The Alexandria City Council received the after action report pertaining to Hurricane Isabel at last week’s legislative session.
Mark Penn, the city’s emergency management coordinator, prepared the report and responded to questions.
“This is a very comprehensive report,” said Mayor William D. Euille. “Certainly we have some work to do but staff have identified the issues and I am sure that we will have further discussions regarding them.”
According to the report, two major issues arose during and after Isabel. “The coordination with the utility companies and return of service needs improvement. City staff are working aggressively with Dominion Virginia Power, the Virginia American Water Company and others to coordinate communications and the return of service to customers after such a storm,” the report said.
Euille had personal experience with this issue recently. “I was pleased to be able to contact Dominion Virginia Power and quickly get an assessment of the situation after losing power at my home last week,” he said. “Within two hours, the power was back on. I think things are improving.”
Penn agreed with the mayor's assessment. “There were some jurisdictions who wanted representatives from the utility companies in their emergency operations centers but this just isn’t practical,” he said. “We do have one point of contact and access to information on their web sites that we did not have during Isabel. This should help us to better communicate with customers in future emergencies.”
Communication isn’t the only issue with Dominion Virginia Power. The company has a policy to only deploy crews to de-energized downed power lines when the lines are ready to be repaired. “The city prefers to initially clear downed lines from roadways and walkways to open roads and to ensure safety of citizens regardless of whether the lines will be immediately repaired," the report noted.
“Since city employees are unable to verify if downed power lines are energized, significant delays are encountered until the lines are moved out of the roadway. The city is recommending that Virginia Power should use dedicated crews or allow the city to contract with a certified company to de-energize and render safe downed power lines,” the report said.
COUNCILMAN Ludwig Gaines said, “Certainly one of the improvements in communication is our new Citizen Corps Council. We can use these folks to get the word out in their neighborhoods if we should have another such emergency,” he said.
The second issue was that city officials need to improve and enhance methods of disseminating information to citizens, businesses and employees.
"Public information officers and emergency management staff are working together on a plan to ensure that citizens, businesses and employees receive the information that they need in an emergency,” the report said.
During Isabel, the city spent approximately $1 million in operating costs on response. Emergency management staff is working with state and federal officials to get reimbursement of eligible operating costs. Currently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to reimburse the city for $452,000. The city is discussing reimbursement of the balance with FEMA.
City staff made a number of recommendations for improving response during such an emergency. In addition to better communication with utility companies and with citizens, the staff looked at the issue of the Lake Barcroft Watershed Improvement District. Water from the dam at Lake Barcroft feeds into Holmes Run in Alexandria.
“There is no formal plan to lower the water levels prior to heavy rains and there is no plan for notification in advance of the release of the water from the dam,” the report said.
The recommendation is to hold a joint meeting with Fairfax County officials to improve dam operational plans. “Releasing water prior to an event would be a slower release, which is less likely to create flooding in the city,” the report concluded.
The staff will continue to implement these recommendations to improve responses to emergencies. There will be a follow-up evaluation in December. 2004, to determine whether the recommendations contained in the report have been implemented and whether other action needs to be taken.