City of Dallas Office of Emergency

Management Quarterly Newsletter

Dallas OEM

Inside this issue

Outdoor Warning Sirens .......................... 2

Local, State, & Federal Participation ........ 2

2017 Public Private Partnership

Symposium ............................................. 3

Extreme Heat .......................................... 3

New Staff ................................................ 4

Dallas Fire-Rescue EMT Shooting ............ 4

Save the Date .......................................... 4

Special points of interest

• Want to know more about how we interact with all our part-ners? We talk about that here.

• Hot weather and Hurricane season is here make sure you have your emergency kit and plans in place!

A Message from Rocky Vaz, Director Spring is often an active time of year for the Office of Emergency Management. Tra-

ditionally, we deal with bouts of severe weather. This year, we had a relatively mild

weather season, but we also dealt with several planned and unplanned events that

kept the department alert and busy.

We dealt with the malicious sounding of all 155 Outdoor Warning Sirens that lead to

increased security on our first line of defense in emergencies. Our system is now

secured and operational. We continue to test it on the first Wednesday of every

month. During that event, we activated for a planned protest with Police, Fire, and

other partners. Then only a few weeks later, activated again with the shooting of a

Dallas Fire-Rescue EMTs coordinating information and resources through the event.

Our department has also been active in training employees and residents in emer-

gency preparedness through our disaster preparedness programs and CERT train-

ings. Since April of 2016, we’ve trained nearly 600 employees and have increased

our number of CERT classes by 45%. We’ve also continued to engage our Public-

Private Partners by conducting our 2nd Public-Private Partnership Symposium in

April. This half-day event encourages and promotes public safety tips, topics, and

cooperation.

We’re also welcoming new staff as personnel changes have created new opportuni-

ties for our staff to grow and transition.

We look forward to incorporating and

growing new skills and talents into our

department and out into the City of Dal-

las as we continue our mandate to miti-

gate, prepare for, respond to, and recov-

er from disasters.

June 2017

Hurricane Safety

Hurricanes are a hazard Dallas prepares for. Storms can track inland for hundreds of miles, and can affect our area with wind, rain, and flooding. To prepare for hurri-canes, have a kit, make a plan, and be ready to follow any and all instructions as needed. www.DallasEmergencyManagement.com

OEM is active on a number of scales across the nation. We have staff in leadership of several regional committees and have hosted meetings for those groups in our EOC, providing space and speakers for training, education, and part-nership-building. We also travel to provide infor-mation, presentations, and leadership to other organizations and conferences.

OEM and DPD presented on the Dallas Police Shooting on July 7th at the Texas Emer-gency Management Conference in San Antonio to a packed room of about 200. We also presented on our Community Preparedness Program. This presentation gave us the opportunity to not only show our peers what OEM has developed in terms of outreach but to share that information to interested jurisdictions that don’t have the same level of resources as the City of Dallas.

OEM is also involved in the leadership of the National Homeland Security Conference where Chief Pughes and Chief Coatney were opening session speakers on the July 7th

Dallas Police Shooting. Major Geron also spoke on emergent strategies. This gives the City of Dallas a national stage to show how we responded, recovered, and have learned from these events.

By actively participating in these com-mittees and conferences, we are embark-ing on continuous improvement in skills, communication, and partnerships.

Outdoor Warning Sirens are activated for: 1) winds in excess of 70 mph, 2) Hail 1.25” or greater diameter, 3) other emergencies as need-ed. North Central Texas Council of Governments Regional Guidelines

Outdoor Warning Sirens

Local, State, & Federal Participation

OEM is the department responsible for the City’s 155 Outdoor Warning Sirens. On Friday, April 7th, starting at 11:48 p.m., we experienced a malicious, system-wide activation of the system. OEM went on alert immediately to keep the system from sounding, though while we addressed that issue, the system sounded for several hours.

During the next days and weeks, OEM worked with the manu-facturer and other partners to identify and rectify how the system was compromised. We have since put measures in place to secure the system to prevent further incidents with the siren system. It is currently secure and operational should the need arise to sound them.

While we secured our system, we heard from cities around the country concerned about other outdoor siren systems and have shared what information we could to help them contact their vendors and partners to put their own measures in place. This was an unexpected and unique event; awareness to a potential hazard has been identified and corrected.

