NFPA Journal - September/October 2020 - 33

COURTESY OF NEW HANOVER COUNT Y, NORTH CAROLINA

DISTANCE & MASKS The emergency operations center
in New Hanover County, North Carolina, observing covid
safety protocols during Hurricane Isaias.

Some of the gains that have occurred
during COVID include a wealth of new
partnerships and capabilities, from
new shelter options to more flexible
and adaptable operations. Most of
this learning has come organically as
emergency managers struggled to solve
each new pressing problem. "By just
focusing on meeting the needs of today,
whatever they are, wherever they are,
we're building a stronger foundation of
training and readiness," Beckman said.
For instance, when the Red Cross
worked to change its mass sheltering
strategy from congregate to non-congregate, it emerged with several new
benefits besides a bigger inventory of
hotel rooms. To make it all work, the
organization also had to figure out how
to effectively provide services to evacuees now that they'd be sheltered across
the region, not in one centralized location. It also had to find a way, in the
middle of a pandemic, to quickly train
its broad network of staff and volunteers on how run and manage this new
shelter strategy.
Both of these issues led the Red
Cross to invest in and expand its virtual
capabilities. For training, the organization designed a virtual, web-based
system to replace most of its traditional
in-person classes. It also set up a virtual network of aid workers, enabling
services like mental health counseling
and medical checkups to be done via
computer screen, with the doctors able
to talk to storm or fire victims from the
other side of the country.
The new capabilities achieved their
objectives but have also proved valuable in other ways, resulting in a Red
Cross that is nimbler and more adaptable going forward, Beckman said.

"As we've learned new things about
this virus, about what works and ways
to mitigate it, we've been able to push
those remote trainings to the workforce
quickly," he said. And although the
pandemic has
NFPA.ORG/
cut down the
DISASTERS
number of aid
Listen to the NFPA
workers staffPodcast interview
ing disaster
with Luke Beckman
sites, "we have
of the Red Cross
and Anna McRay,
much more
a North Carolina
reach-back
emergency manager,
about planning and
capacity than
responding to a
we had before,
natural disaster
and that allows
during COVID.
us to scale
Read COVID
more flexibly,"
disaster planning
assets from FEMA,
he said. "If
the CDC, and the
the number
Red Cross.
of people
who need our health services increases
rapidly, now we have an entire team
of people virtually across the country
ready to go. If people need help finding
services, we can support them much
more quickly with more people doing
online research to get them the recovery
resources they need."
Being forced to reimagine emergency sheltering options will help her
county improve what it had pre-COVID,
McRay said. "It's made us more aware
of basic hygiene stuff," she said, "and
that there's not really so much wrong
with putting a little bit of extra space
between people, especially given the
stress that comes with having to pick
up and go to an emergency shelter."
Other progress made since the start
of the pandemic is less visible but could
prove just as important over time, well
after the pandemic is over. One notable
example is strengthened community

partnerships. Before the pandemic, for
instance, few local emergency agencies
had close relationships with public
health departments, Serino said. After
months of coordination on pandemic
response, that's changed dramatically
in most cities. "When we opened our
emergency operation center in March it
was to support the health department,
and that was a relatively new thing for
us when you consider that usually emergency management is built to support
the public safety piece," McRay said.
Grieb believes the COVID crisis has
also increased emergency management's
visibility overall-especially with state
and local governments-providing a
clear demonstration of the profession's
value, which in turn will lead to growth
in the relatively young profession. "It
makes me really happy that, both here
in Florida and nationally, I'm noticing
a lot of new emergency management
positions being posted," said Grieb, who
himself was hired only last June.
There will be no shortage of work
ahead. In late August, Hurricane
Laura, one of the most powerful storms
to ever strike the US, was plowing
north through Louisiana and leaving
significant destruction in its wake.
Meanwhile, California continued to
battle a series of historic wildfires,
which as of late August had burned
1.4 million acres and displaced tens
of thousands of people. All of this was
occurring as coronavirus continued to
pose a major threat. As of August 27,
the US has had close to 6 million confirmed cases, with fire-struck California
leading the way with 690,000 cases,
including 90,000 new cases over the
previous two weeks.
Asked to predict back in early August
how the rest of the 2020 disaster
season might play out, Serino, a self-described optimist, acknowledged that
the months ahead will be "a huge challenge," and "something that we haven't
done before."
He also said he had "almost more
hope than ever" looking forward. "Our
worst days," he said, "are when people
in public safety, emergency management, and health do their best work."
JESSE ROMAN is associate editor for NFPA Journal.

N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

Disasters_09.20 V6 DCS FINAL.indd 33

| 33

8/28/20 10:51 AM
http://NFPA.ORG/DISASTERS http://NFPA.ORG/DISASTERS http://NFPA.ORG/JOURNAL
NFPA Journal - September/October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2020
