building an emergency communications hub network

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Jessica Coleman W7EMF Communications Academy 2013
Building an Emergency Communications Hub Network

Whats ahead:
Why do we prepare and what should we be preparing for?How the hubs fit into emergency response.What the hubs do and dont.How different Seattle communities started their hub adventures.Questions are welcome any time!

Why prepare?
For youFor your familyFor your neighborsFor your neighborhood

What are we preparing for?
Image from A is for Armageddon: A Catalogue of Disasters That May Culminate in the End of the World by Richard Horne

What are we preparing for?
EARTHQUAKE
TSUNAMI
WILDFIRE
THE NAUGHTY CHILDREN
VOLCANO

Whats a disaster?
Everyday emergency v. large-scale disasterPeople are resourceful and WILL pull together to survive.This has been seen time and time again after major disasters.

During a disaster OPTIONS MATTER!

The hub concept
We see people coming together everyday in smaller communitiesTornado alley, the flood plains, hurricane season in Texas and Florida, India blackoutsWhat is usual in small communities is often completely unheard of in large urban areas
Why dont we make it the norm to build the same kind of community in urban areas?

How it started in Seattle
A long time ago, in a neighborhood not so very far away

West Seattles recipe for disaster:

Likelihood of a catastrophic event in the region+ Geologic base+ Geographic location between the edge of the Seattle fault and the Duwamish Valley

(shake until thoroughly separated)

= The perfect opportunity to be completely isolated from the rest of the city!

But what could they do about it?
Meet some neighborsLearn some skillsConnect with local businessesThe Seattle hubs were born!

Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Prepareis the City of Seattles program to assist residents in their efforts to Get Ready, Get Connected, and Get Strong for any potential emergency.
Learn more: http://www.seattle.gov/emergency/programs/snap/

The Hub Mission:
Prior to a disaster, the hub's responsibility is to aid the City of Seattle in encouraging citizens to be individually and collectively prepared for any disaster.By prior planning, preparation, and practice, volunteer citizens will have the capability to activate, as soon as possible after a disaster, a network of pre-located neighborhood emergency communications hub sites.

During a disaster, the hub sites will:1 - Collect information on local situations, needs, and resources.2 - Relay information between hub sites, and to and from the City of Seattle's Emergency Operations Center (EOC).3 - Assist in allocation of resources provided by neighborhood residents to needs of neighborhood residents.

The Hub Mission:
The hub mission is accomplished SOLELY through community volunteers.

Many hubs have been able to grow because of grants from the city, but the hubs were not created by the city.The city recognizes the importance of this level of preparedness and works with the hubs, but does not control how they look or are run.Hubs are built by community members and mentored by other hubs.

How do hubs fit into emergency response?

Seattle hubs

What the Seattle hubs do

A hub is
a SAFE community gathering site that activates in the event a major disaster occurs that makes it impossible to share information in conventional ways.a place for people to meet and exchange needs, resources, and information with your neighbors and the city, and help the community respond quickly and effectively.an organic grassroots concept that includes all community members regardless of skill level.

How the hub functions:
Nothing at the designated site until activation.Volunteers bring supplies and set up shop under an agreement with the site owner. *** SOLELY RUN THROUGH VOLUNTEER EFFORTS***Gather information and convey it in an organized way.The focus is community information sharing, and helping each other help themselves, instead of waiting for other first responders.

How to plan for disaster
Untrained emergent volunteersToo many resources in the wrong placesIts a disaster!
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/09/168946170/thanks-but-no-thanks-when-post-disaster-donations-overwhelm

Emergent volunteers
Get the right people to the right placesA key hub focus is training the reliable hub participants to deal with this pool of workers which have constantly shown up in other recent disaster situationsEVERYONE has a resource to offer! How do we tap into that?Have a base of trained volunteers that can deal with training more volunteers

Resource allocation
Get the right resources to the right needsNeed/Resource ManagersThe communication boards are focused on getting needs and resources connectedA message manager can oversee a good amount of information so that a maximum amount of needs and resources are alignedIntegrate low-tech (note cards and push pins) with hi-tech (Amazon Wish Lists and facebook groups)Information sharing!
Hunters Farm, Wedgewood neighborhood, May 2012

Information sharing
Message boardsLocal announcementstweets and facebook announcements if services availableRadio voice traffic ham and GMRSRadio digital traffic fldigi
Hunters Farm, Wedgewood neighborhood, May 2012
Volunteer Park, Capitol Hill neighborhood, October 2011

EOC
Local Hub site
Net Control
Seattle ACS activation, May 2011 drill
Wedgwood, May 2011 drill

What the hubs dont

A hub is NOT
a government agency or sponsored by the city.an emergency shelter site.a fire/medic station.somewhere to expect to find food or supplies.based on any Incident Command System (usually).

