VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION COORDINATION Case Study – Flooding Response Alan Stensland, CERT Member. Cobb EMA GEMS Team Lead; Member of International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM)

Cobb Flooding September 2009 500+ Year Event Hundreds of homes/thousands of residents Rapid support to community HIGH Priority ! Victims seek and deserve relief Volunteers eager to provide support CERT developed & led coordination program for volunteer organizations

Predictable Disaster State of Affairs Voluntary organizations directly support victims Don’t “know” their capabilities in advance! Predict 500 volunteer and 1000 show up! Do not waste a volunteer minute! Volunteers deserve support and advocates. Restrooms, meals, water and advice on PPE! Volunteer organizations (vol orgs) mobilized. Little coordination w/CEMA and other vol orgs Lacked status with immediate gaps and lapses

Immediate need to implement a system. How did a cohesive connection develop between stakeholders during a major disaster response? Immediate need to implement a system. Gather and classify Victims’ needs. Match available vol support to victims’ Expedite use of vol orgs Provide services to vol orgs Vol orgs leveraged social networking That’s why we never knew how many! CERT leveraged social networking capabilities.

Voluntary Organization Coordination (VOC) Model Disaster Area What does the community need? VOC Tm Define and track relationships. Volunteers GEMS People and places to assist. Safety/protection of volunteers Access to rest rooms, meals, water, etc to supplement their provisions and supplies. Assessments of the damaged areas and information on the preferred routes to the victims. Information on who, what, where requires assistance. They were happy to contact the victim to work out when and how. A dedicated CERT liaison in the field checking on the Volunteers. Process to implement & update status requests Voluntary Organizations Need Matching VOC Tm Area Assignments Need Follow-up Follow-up Supplies Donations Support Services Coordination. How do we help provide that? EOC VOC Tm What do the Vol orgs need? How can the EOC support the field ? GEMS: Geospatial Emergency Management System

Processes Volunteer availability & resources in-take Request for Assistance in-take Match Vol orgs and Resources with Victims Background: 21 Sep, CERT created paper based forms. 24 Sep, Operations were extended to the Disaster Relief Center (DRC) 24 Sept, transitioned to an electronic internet system. Fred Rawcliffe & Mike Patellis drafted the process & (operations were in the EOC). the process was underway & data via paper forms was being collected from volunteer orgs & victims needing assistance members, Alan Stensland & Sam Peng, the current process tracking and management

Tools Google Docs and eMail Google Maps and Google Earth Spreadsheet for vol orgs and assistance requests VOC.CEMA@gMail.com Google Maps and Google Earth Mapping of assistance requests and vol orgs areas Tracking of assistance requests’ status Why use these tools? Rapid implementation and accessible in multiple locations Requires no special software

Volunteer Organization In-take If no IT assets are available, use the paper form. We were able to fax to the EOC from the DRC We are looking at ways of making assignments from the field

Requests for Assistance

Mapping Closed Roads Red push pin – Phone Damage Report Red “bubble” – Open RFA Yellow “Bubble” – Pending RFA Blue “Bubble” – Matched RFA Green “Bubble” – Closed RFA Yellow House – FEMA Warehouse

Electrical Repair Specialist Mapping (continued) DRAFT Volunteer Utilization Plan for weekend of 10/2-10/4 We copied the screen into Power Point to add the text, etc Church of LDS Approx 2000 Vols Sat 10/3 and Sun 10/4 Approx 35 person crew Wed 9/30 Sat 10/3 and Sun 10/4 St Catherine's Ep. Coca Cola Crew Electrical Repair Specialist 2 ea 5 person crews Sat 10/1 We are looking for specific needs to test appliances, etc FEMA Warehouse

Lessons Learned and Next Steps Prepare for paper-based processes Social networking has impact Pre-establish infrastructure for volunteer orgs Viable mission for CERT or other volunteers DO NOT WASTE A SINGLE VOLUNTEER MINUTE !