Leadership Exercise Report

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Exercise Instructions

Leadership Project: Emergency Preparedness and Response Planning Exercise

Superstorm Scenario: Adult Residential Care Facility, Queens, NY

Introduction and Background:

You are the executive in charge of an adult care residential facility that serves persons who suffer from a range of mental illnesses and physical disabilities but are functional and independent.

The facility is located at Rockaway Beach which borders the Atlantic Ocean and

is a barrier island in the Borough of Queens, in New York City, New York. The area is suburban and primarily residential. Weather reports have been predicting a superstorm. (http://www.promenadenh.com//) and MapQuest at 140 Beach 114th St, Rockaway Park, NY 11694.

The facility normally houses 200 - 240 residents. The building is seven stories

high, and residents primarily have private units with private baths. Services include a dining room serving three meals a day. Meals are served in rooms for residents unable to go to the dining room. The facility includes common areas, activities and recreation, physical and occupational therapy room, a pharmacy, laundry, transportation, 24-hour security located at the entrance of the chapel, and a beauty/barber shop. A nurse is available 56 hours a week in the facility, and there is a 24x7. on-call nursing service In all, there are about 430 employees, full-time and part-time, to support the residents’ needs and maintain the facility.

Deliverables: Submit a single document by the assignment due date in the proper assignment folder that includes:

1. Step 3: Exercise Report/Template 2. Step 4: An After-Action Report/Template

Frequently Asked Questions/Helpful Hints:

Be certain to check the Ask the Professor discussion area of the classroom first before asking your instructor.

Rubric

See class Rubric tab, under Course Content.

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STEP 1: Learning Demonstration Before writing your scenario deliverable, there are some tasks to accomplish that will assist you:

1. Locate the Facility via Google Earth and MapQuest.

a. Identify the major terrain features, e.g., flood plains, waterways, lakes, etc.? b. Locate the major transportation networks, roadways, railways?

(http://www.mapquest.com) c. What other health care assets, such as hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies,

etc., available on the island that assist during a hurricane? d. What might be the health care assets might be available in the New York City

metropolitan area? 2. Become familiar with the resources of this facility.

(http://www.promenadenh.com/services) 3. Local hospital resources.

a. Review the local options for emergency medical care in the Borough of Queens, New York, using a major search engine. Be especially attentive to the reviews of emergency room services by patients.

4. Review the information available from New York City Emergency Management Services (https://www1.nyc.gov/site/em/index.page). a. Locate the Facility on the Hurricane Evacuation Zone Finder Mapping Tool

under “Find Your Zone” (www.nyc.gov/knowyourzone). b. Locate the coastal storm preparedness materials for the Borough of Queens

under “Know the Hazards” (www.nyc.gov/knowyourzone). c. Given the extensive number of adult care facilities in Queens, what

advantages/disadvantages do county emergency shelters have over the extant facilities sheltering their populations ‘in place’ during a major storm?

d. Does the facility have Memorandums of Understanding (MOU’s) or Mutual Aid Agreements (MAA’s) with either county agencies or other adult care facilities in the event of one or more such facilities experience a catastrophic failure?

5. Review the history of so-called Superstorms throughout the region. a. Lee, L.G. (2013). A twenty-year recollection of the superstorm of March 1993

in the Western Carolinas and Extreme Northeast Georgia. NWS. (https://www.weather.gov/media/gsp/localdat/cases/2013/Review_March1993 _Superstorm.pdf)

b. Review the general history of major winter storms throughout the region, especially the Blizzard of 1978, January Snowstorm of 1983, as well as other storms available at this resource. National Weather Service. (2014). “Major winter storms.” (http://www.weather.gov/aly/MajorWinterStorms).

c. Review the impact of Superstorm Sandy in October 2012, especially the lasting impact of the storm as well as other pertinent information such as the wind and gust speeds on Long Island even though little rain fell on the Island itself.

