Like the critical\climatic scene in the film 'Gladiator', coming together as on.
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International delegates to the
National Level Exercise are briefed in May 2018. (Rich Cooper/HSToday)
InsideHS: Creating Local Partners to Bridge
Post-Hurricane Islands
Day
5 coverage of NLE18 — don’t miss Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4 coverage of the FEMA
National Level Exercise
You could not ask for a more beautiful
spring day on the Chesapeake Bay. Gorgeous blue skies, no clouds, low
humidity and a gentle enough breeze to cool you while you took in the
pleasant scents from the bay. I’m in Perry Point, Md., a small piece of land that
is literally a peninsula situated at one of the northernmost parts of the
Chesapeake Bay.
Standing on the grounds of the Perry Point VA Medical Center, part of the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the VA Maryland Health Care System,
it is at first glance a pristine view of what “Bay Life” is all about. But as
beautiful as the weather and surrounding 400 acres are, there is a real-world
exercise underway that is anything but attractive. It’s another day in NLE18
and the assembled players are playing out another tragic scenario that no one
ever wants to see happen.
Still reeling from the
after-effects of fictional Hurricane Cora that struck the greater Washington,
D.C., area as a Category 4 hurricane (which is nearly 100 miles away), Cora
hit Perry Point and the surrounding areas of Cecil County, Md., as a Category
2 storm. In its aftermath, this area of the Chesapeake found itself with lots
of debris and power problems, but also more than its share of transportation
challenges.
Railroad lines that pass through the area are silent because
portions of rail lines have been severed by Cora’s wrath. Even many of the
surrounding roads, including Interstate 95, are clogged with debris and
emergency vehicles doing whatever they can to get roads open so recovery
operations and commerce can begin again. On top of that, the tunnels in and
out of Baltimore that could bring any number of supplies and resources into
the area remain closed as they are still flooded. And that’s just for
starters.
Today’s exercise is “two days”
after the Cora strike. A fictional severe thunderstorm fueled by the warm air
and waters of the bay has spawned a tornado that has struck the Perry Point
VA Medical Center campus. Patients and staff are trapped in several collapsed
buildings and members of the Cecil County Fire Department, the Maryland
National Guard and other regional first responders are assembling to execute
their life-saving attack on the structures.
Lights are flashing from
stationed fire trucks, radios are squawking updates and directions to
deployed units are given. Joining me as fellow observers of what is happening
are nearly two dozen fatigue-wearing military personnel from Albania,
Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Taiwan. They are all part of a
National Guard exchange program that shares emergency response practices with
one another.
DISASTER “VICTIMS” IN THE NATIONAL
LEVEL EXERCISE. (RICH COOPER/HSTODAY)
As a small group of National
Guard officers explain what is happening around us, three first responders
step out from the “collapsed” building, pulling a “victim” out on tarp
litter. As they drag the weighted mannequin across the lawn to the medical
triage tent for evaluation and treatment, the radio chatter announces that
more victims have been found.
What follows are more units of
first responders – all in different types of service uniforms, all working
together, probably for the first time, to render aid however they can.
Collectively they all work to familiarize themselves with the building
structure and layout, while trying to ascertain where other victims might be
found and what other resources they may need.
As this is happening, another
group of responders are pulling another canvas litter out of the building –
this time holding a real person, not a weighted mannequin. Trying to maintain
her composure as four men carry her out (and not smile at the
exercise-watchers as they look at her being dragged on the ground), she
raises her head high enough so she doesn’t get her head banged on the ground.
Taking all of this in alongside
the international observers is Brig. Gen. Sean Casey of the Maryland
National Guard. In describing today’s exercise, on top of the events and
aftermath that the fictional Cora strike has brought upon his home state, he
says, “This is the absolute worst scenario for us. It’s bad enough what the
storm [Cora] would do, but the storm surge that follows it would make what is
a bad situation even worse.”
Adding another emergency like the
fictional tornado strike, with supply lines already being stretched thin,
limited highways in use, flooded tunnels preventing additional resources
getting in, and battling physical exhaustion and fatigue of personnel who
have been going nonstop for days, “this is what we have to be ready for.”
Pointing to response crews that
are bringing more victims out of the building, Casey adds, “All of these
people need to meet their counterparts and be ready to do their part.” He
then described how just over 2,000 players – Maryland National Guard,
civilians, public safety, emergency management, private sector and more –
were playing in Maryland as part of the NLE18 exercise.
