Editorial: Suggestions to prepare for the next typhoon

There are untold criticisms for how Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero handled the Typhoon Mawar recovery. But in light of national weather experts’ predictions that another two to four typhoons may hit the Mariana Islands this year alone, the more pressing discussion should be centered around this question:

What can the governor do to prepare for the next typhoon?

Here are our suggestions:

1. Read: Every governor’s office manager, Guam Homeland Security-Office of Civil Defense (GHS-OCD) employee, first responder, and cabinet member should be required to read and comprehend the section of the Guam Emergency Response Plan dealing with typhoons. It is comprehensive to both operations and communications, and even provides steps and templates that clearly were not followed or used following Mawar.
2. Practice, practice, practice: All first responders should have the opportunity to undergo intense training and table top exercises specific to a typhoon response and recovery coordination. The governor must be included in these training seminars, and she must participate in the table top exercises. So should her attorneys and financial people.
3. Reestablish the emergency support functions (ESFs) at GHS-OCD for an emergency response activation, and subsequent recovery coordination. ESFs should include those for non-profit organizations, the private sector (think: gas stations, Guam Chamber of Commerce, hotels), the Mayors Council of Guam, and all military, federal, and local government support agencies.
4. Reestablish the authority of the governor as the commander of the emergency operation and response. No agency – autonomous or not – should have the authority to say ‘no’ to the governor in her lawful effort to consolidate and command the flow of resources during the response coordination. For example, the emergency shelters, though operated by the Guam Department of Education, become a creature of the response coordination. The same with power and water utilities. They must be team players in the coordination, and there can only be one commander: the governor.
5. Communications plan. All members of the Joint Information Center must be ready to produce holding statements, news releases, graphics, video, and any other type of communications necessary to communicate with the public and with the Emergency Operations Center efficiently and often. Multiple phone lines should be operated and answered. The plan has to include the embedding of reporters in the JIC. They must have access to dedicated internet. The plan must include fail safes, like pushing information out via the mayors from trucks rigged with mobile loud speakers, when all other forms of communications fail.
6. Pre-stage resources. The moment Condition of Readiness 3 is called, the ESFs should be coordinating the delivery of backhoes, generators, mobile loud speakers, food, water, water buffalos, and other equipment and supplies needed for the first few hours of the recovery to mayors offices, and other staging sites throughout the island. These should be in place and secure at the staging sites before the onset of damaging winds.
7. Pre-write all documents. All executive orders, requests for disaster declaration, requests for relief, and requests for aid should be pre-written by the governor’s legal team and placed in the command center above the Emergency Operations Center for the governor to sign and date upon need. The governor should not be waiting for these documents. The people should not be waiting for the governor to sign these, when the need arises.
8. Do not call Condition of Readiness 4 following the typhoon until a semblance of normality returns. This will prevent stores from price gouging. Otherwise, change the law, as Attorney General Douglas Moylan has advised, to extend the price gouging prohibition from 72 hours to 90 days following the call of Condition of Readiness 4.
9. Go back to Number 1. All of these suggestions are in the Guam Emergency Response Plan.

 

Here is what the governor can do differently following the next typhoon:

1. Be visible. One of the most calming effects a governor can have in a chaotic post-typhoon situation is to be visible, every day of the response. She must be seen in the Emergency Operations Center receiving briefings. And she must be seen on the field throughout areas of focus and repair assisting with the coordination.
2. Communicate efficiently and often. There is no room for officious talk during a typhoon response. No one wants to hear the typical political speak. People want straight-forward facts, timetables (if possible), compassion, and a setting of realistic expectations. And everything the governor says needs to be repeated by the Joint Information Center, with more detail to back up her assertions and affections. The JIC has an obligation to the governor to carry her voice and the operational commands she has made. Those commands – even and especially the details – must be published and transparent for the island to see.
3. Admit errors. They happen. They especially happen in the fast-paced environment of a response and recovery coordination. Admit them, and move on swiftly.

The Mawar response left many people wanting for better leadership. Our governor can be that better leader before, during, and after the next big one. And according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that likely will be some time soon, this year.