Emergency Management Plan s•
CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH
CITY COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM ON EMERGENCY PLANNING
AGENDA ITEM: This is a formal request for a briefing by the City Manager and staff to the
City Commission on detailed aspects of the City's Emergency
Management plan for any and all contingencies or possible emergency
incidents. A briefing is requested prior to the start of the 2016 defined
hurricane season.
SUBMITTED BY: Commissioner John M Stinson 1
DATE: The 24th of February 2016
BACKGROUND: The City of Atlantic Beach emergency operations are covered under City
Ordinance Part II, Chapter 2, Administration, Article VIII, Emergency Management, Division II,
Emergency Management Plan, Section 2 parts 401-409.
Most emergencies are unpredictable and vary widely in scope, impact and required response.
Causes may be severe weather, infectious diseases, industrial accidents or spills, or by intentional
acts. And, when experienced, an emergency can threaten public safety,the environment,
property, critical infrastructure, the health of the public and access to life saving health care.
Preparation, planning, assessment and practice are essential to emergency preparedness.
And, residents of Atlantic Beach need to understand key points of any response plan, including:
1. The City utilizes a detailed plan that is current, assessed and updated annually.
2. Identifying the Incident Chain of Command, including selection and training required.
3. Preferred methods of information dissemination to & from the public.
4. Specific evacuation routes for each unique area of the city.
5. Contingency plans in the event evacuation is not possible.
6. City-wide security in the event a full evacuation is implemented.
Atlantic Beach has been fortunate to not having experienced a natural emergency in decades.
The beaches are the first to evacuate if a storm nears our area and our proximity to NS Mayport
has the potential to force emergency response due to something other than natural causes. And,
in today's uncertain times, it is not unreasonable to contemplate intentional acts of those wishing
to cause harm and fear in citizens.
Consider, according to the current Atlantic Beach city plan, when winds reach a sustained rate of
40 MPH in Atlantic Beach, all key employees (including police) relocate across the Intracoastal
Waterway. If City staff is relocating, will there be an entire evacuation of the City?How will
security be provided for our unoccupied homes and businesses in Atlantic Beach? How does the
plan provide for re-entry and recovery operations? Has the current plan been tested by "in
house" sessions such as a"table top" exercise where various scenarios are presented for city
leaders to respond to and that validate the plan?
1
CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH
CITY COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM ON EMERGENCY PLANNING
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS: Remember ... "If you fail to plan, then plan to fail" and even
the best response plan, poorly implemented, will magnify the impact of any incident
experienced.
Therefore, it is critical that any response plan be assessed, evaluated and revised to be able to
successfully address any possible emergency. Key elements to consider in assessing these
emergency plans include:
1. Communications—unreliability of wireless services, GETS phones for necessary personnel,
secondary communications such as HAM radios, satellite phones, radio broadcasts, military &
National Guard, etc.
2. Traffic Management—egress, ingress routes and public safety control points, coordination
with adjacent governmental agencies, citizen knowledge & understanding, other necessary
services, towing & recovery services, up-to-date passes for citizen reentry, etc.
3. Evacuation Action—control points for City traffic and flow patterns into neighboring
communities, security & looting prevention, PSA broadcasts, reentry assessment, etc.
4. Restoration—utility restoration and safety, debris removal, available resources, capital
constraints and disbursements, communication flow between various departments & agencies,
citizen assistance with information, complaints, access to insurance adjustors, reliance on citizen
volunteers.
CONCLUSION: A detailed, current, and well understood evacuation plan is a matter of life
and death. The City of Atlantic Beach Emergency Response Plan has yet to be evaluated and
during an actual emergency is not the time to test the plan.
BUDGET: Time and focus of city personnel to prepare and brief this plan at a workshop,time
and focus of City staff to meet with other team members to evaluate data and make
recommendations.
RECOMMENDATION: Create a team consisting of one junior and one senior member of each
department of the City of Atlantic Beach, working with one member of the current City
Commission to identify required resources necessary for evaluating the current plan. This team
will also select members of the community to assist as emergency case contributors and plan
evaluation. The team would meet monthly until resource identification is complete. The team
would then schedule quarterly table-top exercises to evaluate plan response and effectiveness,
Early table-top exercises would be smaller, localized events with the magnitude of events
building over time to include other communities and response teams. Therefore it is
recommended this effort be undertaken prior to the 2016 hurricane season or as soon as possible
thereafter.
2