averill woods neighborhood association resident questions - 12-13-2013 meeting

8/13/2019 Averill Woods Neighborhood Association Resident Questions - 12-13-2013 Meeting

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To: Lansing City Council

From: Averill Woods Neighborhood Association

Re: December 2013 Ice Storm ~ Questions and Comments

Date: Monday, December 30, 2013

We recognize that there ways in which our response to this storm could have been better on many levels. Tmore that we could have done as a neighborhood as well as a community.

We are willing partners in improving our collective response to future disasters.

However, we have many questions and concerns that relate to the response of our city, the emergency respteam, and Board of Water and light in this storm.

Attached are single pages of questions for each of our municipal /community partners as we reflect on thiweek.

Our questions center around the following key areas:

(A) Emergency Plan (Questions for City Emergency Management)(B) Emergency Declaration and Emergency Response (Questions for City Administration)(C) Emergency Communications (Questions for Both)(D) Lansing Board of Water & Light Communications and Capacity (Questions for BWL)


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Averill Woods Neighborhood Association Resident Questions regarding December 2013 Ice Storm

A. EMERGENCY PLAN Questions for Emergency Management

Concerns Questions Expected Action by CityENACTINGEMERGENCY PLAN

There did not seem to be any reference to anemergency plan being enacted, referenced, orguiding our actions as a city or as individuals

1. How was our city-wide emergency plan followed in this crisis?2. Where can we get a copy of it?

We expect a plan to be dissawareness before the next

COMMUNICATIONBARRIERS

Residents may have limited communicationswithout power, cable, internet, or smart

phones; Comcast phones, magic jack, and otherInternet (VOIP) phones may not have service.

3. How are communication barriers addressed in our emergency responseknowing that some people may have no access to television, internet, and

phone services?4. If internet phones are down can 911 still be contacted via the landline?

We expect emergency commade through multiple met

affected out outages.

Immediately after the outage people had noidea where to get informationor assistancegiven the communication barriers.

5. Can information be posted on the front doors of schools or our pollingplaces during a crisis for those who may have no communication devices?

We expect a presence in thsoon as possible after a cris

6. Can we have a designated hotline to call in an emergency and publicizethe number prior to anticipated events and during storm seasons?

We expect to have a designpublicized central source focan count on. Lets know wcrisis if we don't have comm

7. Could schools/churches be identified BEFORE as crisis centers, andopened within 2 days of any major event?

TRANSPORTATIONBARRIERS

People may not be able to access transportation(distance to public transportation, down treesor wires or vehicles, vehicles in garages thatcannot open) and may need reach services byfoot.

8. How are transportation barriers addressed in our city emergencyresponse knowing that some people may have to rely on foot transportationfor services?

We expect these transportconsidered when developinresponse plans to provide rclose proximity to residentsabout resources that are clo

DISABLEDRESIDENTS We were aware of people who were not able toself-transport, who could not find shelter that

would meet their disability needs, and who werehospitalized due to complications resultingfrom that their medical devices not beingpowered.

9. Does the city have a plan to identify medically vulnerable residents (1)who may not be able to self-transport or self-evacuate, (2) who may rely onelectricity for critical medical devices, and (3) who may be exceptionally

vulnerable to lack of utilities?

We expect the city to have awareness of medically vulnprovide appropriate respon

INTERAGENCYCOOPERATION

According to scanner feed, LPD did not seemto have easy access to data on where theoutages were located to be able to target areasfor patrols.

10. Does the City of Lansing and BWL (and Consumers) have a protocolfor communicating information like this in a disaster or power outage?

We expect the city to have utility outage information fand Public service

ROLES ANDRESPONSIBILITIES

There did not seem to be a key point of contactfor information and updates.

11. In an emergency situation who is in charge? What are the roles of theEmergency Operation Center (EOC) and the Community EmergencyResponse Team (CERT) and how do we contact them?

