2.2.1 Attachment D Hurricane Bradley Scenario for Louisiana and Texas (Air Evacuation Aviation Ground Support).pdf

Attachment 4

Hurricane Bradley Scenario for Louisiana and Texas

Air Evacuation Aviation Ground Support Contract

(AGS) Contract

Scenario Summary

This scenario poses a threat of a major Hurricane (Bradley) that progressed northwesterly, striking Virgin

Islands (Region II), Puerto Rico and Florida (Region IV) before entering the Gulf of Mexico and hitting the

Louisiana-Texas-coast (Region VI).

Planning Considerations:

Louisiana and Texas have two evacuation timelines, partially due to geography. Because Louisiana’s population is much more concentrated geographically, and New Orleans is essentially in a flood zone, evacuation timelines have to be accelerated. Texas locales are somewhat easier to evacuate. Other than the Rio Grande Valley, where evacuees have to drive 200-plus miles to find a hotel, evacuees from other

Texas costal locations can find nearby accommodations.

As part of its planning efforts, Region VI participates in state hurricane conferences and exercises.

Region VI participates in the Gulf Coast conference to discuss Louisiana issues, and there is a quarterly

Regional Inter-agency Steering Committee (RISC) conference in June, that specifically deals with hurricanes. The region expects it will have developed a solid working operational plan in time for the

June 1 onset of the hurricane season, but it also assumes continually adaptive modification to the plan because planning factors with states will change with time.

For planning purposes only, the Center of Disease Control and Health and Human Services has issued a new Pandemic alert (COVID-24). While the adverse impact of this pandemic is expected to be far less than COVID-19, due to high percentage of the vaccinated population, there are still concerns about the impact to “at risk” population (evacuees with medical combabilities, including the elderly). This planning scenario will require that contractors incorporate measured or some COVID-24 mitigation factors to protect their responding staff and general population (at risk) that may be evacuated.

The evacuation population for this scenario are and shall be called Critical Transportation Need (CTNs) evacuees. CTNs are typically evacuees who don’t have a readily and appropriate transportation means to self-evacuate.

The planning scenario (based on a Gulf Coastal Hurricane Scenario) for this contract requirement is to support an Air evacuation operation of up to 7,500 CTNs from the incident area conducted by federally contracted commercial aircraft, other Federal agency aircraft, or military aircraft. These aircraft will move evacuees from the departing airport to host state airports. The operational window will be 30 continuous hours, starting 48 hours and ending 18 hours in advance (depending upon the situation) of the arrival of tropical storm force winds on the coast in a hurricane scenario.

Airports in the states of Louisiana and Texas will conduct the simultaneous evacuation of an expected surge of ticketed passengers (including tourists). The airline industry has pledged, at the highest levels, to fly all ticketed passengers out of MSY in the event of a required evacuation. This will be conducted by adding additional aircraft to the current flight schedule and/or aircraft with greater passenger capacity.

For all scenarios, all Department of Defense, Air Mobility Command (AMC) contracted aircraft planning, including command and control, will be done from an Incident Command Post (ICP). The projected aircraft turn time is 1.5 hours for narrow body aircraft, and two hours for wide body aircraft.

A planning scenario will identify an aircraft maximum on ground (MOG) and working MOG. Airport

Authority Operations in coordination with the ICP and the Contractor shall determine parking spots for evacuation aircraft. The ICP shall inform the TSA screening facility staging area to release a specified number of CTN passengers based on the aircraft’s available seats. CTN Passenger and baggage will load in 1.5 hours for narrow body aircraft and 2 hours for wide body. The aircraft will not delay takeoff for loading of baggage. Any baggage that cannot be loaded will be flown on a later mission going to the same destination. Any baggage that is left behind at termination of operations shall be put into a storage area. Aircraft servicing is not planned to be provided at the evacuating airport.

The airport should have enough parking space to sequence MOG to facilitate operations. The expected situation will be such that off-airport food, lodging, gas, supplies, etc. will probably not be available. The local airport workforce will be concerned with their own safety and the welfare of their families to include compliance with possible mandatory evacuation orders. The use of a workforce from outside of the potential impacted area will be a necessity. All evacuation support personnel must arrive totally self-sufficient. Coordination will be required with the airport authorities to find a lodging area on the airport grounds, but the Contractor will be responsible for sheltering and overall welfare of their on-site personnel.

A unified evacuation group (Federal/State/local) shall be responsible for the coordination of CTN evacuees departing the airport. This will be conducted in the TSA screening facility. The process includes provision of reception area for hydration, food, restrooms, etc., prior to embarkation. Security screening for air movement: TSA will employ appropriate screening techniques to ensure the safety of the air transportation system.

Aircraft passenger manifest: With the assistance of the Contractor, the evacuation group will coordinate the manifesting of the CTNs and provide boarding instructions. The evacuee luggage will be scanned by

TSA and then moved to the appropriate aircraft. The manifest will be made available by email/fax upon departure, provided electronic transmittal is possible under conditions at hand, and/or a hard copy that shall be made available to designated person upon arrival. Every attempt will be made to include individual registration information.

