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City of Vancouver Disaster Management Update for

Council:Emergency Management and

Canada Task Force One (HUSAR) Deployment to Calgary

November 19, 2013

Jim Young, Assistant Chief Can-TF 1 LeaderKatie McPherson, Manager, Emergency Planning

Council direction – July 23, 2013

THAT Vancouver’s HUSAR Team be requested to provide an update to City Council on lessons learned from the Calgarydeployment

Presentation Outline

• Flood Overview and Impacts • City of Vancouver Response• Canada Task Force 1 Deployment• Operational Observations and Outcomes• Observations and Lessons from the EOC

Flood Statistics

‘Extreme’ Rainfall• A week of rain followed by 100 – 250 mm downpour on

June 20 led to overland flooding across ABBow River• Peak flow 2 400 m3 /s; 8x the regular flow• Normally 12 hours of notice from the time when

Minnewanka Dam overtops, in this case significantly lessElbow River• Peaked at 1 240 m3 /s; 12x the regular flowGlenmore Dam• Outflow was 700 m3 /s; 7x higher than normal,

overtopped at 23:30 June 20.

Calgary EOC Activation to Mandatory Evacuation

Thursday, June 2010:00: EOC Activation in anticipation of flooding13:00: Flood watch on the Elbow turns to flood warning;

flood watch for Bow still in effect18:00: Mandatory evacuation ordered for 6 communities,

including downtown; reception centres opened across the City

19:30: 20 communities under mandatory evacuation; Responders work overnight to evacuate buildings, including hotels and high rises in the downtown area

Downtown Calgary without power for 12 days, all schools closed.

More than 20 bridges were closed, many were overtopped by the flood waters

Transportation Impacts: 50 bus routes cancelled and 16 LRT Stations closed.

Mandatory evacuation for 110 000 people

Enmax intentionally de-energized large parts of the City to avoid catastrophic damage when substations were flooded.

Widespread power outages

Damage to Civic Assets

Calgary projects over $530 million in damages including:

• $26.5 million -City of Calgary Municipal Complex

• $10 million - Central Library

• $31 million - Police Headquarters

• $11.7 million - Light Rail Transit

• $10 million – Waste Treatment Plant

June 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 July

1 2 3

June 20:Calgary activates EOC and Declares State of Local Emergency

June 21:CoV staff monitor situation and assess available resources; Offer of assistance made to Calgary

June 22: 2 CoV staff deployed to Calgary as observers; support in Can-TF 2 ops centre

June 23: CoV staff observe in EOC, tour flooded areas

June 24: CoV staff tasked permanently to Can-TF 2 Ops Centre

June 27: 3:45 am rail bridge fails and 6 oil cars derail over Bow River

June 27: Can TF 1 deploys 30 members to support flood operations and EOC logistics

June 29: Can TF 1 deploys 20 additional members

July 3: Can TF 1 demobilizes

Calgary Response and Recovery Continues

Timeline of Vancouver Response

June 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 July

1 2 3

June 22: 2 CoV staff deployed to Calgary as observers; support in Can-TF 2 ops centre

June 23: CoV staff observe in EOC, tour flooded areas

June 24: CoV staff tasked permanently to Can-TF 2 Ops Centre




Calgary EOC

City of Vancouver Staff Observer Roles

• Granted full access to the EOC and observed and interviewed staff at all levels including: – EOC Management Team– Communications and 3-1-1– Emergency Social Services and Reception Centres– Planning, Operations, and Logistics Chiefs– Recovery Operations Centre– External Partners– Field staff

• Liaison between Vancouver and Calgary• Facilitated deployment of Can TF 1 to Calgary

June 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 July

1 2 3

June 20:Calgary activates EOC and Declares State of Local Emergency



June 29: Can TF 1 deploys 20 additional members

July 3: Can TF 1 demobilizes

Calgary Response and Recovery Continues


City of Vancouver Staff Support to Can TF-2 Operations Centre and Calgary EOC

• Command and support roles in Can-TF 2 Operations Centre responsible for pumping and humanitarian operations

