My Part in the Emergency Operations Center – Valley View Wildfire

The Real Thing – This is Why We Practice!

Last Thursday, July 10th, I had the opportunity to sit in the Spokane City/County Emergency Operations Center and observe the professionals working the Valley View Wildfire (link to video footage). There were a lot of positives that came together during the event but some lessons learned as well. When you consider that most of those folks deal with emergency responses for a living, you would think that most of the issues that surfaced should have been addressed in the past, either as the result of past emergencies or through the regular training exercises these folks conduct. From my observation, though, what it came down to was the proverbial left and right hand not knowing what the other hand was doing – not a lot of it mind you, but enough to raise one’s eyebrows.

The big question for me as I look to the private sector is, if the real professionals have challenges during an emergency, what would it look like from an individual’s company’s perspective following a major business disruption? Are you prepared? Would communications flow freely? Could you respond to a business disruption? Could you resume your business? Recover your business over time? Unless you test your plan (assuming that you have one), you will never know! My theory is, better to find out during an exercise vs. during an emergency. If you are not going to make the effort to exercise your plan – good luck following the disruption we all hope never occurs.