The evacuee luggage will be scanned by TSA and then moved to the appropriate aircraft. Screened luggage will remain segregated until arrival at the destination. Airport shuttle buses, escorted by appropriate local personnel, will move evacuees to aircraft for loading.

1) Louisiana Hurricane Planning - The region conducts monthly coordination meetings with the

Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP).

Region VI has conducted extensive point of distribution (POD) training in the state. In terms of evacuation, a total of 17 parishes may need to be evacuated in and around New Orleans.

Evacuation by rail/train for evacuees is not an option in this scenario. Evacuation by air support is currently planned for up to 7,500 CTNs. All other CTNs needing to be evacuated will be evacuated via state provided buses to other locations within state or out of state. Air evacuation planning will include crisis or adaptive planning, as all existing state and airfield evacuation plans would likely have to be updated. There is some uncertainty in determining the

MSY airport terminal and/or facility that will be used to screen CTNs, supported by the

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and to be evacuated via DoD or commercially contracted aircraft. Current local evacuation plans for MSY are still being updated and would need to be updated further, due to major facility changes at MSY (old terminal) that creates unknows of the exact location CTNs will be screened by TSA, as well as not having a confirmed motor coach drop off location for CTNs, that would be expected to board air evacuation flights.

For this reason, the contractor may be expected to propose of preferred TSA evacuation location at MSY, based on their understanding of the current MSY facilities and develop their evacuation response accordingly. Additionally, several states (to include Texas and Oklahoma) have committed to receiving host states evacuees from MSY by air, only if additional ground

AGS contract support services can also be provided at the host state airports in TX and OK, upon arrival of the CTN’s from MSY. Additionally, LA’s MSY airport is requesting that additional air ground support services be provided at MSY as well as support for a separate airport screening area at MSY for anticipated CTN evacuees arriving at MSY for flight to other host states. Aviation

Ground Support staff will need to be on the ground within 24 hours at MSY and other designated host state airports with specialized experience in above and below the wing experience in non-powered and powered ground support equipment experience for mechanical and service support. AGS contract support will also include passenger manifesting, luggage loading and passenger screening. This support at host state airports may include the need for state provided motor coaches to transport CTNs for designated host state airports to local shelters or hotels. Note: All off-airport ground transportation transport of CTNs is the responsibility of the state, not AGS contract. There are special ongoing coordination meetings

(pre-event) between GOHSEP, FEMA Region VI and FEMA-HQ just to discuss how the New

Orleans Louis Armstrong Airport will be used in an evacuation. A summary of the critical deliberate CTN evacuation planning timelines for this evacuation support at MSY are:

Time Action

H-120 Hours Market survey issued by Air Mobility Command for potential Air Evacuation. Contractor alerted to possible requirement.

H-96 Hours Contractor advance team deployed to designated airport; FEMA will issue Mission

Assignment to DoD-AMC

H-72 Hours Emergency declared

H-70 hours Contractor receives notice (i.e., task order) to deliver personnel and equipment to designated airport and complete operation set up in 18 hours or less

H-60 hours Voluntary air evacuation for ticketed passengers

(tourists, visitors, and conventioneers) begins at commercial terminal; initiate airport security plan

H-58 hours All contractor personnel and equipment have arrived at evacuation terminal, presented credentials to airport authority security office, and completed their operations set up

H-50 hours General Population (GENPOP)/CTN Air evacuation operations begin: first aircraft arrive;

begin loading evacuees

H-48 hours First GENPOP evacuee flight departs

H-18 hours Air evacuation of GENPOP ends; support personnel (TSA, FAMS, contractors, etc.)

evacuate to safe haven at other airport hubs on last flights out. (evaluation of end of mission or return, post incident)

H-12 hours Airport closed; last flight has departed

H-10 hours Remaining air evacuation support personnel shelter in place

2) Texas Hurricane planning initiatives - Texas may not require as much FEMA Region VI support as

Louisiana. Additionally, Texas does not have a standardized set of meetings (like Louisiana) because the state desires the flexibility in terms of crisis or adaptive planning. Due to the extended length of the

Texas coast, the state tends to trigger its response sooner, particularly if the Rio Grande Valley is in the hurricane track. Texas fostered the Interstate Emergency Response Plan (IERSP)—essentially an intra-regional emergency management assistance compacts among the states in Region VI. Assistance includes sending liaison officers to one another’s state emergency operations centers (EOCs). Texas also has a rapid-reentry task force is also available to quickly reintroduce evacuees to their homes.

Leveraging the IERSP, Region VI will first consider these interstate resources before generating a federal request for action. To foster coordination and communications, Region VI has embedded one of its officials with the Texas State RAPID response team (a state team that gets to disasters immediately).

3) FEMA Region VI Staff Support - Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC) operates only as long as required. Outside of a response along the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina, the region’s goal is to have the RRCC back at the regional office within five days. The Region designates a Louisiana-specific team and a Texas-specific team; these start out as five-person teams, but, when necessary, they increase to eight to ten officials. There are staffing shortfalls, particularly if the region must surge. Part of the staffing shortage is due to Disaster Assistance Employees (DAEs) already committed to other disasters.

