Attachment 4 Disaster Scenario Hurricane Reese.pdf

Attachment 4 Air Evacuation Aviation Ground Support Contract (Disaster Scenario Reese for Louisiana and Texas)

Scenario Summary

The scenario posited a major hurricane—―Hurricane (large scale) Reese—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 must be accelerated. Texas locales are somewhat easier to evacuate. Other than the Rio Grande Valley, where evacuees must 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. It participates in the Gulf Coast conference to discuss Louisiana issues, and there is a RISC meeting -related 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.

1) Louisiana Hurricane Planning - The region conducts monthly coordination meetings with the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP). Unlike Louisiana, Texas does not have a standardized set of meetings because the state desires the flexibility in terms of crisis or adaptive planning.) 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 an option in this scenario if it can be coordinated utilizing the support of motor coaches and buses. Pre-event Region VI planning for this pending disaster includes the flowing updates specific to this event: Additionally, several states (to include Texas and Oklahoma) have committed to receiving host states evacuees by air transport previously provided that support additional ground support services can be provided at the host state airports in TX and OK. Additionally, LA’s Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (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 critical transportation needs (CTN) evacuees arriving at MSY for flight to other host states.

Ticketed passengers will be processed through the airport normal screening procedures that should occur before the departure of CTN evacuees. 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. 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. LA has a current deliberate air evacuation plan in place for CTNs, but this plan will be required to be updated through additional adaptive planning to meet the requirements for an effective evacuation effort. 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 to determine aircraft availability (up to 150 paxs) for potential Air Evacuation. Contractor alerted to possible requirement.

H-96 Hour…………………………….............................. Contractor advance team deployed to designated airport; FEMA will issue Mission Assignment to DoD-AMC and possibility other federal partners for aircraft availability support.

Additional contracted air support is expected to be requested by GOHSEP to FEMA.

H-72 Hours ………………………………………………………. Emergency declared

H-70 hours ………………………………………………………. Contractor air support 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 ………………………………………………………. CTN Air evacuation operations begin: first aircraft arrive; begin loading evacuees

H-48 hours ………………………………………………………. First CTN evacuee flight departs

H-18 hours ………………………………………………………. Air evacuation of CTN 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 does not request as much FEMA Region VI support as Louisiana. Due to the 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). 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 - In general, the Region VI Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC) operates only if 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. The issues now, however, are concerns about coordination and smart distribution resources to include air transport for a CTN air evacuation.

Scenario Specifics:

Start of scenario…

• Potential landfall in Region VI within 144 hours: 4 September—Hurricane Reese, 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 Reese, 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 Reese, 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 Reese, now 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, TX.

• Potential landfall in Louisiana within 48 hours and Texas within 60 hours: 9 September—Hurricane Reese regaining strength to a category 4 storm, is over the Gulf. Reese is expected to have a near direct impact on New Orleans within 48 hours (with strong storm surge) and possibility if the storm suddenly change course it could divert toward the Galveston costal area of TX 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 the Mayor of New Orleans issues evacuation orders for New Orleans that prompts local Parish Presidents to issue evacuation directives for surrounding Parishes. At this point TX will not accept any possible host state evacuees from New Orleans costal area arriving by air and/or motor coach. At this point the state of OK and several New England including Massachusetts and Connecticut s are considering receiving host state evacuees from New Orleans. If the states agree to accept host state evacuees from LA, immediate crisis planning needs to occur in these states to provide additional aviation ground support to receive the CTNs at the host state debarkation site.

Request for Federal Support: The President of the United States issues a Pre-landfall declaration for the states of Louisiana and Texas. Shortly afterwards LA submits a Resource Request Form (RRF) to FEMA Region VI requesting support from the Aviation Ground Support Contract to receive Host State evacuees from Louisiana via air transport. LA is also in discussion with FEMA Regional VI to work with Region I to support the transport of CTNs to soon to be determined airfields in the states of MA and CT.

The state of Louisiana expects to evacuate up to 10,000 of the total CTNs by air transport. These discussions are evolving because there are concerns that the CTNs expected to be transported by air could substantially increase.

Overview:

The purpose of the Aviation Ground Support contract is to support the ability to rapidly obtain aviation ground support services at airports throughout the US to support a large-scale air evacuation.

Disaster Specific Capabilities:

Capabilities: Non-Disaster (pre-planning): The Contractor may be tasked to provide airfield site plans by conducting an airfield survey. Upon completion of the airfield assessment, the Contractor may be tasked to develop an aviation ground support operational plan which details the evacuation of up to 10,000 general population evacuees at the surveyed airfield. Additionally, the Contractor may be tasked to training, exercise, and technical assistance support under this contract.

Disaster-Related Response: The Contractor may be tasked to provide ground support services to include passenger services to evacuees for a large-scale air evacuation at airfields which have undergone the pre-planning component.

Activation Process:

This contract may be Direct Federal Assistance (DFA) or Federal Operations Support (FOS) depending upon the scenario/support requested. Information required from the requestor for the Contracting Officer’s Representative:

• Scenario of the event, circumstances requiring these resources, and goals to accomplish

• Number of evacuees to be transported

• Location of staging area(s) to which the resources are to report (airfield must have gone through pre-planning; if it has not, the Contractor does not have to accept the task order request)

• Timelines (evacuation schedule, etc.)

End of Scenario…….