COORDINATE AND COMMUNICATE

C = Coordinate and communicate vital information in a        timely manner

Hurricane Shelter Locations

Mobile County officials base their decision about shelter openings and locations based on storm track and intensity and other factors. If you decide not to evacuate the area, listen for public announcements about shelters open near you.

• Mobile County will post a list of shelters prior to an event
• The American Red Cross Shelter Plan (Utilization of state’s community college network is outlined below. Other facilities will be posted, as needed)

Community Colleges as Emergency Shelters: The Alabama Plan
Alice W. Villadsen and Bob Romine

Colleges throughout the nation have often been included within community emergency and evacuation plans. For instance, Lee College in Baytown, Texas, became a short-term evacuation site for those fleeing hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, and Faulkner State College in Bay Minette, Alabama, served in a similar capacity for area evacuees. Sometimes colleges are listed as logical evacuation sites for local K-12 schools should an emergency hit the community’s public schools. Community college campuses are at times used as practice sites for city emergency organizations. Brookhaven College in Dallas has seen helicopters, ambulances, and fire trucks use its grounds to rehearse emergency situations resulting from simulated explosions, fires, and pandemics. However, most of these situations involve one college working cooperatively with another college or with an area hospital or other emergency-related local agency. Not so in Alabama, where an innovative state emergency plan has been developed that uses the state’s community colleges in a coordinated way as evacuation centers. Since all public community colleges in Alabama are within one state system, the entire system can be a unified emergency resource for the entire state.

The State of Alabama and its coastline suffered through two massive hurricanes in successive years: Ivan in 2004 and Katrina in 2005. In previous years, the state had experienced seemingly more than its share of the monster storms. Tornadoes spawned by hurricanes also have caused significant damage, and rising water and floods have happened in the aftermath of these hurricanes.

Alabama contains two Gulf Coast counties – Mobile and Baldwin – that are highly vulnerable to hurricane landfalls, and several southern counties that are often in the pathway of hurricanes moving northward from Alabama, Florida, or Mississippi. Hurricane Katrina wrecked the New Orleans area in Louisiana and southern coastline Mississippi, but the small towns dotting the western shores of Mobile Bay in Alabama also sustained massive damage. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan did enormous damage to Gulf Shores, Dauphin Island, and the Mobile and Baldwin areas generally.

Rationale for the Development of the Plan

Because of the breadth and depth of damage and loss of life sustained in Alabama through Ivan and Katrina, Governor Bob Riley determined that a state response plan was necessary as an aid to the usual Red Cross and State Emergency Management responses. Thus, following the destructive summer of 2005, he commissioned a group to examine the possibility of using the state’s community colleges as temporary emergency shelters to supplement the usual Red Cross shelters when needed for evacuees living along Alabama’s coastlines. The Red Cross is the organization charged by the United States Congress to provide disaster services, initially authorized in 1905 and reaffirmed in federal law in the 1974 Disaster Relief Act and in the 1988 Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. In response to Governor Riley’s request, on June 1, 2006, the Alabama state plan was presented to the governor; it was approved and has been implemented.

Key Partners

The Alabama College System – the state’s two-year college system – partnered with the American Red Cross to certify two-year college facilities as Hurricane Evacuation Centers. As a result of the state’s effort, 23 system colleges with 36 certified sites will be able to shelter 22,000 people. In addition, four colleges are in the process of being designated as Red Cross Certified Medical Needs shelters. These special needs shelters will be co-located with college evacuation shelters. Following careful planning, it was agreed that the college presidents would manage the college facilities and the Red Cross would manage the sheltering and feeding process. A thorough memorandum of understanding delineates all responsibilities. Adopted within the memorandum of understanding is the Red Cross definition of disaster:

A disaster is a threatening or occurring event of such destructive magnitude and force as to dislocate people, separate family members, damage or destroy homes, and injure or kill people. A disaster produces a range and level of immediate suffering and basic human needs that cannot be promptly or adequately addressed by the affected people, and impedes them from initiating and proceeding with their recovery efforts. National disasters include floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, winter storms, tsunamis, hail storms, wildfires, wind storms, epidemics, and earthquakes. Human-caused disasters – whether intentional or unintentional – include residential fires, building collapses, transportation accidents, hazardous materials releases, explosions, and domestic acts of terrorism. (American Red Cross Foundations of Disaster Services Series, July 2003)

In the event of a named storm with a projected strike zone on the Gulf Coast affecting Alabama, all of the colleges review the plan, ensure that they are in readiness based upon checklists of materials and actions included in the plan, and await a possible call from the system chancellor. Should evacuation be declared by the Alabama Emergency Operations Center as a result of the impending storm, the governor declares a state of emergency and notifies the community college system chancellor who notifies the appropriate colleges for action. Levels of preparation and action include (1) stand by, (2) alert, (3) activated, and (4) post-landfall. Each action level includes precise action for the colleges to take.

