Helping NYC Prepare for Irene and Sandy
The NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) developed the Coastal Storm Plan (CSP) starting in 2006; a key component of the plan is the establishment of Hurricane Shelters to serve up to 600,000 residents who seek public shelter in the event of a severe storm. In 2007, they needed to make this plan fully operational.
Solution
Andrew Boyarsky led the effort in collaboration with NYC OEM to develop, test, and produce a range of support solutions, from field operations guides, to online and classroom courses targeting 68,000 storm staff, to develop a web-based software solution to manage staff, facilities, and shelter client data.
Outcome
In response to both Hurricanes Irene (2011) and Sandy (2012), these systems were used by over 5,000 NYC storm staff to manage an extensive shelter system of 68 shelters housing 37,000 shelter clients throughout the five boroughs of NYC. Senior emergency management staff from the command level through to storm staff used these systems and reported that they were highly effective and essential tools in managing emergency facilities. These systems have been used as a model in the development of similar guides at the regional and national level.
What do we mean by “hands-on’” training?
In 2010 we developed a four hour hurricane shelter simulation that won an award in the Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge in 2011.