Letter to the editor: Tired of seeing unqualified people leading emergency response programs

Posted 1/15/25

I’m tired of seeing unqualified personnel selected to lead emergency management programs across the country and I am tired of ineffective responses due to poor planning.

Nepotism is not a …

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Letter to the editor: Tired of seeing unqualified people leading emergency response programs

Posted

I’m tired of seeing unqualified personnel selected to lead emergency management programs across the country and I am tired of ineffective responses due to poor planning.

Nepotism is not a qualification for emergency planning. Local communities need to engage with their county emergency management teams to understand the process, educate themselves and ensure their needs are addressed in the event of a disaster.

A quick review of reports from previous disasters reveals a common thread of planning failures. The Maui wildfires, Hurricane Helene, the recent New Orleans terrorism and now the California wildfires are all clear examples of such failures.

In August 2023, wildfires near Lahaina, Maui, killed over 100 people and damaged or destroyed more than 2,200 structures, most of them residential. This event is recognized as the most devastating wildfire in over a century in the United States. Emergency planning shortfalls, blocked evacuation routes, downed power lines and poor communication contributed to the chaos.

The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency resigned a day later under pressure from widespread criticism, particularly for failing to activate the emergency sirens.

Appointed in 2017 after beating out 40 other applicants, the Maui director had a background in science and law but lacked formal education or experience in emergency management. A retired telecommunications planner for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, quoted in a news article, questioned the director’s lack of experience in handling disasters.

As he put it: “It’s a good ol’ boy network. This time, it cost lives.”

In 2007, I wrote my first book, “Chronicles of Katrina,” recounting my experiences during five recalls to active duty with the Coast Guard to support Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. These assignments involved various planning initiatives, including rewriting the Coast Guard Sector New Orleans continuity plan and leading the Coast Guard’s effort to assist the State of Louisiana in developing a comprehensive evacuation plan.

Fresh in our minds, the New Orleans terrorist attack on Jan. 1 has already highlighted a glaring shortfall in planning — or at the very least, in reviewing existing plans. The primary issue was the lack of bollards to prevent vehicles from entering the area. When informed that the city had bollards in storage, the police chief incredulously stated, “I didn’t know that.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles wildfires are wreaking havoc on the local population, destroying hundreds of homes and displacing thousands.



Preliminary reports indicate that a lack of water severely hindered an effective fire response, reducing the fire department’s funding by $17 million didn’t help. From a planning perspective, it appears that emergency plans were either not exercised for a “worst-case” scenario or, if such exercises were conducted, the after-action reports were simply filed away and ignored.

Emergency plans need to be developed well in advance by qualified and experienced planners and then exercised and tested to identify logistical and planning shortfalls.

Starting with simple tabletop exercises, planning personnel must then progress to more extensive full-scale exercises involving all major stakeholders, eventually working through a “worst-case” scenario as a training opportunity.

Those involved in operations need to collaborate closely with planners to provide input into the plans — and, importantly, to actually read them.

Government officials must ensure that qualified personnel are hired into emergency management departments and that sufficient funding is allocated for both salaries and logistics.

Here in Lewis County, we are fortunate that a series of county emergency management personnel, past and present, were highly experienced and well-trained when hired.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in many parts of the country. That needs to change.

 

Steven J. Craig

Centralia