2:30PM 5/30/10 – GEMA/HS HURREX Full-Scale Activation Hot Wash

Counties (over the phone):

 Camden  everything looked good overall; injects sparked good conversation/things to
think about
 Brantley  were able to work remotely from separate offices; 4-wheel drive pick-up
truck resource request got mixed up but was resubmitted/clarified and then it got worked
out
 McIntosh  need more people if a storm of this magnitude ever really happens; resource
requests worked out good though
 Liberty  got quick responses to resource requests??; hard to understand
 Chatham  injects were useful – some oddball injects that they got a quick response to;
difficulty sharing the board w/GEMA but fixed that after contacting Tim Head
 Effingham  pretty good exercise; communication + phone calls w/GEMA worked
good; some EOC difficulties (had to login & logout a couple times)
 Glenn  wants to highlight actual numbers of evacuation so that counties are better
prepared in the event of an actual evacuation (or influx of evacuees)
 Wayne  things went well; EOC question about seeing county status board (Tim will
contact separately); headquarters was responsive and answered any questions
In-house Evaluators:
 Candy (for ESF 15)  took a little while to get started/figure out a direction to move in;
access to Web EOC limited
 Glenn (from Spalding)  recommends a balance of people in each ESF so it’s not as
crowded/thin in each room
 Katie (ESF 6&8)  good communication w/in and b/w ESFs; one difficulty of losing
leadership but someone stepped up which was helpful + needed; Web EOC difficulties
 Robbie  NIMS is here to stay – it works and is used; Web EOC is useful but shouldn’t
take away from person to person communication (good for record keeping but shouldn’t
replace direct communication); recommends an exercise for deputy directors and local
level only so that they can see what it’s like
Command + General Staff Group:
 Jeff (Ed’s Shadow)  Technology great + useful; this team is the best – seen
tremendous growth in the last 13 yrs; heard mention of dam break in Appling County –
REP requires good evacuation procedures (parishes w/nuclear power plants are known to
have better evacuation procedures); recommends testing individual counties (slices of the
pie) so that we are all evaluated to the next level
 Lamar M.  new capabilities of phone conferencing in the room w/activated counties
show the advancements of tech; ESF rooms were full which shows that everyone is
serious about the importance of an activation (mock or not) – would like to see that
 continue; bandwidth was okay, there were other network issues at play that went into
Web EOC problems
 Greg C.  exercises like this are valuable w/oncoming of hurricane season; can always
make things better, but it really does get better every year; stressed communication –
tech/rooms may make it easier – but nothing beats face to face to make sure that
information is communicated/understood across the board (it could only take one piece of
info/one person that keeps the whole thing from running as smooth as it could be)
 Terri (Finance)  Point of Contact not always correct or in need of secondary contact;
stressed need of declaration letter to cut down investigation on their part – otherwise
asked for patience since this is a process
 Woody (Planning)  lot of new people – tremendous amount of turnover – but
everything worked well; grateful for the exercise section and their time spent preparing
this; incorporating new module for EOC + new directive from governor
 David  highlighted crosstalk + direct communication + stepping out of comfort zone +
asking questions if new (you know your resources and when you’ll be depleted – pace
yourself)
 Lisa (PIO)  a little behind the curve initially w/new faces but were able to catch up;
Channel 2 was a positive aspect in public outreach/awareness (final story of 4PM leading
into 5PM); different counties/people playing at different levels made for some disconnect
in communication but ESFs were quick to respond which was good
ESF Leads
 ESF 1  intentionally pulled leads back – lot of new people so everyone needs to be
trained to do the same jobs (this was good as far as hands-on activation for those
previously unfamiliar)
 ESF 2  good exercise/great staff
 ESF 4  large requests + multiple responding agencies make it difficult to know who’s
managing/watching each request all the way through; Web EOC ate up bandwidth so
suggests maybe more hardlines in each room to help w/lag time
 ESF 8  Recommends working on streamlining resource requests – better
communication; recommends using headsets to answer calls and better multi-task
 ESF 11  team was fully engaged; Web EOC glitches but human shelter/power outage
boards had a lot of really good info (difficult to find human shelter board – but more of a
local issue); morning briefing was good for new staff but initially hard to jump in + train
to full extent during activation; recommends taking another look at mass feeding side –
doesn’t feel they are fully prepared for a big influx (at least in her jurisdiction); dam
inject was tough but good – need to be better about locating ag facilities w/in dam areas;
appreciated cyber folks checking-in; recommends a better look at what happens post-
recovery, or after H hour (especially for newer staff)
 ESF 13  good job – let’s go home