Preparedness Isn't Enough
As I write this, Texas is afire all around me. My immediate area seems safe. For now. As far as I know. That’s not a very comforting thought.
By early evening there were about three dozen fires in central Texas according to a Weather Underground map (I counted them in an earlier version of this map). There have been road closures, thousands of people have been evacuated, hundreds of homes destroyed, and at least 14,000 acres in Bastrop county alone have burned in just one fire. The Steiner Ranch subdivision has been shut down, and it's not all that far from where I live.
There’s been a disturbing lack of timely official information; I wish I had noted the time I first became aware of the fires to create an accurate timeline about the disconnect between media updates and official news. The more I looked tonight for official news for local, regional and state emergency information, the more I realized that there is a plethora of information about preparedness, awareness (and planning and appointments) but almost nothing about action. After Katrina and the September 11 attacks one would think there would be an official state site Texans that would provide official links to emergency management agencies and where to look for information in case of emergencies, especially when they cross municipal and county boundaries. It’s not like Texas has never seen a natural disaster before; we've seen drought before and the wildfires that come with it, and neither fires nor tornados or hurricanes don’t follow government boundaries.
But the state agency charged with “emergency management services,” the Texas Department of Public Safety doesn’t have any page that I can find that directs the public to official information on active emergencies. Instead tonight on the @TxDPS twitter account that agency commented on the wildfire situation stating "be aware of what's happening in your area. Monitor local media. If evacuations ordered, get out!"
Local media outlets are not created equal, and they need the official information in order to share it with the public. If I hadn't been aware of these fires through twitter, I still wouldn't know about the central Texas wildfires (#centraltxfires on twitter). This is precisely when leadership is needed, and little of it has been visible this weekend. Emergencies do not occur in a vacuum, real people and their property are in harms way and if the official agencies cannot provide information when people need it, people will not only look elsewhere they will do what they can to take action on their own . It’s a lose-lose scenario unless local officials step up, whether it’s a holiday weekend or not.
The Bastrop County Emergency Management webpage has a simple, sparse page, but includes it’s twitter account @BastropCntyOEM on that page, and they actively use the account, especially today. It took until 8:30pm for the Austin/Travis County Emergency Operation Center page to say the EOC was "partially activated", and it wasn’t until 9:07pm that it had any information about the Steiner Ranch evacuation, which was found under News and Info > Latest News until some time after 10:30pm Sunday. The updates occured around the same time as the twitter updates to @austintexasgov. It is still not listed under “Incident Updates” a page which hasn’t been updated since a bee swarm in May, although it’s now clearly visible on the home page. According to the 2010 Census summary for Texas, there are 1,024,266 people in Travis County. Bastrop county has only 74,171 people, and doesn't include the state capital. The math doesn’t add up.
In fairness, there is an Austin Fire Department Active Incident page that is updated every three minutes. But that isn't accessible through the Austin HSEM page, and it only includes City of Austin fire and hazmat incidents. And I have to commend Austin American Statesman and KXAN News seemed to be doing the best job of tracking fires, evacuations, and road closures, but they haven’t had much information to go on. I hope they both do in-depth follow-ups on the lack of information available to Austin and Travis county today, and take Austin and the HSEM office to task for dropping the ball.
It’s heartbreaking to see tweets from people desperate for information about their homes. I found out about the Steiner Ranch fire through twitter, when one of its residents who is out of town replied to a tweet of mine that included a link to the original Statesman blotter blog about multiple fires. This man is out of town, his home is probably gone, and he’d been trying desperately to get information all afternoon. He should not have to beg for information on twitter.
Between the record obliterating heat we've had this year, and being in an exceptional drought with no end in sight, wildfires are likely to continue being epidemic. According to a Texas Forest Service Incident Management Situation Report from Friday indicates well over two million acres have burned in Texas this year, and that report hasn't been updated in two days. So it's great that Texas Prepares, but it would be better if Texas Responded. I’m prepared for a “shelter-in-place” emergency, I’m not prepared for an evacuation, and I’m not confident that Austin or Texas is doing an adequate job in keeping the public informed when emergencies occur.
All these fires are not going to be contained overnight, and more are likely to start tomorrow, especially considering the number of people who are likely to be outside cooking (and smoking). So please be extra careful. And here are useful twitter links to staying on top of the news, and are available on the @JennBrownFilm/centraltxfires:
[As these fires are not all under control, the stats related to them are likely to change.]
By early evening there were about three dozen fires in central Texas according to a Weather Underground map (I counted them in an earlier version of this map). There have been road closures, thousands of people have been evacuated, hundreds of homes destroyed, and at least 14,000 acres in Bastrop county alone have burned in just one fire. The Steiner Ranch subdivision has been shut down, and it's not all that far from where I live.
