http://nnlm.gov/ep/
by Susan Yowell, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response, Project Assistant & Recorder

Three new features have recently been added to the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness and Response Toolkit.

Dan Wilson, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Coordinator, has created an online tutorial for the Toolkit. The tutorial, available from the new page called “Tutorials,” is an overview of the site. It will be updated as new features and functionality are introduced. Dan also plans to add tutorials on other aspects of the NN/LM emergency preparedness initiative in the future.

A new section in the column on the right side of the Toolkit is titled “Risk Assessment Maps and Charts.” Under the heading are links to maps that you can use when developing your emergency plan.

Also added is a “Mutual Aid Agreement” (MAA) to the page that formerly contained only the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement. The MAA may be more appealing to libraries that want to enter into a written agreement for continuity of service but don’t want to worry about legal ramifications of an MOU.

On December 22, 2008, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant’s retention pond failed, creating a tidal wave of water and fly ash which destroyed several homes and ruptured a major gas line in a neighborhood located adjacent to the plant in Harriman, Tennessee. It is estimated that approximately 3.1 million cubic feet of fly ash and water were released on to land adjacent to the plant and into the nearby Clinch and Emory River. There’s concern about the potential effects of this spill on the quality of water, air and soil in the region.

From its extensive environmental health and toxicology resources, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has compiled a Web page of links to chemical information on fly ash and medical journal articles on the ash’s possible human health effects, http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/coalashspill.html. These resources provide background information on fly ash, also known as coal ash, which is a by-product of burning coal in power plants to generate electricity.

Links to public health information from local and federal authorities responding to this incident are also included. Contact information for local community assistance is listed on the TVA Internet site, http://www.tva.gov/.

For more information on TOXNET and other NLM environmental health and toxicology resources, please visit http://tox.nlm.nih.gov.

A model to help federal, state, and local emergency planners estimate the vehicles, drivers, road capacity and other resources they will need to evacuate patients and others from health care facilities in disaster areas was released today by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The Web-based Mass Evacuation Transportation Planning Model is designed to be used prior to an emergency to help answer such questions as:

• How long will it take to move patients from one facility to another?
• How many transport vehicles, such as ambulances, wheelchair vans and buses, are required to complete the evacuation within a certain time period?
• How might the location and other attributes of the evacuating and receiving facilities affect evacuation plans?

Emergency planners can enter into the model any number of evacuating and receiving facilities and specific conditions that could affect transportation plans.

The model will estimate the resources and hours needed to move patients from evacuating facilities to receiving facilities, based on assumptions that the planner specifies. The model was pilot tested in New York City and Los Angeles and is available for use at: http://massevacmodel.ahrq.gov

Two documents accompany the model:

• The user manual at http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/massevac/manual/massevum1.htm
• A description of the model’s design and assumptions at http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/massevac/manual/massevum1.htm

http://nnlm.gov/ep/10-stepsservice-continuity/

The NN/LM SE/A Emergency Preparedness Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) has been hard at work throughout the recent hurricane season. Now, the committee is about to gear up for the snow and ice emergencies of winter. Committee Chair Dan Wilson of the University of Virginia is leading the way, stressing the importance of service continuity planning. Below you will find the 10 steps for preparation and Dan’s presentation on the issue delivered early in the fall of 2008. Start your planning in the quiet moments when students are vacationing and the hospital census is low by following the checklist, step by step.

For answers to preparedness and continuity questions, consult the regional emergency preparedness page at http://nnlm.gov/sea/services/emergency/disasterrelief.html, the national toolkit at http://nnlm.gov/ep/, or your state representative to the Emergency Preparedness RAC at http://nnlm.gov/sea/about/emergencyrac.html. As the Regional staffer assigned to the committee, Beth Wescott will field your question at bwescott@hshsl.umaryland.edu or by phone at 800-338-7657.

10 Step Service Continuity Preparation

Click here to view slide show presentation of “A 10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning” that Dan Wilson used for a virtual class he presented to Network members of the Pacific Southwest and Mid-Continental regions of the NN/LM.

Step 1: Assess risks

Make a list of events for which your library could be at risk.

• talk with long-term staff members at your library and gather anecdotal information about emergencies or disasters that have happened in the past. Add to the list such emergencies as fire and bio-terrorism that may not have happened but which can happen anytime and anywhere.
• check federal, state and local emergency preparedness web sites for more information about potential emergency events.

Map of Presidential Disaster Declarations 1964-2007

Step 2: Protect yourself, your staff, and your patrons

Develop written procedures, specific to your building and environment, to provide for safety of people in the building in the event of an emergency, i,e,shelter-in-place procedures for tornadoes, dealing with a violent incident, preventing mold growth on wet materials, medical emergency, evacuating the building, standing water/flooded areas, chemical spill, and epidemics. Provide training to everyone who works in the building so they become familiar with the procedures. Hold periodic drills.

Step 3: Determine your core services

Identify services that would be most needed immediately following some kind of major service disruption (i.e. Interlibrary Loan, bibliographic searches, reference help).

