4.2.1. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
The National Hurricane Program (NHP) helps protect communities and residents from
hurricane hazards through numerous projects and activities. The NHP also conducts assessments and provides tools and technical assistance to state and local agencies that develop hurricane evacuation plans. The program is a multi-agency partnership involving:
● FEMA
● U.S. Department of Transportation
● NOAA
● NWS
The NHP maintains software and programs, and activates liaison teams to help NHC communicate forecasts and warnings to federal, state, and local government entities.
NHP developed a Hurricane Liaison Team (HLT) concept after the active 1995 hurricane season. The HLT updates the EM community about the growth and movements of tropical storms. HLT team members function as a bridge between scientists, meteorologists, and EMs. Team members provide immediate and critical storm information to government decision makers at all levels to help them prepare their response operations, including evacuations, sheltering, and mobilizing equipment.
One of the main functions of the HLT is to provide a video-teleconference (VTC) briefing from the NHC during a major tropical cyclone. The VTC is coordinated by FEMA's National Response Coordination Center. The call includes state and federal government staff and the White House. A member of the HLT leads the brief. This VTC is highly effective because everyone hears the same information simultaneously, shares issues, limitations, plans, and time lines.
The NHC Director can request HLT activation whenever a tropical storm threatens. The HLT remains active until the hurricane threat has passed. During an inland event, the HLT and HPC coordinate with the appropriate WFOs and RFCs, and, when needed, meteorologists from HPC provide precipitation forecasts and hydrologists from the RFCs provide hydrological briefings as part of the VTC. During Irene, the daily briefings by the NHC Director began on Sunday, August 21. HPC staff was on camera during only one VTC, on Thursday, August 25. Otherwise, HPC provided the precipitation graphics and forecast interpretation to the NHC Director, who used the information in his VTC presentations.
The HLT effectively manages DSS requirements for FEMA at a national level. The HLT lead played a critical role establishing an effective relationship between FEMA and NHC. During Irene, NHC Director Bill Read worked with the HLT lead to prepare appropriate graphics to highlight the potential storm impacts for use in daily weather briefings to FEMA and other national decision makers. FEMA finds these graphics essential.
“Bill Read gets it!” –Russ Washington, Director of the National Watch Center, FEMA
Technical difficulties hindered the efficacy of the HPC briefing on Thursday, August 25. In addition, FEMA representatives stated that HPC briefings tended to be too long and technical, and unless HPC improves its briefing style, FEMA would not add HPC to future VTC briefings.
“HPC doesn’t understand how to convey the information to non-meteorologists the way NHC does (too technical). NHC gets it!” –John Juskie, FEMA Senior Policy
Finding 7: After the HPC briefing on August 25, FEMA removed HPC from the VTCs for the duration of Irene. HPC serves as the backup for the NHC and provides the critical rainfall component of the hurricane forecast, the component associated with the majority of fatalities associated with Irene.
Recommendation 7 (Operational): Leveraging the success of NHC briefings, the NWS should support the creation of a Service Coordination Hydrologist (SCH) position at HPC to deliver more effective briefings to key partners.
Finding 8: The NHC is the most visible national entity for tropical cyclone information. FEMA and national media partners will continue to go to the NHC as the single source for tropical cyclone information; however, NHC participation in FEMA VTCs phases out when the coastal threat ends.
Recommendation 8 (Operational): Even though rainfall forecasts and inland flood threats are outside of the NHC’s forecast focus, when briefing FEMA and national media, briefings (by NHC, HPC, or some combination) should give attention to each tropical cyclone-related threat at an appropriate level. This support should continue until the tropical cyclone is no longer
affecting the Nation, including the impact of deadly flooding from coastal surge or inland rainfall. This procedure should be standard practice, not the exception.
NWS Southern and Eastern Region ROCs gave valuable support to affected FEMA Regions during Irene. There were, however, a number of coordination issues between NWS offices and FEMA Region Watch and Regional Response Coordination Centers. In particular, FEMA Region II Regional Response Coordination Center personnel were unfamiliar with the organizational structure of the NWS and how to obtain local expertise. Personnel in FEMA Region III needed information about WFO county warning area boundaries within its region. Finding 9: FEMA Region II Watch Center expressed a desire to become better educated on NHC product issuance times and associated high-demand workload times at NHC in order to minimize their impact (time demands) on NHC operations. FEMA Region II also stated that while conference calls with ERH were useful, conference calls concerning Puerto Rico or other CWAs should also involve WFO personnel to ensure the use of local expertise.
Recommendation 9 (Operational): NWS should work with all components of FEMA to familiarize FEMA staff with the NWS organizational structure and provide FEMA with contact information for local expertise. In particular:
● FEMA Region conference calls should include an NWS representative from impacted WFOs and RFCs to provide local expertise.
● NWS should coordinate with FEMA Regional Watch Centers regarding NWS product schedules and general NWS office operations to maximize coordination efficiency of briefing activities.
4.2.2. USGS and USACE
The MARFC stated that there was great interest and value in sharing hydrologic-related forecast impacts during major flood threats such as a hurricane with other agencies in addition to EMs, such as USGS, USACE, and other water management agencies.
Best Practice: MARFC briefings to the USGS before Irene enabled USGS to deploy personnel and equipment to important locations. As a result, the USGS quickly repaired damaged gages, ensuring the RFC received data at vital locations during the event. The USGS found this coordination and information valuable.
During Irene, storm surge expertise was needed at coastal WFOs and the ERH ROC to help WFO forecasters, partners, and users interpret SSU storm surge forecasts, model forecast
guidance, datums used, and relating surge to impacts on coastlines and infrastructures; however, coastal/ocean expertise related to inundation and storm impacts is limited in the NWS at local offices. Additional storm surge expertise exists within the federal government. For example, USACE recently conducted a survey of coastal engineering/science expertise and found approximately 75 full-time employees nationwide with those skills.
Finding 10: During Irene, a USACE employee was providing storm surge expertise to the NYC OEM and working closely with SSU.
Recommendation 10 (Strategic): NWS, through the National Hurricane Program, Office of the Federal Coordinator of Meteorology (OFCM), the Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference and the National Hurricane Operations Plan, should discuss with USGS and USACE the possibility of deploying their personnel with storm surge expertise to assist and/or supplement NWS staff during potential land-falling hurricanes. These non-NOAA personnel should receive advance training about NOAA storm surge forecast models, NWS and NOS coastal observing networks, and NWS forecast operations.