Attachment_D_Hurricane_Alex_Scenario_for_Louisiana_and_Texas.docx

Attachment D Hurricane Alex Scenario for Louisiana and Texas

Scenario Summary The scenario posited a major hurricane—―Hurricane Alex‖—that progressed northwesterly, striking Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (Region II) 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 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 risk-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 that the plan will be revised continually 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. (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. Additionally, several states previously committed to hosting evacuees may not be able to fulfill the commitments at the time of this scenario request. There are special ongoing coordination meetings just to discuss how the New Orleans Louis Armstrong Airport will be used in an evacuation.

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 compact 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 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 has to 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. This concern could also apply to having sufficient number of motor coaches to evacuate Critical Transportation Needs (CTNs) who may not have access to transportation means on their own to evacuate in a timely manner.

Scenario Specifics:

Start of scenario…

• Potential landfall in Region VI within 144 hours: 4 September—Hurricane Alex, 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 Alex, 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 Alex, 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 Alex, 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, Texas.

• Potential landfall in Louisiana within 48 hours and Texas within 60 hours: 9 September—Hurricane Alex, regaining strength to a category 4 storm, is over the Gulf. Alex 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 submits an Action Request Form (ARF)to Region VI requesting support from the National Motor Coach Evacuation Planning and Operational Support Contract. The Texas ARF is processed first by Region VI and subsequently approved by FEMA-HQ. The state of Texas is requesting motor coach support for up to 12,000 CTNs. The National Motor Coach support will be used to help support the coordination and movement of motor coaches from the Parish and city Reception area pick-up points to a designated shelter that may be located in state or out of state for Louisiana and in state for Texas. It is important to note that the National Motor Coach Evacuation Planning and Operational Support contract does not provide motor coaches. Motor coaches and buses are the responsibility of the state and/or local jurisdiction.

The Governor of Louisiana alerts surrounding states that Louisiana will be requesting host state sheltering support for up to 17,000 Critical Transportation Need (CTNs) evacuees that will be evacuated by motor coaches or buses. The state acquired motor coaches are only expected to provide seats for 5,000 of the CTNs. Additionally, the state of Louisiana expects to evacuate an additional 5,000 of the aforementioned total CTNs by air transport. These discussions are evolving because there appears to be some concerns about the State of Texas receiving CTNs by air due to the anticipated impact of Alex on the Houston area. However other surrounding states are expected to be receptive if motor coach connective arrangements can be made to transport CTNs from the receiving locations in the host state to the sheltering locations in the host state.

The National Motor Coach Evacuation Planning and Operational Support contract overall support includes the following resources:

Overview:

The purpose of this contract is to provide generalized planning, disaster-specific planning, and operational support facilitating the motor coach evacuation of general population evacuees.

Disaster Specific Capabilities:

Disaster-related Response- the Contractor may be tasked, with little or no warning, to an actual or anticipated event that FEMA believes may result in the intercity movement of a significant number of evacuees via motor coaches. The Contractor may be tasked to provide crisis-action planning which involves the alert, standby, activation, and adjustment of existing evacuation plans based on the current event scenario to ensure an effective motor coach evacuation. The Contractor may be tasked to provide response activities which include overall management of field delivery of support services needed to ensure effective motor coach operations. Some crisis-action activities include dispatch coordination among motor coach vendors, market surveys of impacted (potential or actual) areas, field observation of the movement of motor coaches, and establishing/operating Vehicle Staging Areas for the motor coaches as well as other motor coach support sites from the area of evacuee pickup to the area of debarkation for the evacuee.

Again, the National Motor Coach Evacuation Planning and Operational Support contract does not provide motor coaches. Motor coaches and buses are the responsibility of the state and/or local jurisdiction.

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

· Scenario and location of the event, circumstances requiring these resources, and objectives to accomplish

· Type of support required and location required

· Location of staging area(s) or reporting location if applicable A SOW will be sent to the Contractor for response (bid). Once reviewed and approved by the COR and the CO (and after any price negotiation), the task order will be issued.

Response Time - Market surveys anticipating the arrival of additional motor coaches may be generated within a 48 hour time period. Deployment of resources, if adequately alerted, may arrive within 24 hours. These are ballpark estimates based on past experience as there are no time requirements imposed on the Contractor under the contract.

End of Scenario…….