Transportation: Community Plan
Bainbridge Island, the community served by Bainbridge Prepares, is connected to the mainland by a bridge that will likely fail in an earthquake and by ferry service that will not be operational in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake. In addition, we get occasional snowstorms and have many trees that are unaccustomed to the weight of snow. Also, many of our residents commute off island during the day, and on any given day we may have many nonresidents visiting or working on the island.
This combination of circumstances requires that we have a Flotilla (to transport people and goods to and from the island), a BigWheels (4WD) team to help transport people and goods after a snowstorm, and a Bike Brigade and a team of Runners to assist with relay of information and transportation of people and goods (on otherwise unpassable roads) after an earthquake.
Your community, however, may have completely different transportation needs. Maybe you don’t need boats at all. Maybe you get a lot of snow and will want to rely on snowmobiles. Or maybe, for your community, 4WD vehicles should suffice for the aftermath of most disasters.
Step 1. Start with an assessment of your situation:
What are the most likely types of disasters?
When those disasters happen, what will be the likely effects on our infrastructure?
What kind of clubs and interests do community members have (mountain biking, trucks, snowmobiling, cross-country running, quads, boating, airplanes)?
Step 2. Identify your town's main supply lines before a disaster. This could be a state or federal highway, a bridge, sea lanes, rivers, or something else. Knowing how supplies come in and out of your town is important because it will tell you where you are most vulnerable when a disaster happens.
Step 3. Determine routes to major infrastructure (hospitals, grocery stores, schools). Knowing how to get to these places and making a plan to clear routes quickly is important.
Step 4. Identify any secondary routes in and out of your town and map them. These routes may also be damaged.
Step 5: Identify and map your community’s Disaster Hubs and Community-Level disaster centers (Child Reunification Center, Disaster Medical Center, Severe Weather Shelters, Domestic Animal Care Shelter). Include where supplies will be stored and how they will be moved to different areas.
Step 6. Determine what transportation teams you will need.
Step 7. Start recruiting volunteers. Go to local docks, car meets, biking events, and cross-country meets and talk to friends and neighbors. Anyone who wants to help should be able to. Reach out to transportation-related clubs and organizations in the community to see if there is interest in volunteering.
Step 8. Create a Transportation Leadership Team that will activate after a disaster. The leadership team will ensure information is conveyed efficiently.
Step 9. Determine how much fuel is available in your community at any given time.
Step 10. Work with your community government to give the Transportation Leadership Team the ability to commandeer all local fuel sources in the event of a disaster.
Step 11. Have your Transportation Leadership Team meet with the Fire Department, the Disaster Hubs Team Leads, and your community’s Emergency Manager to work out a disaster Transportation Plan:
How will you transport resources to hubs?
How will the Emergency Operations Center and the Disaster Hubs communicate if all communications systems fail?
How will you transport injured people from the Disaster Hubs to the Disaster Medical Center?
How will you transport injured people to facilities outside your community?
How will you transport key personnel into and out of the community?
What is your community’s evacuation plan? What routes should be used? What are the alternate routes? How will you avoid massive traffic backups?
How many people in your community do not have vehicles?
How will you evacuate people who do not have vehicles?
How will you transport injured and displaced animals?
In a disaster, who will manage transportation dispatch?
How will you ensure that people are compensated for damage to and use of their modes of transportation during the disaster response and recovery?
How will you collect and remove debris?
Key Principles
In order to recruit and engage enough volunteers, try to adopt these two key principles:
Respect the autonomy and control of each volunteer over his/her/their vehicle/vessel. No one, by volunteering, is offering their boat, bicycle, truck, or snowmobile to be taken over by community officials. Instead, volunteers are offering to contribute their time and their vehicles/vessels to helping in disaster response, as they are instructed and trained to do. (You may also recruit volunteers to help on someone else’s vehicle or vessel—in that event, they must follow the instructions of the captain/owner of the vehicle/vessel.)
Ensure that anyone who is volunteering with their vehicle/vessel will be properly compensated should damage occur to their property. This single point can make or break the success of your transportation teams. Your volunteers must be covered by your community insurance plan. And this will mean that you need to follow the FEMA Incident Command System for logging and tracking hours.