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1) New York Times. Nursing Home Is Faulted Over Care After Storm (2012, November 9) https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/nyregion/queens-nursing-home- is-faulted-over-care-after-storm.html

2) British Broadcasting Company. Sandy - Anatomy of a Superstorm 2012 (https://youtu.be/y_JkKSmn1JM)

3) Kusisto, L. and Dawsey, J. (2014, June 17). Many displaced by superstorm sandy still wait for housing help. Wall Street Journal. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/many-displaced-by-superstorm-sandy-still- wait-for-housing-help-1403060886).

4) Philadelphia/Mount Holly (2012). Storm summary for superstorm sandy. (http://www.erh.noaa.gov/phi/storms/10292012.html).

5) Daily News (2013). Hurricane Sandy, one year later: Long Island. (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hurricane-sandy/hurricane-sandy- year-long-island-struggles-article-1.1495359).

6) CoreLogic (2014). Superstorm sandy slams the north east with winds, storm surge, and flooding. (http://www.eqecat.com/catwatch/super-storm- sandy-slams-north-east-winds-storm-surge-flooding-2012-10-30/).

7) Additional information about Superstorm ‘Sandy.’ Satellite images and wind speed reports. (http://www.erh.noaa.gov/phi/reports/Sandy_for_Web.pdf).

8) Ecker, E. (2018, May 5). Brookdale, Sunrise share best practices for emergency evacuations in senior living. https://seniorhousingnews.com/2018/05/30/brookdale- sunrise-share- best-practices-emergency-evacuations-senior-living/

Before beginning to work on this specific disaster scenario, it would be very beneficial to visit the FEMA-EMI Independent Study website at http://www.training.fema.gov/is/crslist.aspx and complete the following courses. You may have previously completed one or more of these courses or have relevant practical experience and training. You are encouraged, at a minimum. to complete IS- 700.B and IS-706. You may wish to complete one or more of the other courses:

• IS 700.B: National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction (this should be completed in the intro course) https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-700.b

• IS-706: NIMS Intrastate Mutual Aid, and Introduction at http://www.training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-706 (Approximate duration: 2.5 hours)

• IS-321: Hurricane Mitigation Basics for Mitigation Staff at https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-321 (Approximate duration: 1 hour)

• IS-324.a: Community Hurricane Preparedness at http://www.training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=is-324.a (Approximate duration: 10 hours)

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• IS-368: Including People with Disabilities & Others with Access & Functional Needs in Disaster Operations at http://www.training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-368 (Approximate duration 2 hours)

STEP 2: Review Scenario Background Information After successfully completing any of the required and optional courses complete the following:

Hurricane Scenario Overview: a major hurricane is forecasted to affect the New York metropolitan area, as it advances along the Atlantic seaboard. The barrier island of Rockaway Beach in the Borough of Queens is particularly vulnerable to flooding during the spring-to-autumn seasons. If the storm is forecasted during the fall-to-spring months, particularly during the winter, the Island is vulnerable to heavy snowfall since it is bounded on two sides by water.

In either case, evacuation off the barrier island is a challenge given that all vehicular traffic must flow into New York City. While this scenario focuses on the response and short-term recovery phases of the Disaster Management Cycle, there are numerous facilities located within the Borough of Queens. Given the vulnerability of the Rockaway Beach area to such extreme weather, mitigation and preparedness issues should be reviewed prior to writing the Exercise Report deliverable and should likewise inform the After-Action Report deliverable. Role Responsibilities: You are Executive Director of the Promenade Rehabilitation and Health Care Center (PRHCC) and the lead for disaster response and short-term recovery efforts. Other senior managers, who directly report to you, carry out multiple roles and responsibilities related to senior management levels within the facility to include:

• Director of Residential Services: social services, nursing, mental health • Director of Facilities: physical plant, shipping and receiving, kitchen

operations, and security. • Director of Administrative Services: personnel, finance and purchasing,

public relations. You report to the Chief Operating Officer (COO), who has traveled to South Carolina for the Labor Day weekend. The COO communicates regularly through e-mail and phone calls.

