Latest / The County Line / The County Line Podcast: Ep. 17

Transcript

The County Line Podcast: Ep. 17 · The County Line

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: You're listening to the County Line Podcast, production of the Tulsa County Board of County Commissioners.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, Tulsa County.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Ethan Hutchins here with the Tulsa County Board of County Commissioners for another edition of the County Line Podcast.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: And today I'm joined with Director of Emergency Management, Bill Smiley, and Greg Morgan, also with that department.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: Today, guys, we're talking about the upcoming hazard mitigation plan public meetings.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: First, let's just have you guys introduce yourselves and kind of talk about your background and what the hazard mitigation plan is in the public meetings.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Bill, we'll start with you.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so um yeah, Bill Smiley, the director of Tulsa County Emergency Management.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um we've been in this office now.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a brand new uh office in in Tulsa County for about a year.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's been open.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: And background is uh working for the Corps of Engineers and private sector and public sector and also in healthcare at the VA in emergency management for about 30 or so years.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Greg?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Greg Morgan, uh assistant director.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um I started with EM back in what May?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh before that I was with Tulsa Health Department, emergency preparedness and response.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Before that, OSDH, local emergency response coordinator.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I had all of the counties I surrounded Tulsa.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then before that, EMT.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been in the emergency response area for about 15 years now.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Very cool.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Glad to have you guys on board.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: And there's been a lot of great progress, I know, that has happened with your department since uh it was created.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, this new hazard mitigation meeting, uh, or rather, meetings that we're about to have.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what was the reason behind developing this?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a it's a county-level plan.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And what it does is it helps us identify the hazards and the risk in Tulsa County.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: We have two major plans that are almost like our foundation in emergency management.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: One is the emergency operations plan, which tells us how to respond.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then the hazard mitigation plan tells us how to mitigate hazards uh associated with the risks that we have in Tulsa County.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So the uh communities are invited to participate in those.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: So um the cities, no matter how big or small they are, are invited to participate.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them already have their own plan, and uh, but we roll everybody up into the larger county uh plan, which helps us uh plan and mitigate the risk associated with the hazards in Tulsa County.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's very it's very useful from the standpoint that if we have those risks and hazards and mitigating actions that we need to take identified in that plan, once there's a disaster, then we can link the impacts and the damages from that disaster to the hazard mitigation plan.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's all a big process, right, that you have to do to get that FEMA reimbursement and the other federal agency reimbursement as well.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: So And so can you tell me an example of what hazards are out there, what kind of feedback you're looking for from the community?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um so obviously we rank uh uh we have a risk ranking for all the hazards.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And as you can imagine, tornadoes, severe weather, storms, wildfires, those are the uh the more severe ones that we have.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: They have a higher risk ranking.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: But for a community, just it doesn't really matter big or small.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: For example, we know that Turley uh has a lot of wildfire risk.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have areas like Collinsville that also has wildfire, but you know, flood.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: So um we're looking for the communities to help us identify what those risks are.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's a lot easier than people would think because you just have to think about the type of disasters or hazards that you have in your community, whether it's a road or um whether it's an area where there's uh washouts or whether it's an area that has expansive soils, you know, that's a that's a new one we talk about quite a bit, excuse me.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it really doesn't matter.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever you think or see in your community or that has actually occurred, those are the things we want to hear about.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because we want the ground tooth reality about what's going on in our communities to go into this plan so we can help them mitigate.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so what do we do with information once we hear the feedback from the community?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what's the process look like to get that uh information into an actual comprehensive plan?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um once the community responds with the information, then we we roll it into the plan, of course.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: We do a little uh a risk ranking.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's not little, it's it's large, actually.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: We take all that data and and put it all together.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I think one thing that's important to note is that the mitigation actions that we take come in really in two forms.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's either a structural, such as replacing a bridge or repairing a building, um, or it's non-structural, where we help a community identify, you know, what are the triggers they need for flood, for instance, and when it's going to impact their homes.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Mitigating, especially the items that are structural, typically, and this is a FEMA fact, they use a one to six ratio.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: So for the money that you spend on a mitigating action, it it produces uh six times fold in um the things that you don't see behind the scenes.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: For example, if uh if a building was um destroyed, then what does it cost for replacing the building?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, that that's there.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: But then you've got to relocalocate equipment, personnel, sometimes there's time off, and all those things go into mitigation.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: So the effort that you make to identify these items really um helps almost, you know, three, four, five, and six-fold over when we're replacing those.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing that it helps us do is that there's different levels of mitigation.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: So what we try to do is there's a 404, uh, which is just replacing the item, but a 406 builds it back even better so you're prepared more for the next disaster.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean 406?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: 406 is a type of mitigation that FEMA allows you to uh build back the way it was, for example, a flood wall to a certain level that it was at to predict from flooding.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: But 406 says you can increase the height of that flood wall so the next time if the water gets even higher, you're prepared for that.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that's it's really beneficial to communities.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, Greg, why is it so important for us to have these public meetings?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a requirement that we have to have public feedback.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And as Bill was saying, you know, Tulsa is such a diverse county that every county, every part of the county has kind of more specific issues that they are going to face.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So by having that public input, they could tell us exactly what's affecting them, and then we could, you know, pull together our ideas and information for the larger county plan to help us come up with better mitigation strategies.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: And we have three upcoming meetings.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh there's one happening on October 14th.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's at TCC West.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's off of uh 41st Street, West 41st Street.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the next one after that is in November at O'Brien Park.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's on November 18th.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh February the third is the third meeting, and that is going to be at Tulsa Tech, the Lemley campus.