BU panel stresses importance of communication in face of disasters

In light of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the 2011 Boston Urban Symposium stressed the importance of communication between different levels of government facing natural disasters at the School of Hospitality Administration on Monday.

The panel, hosted by the Metropolitan College’s City Planning and Urban Affairs, addressed the issue of evacuation route planning and the types of communication that exist between the local, state and federal levels, specifically in Boston and greater Massachusetts.

Speaker Jane Teehan of the Response and Recovery division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency initiated the conversation by giving an overview of FEMA’s role in an evacuation.

Teehan said a key aspect of evacuation is communication and coordination between different levels of government.

“Both the local and state governments must speak in the same voice and language, so as not to confuse the public,” she said.

Teehan emphasized the importance of communicating evacuation decisions to evacuees and considering evacuees with special needs and companion animals.

“It’s no joke,” Teehan said. “People who don’t leave without the animals are left behind. It’s a real, a very real problem.”

Adam Frank, a postgraduate student in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy at Tufts University, and a planning assistant for office of public safety at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, spoke about Boston emergency traffic planning.

“There are 184 [traffic control points], that are meant to guide people and facilitate their entry and exit from certain areas,” Frank said. “These points assist in directing traffic in events of evacuation.”

Frank said the data show several conflicting state and local traffic control points.
“It is still unclear what should happen in cases where different groups have jurisdiction over the same area,” Frank said.

Robert Wortman, chief emergency services officer at the American Red Cross of MassachusettsBay, spoke about the Red Cross’s role in evacuation efforts.

Wortman also emphasized that ARC does not have enough people to respond to each specific problem because of its heavy reliance on volunteers.

People usually evacuate only when the highest official in their region tells them to do so, Wortman said.

“They don’t know who I am and what I do. But they know and trust the governor,” he said.
Wortman ended the discussion by sharing what he said is the key to success in evacuation planning.

“It’s what they teach you at the beginning of every marketing class. People need to hear the same message on what to do, when to do it, again and again and again,” he said.

“The issues associated with evacuations are common to a lot of other planning issues in Massachusetts because they have to deal with lack of coordination,” said Sean Pfalzer, a MET graduate student who attended the discussion. “It’s really interesting that disaster planning is so closely related to so many other planning topics.”

MET graduate student Peter Monea said he was surprised Massachusetts was not better prepared for an evacuation.

“It’s a little scary to see that there is only partial and incomplete planning in some cases,” Monea said.