Regional Integrated Planning Update 
January 2013  

During the last part of 2012, The Consortium was focused heavily on hurricane Sandy and supporting both the states and the private sector With their response and coordination efforts.

The Consortium was primarily focused on the needs of the private sector owner/operators of critical infrastructure for resource movement, and process changes to support the effort. Additionally, the Consortium worked with both state/local government and the private sector to deploy some key services to support the overall relief effort

Below is an overview of the capabilities and services that emerged during Sandy.

Services provided to support response efforts:

1) Locating Citizen and Worker Housing

The Consortium reached out to their private sector housing database partners that they have been working with under the RCPGP grant. These partners quickly provided data that was furnished to New Jersey to enable the identification of available housing units. Within three days, the consortium and its partners identified 2850 Properties representing over 400,000 units that could potentially be used to house citizens and relief workers.

2) Citizen Protection via Social Media

Working with the New Jersey EOC & Fusion Center, 50+ private sector companies, and a sophisticated social media analytical service provider the Consortium quickly extended the New Jersey Social Media Trend Reporting Pilot Project for an additional seven days to identify citizens that were stranded, looting, and many other issues related to SANDY. The reports and alerts were provided to the New Jersey Fusion Center/EOC along with dozens of private sector companies who had facilities and employees  in affected areas. This service saved lives and property according to feedback from government and private sector.

3) Regional Rail Security

The Consortium and NJ OHSP have been working with the rail sector for over 18 months on a regional rail initiative started by WMATA, a commuter rail in Washington, D.C . As a result of this initiative, a relationship was built with AAR (Association of American Railroads) which lead to regional rail alerts being sent from AAR to the Consortium and other states and private sector stakeholders which provided information on the status of rail service and events.

4) Power/Utility Fleet Movement

The Consortium, along with DHS and 30+ utilities had been working on a regional initiative called the Multistate Fleet Response Initiative focused on expediting the movement of utility resources and vehicles across state borders during emergencies. Leveraging these private sector relationships, the Consortium facilitated discussions with the power sector and New Jersey officials to develop a simple process to move trucks faster through toll gates. The process was agreed to by several states and was implemented within 12 hours. 

5) Private sector resource data for fuel, food, pharmacy, hotel availability

In the early hours of SANDY, there was an immediate need to determine power  outage locations as well as the location of “open” food, fuel, lodging and pharmacy locations for first responders and utility crews. Again, working with private sector partners, the Consortium began issuing daily “Private Sector Resource Availability Reports” using an Excel spreadsheet attached to emails. The data  came initially from point of sale systems being monitored via satellite dish and or DSL links and covered thousands of fast food restaurants, pharmacies, hotels, and fuel/gas stations across all nine of the Consortium states, but primarily focused on New Jersey and New York. This private sector data became one of the central data feeds in the early stages of the storm and was recognized by FEMA as one of the single most important data sources they had during the first week in their NRCC (National Response Coordination Center). On several occasions, this report data was used to brief the White House as part of their daily briefings on SANDY.

6) Expediting the Connection of People to Resolve Issues

The Consortium leveraged its network of over 9000 State Court holders stakeholders to resolve the problem of connecting people with the right people for the right information. This liaison service was utilized in many cases to assist private sector in knowing what processes to use in each state for “entry” and who in government they could reach to get information.  This service also kept pressure off the states who were busy responding to their myriad of challenges during the storm. There were many stories of how this service worked. For example, the American Baker’s Association (ABA) had tons of bread products on the way to New Jersey. They did not know where to go. They contacted the Consortium who quickly put them in touch with the proper people in New Jersey that provided the ABA with the right information. The result was the trucks arrived with fresh product and citizens were fed.  Another example was in the power sector where out of state utility trucks were tied up at toll station in New Jersey. By facilitating the connection of several people in New Jersey with the power sector, the New Jersey Toll Administration helped develop a workaround process, which was agreed to in a few hours,  and circulated to the private sector within 8 hours. This very simple workaround caused a dramatic impact on the flow of trucks through toll gates not just in New Jersey but in Delaware and other surrounding states. Connecting people, quickly, via telephone, text messages or email were the tools of this service.  Knowing the right people in government and the private sector was the core capability. The results were quite remarkable based on the feedback received from the private sector.

All of these solutions were made possible through trusted relationships with the states, the private sector owner/operator and vendor communities. Not a single agreement or MoU was signed. All of this support was provided via pro-bono services donated by the private sector. The Consortium provided the enabling framework and facilitated the trusted relationships to make this all happen quickly. In the end, it was the people involved. The states of the Consortium would like to thank all of the private sector supporters who participated in the response efforts.

Looking forward to 2013, the states will continue to expand upon their integrated planning initiative and services business model with the private sector. Working together on projects and regional multi-state exercises, the public and private sector leadership and operational management will continue to develop sustainable trusted relationships, coordinate their planning, response and recovery efforts that result in helping businesses get back to business and communities to recover more effectively. The All Hazards Consortium     Partner Organizations & Supporters  The AHC would like to recognize our public and private sector member organizations who support the mission of helping the region to better respond to emergencies.