What does a hub look like?
Different neighborhoods have different ideas and different needs.The success of the Seattle hub program has been largely due to the flexibility of the communities, and the assessment of what their neighborhood wants to do, combined with the support of the city.A neighborhood can have 1 hub or 10 hubs. And each hub can be a person on the sidewalk with a laptop and a radio, or a Boy Scout troop with a bunch of tents.

Wherever people gather to exchange information is a hub.

West Seattle cont.
11 designated sitesMix of parks, community centers, churches, and parking lotsBuilt business partnerships by asking for emergency pledgesDeveloped the current relationship that exists between the hubs and the Office of Emergency Management

MIQA cont.
8 designated sitesActively involved with the Boy ScoutsExperience for youth to prepare, organize events, and teach classes while earning badges

Wallingford/North Central cont.
7 designated sitesStrength in partnership with Sustainable WallingfordA regular presence at neighborhood meetings and events like Seattle Tilth, local farmers markets, and visits at the senior center (not just preparedness!) keep the neighborhood engaged

Broadview cont.
2 designated sitesOrganized with faith-based groupsActive in door-to-door recruitment to organize the neighborhood

Northeast cont.
2 established sites with more in progressStrong focus on ICS and existing organized systemsPartnered with other community preparedness groupsStrong VIP visibility to promote hub message and build momentum in neighborhood participation

Capitol Hill cont.
3 designated sitesHubs funded through Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Small and Simple GrantStrong amateur radio presence has given the hubs more flexibility and rangeTransitory locals, so focusing on how to use emergent volunteers

Hubs around the world

Where have hubs activated?
NYC post-SandyOccupy SandyAn established group that is focused on building community self-relianceUsed non-conventional means to get resources and needs alignedAmazon Wish Lists and other local business registriesHeavily supported by social media

ChristchurchFaith-based groups organized resourcesChurch buildings were available and became natural gathering placesPeople who werent able to volunteer with Civil Defense found there own ways to organize Students who didnt have skills used what they knew to develop new relationships and skip the bureaucracy
At registration time each morning, volunteers would scan their student ID or drivers license, rather than signing in with pen and paper. We dispatched and relocated them via text message through mobile management software (www.geoop.com) as the operation grew. The tools in our pockets cell phones,Google maps, Facebook, Twitter and everything in between were the key to our success.

Christchurch continuedCommunity partnershipsExisting networksBut overwhelmingly, new ties were madeMore than ever, current technology and social media provided the tools to organize and create new communities
Community Resilience: case studies from the Canterbury earthquakes, from the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management

So what would it look like in your neighborhood?
Who lives in your neighborhood?What groups and organizations are you involved with and do they have a preparedness plan?Faith basedInterest basedKids in schoolWhat skills and expertise will you offer to the groups, and how will you engage them?

How do I start my own hub?
Meet your neighbors and organize!Find a natural gathering place in your neighborhood.Train, train, train!

Final thoughts
We are in an age of excess informationPeople are more knowledgeable about events and effects, and can learn skills on their ownMore and more people are following the DIY philosophyCitys and States understand that they cant take care of everyone and that communitys need to be self-reliantThe hub program is just another tool, it doesnt replace formal training or established organizations

Additional Information - Websites
Neighborhood hub websites/blogsCapitol Hill Prepares http://caphillprepares.wordpress.com/Jessica Coleman [email protected] Community Council - http://epc-mqadc.com/Broadview Prepares - http://broadviewprepares.org/CH16EB700 - http://www.ch16eb700.org/Wedgwood/Maple Leaf - http://sustainableneseattle.ning.com/group/emergencyprepareWest Seattle Be Prepared - http://westseattlebeprepared.org

City of Seattle Office of Emergency Managementhttp://www.seattle.gov/emergency/prepare/neighborhood

Sandy recoveryhttp://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/02/1154537/-AMAZING-Occupy-Wall-Street-Leading-Massive-Volunteer-Powered-Recovery-Efforts-in-New-Yorkhttps://lowereastside.recovers.org/

Additional Information - Videos
Hub Training workshop 5 roles presented in a training format, each class runs from 20 to 30 minutes created by the Wallingford hub participants, 2012http://vimeo.com/readyseattle

Alexander Beaumont 2012 Red Cross award for his work in the Queen Anne Hubs (3 minutes)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDTzHYHNb5M&feature=youtu.be

Winds of Winter Drill, October 2011 ACS activation at the Seattle EOC (4 minutes)http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=Z3MVrkjl0FEWest Seattle Be Prepared - Hubs and social networking, KING5 Feb 27, 2011 (3 minutes)http://www.king5.com/news/quake/Nisqually-QuakeSocial-Networking-117012478.htmlSNAP and CHiP on Seattle TV City Stream, 2010 (starts at 9:40. 5:30 min)http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=3071012

Hello! My name is Jessica Coleman, W7EMF. I am a member of the Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service and organize and give preparedness classes for my local group Capitol Hill Prepares. I have been an amateur radio operator for about two years and was drawn to it mostly for the purpose of emergency communication.

