Inject Response Report St George ACE A Mass Casualty / Mass Fatality PIO Tabletop Exercise April 19, 2013
This report contains the inject responses from the St George ACE A Mass Casualty / Mass Fatality PIO Exercise. These responses are unedited and are directly exported from the information typed into the ONX System during the exercise. The purpose of this report is to provide documentation for your organization s records of exact responses captured during the exercise. www.allclearemg.com info@allclearemg.com www.drc-group.com info@drc-group.com
ACE - St George - # 002 Tuesday 6:05PM The airport has notified 911 Dispatch of the crash and initial notifications of emergency response agencies (Fire, Law Enforcement, EMS, Hospitals, etc.) have been completed. Briefly describe the method of notification and the approximate timeline by which Public Information Officers (PIOs) will be notified of the incident. 1- Facebook 2- Social Media 3- Dispatch - 911, DRMC 4- Text, Admin page LE 5- Gold Cross -EMS 6- BLM through Dispatch 7- Direct Page from Fire-EMS - Garfield 8- ER notification - VV Identify the agency that would be lead for PIO responsibilities, along with the name and title of the lead PIO from that agency. Part 4 City PIO - Marc Mortensen Part 5 Part 6 Based on your agencies plans discuss as a team then document the initial action steps for PIOs upon being notified of the crash. 1- Gather Information 2- Assemble the JIC ACE - St George - # 003
Tuesday 6:47PM The airport s Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) unit has established a Unified Command and is coordinating the agencies that have responded to the incident. The Incident Commander (IC) is trying to deal with the media and the amount of information which is rapidly unfolding. The IC recommends that the PIO establish a way to coordinate information flow to the media and the public. As the Lead PIO identify and briefly describe the actions that would be taken to ensure efficient and accurate coordination of information. (Note: Response to this inject should be based on the discussion among group members.) 1- JIC 2- Establish Media Center 3- Timeline for briefing 4- Media Staging Center ACE - St George - # 004 Tuesday 7:14PM As information regarding the crash and its magnitude becomes more apparent, it is determined that additional PIO personnel and resources will be needed to adequately support the Joint Information System (JIS) and Joint Information Center (JIC). Briefly describe how additional PIO resources will be requested. Washington County PIO Association. -Marc needs additional PIO staff. E-mail, Text, Telephone Tree activated. Dave Heaton contacted. What would the expected timeframe be for establishing a JIS? Part 4 Under 1 hour
Part 5 Identify the agency that would be responsible for activating and coordinating the JIC. Part 6 City PIO Part 7 Based on current information identify a potential JIC location for this event. (Note: Conduct a short group discussion to consider potential JIC locations if an airline crashed in other areas or regions.) Part 8 Washington County EOC ACE - St George - # 005 Tuesday 7:23PM Media outlets are reporting that many people observed an explosion before the plane crashed. Rumors of terrorism are beginning to show up on Twitter and Facebook. Because the media is now integrated with Facebook, Twitter and other social media sources, it will be important for PIOs to monitor and post messages to social media sites. (Note: Access the most recent Situation Report from on-scene Unified Command.) Identify the Twitter account(s) that would be used to post information regarding the crash for your organization. Face book, twitter - Merge Accounts for unified messaging. Dixie - Help with sending out messages. Re-tweet and repost official messages Part 4 Prepare a Tweet to be posted to the identified account(s). (Note: Tweets are limited to 140 characters.) Royal Airlines plane crash at the St George airport. Emergency personnel on scene.
Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Create a hashtag for this event. #stgcrash - follow the hashtag Identify the Facebook account(s) that would be used to post crash information for your organization. St George City. Washington County Emergency Management Prepare language for a Facebook posting to the identified account(s). 0 There has been an airplane crash in St George ACE - St George - # 006 Tuesday 9:05PM Shortly following the crash, Royal Airlines activated its Family Assistance Hotline. Describe the role the JIS / JIC would have in ensuring local / regional media outlets are aware of the hotline phone number. 1- Contact with royal airlines PIO. Send out hotline number as a media advisory. Social media. ACE - St George - # 008 After reviewing the Family Assistance Center Fact Sheet, briefly describe the roles, if any, PIOs would have in establishing or supporting a Family Assistance Center. Field PIO to obtain information to coordinate with FAC. Based on the information in the Family Assistance Center Fact Sheet, create a news advisory about the Family Assistance Center. Information could include location of the center, how it operates, etc. Part 4 Fax over FAC information. Ask Royal airlines coordination as to advisory.
ACE - St George - # 009 As a PIO in the JIC, you are contacted by media requesting names of victims and hospitals to which the injured have been transported. Briefly explain how this request would be handled and what information would be provided. If they have a name for St George Hospital...We would confirm only if they opt to have the information released. The JIC does not have access to this information. Hospital coordinator at the JIC Would you have access to the number of fatalities, injuries and the hospitals where the victims are located? Part 4 Yes Part 5 Briefly explain why you would or would not have access to such information. Part 6 See above ACE - St George - # 010 Friday 10:43AM Medical Examiners from across the state have been deployed to St. George to support mortuary services. As the identities of victims are determined, the process of notifying the next of kin begins. Describe the role, if any, that PIOs would have in supporting death notifications. (Note: Access an example of Death Notification Procedures.) ME office is responsible for notification information. would give information to law enforcement
News ACE - St George - # 011 Review the News Release about the Medical Examiner s Office. Family members continue to call the Family Assistance Hotline. They are inquiring about when the Medical Examiner will finish identifying the deceased and when the bodies of their loved ones will be released. Based on the information provided in the News Release, craft a message to share with families explaining how the identification of human remains works in Utah. Revise message/news release draft given to participants. Provide overview of the ME process. ACE - St George - # 012 Friday 7:30PM Given the fact that the media works on a 24 hour news cycle, the nation s attention has moved on to other news events. As activities related to the crash and the Family Assistance Center continue to wind down, briefly describe the role of PIOs, if any, in the days and weeks to come. City PIO would be the contact person. Close the JIC down. Social Media is always involved to release information. ACE - St George - # 013 (Note: Briefly discuss if you found the resources that were available to you
during this exercise as beneficial in supporting your role as PIO.) Identify and describe additional resources such as templates, checklists, guidelines, etc. that would be beneficial to PIOs during a Mass Fatality incident. 1- Create overall process. Review templates and checklists. Create news advisory templates. List and describe any planning and / or resource gaps that were identified during today s discussion. In addition, list any recommendations that can be implemented to improve PIO response during future Mass Fatality events. Part 4 See above. Refer to feedback.