PERSPECTIVE: Twenty Years Beyond Cat-Five Hugo
Posted by editor-at-large on 3 October 2009 at 4:42 pm UTC
ON WATCH — An exclusive interview with S.C.’s emergency management chief Ricky Platt
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Retired South Carolina Army National Guard Colonel Charles R. “Ricky” Platt is watching, planning, and re-planning for a killer storm or a terrorist attack he prays will never come; knowing full-well, one – perhaps both – is an unfortunate inevitability.
But as director of the S. C. Emergency Management Division (SCEMD) – a position Platt has held since July – his job is not to thwart or prevent a storm, an attack, or even a nuclear disaster. He can’t.
Platt’s job is to oversee the Palmetto State’s preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities; manage the SCEMD; and coordinate efforts with other emergency agencies locally, regionally and nationally. It’s a series of life-and-property-saving responsibilities the self-described “country boy from the town of Olar, S.C.” seems perfectly matched for.
For instance, in 2008, Platt designed and directed Exercise Vigilant Guard, a huge multi-state exercise that trained and tested thousands of Guardsmen and hundreds of civilian responders in scenarios ranging from earthquakes to nuclear events to counterterrorism operations.
The success of Vigilant Guard 2008 – to date, the largest joint military/civilian exercise ever conducted in the United States according to SCEMD – is touted by officials with both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Guard Bureau as a standard by which other like-exercises might be measured.
In an exclusive interview held at West Columbia, S.C.’s Pine Ridge Armory – which houses SCEMD’s Emergency Operations Center – Platt describes the aftermath of any future disaster. “It’s going to get messy,” he says. He also discusses the importance of planning and revising plans, daily SCEMD responsibilities, and the increasing criticality of state defense forces (e.g. the S.C. State Guard) in the post 9/11 world.
W. THOMAS SMITH JR.: The National Incident Management System (NIMS) doctrine has clearly benefited S.C. in terms of preparedness and national standardization since 2004. But what has been NIMS’ greatest – or most obvious – measurable impact on our state and local response capabilities?
CHARLES R. “RICKY” PLATT: NIMS has made us work together: Agencies working with local responders, local responders working with other locals and other counties, to state, and right up the chain to regional and national FEMA. It’s really the networking and learning from each other. Police officers, firefighters, and EMTs [emergency medical technicians] teach others about responding. The military teaches the finer points of planning. NIMS has thrown us all into one room: Learning from each other and planning together.
SMITH: Yes, but don’t emergency responders plan?
PLATT: They do. But they don’t have 660-plus-page hurricane books. Their plans are much smaller, because they are usually concerned about one town or city.
SMITH: Regarding books and plans, what about the National Response Framework, which replaced the National Response Plan, last year? Explain how you might alter – or would you in any way alter – the NRF?
PLATT: In military vernacular, the National Response Framework is your How-to-Fight book. It is very general. But it is by design. And it is because the federal government – thank goodness – does not want to tell the states and counties how to operate. I don’t want to be critical of it because it’s a very good effort – written at the national cabinet level – that details how the nation conducts all-hazards response. As I say, it’s general, but you’ll see more specificity in it in time.
SMITH: Beyond planning, how does S.C. compare with other states today in terms of our ability to adequately respond to natural disasters (specifically hurricanes) or terrorist attacks? What might other states learn from us?
PLATT: Our watershed event was Hurricane Hugo in 1989, then there was Andrew in 1992. In my personal opinion, those two events brought FEMA closer to the states. Also before Hugo, S.C.’s emergency management office was basically 20 to 24 people (most of whom worked in emergency management as an additional duty) set up in a basement in a state building down on the Capitol complex. Now we have evolved to a very professional – approximately 75-employee – emergency management division.
SMITH: What has been the greatest single improvement to S.C.’s emergency management capabilities post-9/11?
PLATT: Obviously, post-9/11 is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. And some very good initiatives have come from DHS like Seahawk.
[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Platt is referring to Project Seahawk, a multi-jurisdictional task force responsible for preventing and/or disrupting any criminal activity or terrorist attack in the port of Charleston, S.C. On Oct. 1, 2009, the U.S. Coast Guard under DHS assumed operational control of Seahawk from the U.S. Department of Justice, which has overseen Seahawk since 2003.]
