a single individual in two weeks on the orders of his department head. None of the agencies tasked to support the plan were aware of it or had ever been consulted. In addition, the plan effectively ended at the county line; none of the adjacent counties had been consulted as to how they would support a major evacuation. The plan was well written but totally worthless, the classic example of a “paper plan.”

This is an extreme example of failing to include stakeholders in the development of an emergency plan. Few planners would fail to include coordination with other agencies in their plans. However, these same planners frequently neglect to include non-response-oriented stake holders in their planning process.

The first time I recommended a declaration of emergency to our mayor in San Francisco, the process almost suffered a significant delay when the City Attorney’s staff insisted on reviewing the standard format included in the emergency plan. It seems they had never been consulted on the plan and new nothing about the declaration process or recovery programs, despite the city still being heavily involved in recovery from the Loma Prieta earthquake. Within a few weeks, we had designated attorneys assigned to our EOC team who received training in emergency management legal issues. Other examples of frequently neglected agencies that we worked with are the risk manager (risk analysis and insurance issues), the personnel department (personnel reassignment, volunteer management, union issues), and the department of the environment (holistic recovery issues).

As neglected as non-response agencies are, the situation is even worse when we consider community organizations. The big-name organizations, such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army, are generally included but lack of input from other community-based organizations can lead to significant problems in a disaster. One of our most embarrassing lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina was that the planners who developed emergency supply lists had completely neglected to include items for women such hygiene products and supplies for nursing mothers. In 2011 the City of Los was found liable for failing to include people with functional needs in their emergency planning. Other issues that have emerged are often related to cultural norms such as those surrounding the handling of remains. Even food can be an issue: I learned the hard way that there is a significant difference between long grain and short grain rice when a vendor shipped the wrong type to several Pacific islands during a typhoon relief operation.

Inclusiveness is of critical importance in emergency planning. But what does that really mean? I often get pushback from planners that “we can’t include everybody”. This is based on the erroneous assumption that all stakeholders are equal. Being included does not necessarily mean that everyone gets a vote and veto rights. What it does mean is that all stakeholders should be able to have input to the planning process and have that input at least considered as the plan develops. This can be accomplished in many cases by providing an opportunity to review working drafts and to comment on those drafts. The key to success in that their input must be acknowledged and responded to, even if the issues raised will not be addressed in subsequent drafts. Providing an explanation as to why input will not be included may not always defuse conflict, but it will at least allow discussion based on fact rather than generating a feeling the stakeholder is being ignored.

There are many reasons an emergency plan may fail but not including input from those who will have to implement the plan and those affected by it is a guarantee of failure.