On Thursday August 29, the East Palestine Village Council held a special council meeting where the required After-Action Review (AAR) following the Norfolk Southern train derailment that occurred on February 3, 202 was presented by guest speakers Bonnie Maney and Brian Melzer from Mission Critical Partners.
The Village of East Palestine had contracted the company to conduct an unbiased AAR, which is a qualitative, structured review of the actions taken in response to a public health event as a means of identifying and documenting best practices, gaps and lessons and providing an After-Action Report and Improvement Plan.
Mission Critical Partners collected and reviewed all available public data and information sources and conducted both individual interviews and focus-group sessions with stakeholders over a five-month span. The study looked at the four common emergency management phases – preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. The AAR focus areas of each phase included communications, incident command, liaison efforts, interactions with federal, state, regional and private sector agencies, interstate mutual aid, and interpersonal skills and personal performance. Full Report Link.
This graphic represents the Expanding Emergency Communications Ecosystem and all the agencies, departments, responders, and voice and data equipment that are involved in creating the cycle of communication that must coordinate with one another during an incident.
ASSESSMENT AREAS
The study covered seven functional areas involved in the response and provided key findings for each area noted:
- Communications & Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) Operations
- Fire and EMS
- Law Enforcement
- Unified Command
- Emergency Management Agency (EMA)
- Public Information Officers (PIO)
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
IMPROVEMENT PLAN
A total of 39 recommendations were made in the following four areas: Coordination, Planning, Systems & Equipment and Training.
NEXT STEPS
The Village of East Palestine and the respective departments addressed the need to focus on resolving the issues that they can affect and coming up with a strategy to implement the improvement plan to increase future emergency response outcomes. Collaboration will be key because of the geographical location of East Palestine and the limited resources in rural areas. Funding to hire more personnel, conduct training and upgrade the technology infrastructure will be an ongoing challenge.
Improvements in Process or Completed
Chief Keith Drabick reported that the Village of East Palestine Fire/EMS has already worked through many of the recommendations provided and has completed the following:
- Completed Recommended Training – NIMS ICS-300 & ICS-400
- Establishing Level 1 and 2 Staging
- Established a Box Alarm System