Today I am here to share what the City of Seattle has done to build resiliency and self-reliance at a neighborhood and community level, and talk about how this same idea has been used in the aftermath of large scale disasters.
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Whats ahead?A quick overview of why we prepare and what were preparing for, which Im guessing all of you already know.Then Ill talk about how hubs fit into emergency response plans, what the hubs are designed to do, what they definitely DONT do. Ill give a little history on how some of Seattles neighborhoods have gotten organized, and finally talk some about some of the other citys around the country that are independently giving these same ideas a try.

I tend to get talking and not stop, so please feel free to interrupt any time with questions.
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So first of all - why is everyone here? What made you decide to pick this class?

Preparedness starts with you!But who else do you care about and Basically we all want to be ready for anything, and we know preparedness starts at home.Who else do you want to keep safe?

Many people entered ham radio for the public service aspects, and this is a great way to put those skills to use.
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What are we preparing for?If youre ready for one emergency, you probably can apply everything you know about how to respond in that case to any situation. To me this is a fun thing to think about if X happened, how would my preparedness plan play out?
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If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you know there are some big things to prepare for, and that makes it easier to get organized and get ready.The City of Seattle put together a list - SHIVA (Seattle Hazard and Vulnerability Analysis) list from the Seattle Disaster Readiness and Response Plan. Risk scores were assigned based on the expected potential impacts that each would have on disrupting services and causing damage and casualties.EarthquakeSnow and ice stormWindstormTerrorismTransportation incidentPower outageFireInfrastructure failureFloodingDisease outbreakWater shortageExcessive heat eventCivil disorderLandslideTsunami and seicheActive shooterHazMat incidentVolcano
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To really understand how the hub concept came about, we have to think about what a disaster is.

A disaster can be personal, like a house fire, or citywide, like a major snow storm that might shut down a city (like Seattle) for weeks. Or it can be a regional event like we saw with the eruption of Mt. St. Helens or floods and hurricanes that occur regularly in other parts of the country and world.

No matter what the disaster is, people tend to pull together to get through. But if you have some kind of plan to deal with it, you will be able to get through it easier.
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So being ready for a disaster and realistic about the response we will receive from government agencies, is why the hub concept was developed here in the first place.

Is there anyone who HASNT seen the preparedness pyramid before?

The biggest thing to remember is that if you cant take care of yourself, you cant take care of others, so that should always be the priority.

You all probably have that taken care of, so what next? Your community and organized community response, because after a disaster, every option matters.
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What is usual in one place is completely unheard of in urban areasWhat do we hear about and why?Tornado alley, hurricanes, Texas, flood plains

Psychological strength

India blackouts most people didnt notice

Sandy hubs Occupy SandyIndividual human resiliency

Why shouldnt this be the norm everywhere?
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In Seattle, the original hub concept started right here in West Seattle.
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Ill talk more about different neighborhood stories later, but basically it started with some friends about 6 years ago who realized if a large earthquake hit the Pacific NW, West Seattle would be completely isolated. The viaduct will probably collapse, and West Seattle could become an island.
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Is everyone familiar with the SNAP program?The citys program to help people prepare personally and get their neighbors organized and prepared.Classes and training events offered throughout the year. (See the website for more details)The hubs grew out of the SNAP program.

Consider hubs as the next step above personal and family preparedness.
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Established safe space for the community to share information.Communicating with your own community cultural and languageCommunity Centers, Resource Sharing Centers, Churches
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The hub missionVolunteers, like you and I, are doing this. This is not sponsored by the city, although they do support the effort.And have a grant program through the Dept. of Neighborhoods that many groups have been funded through.
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Its going to get bad and its going to get real.So how does a hub fit into emergency response?The hubs fit into the preparedness pyramid like this.
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What you all wanted to know!What is a hub?The basic hub concept is this(from slide)

Why is this important? Outside aid will not realistically be provided for 7-10 days. They have limited resources and will be overwhelmed.The first priority of first responders like SPD and SFD is the windshield survey.

