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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. Tools Google Docs and eMail Google Maps and Google Earth
Spreadsheet for vol orgs and assistance requests
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

8. 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

9. Requests for Assistance

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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 !