Confusion and a lack of coordination in the wake of Hurricane Irene and last week’s 5.9 earthquake has federal employees worried that the government is still woefully unprepared for emergency situations.
Government workers repeatedly complained about the inability to communicate during the recent earthquake when cellular phone networks went down. Many felt like they were left in the dark, and agency leaders didn’t have the means to disseminate key information.
“I was appalled at the singular lack of situational awareness,” said Dennis Snyder, a program analyst with the Veteran’s Administration.
Linda Kane, a Customs and Border Protection employee, was frustrated when her building was evacuated and employees were instructed to stand directly outside the building - one of the most dangerous places to be during a quake. “I would love to be compliant in these emergency situations but it seems that we are on our own to inform ourselves as to the most prudent course of action. The whole thing was not only frightening but very disappointing in how it was handled.”
Without clear leadership from management and no access to cellular service, many workers resorted to Facebook, Twitter or Blackberry Messenger for news and other important information.
“Twitter was invaluable,” said Joe Flood, a digital media producer. He gave high marks to the U.S. Geological Survey for quickly updating their website. “My neighbors didn’t know what happened until I showed them the tweets from around D.C. about the earthquake. The news from USGS was rapidly disseminated thanks to Twitter.”
With such heavy reliance on social media, some federal workers urged agencies to include these services in any emergency communication plans. This has added weight to employees concerns that the government is lagging behind in adopting new technologies.
“Redundancy is key in these situations as cell networks get jammed and people leave their computers,” said Steve Radick, a lead associate at Booz Allen Hamilton. “Sending an email to their work account doesn’t work if they’re not in front of their computer. Texting/calling cell phones doesn’t work when the cell networks are down. Calling someone on their home number doesn’t work if they’re evacuated at work. Seriously, for most of the people I know (including my wife), the only way we were able to find out what was going on with each other was via Facebook.”
Lizette Molina, an employee at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, asked, “Is there any good reason why the White House can’t come out with a mandate that requires all agencies to adopt social media, if only for the purpose of coordinating efforts during regional and national emergencies? How many disasters do we need to go through for some sense to get knocked into the powers-that-be?”
Radick suggested that federal agencies should take advantage of social media to not only disseminate information but also keep employees safe: “Imagine a closed government Foursquare-ish thing where employees/contractors were required to ‘check-in’ when they arrived at the evacuation point either via their GPS-enabled phone.”
Alison Merkley, a Treasury Department employee, also offered suggestions for improved government emergency response.
“A better [contingency] plan would involve a faster chain of communication: is the government open, should people return to buildings to collect their personal items or bring them with during evacuation, is it a terrorist situation, are they inspecting buildings, etc,” Merkley said.
With the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks around the corner, many federal employees were quick to draw comparisons between a terrorist attack and natural disaster. Unfortunately, workers expressed little faith in the government’s emergency response protocol.
According to Snyder, “We are unprepared as we enter the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and remain as vulnerable now as then. There are no coordinated communications from any authorities, and individual businesses and agencies are left to make up their own plans. The risk of contradiction is high without coordination, and we as a nation really need to take this seriously as a learning opportunity before something more serious happens.”
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