There’s been a disturbing lack of timely official information; I wish I had noted the time I first became aware of the fires to create an accurate timeline about the disconnect between media updates and official news. The more I looked tonight for official news for local, regional and state emergency information, the more I realized that there is a plethora of information about preparedness, awareness (and planning and appointments) but almost nothing about action. After Katrina and the September 11 attacks one would think there would be an official state site Texans that would provide official links to emergency management agencies and where to look for information in case of emergencies, especially when they cross municipal and county boundaries. It’s not like Texas has never seen a natural disaster before; we've seen drought before and the wildfires that come with it, and neither fires nor tornados or hurricanes don’t follow government boundaries.
But the state agency charged with “emergency management services,” the Texas Department of Public Safety doesn’t have any page that I can find that directs the public to official information on active emergencies. Instead tonight on the @TxDPS twitter account that agency commented on the wildfire situation stating "be aware of what's happening in your area. Monitor local media. If evacuations ordered, get out!"
Local media outlets are not created equal, and they need the official information in order to share it with the public. If I hadn't been aware of these fires through twitter, I still wouldn't know about the central Texas wildfires (#centraltxfires on twitter). This is precisely when leadership is needed, and little of it has been visible this weekend. Emergencies do not occur in a vacuum, real people and their property are in harms way and if the official agencies cannot provide information when people need it, people will not only look elsewhere they will do what they can to take action on their own . It’s a lose-lose scenario unless local officials step up, whether it’s a holiday weekend or not.
The Bastrop County Emergency Management webpage has a simple, sparse page, but includes it’s twitter account @BastropCntyOEM on that page, and they actively use the account, especially today. It took until 8:30pm for the Austin/Travis County Emergency Operation Center page to say the EOC was "partially activated", and it wasn’t until 9:07pm that it had any information about the Steiner Ranch evacuation, which was found under News and Info > Latest News until some time after 10:30pm Sunday. The updates occured around the same time as the twitter updates to @austintexasgov. It is still not listed under “Incident Updates” a page which hasn’t been updated since a bee swarm in May, although it’s now clearly visible on the home page. According to the 2010 Census summary for Texas, there are 1,024,266 people in Travis County. Bastrop county has only 74,171 people, and doesn't include the state capital. The math doesn’t add up.
In fairness, there is an Austin Fire Department Active Incident page that is updated every three minutes. But that isn't accessible through the Austin HSEM page, and it only includes City of Austin fire and hazmat incidents. And I have to commend Austin American Statesman and KXAN News seemed to be doing the best job of tracking fires, evacuations, and road closures, but they haven’t had much information to go on. I hope they both do in-depth follow-ups on the lack of information available to Austin and Travis county today, and take Austin and the HSEM office to task for dropping the ball.
It’s heartbreaking to see tweets from people desperate for information about their homes. I found out about the Steiner Ranch fire through twitter, when one of its residents who is out of town replied to a tweet of mine that included a link to the original Statesman blotter blog about multiple fires. This man is out of town, his home is probably gone, and he’d been trying desperately to get information all afternoon. He should not have to beg for information on twitter.
Between the record obliterating heat we've had this year, and being in an exceptional drought with no end in sight, wildfires are likely to continue being epidemic. According to a Texas Forest Service Incident Management Situation Report from Friday indicates well over two million acres have burned in Texas this year, and that report hasn't been updated in two days. So it's great that Texas Prepares, but it would be better if Texas Responded. I’m prepared for a “shelter-in-place” emergency, I’m not prepared for an evacuation, and I’m not confident that Austin or Texas is doing an adequate job in keeping the public informed when emergencies occur.
All these fires are not going to be contained overnight, and more are likely to start tomorrow, especially considering the number of people who are likely to be outside cooking (and smoking). So please be extra careful. And here are useful twitter links to staying on top of the news, and are available on the @JennBrownFilm/centraltxfires:
- #centraltxfires for news and comments about the Central Texas Fires
- @CenTexRedCross for Red Cross, including their "Safe and well" checkins/notifications
- @austintexasgov Apparently any emergency service updates come from here for Austin
- @BastropCntyOEM Bastrop County's emergency service updates
- @TxDPS Official TX Department of Public Safety account - not very useful
- @Statesman Austin American Statesman Blotter Blog - first available info
- @KXAN_News Very detailed info by neighborhoods
- @KUTNews
- @AustinPetsAlive is taking in some of the displaced Bastrop shelter animals
[As these fires are not all under control, the stats related to them are likely to change.]
Posted by Jennifer Brown at 5 Sep 2011, 12:28 AM 
Categories: Austin
Tags: Technical Communication Contingency Planning Customer Support
Categories: Austin
Tags: Technical Communication Contingency Planning Customer Support
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