4TH QUARTER 2015
WESTERN NEW YORK SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 2006
ELMA Edward R. Sauer Emergency Manager (716) 652-7635 oem@elmanewyork.com
4TH QUARTER 2015
UNDERSTANDING FALL & WINTER WEATHER TERMINOLOGY by Amy Thompson
Living in Western New York, we do get to see various types of hazardous fall and winter MEETINGS - 7:00 PM weather. Last year’s November 2nd Wednesday of Month Storm surprised many of us and Training and meetings are at caused significant damage and the Elma Senior Center unless created obstacles to everyday noted. life. With Fall here and Winter approaching being prepared is Elma Senior Center 3007 Bowen Road the key. Part of preparedness is Elma, NY 14059 understanding the weather. We watch the forecast on TV, InterWeb: net or listen to it on the Radio, www.elmacert.org but do you understand what the Facebook: weather person is talking about? Elma Community Emergency Precipitation: What are the Response Team, Inc. differences between freezing rain, sleet, and snow??? WEST SENECA Forecasting goes beyond preJohn Gullo dicting when it will snow or how Emergency Manager much snow will fall. At times, (716) 558-3238 determining the type of precipjgullo@twsny.org itation is a challenge. Precipitation type with winter weather is MEETINGS - 7:00 PM largely related to the tempera3rd Monday of the month Training and meetings are at the ture profile in the atmosphere West Seneca School’s Ebenezer (between the ground and ~ 20K Building W. S. School Ebenezer Bldg. 900 Mill Road West Seneca, NY 14224 Watch website and Facebook for training and meeting locations. Web: www.wscert.net Facebook: West Seneca Cert
feet). Typically, it gets colder as you go up in elevation but sometimes there can be a “warm layer” of air that gets wedged between the ground and the clouds. This will have an effect on the melting/freezing processes of precipitation. The graphic below explains freezing rain versus sleet versus snow or just all rain. Rain: Frozen precipitation melts and reaches the ground as liquid droplets. Freezing Rain: Sleet is frozen precipitation that falls as ice pellets. Freezing rain is made entirely of liquid droplets that refreezes when it hits cold surfaces into ice. Sleet is frozen precipitation that falls as ice pellets. It is created when precipitation melts in shallow warm air then refreezes into the pellets before it reaches the surface. Snow is precipitation in the form of flakes of crystalline wa-
4TH QUARTER 2015
ter. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft, white, and fluffy structure, unless subjected to external pressure. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Wind Chill or windchill is the perceived decrease in air temperature felt by the body on exposed skin due to the flow of air. The wind chill temperature is always lower than the actual air temperature. The wind chill depends on air temperature and wind speeds with the colder the air temperature and the higher the wind speed, the colder the wind chill. By equating the outdoor conditions to an equivalent temperature with no wind, the index represents the degree of “chill” that your skin senses. For example, if the wind chill is -25 ºF while the outside temperature is only 10 ºF, it means that your face will feel as cold as if it was a calm day (no wind) with a temperature of -25ºF.
5 BUILDING BLOCKS FOR EME
When an event occurs emergency management proc gency management can best be defined as a state of Anyone who has a role in emergency preparedness k driver for any organizations recovery operations. W role is to manage and monitor the response to the ev There a number of building blocks any organization 1. Consider How Your Organization Will Commu When an incident occurs, the need to communicate is Regulators may need to be updated and local govern be concerned and want information. Neighbors livin ers will want information before your organization h the communications plan. A business must be able Many different audiences must be reached with info impacted by public perceptions of the handling of th 2. Assess Your Need For Purpose Built Informatio An Emergency communication in recent years is typ tion of emergency messages between both individual “Outlook,” “Watch,” “Warning,” and “Advisoof messages between a variety of communication tec ry.” What do these mean? gencies. If you have any kind of exposure to emerge An Outlook gives you a heads up; there is subject matter experts from different areas of the org potential for a significant storm two, three, four, the organization. The primary function of any EOC i or perhaps five days in advance. This is your first and more, organizations are looking to the concept o chance to begin preparing for the event. and moves it online through a variety of technology A Watch is issued a day or two prior to the antic- 3. Clearly Identify And Understood Roles. ipated significant event. It means the odds of the Getting together in person is especially tough for age event have increased yet some uncertainty remains to adopt an integrated organizational structure equa for the specific forecast area. Now is the time to jurisdictional boundaries. By creating clearly define get ready, get prepared. response. Such as; too many people reporting to one A Warning means confidence is high the signifistructure for coordinated planning among departmen cant event will occur within the next 24 hours or 4. Think About Your Resource Management less, or is underway. Now is the time to take action If you think that resource management is important to help save lives and property. can’t even get in touch with your employees. This no An Advisory is for weather events with up to 24 dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane, tornado, fir hour lead time that are more of an inconvenience and not necessarily life-threatening. A winter weather advisory for one or two inches of snow is such an example. So why are these terms important to you? They provide lead time for you to prepare for the threatening flood or weather event. Avoid waiting until the wind blows, the snow flies or the rivers rise. Getting ready in advance is the key to helping save lives and property
ERGENCY RESPONSE PREPAREDNESS!
