Safe and Secure Detroit, Inc.

This is a flood warning. 

Flooding will be quite prevalent this spring, as above average precipitation though the winter will elevate the water levels.  As we write this, the Red River in Fargo, North Dakota is cresting and flood fighting operations are under way. 

Out of all the natural disaters, flooding still remains as the most frequent and most damaging disaster in the United States.  Flash flooding occurs after heavy rains. Overland flooding occurs when a levee breaks or a river crests after a sustained buildup.

Damage from loose floating debris, large careening items, such as cars or telephone polls, cause further damage.  Lastly the water damage accounts for a great majority of the cost of repairs. 

Flood fighting operations are effective only to a point and require great manpower to accomplish.  Flood plain management is a great mitigator, but there is only so much that can occur.

If you or a loved one live near a flood plain, please keep a NOAA weather radio handy and listen to its watches and warnings for floods. 

The Pandemic Flu...

Right now across America, public health officials in local muncipalities are making plans to combat a sweeping epidemic loosely known as the Pandemic Flu. 

These pervasive flu epidemics have, in the past, decimated thriving civilizations, as scores of people died in small villages within days of each other, succumbing to virulent strains of the flu. 

The common belief is that it is time for another episode of this magnitude. 

To find away to limit the spread of this disease, a concept called social distancing is being considered as a cornerstone of the plan.  Basically, limit the exposure that you have to other persons, and you will decrease the chance that you will contract the disease. 

By spreading out, or regulating contact, we will keep down the chances that millions will die in the course of the epidemic. 

But our society is built on contact with others.

Food, clothing, worship, family, school, and sport are built on the premise that we have a need for togetherness. 

Will our need for social contact withstand the exigent situation of a pandemic flu?  Will in-place sheltering and social distancing allow for isolation that could ultimatly be harmful?  Will roving mauarders attack people in lonely outposts, only to be discovered in subsequent months?

Will the public health crisis give way to a public safety crisis? 

In planning for such events, police departments will need specialized training in riot control during public health emergencies. 

How many big city departments have the proper riot control gear to protect officers from infection? procedures for decontamination? Set aside plans for vaccination of frontline officers?  

I question how law enforcement agencies will prepare for this, as much planning seems to target the health side of this issue.

Can we truly distance ourselves from the social ills that this pandemic will cause? 

Our togetherness is what gives us sanctuary from the isolation that pits predator against prey.  It is the community in policing that makes it work, not the barriers that people suggest we must erect to nullify crime.

I would encorage people who are planning for this potential emergency to consider what the needs of limited or regulated contact means. 

Let's not trade one emergency for another one; social distancing should not rent the social fabric that  holds us together.  There is a better way. 

Welcome to the fall, as we cross another season off the calender.  The summer has come, and gone: leaving its heat and warmth in the colors of the leaves, as they burn gold, red, and orange.

The time of the harvest is here, a period of renewing our natural covenat with the earth.

Autumn has a calming name, full of home and hearth,,, and danger.

At the beginning of Autumn, hurricane season is in full swing, with active tropical storms and depressions generated weekly.

While much ado was made about the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, little has been said about the other major storm, Hurricane Rita.

Rita made land fall on September 24th, 2005 and was the second strongest hurricane recorded by NOAA that year, and of all time Ironically, Hurricane Wilma, would even surpass Rita in intensity, leaving Katrina a distant third in the storms of 2005.

Rita is remembered for its challeneges to the Lone Star state, but is less remembered for the additional damage that it did to New Orleans, already battered by Katrina three weeks earlier.  More flooding was experinced in the Big Easy, as parts of the 9th Ward expereinced a storm surge and cuased major reflooding.

Six other western Lousinana parrishes were also affected, along with ninecounties in Texas, two in Mississippi, and two in Florida. Tornadoes also occured in Arkansas, as a derivative of the storm

One of the most intereseting aspects of this hurricane was the evacuation of Houston. Called for by Mayor Bill White, some 3 million persons began to evacuate the city. 

Many persons around the country began to revise and retool evacuation plans after Hurricane Katrina, especially in the mele that ensued over the rows of school buses were discovered in New Orleans- apart of the City's evacuation plan that never got activated.

But few remember the hundreds of thousands of persons who left Houston...and were stranded on the highway. 

Grid lock was so pervasive that an 8 hour drive from Houston to Dallas was completed on avereage in 24-36 hours. Shortages on gas left many persons stranded and caused many complications.

Approximately 107 deaths occurred in the great trek from Houston, just along the highways alone. 

The lesson here is that evacuation plans for major cities US cities are imperfect and need refining. Beyond this point the question remains- is it truly a possibility to actually evacuate millions of persons from a major US city?

Planners for these events need to consider the following:

1. Natural evacuation routes
2. The supply of fuel, food, and medical care along these routes.
3. Traffic control across several counties or states.
4. State departments of transportation working with local jurisdictions with rapidly evolving situations.
5. Predetermining evac routes by geography that feed into seperate areas and not into a single direction.
6. Encouraging individual families to plan their own evac routes so that families may not be as seperated.

Evacuation plans are moving targets, with many variables to factor. According to NOAA, an average of 3.6 hurricanes occur in September, the most of any month during hurricane season. Planning for hurricanes in the fall is a hidden challenge of autumn, especially for mass evacuations. 

Rita serves as a lesson about planning for an evacuation; the best laid plans do not survive the realities of most situations. 

Its irony, such verdant irony....

Five years after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, I begin this blog focused on matters of safety and security within the Detroit Area, primarily, and the world in general.

How ironic....

Five years ago, the preparedness of our nation was tested and found lacking.  So much so that we would be dragged into a new era of thinking, newly birthed from the end of the Cold War. One where currency with out borders and information with out borders would meet threats without borders. 

Detroit had been somewhat ahead of the curve, with challenges to the city with the OAS conference being in Windsor a year prior.  Border security, potential terrorists- this time domestic, were planned for after the WTO debacle in Seattle, Washington.  So plans were laid, and executed, so that a repeat of the challege to order was not seen here. 

Detroit is also unique. We have an annual full scale exercise called Angel's Night, where the city is mobilzed at all levels, to combat historical fires on what was know then as Devil's Night.  The unexpected consequence of this mobilzation, in addition to the reduction of fires within the city, was the cohesion built around community preparedness.

Indeed a culture of preparedness exist with in the Motor City, as city workers, businesses, community organizations, and families find countless ways to bond around elimination of a hazard- fire.  Angel's Night became the rallying point for a community effort that keeps Detroits readiness at a high level.

Many items now common in the new era of public safety were staples of Detroits preparedness before 9/11.  Having noted the annual full scale exercise, the use of incident command, EOC/ICS interface, and the interoperability matters were all being dealt within Detroit's Public Safety  community.

The Motown is my home, and the source of pride for me.  The challenges ahead, will be defined by the challeges behind us.  We hope for better days, from the ashes we will rise....

Welcome Detroit, to the modern era of public safety.  You are ready to meet it.