The Outdoor Warning Sirens are a vital part of the city’s emer-gency notification system. It’s our first line of defense to alert those who are outdoors to go inside a building immediately and seek further information. With the events of April 7th, we discovered the system did what it was intended to do. Dallas residents took to email, phones, and social media to seek information. We answered as much as we were able, and now our system is ready for anything.

2

Extreme Heat

Summer in Texas means HEAT. We are beginning our hot sea-son and now is the time to take precautions. Heat-related ill-nesses are completely prevent-able.

• Know your risk. Heat affects everyone, but especially the young, old, and those with health issues.

• Drink plenty of non-alcoholic fluids and seek shade and wear hats and loose clothes.

• Don’t leave kids or pets in closed vehicles.

• Limit outdoor activity and wear sunscreen.

• If you don’t have air con-ditioning, make use of public places that do. Stay in the lowest levels with the lights off if necessary.

•

2017 Public-Private Partnership Symposium

Dallas OEM held its 2nd Annual Public-Private Partnership Sym-posium this year on Thursday, April 13, 2017. The symposium is a half-day event bringing partners from the private sector together with Federal, state, and local agencies to discuss important public safety topics.

This year’s symposium featured Griffin Logistics Tramedic Kits as our title spon-sor. Tramedic provides trauma-specific medical kits and training to teach people how to help those in need before emer-gency responders can arrive. Tramedic tied into our keynote speaker, Dr. Alex Eastman, who is an instrumental part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Stop the Bleed campaign. Stop the Bleed is a program that empowers and equips non-medical partners to be the help someone needs until emergency responders can arrive on scene. We even conducted a demonstration of how to use elements of a trauma kit with will-ing volunteers.

Topics for this year’s symposium ranged from Real World life les-sons learned from local events. We discussed the July 7th Dallas Police Shooting—from the police, hospitals, and buildings involved. We also had panels on homeless initiatives in Downtown Dallas, Cybersecurity, and crisis communications. We continually strive to create panel and discussion topics relevant and im-portant to all our partners whether it’s public safety, quality of life issues, or other topics of concern.

We value the relationships we build with our public and private partners throughout the year. The Symposium gives us the ability and the opportunity

to not only provide relevant and timely information but also network and strengthen rela-tionships that help prepare all our partners to work together to build a safer Dallas. We work better together when we know each other and have sol-id, working relationships.

3

On Monday, May 1st, OEM was alerted to a shooting incident involving a Dallas Fire-Rescue para-medic at about 11:30. We immediately ramped up the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and started gathering information on the incident. By 1 p.m. when the first official reports started going out, we were fully staffed and operational while working with Police, Fire-Rescue, the Public Infor-mation Office, and the City Manager’s Office.

We worked with the City to coordinate information between reports , media, and officers on the ground. We worked with policy and messaging to assist in timely and accurate messaging in a con-stantly changing situation as the EMT and a resident were taken to the hospital and the shooter was contained.

Dallas Police had the scene secured and mostly reopened to the residents of the area by the end of business on May 1st, though small areas remained closed for investigation. The EMT fortunately survived the incident and continues to recover.

OEM stands ready to activate on a moment’s notice when emergencies strike to do our part to support, coordinate, and direct resources as needed.

Dallas Fire-Rescue Paramedic Shooting New Staff

OEM welcomes Tiffany Reid to our

team. Tiffany comes to us from Arizo-

na where she’s worked as a structure

and wildland firefighter, a FEMA

logistics coordinator, and section

leaders during deployment. She is

currently working on her Masters in

emergency management and home-

land security.

She will be working with OEM with

training and exercise as well as other

emergency management operations

duties. We’re excited to have her part

of the team and look forward to seeing

our training and exercise programs

continue to grow.

Dallas OEM

1500 Marilla St. L2AN

Dallas, TX 75201

214-670-4275

OEM@DallasCityHall.com www.DallasEmergencyManagement.com

YOUR LOGO HERE

SAVE THE DATE!

Preparedness Extravaganza!

September is National Prepared-

ness Month. OEM celebrates every

year with our Dallas Emergency

Preparedness Extravaganza!

Save Saturday, September 16,

2017, to bring your families,

friends, and colleagues to Klyde

Warren Park for food, fun, and

preparedness activities!

This FREE event is open to the

public. Organizations are encouraged to participate. To find out more

about the event and how to get a table, contact Rafael Ferreira at ra-

fael.ferreira@dallascityhall.com or call 214-670-4275. We look forward to

seeing you there!