Entry bubble Government Practices Disaster Response

By: Jake | May 12, 2008 | Category: General

I didn't get there by helicopter, but I did participate in the government's Continuity of Operations (COOP as we call it) exercise last week. Instead of choppering in, I drove out to our COOP location in Virginia at 6 in the morning to get all kinds of crazy scenarios thrown at me.Emergency Response Tools

My task during the exercise was to maintain basic operations at the National Contact Center, where citizens call for information about government programs and services. I also monitored fake news broadcasts and press releases to keep agents aware of what was going on so they could handle calls, emails and web chats appropriately. Most importantly, I surveyed the center to tell us what the public was asking about.

The exercise involved terrorist attacks in the Pacific Northwest, a hurricane bearing down on the Mid-Atlantic and a potential terrorist threat to DC, so I was busy. But I wasn't as busy as I was during Hurricane Katrina.

During Katrina and its aftermath the contact center got hundreds of thousands of inquiries from survivors and their families looking for assistance and those looking for victims. It was hard to keep up with the answers to these questions. So each day began with an inter-agency call, where I told Federal web managers what people were asking us about in the contact center so they could prepare appropriate services. Though I did what I could, the government knows its response to Katrina can be improved. That's one reason the federal government did such a massive exercise this year (COOP is done every year).

Even though in a real emergency you don't know what or whom you will and won't have available, I noticed a lot of collaboration between agencies during this exercise. I also noticed a lot of backup at agencies with people in regional offices able to handle primary functions usually done in the D.C. area. Of course there were some hiccups. Our emergency phone alert system which is supposed to call and email us when a COOP situation is enacted never chimed in on my office cell phone.

I got to give feedback at the end of the exercise and now it is your turn. How can the Federal government improve response during emergencies? Some people have chimed in with some interesting ideas, so be sure to read what they are saying in the comment section.

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