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MISSOURI DIVISION |
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEPTEMBER 2000 POST EARTHQUAKE HIGHWAY RESPONSE AND RECOVERY SEMINAR HELD IN ST. LOUIS MISSOURI
SHARING STATE DOT RESOURCES BY BOBBY MOSELEY
MR. MUSSER: Next up on the agenda is Bobby Moseley. Bobby is a licensed professional engineer and director of the Office of Administrative Services at the Mississippi Department of Transportation. He served as president of Mississippi Transportation Conference, general chairperson of the EMAC Transportation Task Force as well as SASHTO 1996. He was a former emergency coordinator for Mississippi Department of Transportation and past chairman of the Conference On Pavement Markings and Signing Materials for SASHTO region. He received his bachelor of science in civil engineering from Missouri State University.
MR. MOSELEY: We had a meeting yesterday of the EMAC transportation task force and the CUSEC transportation task force. The CUSEC task force was officially formed in June of this year at a meeting in Memphis. It was attended by all the states and we elected Jerry Thompson of the Indiana DOT as chairman of this task force. We developed a game plan and a memorandum of understanding that basically spells out the purpose of this task force and the activities that we´ re going to try to carry out over the next few years. As Janet has already alluded to, they are graciously providing some funds to make sure we can follow through with our plans. Some of our plans are going to include some exercises and training in other states so that we can learn from the experiences. So it just goes to show, you must plan and you must communicate before a disaster occurs, not after it.
That leads me into the other area, and that being the EMAC transportation task force. I´ll giveyou a little background on EMAC. It used to be SREMAC, Southeastern Regional Emergency Management Assistance Compact and it goes back to Hurricane Andrew when some of the southern governors wanted to provide some help to the state of Florida. At that time, they realized that there were some issues that really did not make this very easily done. Issues such as liability, employees and equipment going across state lines and working in another state had to be addressed. After about two years, they took off the southeastern regional and just made it EMAC, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which is what we have now.
Last year, in June of last year the SREMAC task force, met in Memphis. By the time we left, we were the EMAC transportation task force. We changed our name. We also changed the name of the response plan from the SREMAC transportation response plan to the EMAC transportation response plan.
The transportation response plan is being revised by the National Emergency Management Association or NEMA. They are the ones that actually print and distribute the EMAC guidebook. They have agreed also to keep the EMAC transportation response plan up-to-date and distribute changes.
Currently there are 35 member States in EMAC. So EMAC legislation is being enacted pretty rapidly across the United States.
We have five panels within this plan. It´ s a signal crew panel, sign crew panel, debris removal crew panel, inspection of structures and operations. The first three deal primarily with hurricane related disasters. The inspection of structures (bridges and other types structures) deals primarily with earthquakes. The operations panel provides the mechanism by which we set up operational procedures for operating this plan.
I want to go ahead and reiterate something that Allen Masuda said this morning. What you saw up there in the prior overhead were the panel members as they are right now. They´ re all state transportation agency members. We need input from all the key players, be it FHWA, FEMA, or the state emergency management agency. The First and Fifth Armies have actually been involved in some of our discussions. The Corps of Engineers, CUSEC, CUSEC geologists have also. If you would like to be on one of these panels and give some input into the discussions of these panels, we´ re glad to entertain your membership on a panel. Just let me know.
This is an overhead showing the contact person for the state emergency management and the transportation agency emergency operations personnel. For the EMAC manual, we asked each member to give us three persons showing the various means of contacting them. As an example, if we had to contact somebody in Arkansas, we would contact the first person on the list under transportation agencies to discuss our particular needs and whether they could give us the assistance.
Within the EMAC manual for each participating state, we have their inventory of materials and equipment. This gives a requesting state kind of a shopping list. They can look and see what type of material or equipment is available from another state and determine if they are compatible with their own.
Then you get into the signals. I have to give Texas a plug because in 1998 when Hurricane George came to visit the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it took with it about three to 400 signal heads. We had some signal heads in stock but we wound up needing about 200 more heads. We contacted our supplier and they gave us a long time period to get that many heads. Using the EMAC procedures, we in turn called the State of Texas that had compatible type signal heads. I talked to them personally and asked about the number and type available. We went through the process and they agreed they could help us. We then submitted the necessary information to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency who contacted the Texas Emergency Management Agency. They worked out the actual paperwork. By the end of the day the Texas Department of Transportation had 200 signal heads on the way to the Gulf Coast. And the following day in the evening they arrived there on the coast. All the preliminary work completed under the EMAC agreement, allowed the Texas DOT to do all of this very quickly.
We were able to get the signal heads much quicker than from our normal supplier. It just so happened, that Texas wanted to get rid of these signal heads because they were moving to a different type. They wanted the money instead of in-kind replacement. Because of the sheer number they buy, we actually were able to get the signal heads at a price cheaper than from our contract. It turned out to be a win-win for everybody concerned.
This is the debris removal resource inventory form. Every state fills one out and puts it in the EMAC plan. It´ s nothing more than a shopping list or catalogue of resources. It just shows the number of debris removal crews that a State may have available. That does not mean that the state would send all of its debris removal crews to a requesting State. It means they have that many. They may have problems themselves or may have those employees tied up. They could actually send fewer crews. The difference in crews could be made up from other EMAC States. It´ s a real simple process and you get the kind of service that you need.
The last one is the inspection of structures. That is primarily a list of personnel that have the expertise to inspect the various types of structures after an earthquake.
Now, EMAC works. It was used 15 times between February of 1997 and June of 1999. If you think about it, in the transportation arena, who else is better equipped and has the operational knowledge to assist a state transportation agency than another state transportation agency? When you´ re responding to a disaster, you need help. You want your help to be an asset and not a liability.
When you ask for assistance from another state, they´ re the ones that can come in and can make a difference in a hurry. If your State is not a member of the EMAC transportation task force, we urge you to get your State to join. First you need to get your state to enacted EMAC enabling legislation. We encourage you to go back and meet with your state officials and get this legislation passed. Once passed, it doesn´ t cost you anything to join EMAC. All you have to do is fill out this disc with the requested information and send it into NEMA. We can then include your State resources in the program and every year we´ll ask you to update the information. One of these days you may need some help or maybe a neighboring state may need your help. Being part of EMAC, you´ ll be able to provide a service to them without any administrative hassles.
If you talk to anybody what has been involved in EMAC and has utilized it, they will say that it´ s a win-win situation. It´ s a lot better than relying on the Federal government and the military to start with. If you can call on the transportation agencies surrounding your State, it´s ideal. That´ s my plug and I thank you.
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