ITS Emergency Management Are You Prepared? Philip R. Mann, P.E. City of Gainesville, Florida Public Works Department

ITS Operations  You have a Traffic Management System, but are you prepared to do Emergency Management?  With today’s amazing ITS features, Traffic Management Systems can help your agency meet it’s preparedness goals;  The TMS can be utilized as an effective tool in many different aspects of emergency management.

National Preparedness Goal Elements from FEMA include:  Guidance for planning, organization, equipment, training & exercises;  Planning for interagency operations;  Resource guidance aimed at mutual aid guidance for nationwide interoperability;  Guidance to support planning for businesses, communities & families; and  Comprehensive approach to assess national preparedness.

All Hazards Approach  ITS applications are typically thought of for the safe and efficient movement of traffic;  A fully developed ATMS has many features that are capable of supporting response to multiple types of hazards;  ITS applications can also be utilized for Homeland Security;

Where to Begin?  Preparedness begins at the individual employee level.  It includes required National Incident Management System Training.  Per FEMA standards, TMS staff must have basic NIMS training. “ During an emergency, you will not rise to the occasion but default to your level of training ”

Preparedness Planning  Must develop Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans to ensure your continued operations:  Do you have redundancy in critical support structure such as your servers?  Is your communication structure built in redundant rings?  Do you have alternative power for a power outage? Backup for field hardware?

Preparedness Planning  Must develop operational plans to implement in anticipation of an event such as a Hurricane or, in our case, University of Florida Football Games;  City of Gainesville has adopted Traffic Management into our CEMP and COOP plans;  The TMC also serves as the City’s Operations Center during an emergency.

Working Relationships  Through our multi-agency / multi disciplinary partnership & interactions, we have developed strong working relationships with:  Law Enforcement (local & state);  Fire – Rescue (City & County);  Emergency Management (County);  County Public Works;  Florida Department of Transportation, and,  University of Florida officials.

Inter-agency Cooperation

Emergency Exercises  The City assists with the development of county wide exercise programs;  We plan & exercise with our local police, fire and emergency management officials on a routine basis;  UF conducts an annual exercise at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium with full deployment of Unified Command.

Preparedness Planning  Our Traffic Management Center was built to withstand a Category 5 Hurricane.

Real Time Events  TMC Operations are utilized in Unified Command for a minimum of 7 actual events a year where: University of Florida Gator Home football games.  Unified command is established and an Incident Action Plan (IAP) is developed for each game and for Gator Growl.  The working relationships established through the training exercises are invaluable in these events.

ITS Real Time Events  Dove Outreach International Burn a Qur’an Day (9/11/10);  Dove Outreach Church Qur'an Burning (9/11/11);  Tropical Storm Debby (2012);  First Lady Michele Obama Visit (2012)

Other Real Time Events The traffic crash on I-75 on January 29 th, 2012 tested most of the capabilities of both the TMS and staff.

After Action Report  It is important to prepare an After Action Report (AAR) after each event.  The AAR allows us to:  Evaluate what we did well;  Identify where we need improvement;  Identify gaps in our response capabilities;  Target where additional training is needed;

Summary  Traffic Management Systems can be a vital tool for emergency management;  Establish relationships with the other first responders in your community. Those relationships become critical in real time;  The more uses you can demonstrate for your TMS, the more funding opportunities open up and the more support you can get for upgrades and expansion.

Questions?