Town
of East Longmeadow
Office of the Local
Emergency Planning Committee
150 Somers Road
East Longmeadow,
MA 01028-2929
To The Members of the Board of Selectmen and the
Community;
During the past calendar year the
Committee has continued to move ahead and is on track with its required duties.
For the second year the Committee, the Fire
Department, and the Massachusetts Office of Emergency Management (MEMA) have
received updated Tier II – Hazardous Materials reports in electronic
format. This information has been placed in service, for use by the Committee,
the local Office of Emergency Management, and the Fire Department through paper
files and on computer for quick retrieval during an emergency.
During 2004, the Committee completed
a “new” Hazardous Materials Evacuation Plan (HMEP). I emphasize
“new” as it is in a new format creating a complete update of previous material.
The plan has quadrupled from a fifty-four-page document to a total of two
hundred and eleven pages. As the Town changes the plan will
continue to grow. With the completion of this new HMEP, the committee
will be able to perform annual updates as required.
It should be noted that this new format also
creates/serves as Part 5 of the Towns Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP).
The Committee continues to hold a
Provisional Certification. Through efforts this past year we will be applying
for our second payment grant under the certification program.
During the year, meetings have been
conducted and subjects such as Small Pox, CERT (Citizen Emergency Response
Team), combining our LEPC with the Town of Longmeadow to help them with the
mandate of each community having an LEPC and regionalizing our resources, have
been discussed.
On October 13th the
Committee conducted its first tabletop training exercise. Participants included
members of the Committee and all Town Departments. The scenario was based upon
a disaster/emergency occurring during the annual 4th of July Parade.
The Objectives
consisted of analyzing the town’s emergency plan for accuracy, developing an
understanding for a unified command during an emergency incident, and the need
for appropriate termination & recovery protocol for the community.
The Scenario - at
10:40 AM heading south on North Main Street just above the funeral home, a
tractor-trailer truck with a liquid container carrier in tow is weaving back
and forth across North Main Street into the path of the parade and parade
goers. After impacting the parade participants and parade goers it comes to
rest against the inner island of the Sunoco station. Two of the gasoline pumps
have been sheared at their base and there is partial collapse of the overhead
canopy/roof structure.
Questions for the exercise participants; Who
is in charge? What might the Incident Command System structure look like? What
comes first? What complexities of having public safety as a participant in
parade? Large-scale community event and an emergency
incident? What resources will be needed? Personnel, materials, equipment
needed? Termination and Recovery.
Outcomes: As the
participants wrapped up the two-hour session, the facilitator asked for
commentary and concerns regarding the exercise. The following is a synopsis of
the concerns:
A. Organize an exercise
specific to opening the primary and/or secondary community shelter.
B. Design an exercise
specifically encouraging the use of the Incident Command System and the unified
command structure.
C. Develop an exercise that
definitely utilizes a coordinated effort on the part of the local agencies.
D. Exercise the emergency plan
twice a year either a tabletop or as designed events.
The objectives, scenario, questions, and outcomes
noted were the high points of the
overall exercise document. The Committee will be working with Local &
State Emergency Management on implementing the concerns that came out of the
exercise. One request that came out of the exercise was a request for training.
The chairman has begun working on this request with Tom McGowan and hopes to
start the training in early 2005.
On behalf of the Committee, I wish to thank Tom
McGowan, for putting together the components of the exercise and for
administering it.
Late
2004 the Committee received notice of a reimbursement grant through the
Executive Office of Public Safety. The application was filed and in early
November the Committee received $3,200.00 under the program.
It should be noted that grants are currently the
only funding source for this Committee. While grants are an excellent source
for funding they may not be available in the future. At some point the Town may
need to provide funding for this committee.
On November 8th the chairman attended an LEPC Workshop at Western New England College.
The workshop agenda consisted of discussion on the LEPC Certification Process,
the upcoming eCMEP Program, Funding, Homeland Security Regional Councils, and
Regional LEPC’s – How they got going & lessons learned.
I wish to thank the members of this
committee, all Town Departments & Boards, the
local businesses, and all of the State Agencies that the committee works
with for their cooperation
Respectfully
Submitted,
Brian
A Falk, Chairman
Local
Emergency Planning Committee –
Brian
A. Falk, Chairman
Frank
Morrisino, Jr., Emergency Management Director & Vice Chairman
Brenda
Brouillette, American Red Cross
Dr.
Michael Lemanski, Health Representative
John
M. Claffey, Board of Health Representative
James
Driscoll, Selectmen’s Representative
Raymond
Kallaugher, Citizen Representative
Dr.
Edward Costa, Community/PTO Representative
Richard
Clark, Council on Aging Representative
Dave
Gromaski, DPW/Transportation Representative
Robert
Gregory, AMR/Emergency Medical Service Representative
John
Haraty, Environmental Representative
Stephen
Rybacki, Fire Department Liaison
Tom
McGowan, Regional Hazmat Team Representative
Mike
Maheux, Industry Representative
Chris
Buendo, Media Representative
Walter
Niznik, Police Department Liaison
Mary
Lou Donahue, School Nursing Supervisor
Bruce
Augusti, State Emergency Management Representative
