Operation Deepwater Horizon

 

Master of Disaster Colleagues:

It has been a little while since I have posted a blog, but like all of my friends and colleagues, I have been quite busy with retirement from Fire Rescue, family, and my new position as Dean for the Center for Teaching and Learning.  That said, I want to focus this blog on the oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico.  Like any disaster, emergency managers along the Gulf of Mexico are bracing themselves for a potential environmental disaster of the first-order.  I am quite proud to say that many of our students, alumni and faculty are directly involved in the response and planning.  Like many of our Masters of Disaster members, I was ordered to active duty with the Air Force and sent to the Defense Support to Civilian Authorities (DSCA) Cell, supporting the airlift and air corridor operations in the spill area.

MOD member Laurel Anderson, wrote in our MOD LinkedIn Group, “The experience of being in the EOC is amazing but it is also emotionally and spiritually draining. Worry, frustration, and anger are apparent on everyone’s faces. Even if you are just in a support status, you feel deeply for those who will be affected, but also for the men ane women on the IMT who are under such deep pressure every moment. Notably as well, the BP rep shows a strong concern for MS and her shorelines, animals and people. Mr. Hardt (BP) has aged visibly in the days that I have watched him come and go.”

Laurel provides a stunning and day-to-day summary of her EOC operations and I want to encourage all of our MOD members and followers of my blog to visit her EOC website to see the gravity of the situation in Harrison, Mississippi.  I also want to recommend the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Incident News site, which is providing daily SITREPs.

As I write this blog, approximately 5,000 barrels of oil are spilling from the well-head.  As this environmental disaster continues to unfold, emergency managers all around the Gulf Coast will be paying attention to the currents and wind directions.  To our MOD members, please continue to watch this incident and observe the multiple levels of emergency management and mitigation this is occurring. While tragic, this incident provides all of us an opportunity to see Emergency Management in ACTION!!!

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