Massachusetts Department of Public Health Emergency Preparedness Bureau August 27, 2011 1500 hrs Health and Medical Situational Awareness Report: Hurricane Irene
Situational Awareness Report: Hurricane Irene August 27, 2011 at 1500 hrs Report # 4 Governor Patrick has declared a State of Emergency and the President has signed and Emergency Declaration for the Commonwealth. Current Situation: According to the National Weather Service (NWS) during a 1230 hrs conference call, coastal areas are now under a hurricane warning and inland areas are under a tropical storm warning. Hurricane Irene continues to move towards New England and still shows the likely track of the storm going across Long Island and entering Connecticut near Hartford, passing through central Massachusetts and up into New Hampshire. The main impacts will be Sunday into Sunday night, but this could change depending on the speed of the storm. Other significant information from NWS: Leading edge of Tropical Storm force winds will approach the area Sunday morning Heavy rain inland with flooding a serious concern. Could receive 5 10 of rain with 12 locally. Western MA seems likely to be on the western side of the track which is the rainy side. Damaging winds will be to the right of the track with some likely to the west as well but the most extensive to the right which right now looks to be the central and eastern half of the state. This will also likely cause extensive power outages and we will mostly likely see a large swath of wind damage Coastal flooding on the south coast Buzzard s Bay area to RI border is a concern. If the storm stays on the current track the storm will be here during high tide Sunday night which could result in surge of 4-7 in many areas Rip current risk is increasing and will continue to do so and erosion will be an issue for south facing beaches Federal Activities: HHS/ASPR has deployed an Incident Response Coordination Team (IRCT) to the region to assist with hurricane activities which is operating from the FEMA Region 1 Regional Resource Coordination Center (RRCC) here in Massachusetts In addition to the IRCT, HHS has also deployed a Liaison Officer (NLO) to the State Emergency Operations Center in Framingham as well as to the FEMA Region 1 RRCC Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT) and a Federal Medical Station (FMS) and associated personnel and resources have also been pre-deployed to the Region to assist with any medical needs post-landfall
State Activities: MDPH/EPB staff continues to participate in the daily conference calls that Region 1 HHS is hosting. EPB surveyed the hospitals to assess preparedness activities and any potential or anticipated issues or concerns at this time. Below is a summary of results from the 49 hospitals that had responded. Please note that some of these decisions may have changed since they first responded to this yesterday afternoon. Sufficient Situational Awareness: All who responded feel that there has been adequate situational awareness. EOP Activation: 12 hospitals have not activated. The remaining have either activated or have partially activated. Command Center Activation: Most have not activated but have started the planning process with key staff. Many noted that they plan on activating as the storm grows closer. Possible Staffing Issues: Most do not anticipate a problem. Those that think there may be concern are currently taking steps to ensure adequate staff. Possible Resource Issues: Same as Staffing Issues. Other Steps: Most notable are widespread generator testing, facility vulnerability checks, supply increases, early discharge of patients (if possible), etc. Contact information: All provided contact information for staff available over the weekend. MEMA will be staffing the State Emergency Operations Center overnight and through the day Sunday with a small crew of operational staff, including ESF-8 Health and Medical. Full activation with all ESFs will begin at 10 pm Sunday evening. To reach MDPH staff at the ESF-8 desk any time after 0500 hours Sunday morning please call 508-820-2086 or 508-820-2088 Shelter Activities: It is expected that the American Red Cross will confirm the location of all shelter this afternoon. Once this occurs all information will be entered into MEMA s instance of WebEOC. In addition to the Regional Shelters run by ARC a number of communities plan to open local shelters this evening. This is an incomplete list: Region 1 Greenfield Colrain Buchland Mohawk Regional HS Northampton Smith Voc High w/ DART South Hadley Hampden Monson, Springfield, Southwick (tentative) Pittsfield,
Simons Rock College Great Barrington w/dart; Stockbridge (tentative) Region 2 City of Worcester Region 3 Town of Merrimac Region 4A Lexington Natick Weston Region 4B Cambridge Region 4C The City of Boston has no immediate plans to open shelters at this time Region 5 Fall River: Durfee High School is being prepared; time of opening still TBA. Letourneau School is back-up, and will be opened at 10.m. tomorrow if needed. Marion: Sippican School to open at 8 p.m. tonight. Wareham: The Multi-Service Center and Town Hall will open at noon today. 3 schools are also ready and on standby should they be needed. Fairhaven: Woods School is being prepared, opening TBA. Brockton: Arnone School is being prepared and will be opened as needed Island of Nantucket Falmouth Other communities will make determinations after the storm based on damage, power outages, and other factors. The Cape Cod Emergency Traffic Plan has not been implemented but the traffic is currently being monitored and MSP are prepared to implement it if necessary. In addition, MEMA has decided that the MMR is prepared to be operational by 1800 hrs (6:00 pm) today. Information for our public health and healthcare partners: The pre-landfall Presidential Declaration allows a lot of resources and assistance from the Federal government to be made available to the Commonwealth which will help us respond to the effects of Hurricane Irene. In addition, there is the potential that Individual and Public Assistance may become available following the storm; therefore, everyone is encouraged to track any costs and expenses associated with the storm.
At this time all pre-landfall planning activities and preparations should be complete. MDPH strongly suggests that all our public health and healthcare partners continue to monitor the progress of Hurricane Irene as it begins to move into Southern New England. In order to assist local officials with preparedness and response to Irene, MEMA has made the following resources available on its website (www.mass.gov/mema) in the "Hurricane Information" section: Links to online tools and resources Hurricane safety information Sea, Lake, and Overland Surge from Hurricanes (SLOSH) maps for coastal Massachusetts counties. These are available as static maps in.pdf format, as well as interactive maps using Google Earth which will allow users to zoom in to neighborhoods and view projected inundations for category 1 through 4 hurricanes. Google Earth is available free of charge at earth.google.com. Southern Massachusetts Hurricane Evacuation Study Hurricane Evacuation Behavioral Assumptions for Massachusetts The Cape Cod Emergency Traffic Plan This will be the last Health and Medical Situational Awareness Report until after the storm passes, at which time we will move into Situational Reporting on the storms impacts as well as any response and recovery efforts taking place. Please feel free to circulate this to colleagues and throughout your agency, organization and/or associations.