4TH QUARTER 2015
by John Gullo
cesses normally take place in an Emergency Operations Center. Preparedness within the field of emerreadiness to respond to a disaster, crisis, or any other type of emergency situation. knows that their organizations next emergency is a matter of when and not if. People and resources are the When an emergency strikes, organizations pull together subject matter experts from different areas. Their vent, as well as the overall recovery of operations. n can put in place to ensure the most effective response possible occurs; unicate s immediate. If business operations are impacted, customers will want to know how they will be disrupted. nment officials will want to know what is going on in their community. Employees and their families will ng near a facility may need information, even more so if they are threatened by the incident. All stakeholdhas a chance to begin communicating internally. An important component of the preparedness program is e to respond promptly, accurately and confidently during an emergency in the hours and days that follow. ormation specific to their interests and needs. The image of an organization can be positively or negatively he incident. on Management System pically a computer-based system that allows for the primary purpose of supporting two-way communicals and groups of individuals. These systems are commonly designed to integrate the cross-communication chnologies, forming a unified communication system intended to optimize communications during emerency preparedness you know well what a physical Emergency Operations Center looks like. It houses the ganization. Their role is to manage and monitor the response to the event, as well as the overall recovery of is to establish and manage the Control, Communication, Collaboration, and Coordination. However more of a virtual EOC as their information management system of choice. A virtual EOC takes the physical EOC tools.
encies with limited staffing. The incident management concept is designed specifically to allow personnel al to the complexity and demands of any single incident or multiple incidents without being hindered by ed roles and an incident command structure, organizations can avoid some of the common pitfalls in a e supervisor, lack of reliable incident information, inadequate and incompatible communications, lack of nts, unclear lines of authority and unclear or unspecified incident objectives.
t on a normal day, imagine how important it is on a day when you don’t have any power and when you ot only includes physical equipment but personnel. Nobody likes an emergency situation. Whether you’re re, flood, or some other major disaster, you’ve got to be able to kick your resource management plans into high-gear. Your organization can’t run without people. If you don’t have a solid, easily accessible resource management plan in place when an emergency strikes, your company will be in trouble. People rarely think clearly during and shortly after an emergency. They’re probably dealing with problems of their own, so the last thing they’re capable of is coming in and devising an emergency strategy. Instead, you need a pre-planned resource blueprint that will be easy for even the most distracted employees to follow. 5. Ensure Availability Of Trained and Qualified Personnel Training is essential to ensure that everyone knows what to do when there is an emergency, or disruption of business operations. Members of emergency response, business continuity and crisis communications teams should be trained so they are familiar with their role and responsibilities as defined within the plans. Leaders and decision makers should receive a higher level of training, including incident command system training, so they can lead their teams. No matter how successful you may have been before disaster, crisis or an emergency incident struck, all that matters is how you respond to it. If you don’t start the recovery process as soon as possible, you may miss out on your chance to recover altogether. Like it or not, your future depends on what you do right now with your available resources.
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ELMA NEWS & EVENTS by Michelle Kerr
Elma receives Trailer from Erie County Elma CERT, Inc. President, Michelle Kerr, met with Erie County Executive, Mark Poloncarz, on September 16, 2015 to take possession of a surplus trailer from Erie County’s Department of Emergency Services. Thank you to the County Executive, the County Legislature and Erie County Emergency Services for making it happen. Elma CERT, Inc., Town Board and the Elma Office of Emergency Management, are working to equip the trailer for use. Elma CERT, Inc. and the Girls Scouts say “Be Prepared” - On September 26, 2015, Elma CERT, Inc. Participated in a Girl Scout sign up event at SUNYAB’s South Campus. The event highlighted safety and preparedness and had a carnival theme. Elma CERT, Inc. once UPCOMING TRAINING & again participated in EVENTS CALENDAR the Elma Pumpkin Festival on October 3, October 2015 at the Elma Vil- 14 Elma CERT meeting lage Green. Although 17 SMART - ICS 200 the weather was unco19 West Seneca CERT Drill operative, the turnout was good. CERT raffled off two children’s backpacks with emer- November gency preparedness items – congratulations to the winners, April 4 PET First Aid Class and Natalie. EMPact America
WEST SENECA CERT NEWS & EVENTS
11 Elma CERT meeting
Team Participates in Taste of West Seneca & PBA Car Show The West Seneca team participated in West Seneca’s Taste of West Seneca and PBA Car Show by having a booth. Members signed individuals up for CodeRed and talked about preparedness and talked about upcoming training classes. CERT Class The West Seneca CERT, West Seneca Office of Disaster Preparedness and EMPact America held an Emergency Preparedness and CERT Training Class at the West Seneca Emergency Operations Center.
16 West Seneca CERT Drill
ELMA
Sign up for Code Red to be notified of emergency situations or critical community alerts.
Sign up for Elma Code Red : www.elmanewyork.com
WEST SENECA
www.westseneca.net, wscert. net and facebook page
14 CPR First Aid & AED Certification Class -EMPact America December 9 Elma CERT meeting 14 West Seneca CERT Drill January 13 Elma CERT meeting 18 West Seneca CERT Drill
Check the West Seneca CERT and Elma CERT, Inc. websites for updates and upcoming events.
CPR, First Aid & CPR November 14th: 9am - 1pm EMPact America offices
7615 Seneca Street - East Aurora
$20 per person
call 435-7873 or register online at: empactamerica.org/first-aid