By Matt Zapotosky
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 27, 2008

It was the last Sunday in April six years ago when La Plata Police Chief Cassin Gittings got the call. A tornado had ripped through his town.

Gittings's first reaction: No big deal. Major tornadoes never hit the East Coast. His second: disbelief at the devastation.

"I just remember it was a Sunday evening, and I was at home doing the honey-do list," he said. "That came to a screeching halt. Didn't work on that again for about six weeks."

Instead, Gittings embarked on a different to-do list: a weeks-long foray into the world of emergency services and disaster management. With land-line phone service down and cellphone service overwhelmed by calls, there was no way to contact his 10 officers. They all reported for duty anyway. They were joined by members of almost every law enforcement and emergency response agency in the area.

"I guess the first thing I noticed that had to be done was everything," Gittings said. "I was speechless. I couldn't believe the amount of damage that occurred."

From an emergency services perspective, Gittings and other area officials said, the response in 2002 was good. Six years later -- with new experience, better-defined plans and more state and federal funding after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- it would probably be better today, officials said.

That is not to say that La Plata or any other Southern Maryland jurisdiction would not experience similar devastation in a similar storm. The 2002 tornado, which also hit Calvert County, killed five people and damaged or destroyed nearly 900 homes.

"No one is prepared for a tornado," said Bobby Fenwick, the emergency management director for Calvert County. "We're prepared to respond to the effects of a tornado. I think we're prepared to recover from a tornado. But I don't know how you get prepared for a tornado."

When the 2002 tornado hit, emergency responders set up mobile command centers in the parking lot of the Charles County Courthouse in La Plata. The La Plata Police Station now has a roughly 2,200-square-foot emergency operations center, equipped with computers and phones and surrounded by walls that can withstand 175-mph winds, Gittings said. The center, built with $425,000 in grant funds from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, was completed in March 2006.

Neighboring jurisdictions have similar facilities. St. Mary's County has a center and a backup: a $577,754 underground facility funded mainly with state grant money that could be used if the main facility is hit by a tornado, said David D. Zylak, director of the St. Mary's Department of Public Safety. That facility became fully functional this year, he said.

"We can drop back, go into the underground center and just pick up operations in a heartbeat," Zylak said.

Charles Commissioner Samuel N. Graves Jr. (D-La Plata) worked in the Charles Sheriff's Office during the 2002 tornado. He said the biggest change to emergency services since then has been improved communications. Six years ago, he said, it was impossible for Charles responders to talk directly to all the emergency personnel from neighboring areas who came to help. Now, because of a radio change, responders from all over can communicate without problem, he said.

"Now, they know who to call and how to do it to get the word out," Graves said.

Charles and its neighbors have also joined a widespread move to adopt the National Incident Management System, a formal plan to help jurisdictions work together to respond to a disaster.

"There's now a standardized system for these unusually large events," said Alex Naar, Charles's director of emergency services, adding that repeated practice has helped prepare the county for another tornado.

But there are some lessons that can be learned only through experience, Gittings said. The tornado six years ago taught him the importance of removing debris from drains to prevent flooding, and the care required to handle damaged propane tanks, which can become "little bombs" in a pile of wreckage, he said. He also gained extensive familiarity with the paperwork required to obtain disaster reimbursements from the state and federal government, he said.

"God forbid, if something like that should happen again, I think our response would be much improved," Gittings said. "Now it is a big deal. We do follow it closely, and we respond accordingly."

Staff writer Megan Greenwell contributed to this report.