A recent review of Barnstable County’s emergency response to the February blizzard revealed that the county is not ready for a major disaster. CAI’s Morning Edition host Sam Houghton spoke with CAI’s All Things Considered host Gilda Geist to learn more.
Sam Houghton Gilda, remind us what happened during the blizzard in February and how the region handled it.
Gilda Geist This was the week of February 20th. The Cape, Coast, and Islands saw hurricane force winds and a couple feet of wet, heavy snow, which led to widespread power outages across the Cape. So even though the storm was technically Monday, the effects lasted all week long for a lot of folks. We reported on Tuesday, the day after the storm, that around 150,000 customers on the Cape were without power. World Central Kitchen came in to provide hot meals, the Red Cross came in, the governor issued a travel ban. It was a mess. Now, some of that mess was because it was an emergency situation, but some of it was a mess because the county was not fully prepared.
CAI learned from sources close to the situation that emergency preparedness director Chip Reilly was fired after the blizzard, when the county reviewed his performance and identified some issues. The county declined to comment because it was a personnel matter, so we don’t know exactly what got Reilly fired, but the county has done an extremely thorough after-action review that was presented to the Board of Regional Commissioners last week, which tells us what went wrong during the storm, and what went right.
SH Before we get into what was in that review, has anyone been hired to replace Reilly?
GG Yes, his name is Andrew Platt. He had been working at the county as a hazardous materials specialist and laboratory safety officer when he was hired, which was in May. He has a decade of experience in emergency management, some of that on the Cape, some in North Carolina. And he was the person who presented that after-action review to the Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners last week.
SH Now, what were the biggest takeaways from that review?
GG Platt identified a handful of major issues that he described as “mission critical.” Most of them had to do with the county's sheltering system. So the county had opened these shelters that ran through most of the week because so many people were without power for so many days. One of the biggest problems at the shelters was the fact that medical staff was critically lacking. Here's Platt:
“What it came down to was more of the home health aide level—supporting people going to the bathroom, mobility assistance, things like that. Unfortunately, in the absence of those medical staff, it put a lot of our AmeriCorps members who we deployed to the shelters in a tough position where they ended up having to assist with a lot of those things, which they're not really trained to do.”
So, on Platt's long to-do list before next storm season is to make sure there's enough people in the county's medical reserve corps. Another thing was that there were no formal agreements in place with towns and agencies and partner organizations about shelter operations. So Platt says there needs to be contracts that lay out exactly who does what when it comes to shelter staffing, health inspections, food workers, etcetera. And he noted that the Cape's regional shelter plan hasn't been updated since 2017. So, the main reason the whole thing wasn't even worse, despite the issues that Platt identified, was that the people really showed up—county employees, volunteers, partner organizations, towns. For example, when the generator at the county shelter at Nauset Regional High School failed, the town of Yarmouth opened its own shelter at the Dennis Yarmouth Regional High School, and Platt said it was really well run. Here's Platt again:
“A lot of folks got a lot of accolades, and I think it was because of the people. The people who responded, the different agencies, the leadership of different folks in the towns and at the county—in a lot of ways, they compensated for any structural gaps or challenges that might have existed.”
Platt pointed out a lot more areas where the county could improve its emergency response, but those were less urgent than the critical issues we just discussed.
SH Now, all the climate scientists are saying our storms are going to get worse and, and we're really going to need strong emergency responses. What is the county doing to fix all these problems going forward?
GG Most of it falls on Platt. The Board of Regional Commissioners last week passed an ordinance they've been working on for a while that actually creates an official emergency management department at the county. Previously, the emergency management program headed up by Reilly had been housed under the Health and Environment Department. They're not hiring any new staff or anything, but Commission Chair Mark Forrest believes it will make a difference. Here’s Forest:
“This is a tremendous amount of work, and I think it's a reflection of the board. I mean, we've been anxious to create a better structure for this because we're going to be in the emergency management business, I think, with a greater degree of frequency than we might have thought.”
And Platt seems to share that sense of urgency, so I think people can look forward to a stronger regional emergency response going forward.
