Response to natural disasters, page 1

Great thread idea.

I've been pretty disgusted with the way FEMA handles things for some time now. I'd need a little more inside knowledge about just how bogged down in red tape and beaurocracy it is before I decide on whether or not to disband them for certain, but from an outside point of view, I think it's time they were replaced with a more agile and response-ready organization, or at the very least, made so.

Within the borders of the United States, emergency response teams should be capable of mobilizing within minutes, and assistance infrastructure should in in place and operational within hours, not days or weeks. To achieve this end, a few changes in mindset need to take place.

To differentiate my own planned changes from those of the existing FEMA, I'll refer to it as R3. The tenants of change and mission would be as follows:

Rapid Response and Recovery (R3)

First and foremost, R3 needs to be able to quickly deploy to any area of the United States. It must be geared towards the immediate needs of the disaster area, evacuation of civilian liabilities, and utilization and support of skilled and able volunteers.

Use of Permanent On-Call Bases - I would, therefore set up 6 permanent deployment bases in the following areas: Hawaii, Alaska, New York, Georgia, Nebraska, and Utah. This puts each base within a 4-hour helicopter flight time or less of any point in the United States.

Each base would be outfitted with:

4 Chinook Helicopters
Mobile Surgical Hospital Unit
Mobile Disease Control/Decontamination Laboratory Unit
Mobile Command Center Unit with UAV drones.
Mobile "City" Unit (tents/cots/chuckboxes/pavillions/etc)
Mobility Crate (8 fast, light Ampibious Search & Rescue vehicles)
Mobile Firefighting Unit
Mobile Police Unit
Mobile Water Potability/Reprocessing Unit
Mobile Armoury Unit
Mobile Fuel Depot
Mobile Helicopter Repair Center
Mobile Hazmat Unit
2 platoons trained in use and support of each mobile unit
2 squads of Chinook crew
1 ZB500 G-Lynx helicopter and crew
On-site medical isolation facility with 250 individual rooms and isolated air ventilation.
On-site CDC laboratory
Airplane runways rated to handle the heaviest civilian aircraft.
Air-tight hangar at end of runway, leading to isolation facility.
Subterranean Class 5 Shelter
Temporary Modular Housing Facility

ZB500 G-Lynx Helicopter as Disaster Recon - The G-Lynx can fly at almost 250mph, placing it within about a 2-hour maximum flight to the furthest radius of a base's cover area. This would be the first vehicle deployed to the scene. If communication with the disaster area were not possible, the needs of the disaster area would be assessed via this craft, and relayed to its home base to deploy the neccessary mobile units, and enlist the aid of other bases in the U.S. if neccessary. If the needs of the area have already been relayed, then the deployment of the Lynx would be to begin organization of refugees, evacuees, volunteers, and such so that they are ready when the Chinooks land.

Chinook Helicopter as R3 Workhorse - The Chinook CH-47F helicopter would play a vital role in the swift deployment of vital emergency supplies and facilities. It has a load capacity of 19,500 lbs, can fly up to 184mph, can hold up to 24 stretchers, 33 troops plus 3 crew, and has a cargo bay of 42 cubic meters. Since it requires no runway, road, and can fly over impassable terrain, this makes it the ideal emergency response vehicle. It even has the capacity to carry out operations on the water.

Local Responder Priority - Perhaps the biggest idiocy FEMA displays, time and again, is complete disregard for local civilian support capacity. Local firemen, policemen, doctors, tradesmen, rangers, etc are CRUCIAL to an effective and timely response, due to their immediate and unique knowledge of the surrounding area, available supplies stores, and special considerations affecting the area. FEMA does not utilitze these invaluable resources, but instead opts to transport its own "experts" whom are chosen not on merit, but on political favor. This will change. At the response location rally point, there would be an advisory team composed of local ranking police, fire, EMT, and CERT officers for the city or area.

Isolation Facility, Hangar, and Terminal - In the event of a deadly contagion being reported on an airplane, the current procedure is to land the plane at the nearest runway and keep all passengers locked inside. This not only places everyone on the plane at unneccesary risk, they must wait there for the nearest disease control response to arrive. Instead, a plane should be able to land at whichever of the 6 bases are closest, taxi down the runway straight into the airight hangar, where each passenger can be given their own seperately ventilated room for evaluation on whether or not they are infected or contaminated. Those that are not affected will therefore avoid further exposure. Those that are affected can immediately be treated at the base. In a worst-case scenario, the contagion is limited to the confines of the hangar and the facility. Further, this facility could be used as a hospital in the event of a remote disaster area that is closer to the base than an actual hospital.

Subterranean Class 5 Shelter - A "last hope for humanity" shelter complete with food, water, tools, systems, library, independant power, etc, to last the inhabitants for years. The capacity of this shelter would be the minimum number estimated as neccessary for a viable gene pool to repopulate humanity in the event of a worst-case "doomsday" scenario. This would provide 6 chances, spread out across the United States, for humanity to survive and recover from almost any disaster.

Deployment Procedure

Situation-X occurs in area Y, nearest to base Z.
Deploy Lynx to organize the survivors, or assess the needs of the area if communication has not been established.
Deploy Chinooks with neccessary units once needs are assessed.
3 Chinooks evacuate civilian liabilities (ie. injured, infirm, children, elders, unskilled, unable) back to Base Z starting with the most critical cases first.
If more Units or evacuations are needed, Chinooks will later return with more Units. Otherwise, they will remain on-site for aerial rescue operations within Area Y.
Meanwhile Remaining Survivors outfitted for work, issued tent kits, etc, and given a Unit to report to.
1 Chinook deploys the 8 amphibious crews to tactical center of Area Y, where they each leave in a different direction (N, NE, E, SE, S...etc.).
Amphibious crews radio into command center when they spot survivors. If emergency assistance is needed, they will assist, but otherwise will relay the ETA to rescue and issue a standby kit (first-aid, multi-tool, water, power bars, flashlight, flare, CO2 horn, and radio).
Once all immediate survivors have been accounted for, evacuated, or organized to assist, repair and rebuilding efforts will begin.

At this point, the rest of the plan largley depends upon what the specific disaster is. The plan is also subject to change based upon specific conditions (such as hostile presence, radioactivity, etc.) However, the tools listed should be sufficient to quickly and efficiently give a rapid response to any disaster area, with the other bases standing by to provide backup or extra facilities if needed.

The best part of all this is that R3 could operate for less than FEMA's current budget of $5 billion, especially if old CH-47Ds are remanufactured to 47F specs, which reduces the cost of each craft to $8.5mil.

In short, the R3 plan offers a more timely, efficient, effective, and comprehensive response to nearly any disaster imaginable, for far less money than FEMA, with better results.

[edit on 6/21/2007 by thelibra]