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STEP 3: Participate in the Exercise and Prepare an Exercise Report

Tasks

• Review each page in the Tabletop Exercise Power Point Slide Deck. • Follow along with the Participant Guide. • Assume the role of the Executive Director and prepare recommendations for the

COO that will ultimately inform decisions by the Board of Directors. • Participate in the exercise: As you proceed through the exercise, fill out the

Exercise Report Template. o Address the following questions at each phase of the disaster – Initial

Response and Short-Term Recovery phases. For each area of responsibility: � Which activities are critical to perform as a part of the preparation,

response, and short-term recovery phases? (Note: Make inferences from the status information provided above and use your imagination to create status information).

� What resources are required? (Note: Consider organizations, people, information, equipment, materials, and supplies).

� Are there recommendations or decisions that need to be made by the Board of Directors?

• Prepare the report to the COO of the response and short-term recovery phases using the provided template. Remember, reports need to be direct, specific, and very clear.

• If you use references, additional and optional information. List them in Part 2 of the Template.

Exercise Scenario Two documents support this exercise, a Participant Guide, and a Tabletop Exercise PowerPoint slide deck. Participant Guide The Participant Guide contains the text that appears on the PowerPoint. Certain slides include questions that you may use to generate discussion. The questions are based on the business continuity function to which they pertain and can steer discussion to areas relevant to your participants and exercise objectives. Not all these questions are relevant to your organization or to the particular participants. This scenario, based on a fictional coastal storm making landfall in New York City and affecting your primary facility, is designed to test your initial response to a no-notice incident. At the start of the incident, participants must deal with initial reactions, incomplete information, and

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uncertainty about safety conditions. As the scenario progresses, the focus shifts to business continuity concerns. This scenario ends at the end of the short-term recovery phase. This scenario is focused on the Promenade Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, located at 140 Beach 114th St, Queens, NY 11694. This facility was selected because it experienced significant damage in Superstorm Sandy that provided an opportunity to add a greater sense of realism to this exercise of a landfalling hurricane. UMGC wishes to acknowledge and thank New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) for making this customizable tabletop exercise available. The customization of the exercise template was based on information collected from open sources, including government websites and media reports following Superstorm Sandy.

Tabletop Exercise PowerPoint Slide Deck The slide deck contains 23 slides that step the participant through the exercise. In summary, the event is as follows: • The exercise begins on August 30th with a category

2 hurricane approaching the South Carolina coast. • On August 31st, the projected hurricane track

changes and is heading toward New York City. • On September 3rd Hurricane Chester makes

landfall in New York City, bringing sustained winds of up to 110 mph and a storm surge of 13.0-16.6 feet.

In addition to the slides containing information on the event, additional slides provide context to the event, information on government actions, a description of the facility and the damage it receives. Note: Beyond this general information and additional information that is presented in time phases in the exercise, you need to address information gaps and provide notional details as part of the exercise. Some notional details should be reasonable assumptions and listed in the key assumptions of the report. Other details can be completely made- up, such as the company's information and communications technology architecture.

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STUDENT TABLETOP EXERCISE Promenade Rehabilitation and Health Care Center 140 Beach 114th St Rockaway Park, NY 11694

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STEP 4: Conduct an After-Action Review and Prepare an After-Action Report:

Tasks • Conduct an After-Action Review (AAR): Within six weeks after the incident, an

after-action report needs to be submitted to the Board of Directors. The COO directs that you are responsible for preparing the AAR and to focus on your leadership before, during, and after the hurricane event. You and your team of directors need to include a review of all the functional areas.

• Fill out Part two of the template for your report. At the end of the template, list your

references used in steps three and four, and an appendix for any optional additional information you would like to include.

• Your team of directors need to perform an after-action review of leadership issues

across all the functions. Consider these questions: 1. From a leadership perspective:

a. Identify the problems encountered in each phase and speculate on the root causes.

b. Identify the successes and best practices in each phase and assess why?

2. Provide your observations during the exercise with respect to professional homeland security and public safety leadership best practices.

3. In the future, which leadership preparations need to be considered for response and short-term recovery?

4. Based on your crisis response observations, what have you learned about your leadership style that needs to change from your Personal Leadership History Report? Consider these changes using the skills, traits, and perspectives identified as critical in successful crisis management in the Week eight lecture.