There have been so many initiatives since 9/11. And when you consider Hugo where the National Guard was used strictly to support law enforcement and to prevent looting, the Guard now approaches its duties – post-9/11 – prepared for and considering all threat scenarios and contingencies.
Granted, the threat assessment level here in S.C. is lower than in states wherein there are larger, more-urban population centers.
SMITH: Why is the threat assessment level lower here than in other states when we have several nuclear sites and military bases, all of which are potential terrorist targets?
PLATT: True, those facilities do increase the threat level. But the way DHS weighs the data is through a peer evaluation based on population centers.
SMITH: Looking at Hurricane Katrina (2005), which primarily struck Mississippi and Louisiana, particularly New Orleans. Many in the media – and those trying to score political points nationwide – hammered FEMA for failing to protect those in the hurricane’s path. But it was not FEMA that failed; it was a gigantic failure at the state and local level. Why wasn’t the truth of this ever clearly revealed?
PLATT: Let me just say this: Those in Mississippi were hit far worse in areas, and they had a lot of deaths because of the flooding.
You have to evacuate [before a hurricane hits]. We evacuated for Hugo. Had we not evacuated for Hugo, it would have been the same situation here in S.C. You have to get out of the way, and that is a local responsibility that starts at the county level and is supported at the state level.
With the measures we have – and have had – in place, [what happened before, during, and immediately after Katrina] would not have happened in S.C.
SMITH: How important – and in what ways, specifically – is the S.C. State Guard to the state in terms of mitigating, responding to, and assisting in the management of natural disasters or terrorist attacks?
PLATT: Very important. Look, the New York Naval Militia [part of the New York State defense forces] for instance, patrols New York harbor. Congress has given them several millions-of-dollars for boats and to assist the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies that patrol the harbor.
Our own state defense force, the S.C. State Guard – and the State Guard mission – is very valuable to us: We depend on the State Guard to run the points-of-distribution and other things.
In the next few weeks, the backup personal information program (PIP) system – that makes automated warning calls – is going to be moved from here to the Olympia Armory [S.C. State Guard headquarters in Columbia] as soon as we can get the lines running, and then we’re going to train them on the system.
SMITH: How many State Guardsmen will be required to operate the system?
PLATT: As many as two-dozen at a time.
SMITH: So in the event of a hurricane or some other disaster, the automated telephone calls made to all people in an affected area will essentially be made by the S.C. State Guard.
PLATT: The State Guard will be facilitating the system for the SCEMD. The warning will come from the warning point here [at the Emergency Operations Center], then the State Guard will push the warning out to the proscribed counties.
SMITH: What is it about our emergency management capabilities that would surprise South Carolinians?
PLATT: Our liaison work with other agencies is 365 days-a-year: For instance, this morning we met with U.S. Geological Survey people and S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) working to mitigate flooding hazards. Everyday we talk to SLED [State Law Enforcement Division], DNR, S.C. Highway Patrol, Department of Public Safety, U.S. Department of Transportation, American Red Cross.
SMITH: Why everyday?
PLATT: Remember, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said, “Plans mean nothing. Planning is everything.” There are new and changing scenarios. Constantly changing environments. Weather. New earthquake data. Population increases. More building. Technology continues to provide better imagery. And then there are the responses. There are always things going on that the public never sees.
SMITH: Where do we need to improve as a state?
PLATT: Making sure we always have an informed citizenry. We do have an informed citizenry, but that’s always a challenge for me personally. Though who our citizens are, is also our strength. It’s our ace in the hole.
SMITH: In what way?
PLATT: Look at the numbers of retired policemen, firemen, and military we have in S.C. It’s significant and – though it doesn’t factor into DHS’s formula – I personally believe it is a force multiplier. After all, what do you think a retired Marine is going to do if he sees some bad guys trying to do harm to others?
SMITH: Shut the bad guys down.
PLATT: Exactly.
— Military analyst W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a former U.S. Marine rifle squad leader and counterterrorism instructor. He is a veteran war correspondent; having covered conflict in Iraq, Lebanon, the Balkans, Israel & the West Bank. Visit him at uswriter.com.
NOTE: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, and do not represent the opinions of World Defense Review and its affiliates. WDR accepts no responsibility whatsoever for the accuracy or inaccuracy of the content of this or any other story published on this website. Copyright and all rights for this story (and all other stories by the author) are held by the author.
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