By Philip T. Frohne, CPL (and CERT Team member)
September is “National Preparedness Month” in the United States. And what a September it’s been … First came Hurricane Dorian, and now Tropical Storm Humberto is ‘building up’ off the US East Coast. We thought we’d both 1) take some time to remind everyone of the importance of logistics in the planning for and recovering from serious natural and socio-political disasters; and 2/ provide some personal and professional information and resources that you can refer to all year long. We asked our Editor to share his FEMA CERT Team experiences.
Before every major storm, St. Louis natives stock up on bread, milk, and eggs; or risk almost certain death. While French toast just might be the secret to the city’s survival, most of us may already have enough pantry supplies on hand to survive a week, a month, and probably much longer. The trick is in knowing “how.” Proper logistics planning ensures that our acceptable level of comfort isn’t compromised. Whether it’s moving freight, planning to support a major military operation, or just waking up, logistics is part of our everyday lives. Preparing for disasters provides opportunities for us to apply our logistics expertise outside of our 9 to 5 employment to directly assist ourselves, families, friends, and neighbors. Like the Boy Scout motto, we should all be prepared.
I asked my local deputy fire chief during a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) presentation at the local Certified Emergency Response Team (CERT) meeting what the logistics director does [wife kicking me under the table]. He said “The Logistics Director is the guy who gets the pizzas.” Within his world, he was probably right. FEMA has a very capable logistics organization. Started in the 1970s, FEMA manages US natural and man-made incidents (disasters and/or emergencies) where lives and property may be adversely impacted. This includes weather related (tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, etc.), earthbound (earthquakes, rock slides, wildfires, etc.), and man-made (nuclear/radiological, automobile/transportation accidents, crowd/mob control, etc.).
The FEMA Incident Command System (ICS) for Emergency Management is a system of planning, documentation, training, managing, and coordinating disastrous situations. The ICS helps to ensure the safety of responders and others, the achievement of tactical objectives, and the efficient use of resources.
FEMA’s definition and concept of “logistics management” is:
1. The process of planning, preparing, implementing, and evaluating all logistics functions that support an operation or activity.
2. Effective logistics management ensures that all functions are executed in a unified manner to reduce costs, ensure appropriate support actions, and decrease delivery time.
FEMA identifies four phases to any emergency or disaster … :
Mitigation: The reduction, removal, or elimination of a potential hazard.
Preparedness: The contingency planning for actions to take if/when a disaster occurs.
Response: The actions taken during a disaster to save lives and reduce damage.
Recovery: Steps taken to return life or property back to before disaster conditions.
… and also four stages of response to any emergency or disaster:
Alert/Notification of a potential hazard
Warning of a pending incident/problem/disaster
Protection of citizens and property
Providing for the public welfare
FEMA supports Management by Objectives (MBO) using a simple but effective modular organizational management structure. The organizational positions, chain of command, and information flows are all based upon sound business practices and are often used as models for other organizations. FEMA insists on using common terminology and plain English to communicate. So where does logistics come in? The Logistics Section is responsible for providing facilities, services, and materials for the incident.
The overall leader in any emergency or disaster response is the Incident Commander. His/her Command Staff contains a public information officer who coordinates with the press/media and government officials on fact finding tours, a safety officer ensures that safety procedures and safe practices are observed, and identifies unsafe or hazardous conditions, and the liaison officer that coordinates responding organizations by providing lines of authority, responsibility, and communication between them.
A Director manages each Logistics Section Branch. Unit Leaders report to their Branch Director. Logistics personnel may be organized into the Service Branch (supports the responder) and the Support Branch (supports the response operation). The General Staff is where the Logistics Section resides. In addition, the Operations function manages tactical operations; the Planning/Intelligence section collects, evaluates, disseminates, and uses information about the incident and the status of resources to plan a course of action; and the Finance/Administration function manages all costs and financial considerations of the incident.
Depending on the incident, the Logistics Service Branch may consist of three (3) service units:
- Communications Unit: Develops the Communication Plan, distributes and maintains communications equipment, and manages the Incident Communications Center.
- Medical Unit: Develops the Medical Plan, and provides first aid and light medical treatment for personnel assigned to the incident.
- Food Unit: Supplies the food and potable water for all incident personnel.The Logistics Support Branch also may consist of three (3) support units:
1. Supply Unit: Orders personnel, equipment, and supplies for the Incident Management Team. The Unit stores and distributes supplies, and services nonexpendable equipment. All resource orders are placed through the Supply Unit.
2. Facilities Unit: Sets up and maintains required facilities to support the incident. Provides managers for the Incident Base and Camps and is responsible for facility security.
3. Ground Support Unit: Provides transportation and maintains and fuels vehicles assigned to the incident to support internal operations.– Materiel Management: Requisitioning, ordering, and sourcing (requirements processing); acquisition; asset visibility (resource tracking); receipt; storage and handling; security; accountability; inventory; deployment; issue and distribution; recovery; reuse; and disposition
– Property Management (Personal Property): Accountability, inventory, disposal, and record processing
– Facility Management: Facility selection and acquisition, building services, information systems, communications, fleet management, safety and health, and physical security.
– Transportation Management: Transportation prioritizing, ordering, sourcing, and acquisition; time-phasing plans; and movement coordination and tracking.The Logistics Officer establishes and manages Bases of operation where primary logistics and administrative functions are coordinated and administered. The Logistics Officer ensures that there is an overall strategic logistics plan in place for receiving and managing unsolicited goods (clothing, cleaning supplies, etc.). This position also oversees demobilization of the Logistics Section once the incident has past. The logistics plan determines how logistics efforts will be performed. Action plans address Strategic Goals, Tactical Objectives, and Support Activities needed during the entire operational period (emergency/disaster response).
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Want to learn more about/from FEMA?
FEMA’s independent study site offers FREE, complete with Continuing Education Units (CEUs), on-line courses for anyone preparing for and dealing with disasters. I’ve taken over 100 courses myself and have a nice stack of certificates suitable for wallpapering. They range from easy to almost impossible. Ask me for SOLE’s FEMA Crosswalk spreadsheet listing the latest courses and how you can obtain CEUs for your Demonstrated Logistician certificate. Logistics and H&DR go together like peanut butter & Jelly. SOLE is very much involved in all aspects of both.