Basics of the State Plan

The state has been divided into three tiers of shelters: Tier 1 is the southern part of the state and consists of eight colleges with 13 sites certified to shelter 5,000; Tier 2 is the middle part of the state and consists of seven colleges with 11 certified sites sheltering over 5,600; and Tier 3, in north Alabama, includes eight colleges with 12 sites and a capacity of 10,200 evacuees. Secondarily, there are three additional colleges not certified but available as secondary shelters if needed.

Community colleges were selected to be certified shelters based on their locations near evacuation routes within the state; however, the plan includes the likelihood that evacuees from neighboring states will also have access to the shelters since coastal residents must flee to logical locations not necessarily within their own state boundaries. The tiered categorization of the shelters allows for three levels of response based upon the strength of the hurricane. For Category 1, 2, and 3 hurricanes, the Tier 1 shelters will be opened; for Category 4 storms, Tiers 1 and 2 are activated; and for a Category 5 hurricane, all tiers will be activated.

Not only are the colleges set to receive evacuees who arrive at their locations prior to storms, but local colleges also can provide transportation for those who need to be evacuated but have no personal means of transportation. Through the use of 40 college buses and 66 vans, 2,500 people can be transported at a time. Buses and vans are also designated to move evacuees from one shelter to another if capacity is reached at the first shelter.

Colleges’ Responsibilities

The local colleges are responsible for ensuring that shelters are safe and operational. They provide security services, first responder and first aid, janitorial services, maintenance, and if available, food service. If food service is not available, the Red Cross provides prepackaged meals. The Red Cross will have equipment and supplies stored and distributed to the college shelters in each tier at the appropriate times.

Red Cross Responsibilities

The Red Cross maintains a special liaison to the Alabama state plan and the Alabama College System, and the system also has named a special liaison to the Red Cross. Red Cross offers specialists to consult with the system at no cost on program planning, shelter identification and management, and emergency operations. Applicable training for system employees in mass care, shelter operations, and appropriate health services in support of shelters is provided as well. Red Cross plans to provide the appropriate volunteers to operate the shelters but may enlist, for up to 14 days, employees of the system colleges to aid in volunteer shelter assignments if needed.

Additional Elements Within the Plan

The Alabama Hurricane Preparedness Report includes details describing each of the 36 sites that have been certified by the Red Cross. Such items as evacuee capacity; transportation, including buses and vans; generators; numbers of toilets, sinks, and showers; food preparation areas; dining and seating capacity; laundry facilities; level of health and first aid available; and accessibility are included for each designated college. Utility providers and names and contact information for key employees at each college are also included. Within the report are scenarios developed and based upon actual hurricanes affecting the state in recent years, along with a detailed state level budget including an emergency shelter needs list. An annual review and evaluation of the plan is required, and the current memorandum of understanding is in effect for three years with the possibility of the plan being reactivated at the conclusion of the cycle.

The Alabama College System Hurricane Preparedness Plan and Report is evidence that a state, vulnerable to particular disasters -in this case hurricanes- can thoughtfully and thoroughly evaluate its resources; develop a strong partnership with government and an emergency agency, the Red Cross; and prepare for caring for thousands of its citizens in case of a severe emergency. With the recent events that have taxed the nation’s usual emergency preparedness providers, community colleges in Alabama have proved ready to do their part in protecting the lives of those who need shelter.

Alice W. Villadsen is President Emeritus, Brookhaven College, Dallas County Community College, Texas, and Bob Romine is Vice Chancellor for Workforce Development and Adult Education, State of Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education. This article is an excerpt from the League's new publication, Hoping for the Best While Preparing for the Worst: Disasters, Emergencies, and the Community College, edited by Alice W. Villadsen and Gerardo E. de los Santos.

Shelter Supplies

Shelters offer little more than a safe place to stay as the storm rages outside. Residents wanting a little more comfort should bring with them any medications they need, blankets or sleeping bags, a flashlight with extra batteries, any special food (nonperishable), infant formula, diapers and food, small toys, puzzles and books for small children.

Alcoholic beverages, any type of weapon and food other than special dietary
requirements will not be allowed. Pets will not be allowed except at the shelter
designated for them.