Step 4: Create procedures for remote access to core services

Based on your list of core services, develop strategies for maintaining access to these services from an off-site location (i.e. someone’s home or a temporary location away from your building).

Step 5: Determine your core electronic resources

Identify electronic resources that would be needed most immediately following a disaster (i.e. Medline, CINAHL, UpToDate, DynaMed, MDConsult, Stat!Ref).

Step 6: Develop a continuity of access plan for your essential electronic resources

Determine whether back-up power will be available, and whether access to internet-based resources and your home page will be possible. If back-up power will be available, find out how long this would be the case.

Step 7: Identify your core print collection

List and prioritize print materials that would likely be needed by your patrons if your core online materials were not available (i.e. textbooks, reference materials, core journals). Create a salvage “map” using a floor plan of your library, showing where core print materials are stored or shelved.

Step 8: Identify your unique resources

List unique resources, such as institutional records, historical materials and artifacts, and works of art. Note in your disaster plan where these resources are located in the building and how they can be accessed by library staff or first-responders.

Step 9: Proactively plan for the recovery of your unique resources

Based on your list of unique resources,

• determine which resources you would be willing to spend a significant amount of money on, in order to save them in the event that they are damaged in a disaster
• contact a commercial salvage company (i.e. BMS, Munters, Belfor) to get an idea about costs involved in saving these materials, should freeze-drying, mold abatement, or other services be required
• remember that mold will normally grow on wet materials in about 48 hours,
  and sometimes less, depending on the environment–the best way to save valuable
  materials that are wet is to freeze them, thus stopping the growth of mold
  until they can be professionally treated.

Step 10: Know how to obtain outside assistance

• develop a relationship with a back-up library
• call a 24/7 emergency assistance service for damaged paper collections (NEDCC, WESTPAS, SOLINET, AMIGOS, etc.)
• NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit: http://nnlm.gov/ep
• NN/LM Regional Offices: 1-800-DEV-ROKS

HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will host a free Webcast entitled, “Lessons Learned From the Field of Emergency Preparedness” on Nov. 6, 2008, from 12-1:30 PM EST.

Presenters will offer diverse perspectives on emergency planning and the use of AHRQ tools in order to enhance surge capacity, medical supply allocation planning and resource inventories reporting systems. Participants will receive key insight on customizing AHRQ tools in order to address the distinct needs of their communities. Emergency preparedness planners as well as federal, state and local community health planners, providers and first-responders are invited to attend. Before registering, check to sure that you have the appropriate players to view UCF (Universal Communications Format) rich media files in the Webcast.

The following are valid players for rich media files using UCF:
FlashPlayer 6.0 or later
Windows Media Player 9.0 or later
Quicktime 6.0 or later

Register online at http://tinyurl.com/3gxl8p

Hurricane Ike, South Central Region Medical Libraries, Hurricane Web Links, and a New Listserv.

As many of you are aware, the South Central RML is currently closed, and will remain closed until Thursday, September 18th, due to affects of Hurricane Ike. In accordance with the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness & Response plan, South Central’s buddy RML, the Middle Atlantic Region (MAR), is backing up the office by taking calls and redirecting DOCLINE, when necessary. A special thanks to MAR staff for temporarily taking on this important responsibility.

For information on emergency preparedness planning for libraries as well as some post-disaster updates, see the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit at http://nnlm.gov/ep/. I am pleased to report that the toolkit received a lot of traffic the day before Hurricane Ike struck the Gulf Coast, which shows that libraries are using the toolkit as a preparedness resource. To see additional updates (or provide a status report), check the SCR blog, Blogadillo, at http://nnlm.gov/scr/blog/.

Also of note, the National Library of Medicine home page has added a news item on hurricane resources, “Online Resources for Hurricanes, Floods, and Disaster Preparedness and Recovery” at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/disaster_resources_online.html.

Finally, a new listserv, DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB, is now available as a discussion forum for librarians, information specialists and others interested in disaster information outreach to their communities and responding to information needs for all-hazards preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. It is also the primary source for information announcing the activities of the National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Specialist Pilot Project. List members may post comments and resources of interest to those involved in disaster information outreach as well as relevant announcements of meetings, training, conferences, job openings, etc. The listserv is provided by the National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Management Research Center. You can sign up for the list and view the archives at https://list.nih.gov/archives/disastr-outreach-lib.html.

Please contact Cindy Love, lovec@mail.nlm.nih.gov, if you have any questions or comments about the listserv.

http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Weather/Hurricane.shtml

Considering recent hurricane activity in the United States, our region’s gotten a first-hand reminder of how important it is to be prepared. Whether you’re getting ready for hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, floods, terrorist attacks, or other types of emergencies, there are steps you can take to stay safe.