As a community we need to be able to help ourselves. The hubs help take information and organize it. Connect local needs to local resources (example). They can also be a link from the city to the neighborhoods, and from the neighborhood to the city.
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Typically nothing is at the hub site until activation.VOLUNTEERS bring supplies and set up shop under agreements and MOAs with the site owner. For example, many hubs here have signed MOAs with the Parks Department to operate, and in some cases, store equipment on Parks property. They are aware of what we do and support the mission.What a hub really does. SHARES information! Connecting needs with resources, while not maintaining those resources on site necessarily.It does this by making sure all members of the community are represented and get the RIGHT information. This could be through multi-lingual handouts, or organizing hubs at under-represented population centers.Helps the community help themselves to organize and share resources.
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A diagram of our envisioned flow at the hub.

Citizens come to the hub where they will meet a greeter. The greeter will get information from them and decide where they need to be routed. Do they have a need? A resource? A skill? Are they an emergent volunteer that needs to be put to work? Are they reporting information that needs to be relayed to the city?
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When enough volunteers arrive to staff the hub, then they can start gathering and processing information in an organized way.From past disasters, the biggest thing we need to manage is emergent volunteers. A key part of the hub concept is planning ahead on how to utilize these emergent volunteers.
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A consistent theme in disaster relief is overwhelming donations.Although we dont expect to see this kind of response at a local level, it is still something we want to prepare for. Identifying ahead of time how to manage too many/not enough resources in the right place/wrong time is a major contingency to consider.
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AS seen in the hub flow, there are a lot of options for information sharing and we havent even begun to explore all the possibilities.
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Most information will be addressed within the hub and the neighborhood, but situational reports and large scale emergencies will be filtered up to the city (top of the pyramid) by members of the Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS). ***This radio portion is a minor role compared to the higher level mission of the hubs to collect and share information and resources.
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Youve seen what a hub can do, but there are key points to remember about what a hub is NOT.This is almost more important than what a hub is set up to do.We cannot emphasize enough that a hub site is for information sharing and communication.Hopefully we will be able to point people to things like first aid and water and shelter, but they should not expect to find it at the hub site.
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West Seattle

Strengths - Relentless! Recognize diversity in their community got translations of all their preparedness training material done in 13(?) languages!Flexible!Educated about the major potential problems that they will face if we have a big earthquake isolation

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West Seattle

Strengths - Relentless! Recognize diversity in their community got translations of all their preparedness training material done in 13(?) languages!Flexible!Educated about the major potential problems that they will face if we have a big earthquake isolation

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Magnolia, Queen Anne, Interbay

Knowing your community and how to talk to them and engage them.Give the people something that is mutually beneficial.
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Magnolia, Queen Anne, InterbayHistory:

Strengths Leveraging community skillsPassionate leaders with different ideasOngoing engagement and training

Knowing your community and how to talk to them and engage them
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WallingfordHistory:

Strengths Leveraging community skills and organizationsPassionate leaders with different ideasOngoing engagement and training

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WallingfordHistory:

Strengths Leveraging community skillsPassionate leaders with different ideasOngoing engagement and training

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NortheastHistory:

Organized and ICS trainedFocus on Community Council and utilizing existing community networksAdvertising and PR
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NortheastHistory:

Organized and ICS trainedFocus on Community Council and utilizing existing community networksAdvertising and PR
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Cap HillHistory:

Strengths FlexibilityRecognizing demographicsPlanning for emergent volunteersCreating training materials and general outreach
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Cap HillHistory:

Strengths FlexibilityRecognizing demographicsPlanning for emergent volunteersCreating training materials and general outreach
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Occupy Sandy is my favorite example:*Occupy is already an established group that focuses on community and self-reliance*They have to be prepared and they have to help each other, this is a natural partnership and have given great ideas to emergency preparedness groups in general*Amazon gift registries*Door to door meeting with local businesses and promoting local businesses in their request for aid
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Christchurch
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Small steps, easy steps. Take one action this week. Meet your neighbors. Share your preparedness passion with them. What are your community groups? How are they prepared? What are your interests and how can you incorporate them into your preparedness plan and how will you help them prepare?
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Final thoughts

We are increasingly bombarded with too much information. We need as many tools as possible to manage that information. As people become more informed, they realize they dont have the skills they need and they research it. The instant expert is a problem and a great resource.

The hubs are not meant to replace any established organization, they are meant to supplement and help utilize the people and skills that normally would get overlooked by professionals who are trying to manage other things.

When you need a hammer and all you have is a screwdriver, the job isnt going to get done effectively. The hub is a tool to add to all the other tools to make the community self-reliant.
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Additional resources are abundant on the web.These are a few good places to get started.
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Additional resources are abundant on the web.These are a few good places to get started.
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building an emergency communications hub network

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