Triggers. The region has a series of detailed trigger maps as part of its Hurricane Plan. Key points:

• Louisiana and Texas and triggers are different.

• The region has reviewed and de-conflicted the data for each response and focused on how the region, FEMA, and the federal government will respond.

• Since Hurricane Katrina, the states in the region have enhanced their ability ramp up their response capacity but would still have notable limiting planning capabilities to support CTN air evacuations.

Scenario Specifics:

Start of scenario…

• Potential landfall in Region VI within 144 hours: 4 September—Hurricane Bradley, a category 3 storm, makes landfall in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The storm’s projected track is over the Florida

Keys and may hit southeast Louisiana. The governors of both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands declare disasters and issue emergency shelter orders.

• Potential landfall in Louisiana within 96 hours and Texas within 120 hours: 6 September—Hurricane

Bradley, still a category 3 storm, has passed over the Keys and entered the Gulf region. It is expected to make a direct strike on New Orleans and Baton Rouge within approximately 96 hours.

• Potential landfall in Louisiana within 72 hours and Texas within 96 hours: 7 September—Hurricane

Bradley, now a category 4 storm, continues curving northwestward. The storm’s track continues westward so that Galveston and Houston, TX is now in the projected strike area as well as New Orleans.

• Potential landfall in Louisiana within 60 hours and Texas within 72 hours: 8 September—Hurricane

Bradley, now decreased to a category 3, storm track has continued to shift northwestward expecting to impact to first impact the New Orleans, Louisiana coastal area continuing its path toward the

Galveston/Houston, Texas costal area. The National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane warning along the entire Louisiana Coast and as far south as Corpus Christi, Texas.

• Potential landfall in Louisiana within 48 hours and Texas within 60 hours: 9 September—Hurricane

Bradley, regaining strength to a category 4 storm, is over the Gulf. Bradley is expected to have a near direct impact on New Orleans within 48 hours (with strong storm surge) and then having a direct impact on Houston and Galveston Texas, within 59 hours. The governor of Texas calls for evacuations of the greater Houston-Galveston area; many people refuse to evacuate. Within several hours after evacuation directives are issued for the Houston area, the Mayor of New Orleans issues evacuation orders for New

Orleans that prompts local Parish Presidents to issue evacuation directives for surrounding Parishes.

Request for Federal Support: The President of the United States issues a Pre-landfall declaration for the states of Louisiana and Texas. Shortly afterwards, both states submit a Resource Request Form (RRF) to

Region VI requesting support from the AGS contract. The Texas RRF is processed first by Region VI and subsequently approved by FEMA-HQ. The state of Texas is requesting air evacuation for up to 5,000

CTNs from designated airport (s) in Huston metro area to TBD locations airports (within Texas). There would be a need to update (crisis/adaptive planning) current deliberate airfield evacuation plans for airports located in the disaster areas as well as host airport location within the state.

The Governor of Louisiana alerts surrounding states that Louisiana will be requesting host state sheltering support for up to 7,500 CTNs. The contractor would be expected to propose notional host state locations that could fully support CTNs from LA that are arriving in Texas and other host states (via air transport) that may require state provided motor coach coordinated and synchronized planning at the host state airport sites for arriving evacuees.

The AGS contract overall support includes the following resources:

Overview: The purpose of the AGS contract is to support the ability to rapidly obtain aviation ground support services at airports throughout the U.S. for a large-scale air evacuation (s).

Capabilities: Non-Incident/Event (pre-planning): The Contractor may be tasked to conduct airfield site surveys and deliver plans for same. The survey information provided is critical to determining aircraft suitability and contingency support requirements and serves as an important tool for FEMA/DOD Air Mobility Command mission planners, Federal Aviation Administration officials and functional managers.

Upon completion of the airfield site survey, the Contractor may be tasked to develop an aviation ground support operational plan which details the evacuation and/or relocation of up to 7,500 Critical Transportation Needs (CTN) general population evacuees at the surveyed airfield. A variety of airport evacuation planning mission sets can be utilized in support of this planning effort. Mission sets includes general population air evacuation/reception operations (primary), and secondary mission sets of logistics staging operations area, aeromedical staging operations site, air search & rescue operations site, and responder air bridge operations site (i.e., air shuttling responders from lodging areas to work locations and back). Additionally, the Contractor may be tasked to provide training, exercise, and technical support under this contract. CTNs are individuals without a means to evacuate.

Incident/Event-Related Response: The Contractor may be tasked to provide airfield ground support services to include air evacuation passenger services to CTN general population evacuees for a large-scale evacuation at airfields that have undergone the pre-planning component or provide crisis action or adaptive operational planning for the airfields that do not have an evacuation plan. Airfield support includes passenger manifesting, luggage support, air operations situational matter expertise, and airport screening.

Activation Process: This contract may be Direct Federal Assistance (DFA) (state/federal cost share) or Federal Operations Support (100% federally funded) depending upon the scenario/support requested.

End of Scenario…….