Hurricane Ike: Lessons Learned
by Vicki WolfFebruary 2009
Hurricane Ike is becoming known as the third most costly hurricane in US History. It will take years for the upper Texas Coast to recover socially, environmentally and economically. As with any disaster, there are lessons to be learned. Local, state and federal governments are assessing the impact of Hurricane Ike, looking at best practices and using recovery to make changes that can minimize the impact of the next storm. They also are seeing where they can be more effective with evacuation and response the next time.By most accounts, the evacuation process has improved since Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Much more needs to be done in coordination and communication for returning home and recovery.Sharon Petronella, PhD, did not evacuate during Hurricane Ike on September 13, 2008. When the storm surge rolled in, she moved from her home to higher ground at the Emerald by the Sea Condos. Petronella is associate professor in University of Texas Medical Branch’s (UTMB) Department of Pediatrics and an epidemiologist with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Center. With a scientist’s observation skills and as a resident who had to flee the storm, she witnessed the storm, it’s impact and the response.
She says UTMB, with the third largest hospital in the Galveston-Houston area, shifted from a “hunker down” hurricane preparedness strategy in 2000, to setting up a system to evacuate all patients when a hurricane is imminent. “There was a process in place, and it came off like clockwork,” Petronella says. “They know what hour they have to start evacuating, depending on census.”In preparations for the 2008 hurricane season, the city of Galveston implemented a new emergency notification system called the 3N System. The city emergency evacuation staff can use text messaging, cell phone and internet to notify residents with hurricane and evacuation advisories. “We went into the community contacted everyone who has an address in Galveston and ask for alternative numbers,” says Alicia Cahill, Galveston public information officer. “They can list as many as they want.”
The city had evacuation plans in place for people with special needs before Hurricane Rita. People were on buses and out of harms way when Rita hit. But when they arrived at shelters, they found all of them full. What was expected to be a two or three-hour trip, turned out to be more like five hours. “Now we have supplies, snacks and medical personnel on the busses,” Cahill says. “And we were first in the state to have contacts for shelters in Austin.”
The City of Galveston arranged blocks of rooms ahead of time for command stations at the San Luis Hotel and at Moody Gardens Hotel for personnel who needed to be stationed near the airport. This foresight in organization helped facilitate communication and coordination during the 72 hours that utilities were down and there was no communication system available.
After the storm, when people were trying to return, communication was the biggest problem. People wanted to get back in to assess damages, clean up and make repairs. When they couldn’t get back in, there were protests and rumors about why they weren’t being allowed to return. “I understand. I wanted to be back in my home to see the damages and prevent further damage,” Petronella says. “But it wasn’t safe. I had raw sewage in my home.”
After her experience, Petronella suggests organizing people who are left in the city after a storm to go door to door to provide a minimal report on damage for people who can’t get in. As a volunteer, she got a list of 50 homes from real estate agent, and reported back on them. “It seems possible to have some level of communication for people who need information about their homes,” Petronella says.
Communication continued to be a problem when residents returned. “FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) preferred the internet for communication, and with flooding, few people had it,” Petronella recalls. FEMA supplied only one computer line at the command center. People waited in long lines for hours. Petronella says she waited in line for three hours only to find the computer wasn’t working.
Petronella suggests, as a part of hurricane preparation, a plan to have everything set up for communication when people return. “Let people know where to come and set up a mobile trailer with laptops,” she says. “Or this could have been done for the public in hotels with generators.”
LaBlanc has served at Galveston city manager for 12 years. He has lived on the barrier island most of his life, and has seen many hurricanes. Before Hurricane Ike, he thought the city was financially in good shape to deal with a disaster. “The city of Galveston was better prepared financially going into hurricane season than we ever have been and better than any community,” LaBlanc says. “We had all our reserves for a rainy day as high as ever, and had met all our targeted levels for funding.” The city had even pre-negotiated a $20 million loan from all banks and received it, and it still wasn’t enough.
He has one recommendation for groups involved in hurricane preparedness: Simplify the process for getting financial help. “Our biggest problem is cash flow,” LaBlanc says. “You are expected as a city to keep operations going at a time when all forms of revenues are dropping. Then you have to pay for all improvements and repairs before you can get reimbursed from FEMA.
Now LaBlanc is faced with potentially laying off employees when they are needed most. “We did all we could to prepare for an event like this and now we are doing all we can to get through,” he says. “But it is still difficult with the state and federal government are coming through as quickly as we need them. We are down here getting desperate for help.”In Houston, Dennis Sterimsky, chief of Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security, says the management and decision making process went well for the evacuation. The city was more specific than in past hurricanes about who needed to evacuate, using zip codes instead of maps. “We didn’t say everybody should evacuate,” Sterimsky says. “Only people living in surge zones were ordered to evacuate.” He says they also did a lot of planning and work on an evacuation hub at the George R. Brown Convention Center for people with special needs.
The biggest surprise for Houston from Hurricane Ike was the damage to electric lines that caused a long power-outages across the city. No electricity meant that pumps at water treatment plants stopped pumping causing major problems with sewage. Air-conditioning in buildings stopped working, and computers had to be shut down to prevent them from burning up. Now the city is planning to have generators at some of the 400 water treatment plants. They also are contracting with air-conditioning companies to provide services in the event of another long power-outage.
To learn from Hurricane Ike and prepare for the next hurricane, FEMA has established a “living document” titled The Hurricane Ike Impact Report. They are gathering input from a wide variety of sources. According to the authors, “It is the first-ever attempt to comprehensively compile the damage assessment and impact information of federal, state and local governments for use in the long-term recovery process.”(http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=47276)
In the wake of the devastating 2008 hurricane season, the state of Texas has established “The Governor’s Commission on Disaster Recovery and Renewal,” an advisory panel of public and private sector experts that will guide the state’s long-term recovery and renewal efforts. (http://governor.state.tx.us/hurricane)
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is planning a hurricane summit to look at best practices. (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/hurricane/)
“I think everybody needs to recognize that this is not an exact science,” says LaBlanc. “We all collectively have done the very best we can for our community with an event of this magnitude.”