12. In a crisis, do governmental agencies act in and out of their jurisdiction?

We expect to have a centraresponse and know from wreceiving information and i

roles clearly designated and


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B. STATE OF EMERGENCY DESIGNATION AND RESPONSE Questions for Lansing City Administration

This was communicated as the worst storm in 120 years. Why was this not declared an emergency? What are the criteria that tip a difficult situation into a declared

REASONS GIVEN QUESTIONS"IT DOESN'T GET US

WHAT WE NEED"The mayor indicated that an emergency declaration would notprovide us with what we need which is people who could helprestore power.

1. Did the administration consider the need for assistance in addressing the co(crime patrols, door to door welfare checks, tree removal, etc.) in determininthis was an emergency?

2.

Was it not declared because (a) no one in leadership believes the situation is it (b) that we could certainly use the help but we won't get it if we ask so why"WE WOULDN'T GET

ANY HELP ANYWAY"The mayor indicated that it would be great to have some help,but that declaring an emergency would not give us additionalhelp.

3. What are the criteria for declaring an emergency to receive funding and servistate?

4. Is it a monetary threshold of city expenditures only?5. Is it number or percentage of people adversely affected?6. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the threshold for the emergency declarat7. What does it take to activate the National Guard?8. Are there any upsides or downsides to declaring an emergency even if you do

to result in additional help?"WE DONT NEEDHELP"

The mayor indicated that our city services were not overwhelmedenough to need additional support from the state.

9. Were our public safety and public services employees able to fulfill all the duthe emergency plan in addition to their regular duties?

--POLICE PATROLS Residents did not feel safe to leave home for fear of crime and

the need to monitor the home for burst pipes, floodingbasements, and failed generators. There were no indications thatLDP was doing any preventative patrols in neighborhoods withoutages.

10.Over the past week how many hours did LPD spend doing preventative patrneighborhoods without power given that many nights, especially given that thalready at or near call saturation?

11.Could we have used help to make sure this was done earlier and more freque

--WELFARE CHECKS There were no announcements that the city was doing anywelfare checks until 8 days into the storm.

12.Over the past week how many hours were spent in welfare checks in Lansingthey begin?

13.Could we have used help in making sure these were done earlier in the week extensively?

-- DAMAGE EXTENT How many properties have suffered damage to the homes orvehicles due to downed trees, burst pipes, flooding, etc.?

14.How many properties have suffered damage to the homes or vehicles due toburst pipes, flooding, etc.?

15.Does the extent of personal property damage factor into the emergency desig16.If city trees fall on vehicles or homes, is the city liable for damages? If so, ho

file claims?17.Where can residents seek financial aid for the costs of being displaced (food,


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C. CITY COMMUNICATIONS Questions for Lansing City Administration and Emergency Management

Concerns Questions Expected Action by CityOVERALL Communication from the City of Lansing was

infrequent, piecemeal, and sometimesconfusing1.

1. What methods were used to communicate updates toresidents and how often?

2. Were the communication methods considered adequate?We expect a review of how communicand how to improve for future crises

PIECEMEAL There was no central source of information. 3. Who was responsible for communicating updates andinformation to residents?

We expect emergency communicationsfrequent.

INFREQUENT There were few updates for Lansing residents. 4.

Why were there so few updates? We expect at least 1 update per day if nNIXLE NOTUSED

Nixle appeared to be used only once in relationto the storm

5. Why was Nixle not used daily to inform residents ofresources and updates? Nixle is made for this!

We expect Nixle to be used to update city's response to the emergency, instru

CODE ALERTNOT USED

Reverse 911 was only used once at 8 days afterthe storm despite requests to use it immediately.

6. Why was reverse 911 not used immediately to informaffected residents of warming shelters and other resourcesnear them? We requested itsuse soon after the storm.

Because reverse 911 can be targeted toexpect it to be used to contact people iinformation about the shelter/resource

RADIO NOTUSED

Very little information went out over the radio. 7. Why werent there frequent updates on radio stations?8. Could we have a 24 hour information station in a crisis?9. Can we have a campaign to ensure everyone has a transistor

radio, perhaps sold at a discount & distributed along withanother public event?

We expect the city leaders and emergenupdates and information about servicelocal major radio outlets in the area anddisaster preparedness plans.

NEWSPAPERWAS LIMITED

Very little information went out in the localnewspaper.

