State Emergency Management’s Role in Post-Disaster Town Hall Meetings
Best Practices for State Emergency Management Representatives
A post-disaster town hall meeting is one of the first and most important opportunities for a state emergency management agency to update an impacted locality on state recovery efforts underway. Emotions will be running high, and community members will want to know what recovery efforts are being taken beyond the local level. The state representative – typically the locality’s state regional emergency manager – will provide an update on the equipment and technical assistance being provided by the state to help the locality recover.
Regardless of the disaster scenario, localities should hold a town hall meeting no later than a week to two weeks after rescue efforts are complete. At this point, the state will have likely already partnered with the locality during the initial response phase to provide resources the community couldn’t secure themselves, and also begun providing longer-term, on-the-ground technical assistance and any needed equipment, such as generators, mobile phones and mobile repeater systems to improve cell service. As a key player in the locality’s recovery efforts, it’s important that the community be informed on the state’s efforts to assist.
“One of our most important successes was orchestrating a town hall meeting in the weeks after our rescue efforts were complete,” says Suzonne Cowart, director of finance for the City of Central, which suffered from catastrophic flooding in August 2016. “We decided to hold the town hall meeting to disseminate as much information as we could to the citizens to help them deal with their individual situations.”
In addition to a state regional emergency management representative, other typical presenters at a post-disaster town hall meeting typically include a top level local representative, such as a mayor, chief elected official, city or town manager, or county administrator; the local incident commander; and a FEMA and/or HUD representative.
It’s important to ensure that community members get a consistent message from their local and external disaster recovery leaders. If not sorted out ahead of time, conflicting views between local, state and federal agencies on disaster recovery can cause tension during the town hall meeting. It’s recommended that the local level leader bring all representatives together for a tabletop exercise prior to the town hall meeting. This will give you the opportunity to share the information you intend to present at the meeting, and align your message with the priorities and disaster recovery approach of the locality.
“Make sure that the public information officer or a local leader speaks with any FEMA or HUD representatives in advance to ensure their message will support the locality’s approach to recovery,” recommends Amanda Moody, director of economic development for the City of Central. “External representatives should not be allowed to communicate with constituents in the town hall meeting before this has been done.”
During the town hall meeting, remember to be compassionate and honest; residents are looking for the “human touch” to reassure them that their lives will eventually return to normal. Be certain to offer sympathy, but don’t make promises. Offer statements such as, “We are hoping to begin repairs to state roads next week, but we can’t guarantee that it will happen,” to make sure you are setting reasonable expectations. Your message should be proactive, providing the community with specific examples of the financial assistance and physical resources the state will provide throughout disaster recovery. This will help reassure impacted residents that their lives will eventually return to normal by explaining the state’s partnership with the locality and demonstrating that the locality is not alone in their efforts to recover.
Likewise if debris removal and road closures on state roads are still at issue during the town hall meeting, you will also need to provide information on alternate routes and a timeline on when repairs will be made. Work with your regional Department of Transportation or Department of Public Works to develop a realistic timeline. If the situation is extreme – if an entire bridge is down, for example – consider inviting a representative from the regional Department of Transportation to provide an update to the community as well.
After the town hall meeting, ensure that you maintain constant communication and coordination with the locality’s leaders, and continue to be a steward of their recovery priorities and approach. Not only does this boost morale, but it demonstrates to residents that everyone involved in the recovery process is doing everything they can to get their homes and business restored as quickly as possible.
In August 2016, over seven trillion gallons of rain fell in a 48-hour period in the city of Central, Louisiana, swallowing the city – and most of southern Louisiana – in more than four feet of water, and in some places up to six feet. The City of Central, which is located at the confluence of the Amite and Comite rivers, was still recovering from flash flooding that had occurred earlier in the year when the August flooding occurred.
More than 5,000 homes in the city sustained “substantial damage,” meaning that the damage was estimated to cost 50 percent or more of the structure’s value to repair. In total, 25,000 of the 27,000 residents of Central were impacted by the flood. While homeowners took a big hit from the storm, fewer than 50 businesses in Central were damaged.
“If this happens again, we’ll have to rethink everything,” says Kathi Cowen, IBTS/Central’s Floodplain Manager and GIS Specialist. “We hope we won’t see something of this scale again in our lifetimes.”
At the time of the flood, 75 percent of Central was in the 100-year flood zone, where there is a 1 percent chance of flooding each year and residents are required to carry private flood insurance. Yet 90 percent of the houses and businesses in the city sustained flood damage as a result of the August 2016 flooding, extrapolating the costs of damage due to the nearly 2,000 homes that did not have and were not required to have flood insurance.
The flood was the fourth most costly and the largest since Hurricane Sandy. In total, the flood damaged 55,000 southern Louisiana homes, and had initial damage costs estimated at $8.7 billion.