• Regular situation reports to VFRS Department Operations Centre

• Logistics support in the Calgary Emergency Operations Centre

• Supported structural damage assessment teams

CAN-TF1 Deployment and Operational Roles

• 125 Members• Funding from the Province to

partially offset lost funding from Federal government

• Full complement of members including: Search dogs, VFRS, ENG, VPD, BCAS, Medical

Tactical Assignments

• Command and Control– Incident Action Plans

• Pumping Operations• Erosion assessments• Structural assessments

– Residential and Commercial– “Operation Door Knocker”

• Response presence• Humanitarian aid• Task Force demobilization

Can-Task Force 2 Ops Centre

Daily Briefings

Pumping Operations

Commercial Buildings

Residential Buildings

Operation “Door Knocker”

• 6000 individual address’ identified in the downtown area

• 5,350 inspections completed– Type 1: no damage– Type 2: damage sustained (could be significant)– Type 3: Significant damage with structural integrity

suspected

• Completed in 30 hours over a 2 day period

Erosion Assessment

Canine Team

Structural Support Damage

Logistics

Base of Operations (BoO)

Facilities Shelter

Demobilization

Lessons for HUSAR

First ever HUSAR response to support another team within Canada, key lessons included:

– Coordination between provinces and cities to mobilize teams

– Need for Memorandums of Agreement between cities– Value of interoperable systems to support

communication and joint operations involving Vancouver and Calgary Task Force members

– Communication with HUSAR family members– Skills and role of HUSAR team extend well beyond

Heavy Urban Search and Rescue

Lessons for Vancouver Emergency Management

1. Public Information and Communication– Mayor Nenshi played a critical role in social media and in

communicating public safety messages– City of Calgary website crashed so forced to use a blog instead– Reception centres were a good location to get information out

to the public, and to help support citizens to safely re-enter their homes

Implementation in Vancouver: – Revising emergency communications plan to include significant

social media component, redundant systems to support key role of Mayor and Council in public emergency communications

– Building volunteer roles to support public information at reception centres

2. Volunteer Management– Volunteers are critical in recovery but may overwhelm

resources if not sufficiently planned for. – Supporting grassroots efforts may be more effective than

managing huge numbers of untrained volunteers.

Implementation in Vancouver: – Ongoing expansion of Vancouver Volunteer Corps program – Focus on planning for ‘spontaneous’ volunteers.

Lessons for Vancouver Emergency Management

Lessons for Emergency Management in Vancouver

3. Recovery planning should start as soon as possible and include the private sector

– Mayor and City Manager chaired the Recovery Operations Centre to identify critical recovery priorities and cut through red tape so that recovery efforts could start as soon as the water receded.

– Business community was represented at the EOC and provided support during response and insight into business recovery

Implementation in Vancouver: – Piloting business engagement program with local business

partners including delivery of business continuity workshops– 2014 workplan includes increased focus on recovery planning.

4. Command staff support is critical and urgent in a disaster

– High rate of burnout among senior positions in the EOC and staff on the ground.

– Without enough staff in command roles, it becomes difficult to manage and coordinate resources on the ground that come from different cities, agencies, and non-profits. Sending field staff without sending command staff is not effective.

Implementation in Vancouver: – Ramping up training for command staff in the organization

with targeted EOC staff training program; – Exploring options for joint training and mutual aid agreements

with other municipalities to provide command staff during a response.


5. Evacuation and subsequent damage assessment is most effective when coordinated and well documented

– Many people agencies and volunteers were involved in the evacuation that had not previously worked together.

– Initially there were challenges tracking damage assessment, sending out multi-agency teams was better for the public and the EOC

Implementation in Vancouver: – Established multi-agency Emergency Planning Team of internal

and external partners to tackle complex planning tasks– Refining evacuation plans and developing tools to support mass

evacuations– Refining damage assessment process and continuing to train

staff in post-EQ assessment


On-going Learning

• Joint planning and regular engagement with staff in Calgary, including to support each other in future emergencies– Deputy Chief of CEMA presented to staff and regional partners

in October– Supervisor of Crisis Communications speaking to staff and

regional partners in December– On-going efforts with 3-1-1 in Calgary

• Vancouver staff continue to share experience and knowledge with regional partners

• Formal After Action Report from the City of Calgary to be released in 2014.

Vancouver’s support was appreciated and acknowledged

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