10.Can we request a focused section in the newspaperdedicated to updates & information.

We expect the city to consider providininformation to local newspaper outlets

WEBSITE ISLIMITED

Very little information appeared on the City ofLansing website.

11.Why was our website not updated with critical informationlike the East Lansing website?12.Is this because we outsource our website?

We expect our city website to serve as residents can find current and critical in

NO FACEBOOKFOR CITY

Major sources of information were Facebookupdates from Lansing City Council PresidentCarol Wood and East Lansing Mayor Nathan

Triplett and later Lansing Fire Dept.

13.Why did the Lansing city not provide ongoing updates viaFacebook similar to the City of East Lansing?

14.Why was the Lansing Fire Department Facebook pageinformation not promoted and disseminated widely?

We expect our city to utilize all forms ocommunication, including social mediainformed.

NO ACTIONUPDATES

East Lansing residents received frequent updatesabout how their city departments wereresponding to the crisis very early on with

welfare checks and police patrols.

15.Why did we not provide Lansing residents with continuingupdates of what our city employees were doing in responseto the storm?

We expect to be updated with ongoingand provided assurances our city is actithe needs of those who live and work i

1At one point residents were told to turn on their porch light to indicate they had power. Some people interpreted this to mean they should go home to a cold home to be there to make sure BWL knew that they did

Lansing communications were more clear in saying that this was not a power check but rather a welfare check and had no connection to BWL so people should stay where it was warm and not return to a cold house.and potentially deadly if people returned to a cold home just to try to get the message that their power was not on.


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D.COMMUNICATIONS AND CAPACITY Question for Lansing Board of Water & Light

PROBLEMS OBSERVED- These are service improvements that residents would like to see implemented to remedy existing problems:

1. Updates-- There is no way to get updates about power outages without going through all the steps of actually reporting an outage. There needs to be a way to go directly to oua particular address. We noticed this during the last small storm

2. WebsiteTheir website still has no information about the power restoration, updates, statistics, or projections.3. Notification-- There is no way to know when your power is restored. Many people left the neighborhood or left town and had no way to know when it was okay to return ho

have a service that calls when power has been restored, similar to other utility companies.4. Reporting outages-- Phone service was overloaded when people tried to report outages even as of 12/29/2013.5. Map-- There is no map of outage areas available. Although Mr. Lark stated that outage maps do no good but tell you that you are out of powerwe believe the outage maps w

functions:

a. It tells residents where they can likely go to find power ON where there are restaurants or pharmacies open, especially if they have to walk because the tree has fallen onin a garage that can't be opened without power

b. It tells our police department where to prioritize their patrols around dark neighborhoodsc. It could tell community organizations where power is out to do welfare checks and prioritize shelter locations close to the affected areas.d. It informs customers where the priorities are and where they are in the queue and what areas are being worked on now and next.e. It can be used to show where outages have been recently repaired.f. Is assures customers BWL has a handle on things and has accurate outage data.g.

We would expect BWL to have anoutage map[See next page] similar to that developed by our own Lansing basedIDV solutionsthat provides excellent data for outageinformation for communities like Brampton Ontario who recently suffered the same storm.

QUESTIONS

1. Why have they not created an outage map or have a seemingly accurate accounting of outages?a. Does BWL have any way to know where outages have occurred outside of someone self-reporting it or a spotter recording it?b. Do they not have addresses of circuits that are out?c. If so, why are they not manually input addresses of outages into their existing mapping software?d. Do they not have the staff capacity or funds to do so?e. Do they not have any way to map outages without having a smart grid?

2. Did BWL share outage location information with the City of Lansing?
http://maps.brampton.ca/icestorm/default.aspxhttp://maps.brampton.ca/icestorm/default.aspxhttp://maps.brampton.ca/icestorm/default.aspxhttp://www.idvsolutions.com/http://www.idvsolutions.com/http://www.idvsolutions.com/http://www.idvsolutions.com/http://maps.brampton.ca/icestorm/default.aspx


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An Example of a Super Cool Outage Map made by Lansings own IDV solutions!

averill woods neighborhood association resident questions - 12-13-2013 meeting

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