In speaking with him, Casey
relayed a deep sense of pride at the efforts that were being showcased in the
exercise. But coupled with that pride you also detect a sense of concern that
any leader would have for the unknown time, event and location when they will
be called upon and really tested.
VA MARYLAND HEALTH CARE SYSTEM EMERGENCY MANAGER DAWN IVANCIK (RICH
COOPER/HSTODAY)
That readiness aspect, along with
meeting people in practice, rather than actual game time was echoed by Dawn
Ivancik, the emergency manager for the VA Maryland Health Care
System. Projecting readiness as well as resolve, she is the only emergency
manager for what is a major regional healthcare facility in the state of
Maryland (and mid-Atlantic). But at no time does she ever give a sense that
she is alone in her job.
Like other emergency managers,
she knows that lives are dependent upon her, her decisions as well as the
resources and relationships she possesses. “You can’t do this job alone. I
may be the only emergency manager for this facility, but I regularly train
and exercise the staff here on what we need to do for any number of
scenarios.”
She then described doing monthly
tabletop exercises with Medical Center staff as well as regular engagements
with her Veterans Administration counterparts, the Cecil County Sheriff’s
Office, and Cecil County Fire, as well as other surrounding jurisdictions.
In identifying the tools at her
disposal, she shared, “We have dual-use vehicles here that if we need to move
people in a conventional way or in a hospital ambulatory fashion, we can do
that, and the staff here know how to do those things. Evacuating them is the
last resort and last thing we want to do, but we have to be ready to do it.”
As we discuss the exercise,
Ivancik eludes to the fact that the facility she has emergency stewardship
over is in fact a peninsula – a stretch of land that is almost entirely
surrounded by water. In taking in that geographic condition, I remark to her
that the Cora/NLE18 exercise has probably literally created a number of new
remote islands in the surrounding area as the conventional supply lines and
resources that have always been there are now cut off and inaccessible.
“Exactly!” she replied. “That’s
why doing an exercise like this with search and rescue, the National Guard,
Cecil County Fire, as well as the people here [Perry Point VA Medical Center]
are essential for us.”
Motioning toward the window as
National Guardsmen and local fire and rescue personnel continue to move
equipment and people in the exercise, she noted that her job is “to help look
after our veterans who have already given us so much.”
“I want to make sure we are ready
to give them even more when we are called upon to do so. That’s why I have to
make sure we’re ready because none of us can afford to be alone on any
island. We need to have practice and relationships.”
As she relays her response, two
of her VA colleagues chime in from the side of the room and share that the
Perry Point VA Medical Center team is indeed ready for whatever may come
their way. And they credit Dawn for what she’s done to make sure they
all know what to do when they are called upon to do “more.”
That ability to know what to do
and be ready to take on “more” at a moment’s notice is something Brig. Gen.
Casey also relayed during the exercise. As we watched the Guardsmen work with
the other exercise participants, he shared that his retirement from the
National Guard was on the horizon in a year or so.
“He doesn’t know it yet, but
tomorrow my second-in-command is going to take over for the rest of the
exercise as I’m going to be ‘hit by a bus,’ which then puts him in charge,”
Casey said.
He smiled as he said this,
knowing it would be a helluva curve ball tossed at his team. But in sharing
that detail with me, Casey relayed confidence as to how his team would react
to the sudden (and fictionally dramatic) change in his exercise “status.”
(And this is a fictional “hit by a bus” scenario. No one is going to put the
brigadier general in front of a bus to be struck; at least I hope not. It’s
just his intent to switch from being a “player” to an “observer” for the
remainder of the NLE18 exercise.)
In hearing him describe the
exercise surprise that was yet to be sprung, I asked if he thinks his second
in command knows what might be coming.
Replying with a smile, Casey
said, “I think he knows something’s coming but he doesn’t know what it is
yet.”
“But that’s the point of
exercises like this. Everyone must be ready to step up and do the next job.
That’s how you succeed in tough conditions.”
Which explains why practice and
relationships make all the difference in the world and how you can survive on
unexpected islands or when leadership and conditions unexpectedly change.
It’s about possessing confidence,
skill and collaboration, and when those three ingredients are added to any
mix things always get better. And Maryland has a lot already in its mix, and
showed today that they’re ready to go.
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