Visit Ready.gov for detailed guidance on the four major aspects of good preparation:

• Get a Kit – Concentrate on the basics: water, food, clean air, and warmth.
• Make a Plan – Your family may not be together in an emergency, so discuss how you’ll contact each other in different situations.
• Be Informed – Know what types of emergencies could occur in your area, how to respond to them, and what plans have been established by local government.
• Get Involved – Help to prepare your community for possible disasters.

http://nnlm.gov/sea/services/emergency/disasterrelief.html
Is Hurricane Ready. Read All about It!

NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit

• NN/LM Emergency Preparedness and Response
  Toolkit - The primary mission for this toolkit is to promote disaster planning in health sciences library and to serve as a disaster planning resource for local communities and the nation.

Recommended Readings

• Building a Disaster Plan - Getty Publication, now out of print but pdf available for downloading. For cultural collections, but focus on the “exercising” section and ideas you can use for training, drills and testing your plans.
• Improving Disaster Management: The Role of IT in Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery - Information technology (IT) has the potential to play a critical role in managing natural and human made disasters. Damage to communications infrastructure, along with other communications problems exacerbated the difficulties in carrying out response and recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. To assist government planning in this area, the Congress, in the E-government Act of 2002, directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to request the NRC to conduct a study on the application of IT to disaster management. This report characterizes disaster management providing a framework for considering the range and nature of information and communication needs; presents a vision of the potential for IT to improve disaster management; provides an analysis of structural, organizational, and other non-technical barriers to the acquisition, adoption, and effective use of IT in disaster; and offers an outline of a research program aimed at strengthening IT-enabled capabilities for disaster management.
• National Academic Press - Research Priorities in Emergency Preparedness and Response for Public
  Health Systems: A Letter Report - Conclusions and recommendations from the IOM Committee on Research Priorities in Emergency Preparedness and Response for Public Health Systems.
• Pediatrics - Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics - Preparation for Emergencies
  in the Offices of Pediatricians and Pediatric Care Providers - Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine
• Research Priorities in Emergency Preparedness and Response for Public Health Systems: A Letter
  Report - Conclusions and recommendations for the IOM Committee on Research Priorities in Emergency Preparedness and Response for Public Health Systems

Animal Health Resources

• American Veterinary Medical Association- The educational materials to assist veterinarians, animal owners, and others interested in the well-being of animals to prepare for animal safety in the event of a disaster.
• The Humane Society of the United States, Disaster Center- Resources for displaced pets and pet owners.

Additional Emergency Preparedness Materials

• Model Memorandum of Understanding for a Health Sciences, Hospital/System or Medical Library for Emergency Preparedness Support

http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/drillelements/

This series of evidence-based modules provide standardized checklists to document observations during a hospital disaster drill. Using the observations, hospitals can identify areas for improvement, make appropriate changes and set benchmarks to track those changes over time.

This report was prepared for AHRQ by the Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center, Baltimore, MD. A full text PDF file of the tool is available at http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/drillelements/drillelements.pdf

http://www.hhs.gov/disasters/emergency/naturaldisasters/hurricanes/gustav/index.html

Learn what’s happening in your locale and how it might affect your institution and staff.

• Alabama- Emergency Management Agency
• District of Columbia - Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency
• Florida - Florida Division of Emergency Management
• Georgia - Georgia911.org
• Maryland - Maryland Emergency Management Agency
• Mississippi- Emergency Mangement Agency
• North Carolina - The Division of Emergency Management
• South Carolina - South Carolina Emergency Management Division
• Tennessee - Emergency Management Agency
• Virginia - Department of Emergency Management

Take a look at real time hurricane response, at tips and facts and what is in the pipeline.

Federal Hurricane Response

• How to Get Help
• Finding Friends and Family
• Health and Safety
• Donate and Volunteer
• Hurricane Tracking
• En espanol
• What Government is Doing

NOAA Information

• Hurricane Gustav
• Hurricane Hanna
• Tropical Storm Ike
• Tropical Storm Josephine
• Emergency Alert System (EAS)
• National Weather Service - Severe Weather Forecast
• NOAA Streaming Weather Radio - All Hazards
• NOAA Weather Radio Frequencies - All Hazards

Be sure to promote and display the sites of most use to your medical and allied health staff members.

For Practitioners, Clinicians and Responders

• Response, Cleanup & Safety Workers (CDC)
• Disaster Relief Volunteers (CDC)
• Hurricane-Related Information for Health Care Professionals (CDC)
• Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Community Assistance Providers (AHRQ)
• More information on Disasters and Emergencies for Practitioners, Clinicians and Responders
  

http://www.ready.gov/america/npm08/

September is National Preparedness Month. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Ready Campaign. This year the focus of NPM is to encourage citizens to take important preparedness steps:

• Get a Kit
• Make a Plan
• Be Informed
• Get Involved

Planning to stay in business: aka keeping the library running

• Download and order all Ready publications, they cover the following key topics: http://www.ready.gov/america/publications/allpubs.html
• Overview
• Be Informed
• Continuity Planning
• Emergency Planning
• Emergency Supplies
• Deciding to Stay or Go
• Fire Safety