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: And all these start at 6 p.m.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, what will these evenings look like?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so the uh community members will show up, they'll get a briefing from our contractor that's helping us conduct and uh develop the hazard mitigation plan, they'll hear from us, of course, uh, and how it all fits into the overall plan.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't mention that, you know, the community input is one part.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: You've also got the subject matter experts and the people who deal with those risks all the time, they'll also have input.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then you've got the um key leaders, for example, the elected officials, they also have input to the plan.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really a whole community concept, right?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: So they'll get a briefing on that, and then we'll just go through a discussion about the risks that we've noticed in this area, whether it's in District 1, District 2, or District 3.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure we cover meetings in each one of those areas, um, and then put that into the overall process of uh developing that plan.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, there'll be some questions and they'll have an opportunity to have some input back and forth.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say to uh a community member who might ask, you know, why does my input matter?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you guys are the experts, you know, emergency management, you guys have years of experience.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say to a community member who who may question whether they have any value to provide?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I can you know point to some um some mitigating actions that we've taken here recently.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: For example, the road repair on 101st and uh Garnet that we're doing right now, um, that's because of disaster related.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it helps you with your transportation, it helps ambulances make sure that they get to where they need to be uh in uh in a in a good time.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um it helps everything you can deal with with transportation.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's just one example.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I will uh point out that certainly um if that road had not been repaired, uh it would have gotten much worse in a much larger area.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And now you're coming into that one to six right category of uh the benefits for that that type of uh repair.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it can also uh be something like repairing a fire station so it remains open.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um so there's a lot of different avenues where those uh mitigating actions, whether it's another siren or um something else in the community, such as that, that really impacts the communities or uh public safety.
• 9:17
  unknown: Yeah.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if yeah, yeah, I was just gonna throw in.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I was actually at a partner meeting yesterday and he asked a question like, so what does EM actually do?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this is coming from a firefighter, you know, he's trained in chief.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it was interesting.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: It made me sit back and reflect on it.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, to answer that question, it's like, okay, there's multiple levels of disaster preparedness and disaster response, prevention, protection, mitigation, recovery response.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what people don't realize is that EM, we bring a lot of different resources to the table that most people don't realize.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So for that, that private citizen, that public citizen asking the question, like, hey, you know, why do you need me?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's because you're giving us a resource, you're that ground level.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: You actually know, you know, hey, this affects my neighborhood in this specific way.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then we could utilize the resources that we have available to us to, you know, correct that issue or address it in one way or another.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, you've got so many citizens out there who they live in their communities, they are fully aware of any kind of hazards that they face, whether they're driving somewhere, whether their kids are playing out on their street.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they're so much more aware of that.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: So if they come to these meetings and they provide that feedback to you guys, something could happen from that.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: It could be part of the plan.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: And they see it occurring around them.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: The uh the the uh landfill fire that we had on Highway 75 just a little while back, for example, if you're if you're seeing that that fire occurring, they should think to themselves, well, what could we possibly do to prevent something like that?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the items that we found in our after action is that maybe we could use some more trucks that could spread water in the wildfire area.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: So there's always something that can be done.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so if they come with that mindset to the meetings, then I think they'll be more open and ready to discuss some of the things that have occurred.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because you don't necessarily say, I I think we need this.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: You could say, well, we had a wildfire or we had a trash fire, and what do we want to do to prevent that?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that also stimulates the conversation.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell Where ultimately will this plan be um published?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is this gonna be on our website?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Is this gonna be somewhere else?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one of the things uh when I got hired on was transparency, right?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Modernization, which we're doing, we're building a new EOC.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: The commissioners have been very supportive in all those areas and uh then modernization and transparency, right?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So this will be online.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So people will be able to see this, they'll be able to see where their homes are at, where the flood water could hit it, um, and know when to move and go and develop plans for their family for each one of these different areas that we have.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: There are about 10 primary high-risk risks for uh Tulsa County that that'll be on there.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but certainly they'll be able to see everything.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: There'll be points of contact for them to call and get more information, or have somebody from emergency management attend a meeting or a community meeting to talk about.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: So um they'll be very open, it'll be very public, and uh there'll continue to be participation a hundred percent of the time, not just during the the hazard mitigation plan, which is updated every um five years.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, that was my next question.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is how often is this updated?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Every five years.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Five years, okay.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And just because we publish it, it doesn't mean that it's like static at that point.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is a living document.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: So as things happen, demographics change, uh, areas are built out, or we experience a different disaster, it could be updated, you know, in the moment.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like it's just one and done.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, we're always thinking about what could happen next, and we're always just trying to uh prepare for the the next potential hazard or disaster.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we're really fighting uh, you know, these on a number of different areas.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And Greg mentioned the larger program areas, but really emergency management applies to homes, businesses, the political and social structures that we live within and operate.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you can also look at it from those standpoints that no matter where you are at or what you're doing, you've got input to your public safety in your community.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the primary way, know it or not, that uh a lot of these public safety organizations um can get support during uh disasters.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: And and even really, we've got some that um we're not even using uh post-disaster funds.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the federal government comes out with time frames that uh we can apply for other things as well.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: So gotta have it in that plan though to justify uh what we're doing.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: Very cool.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: So this is very important for us to to to begin the process of getting the community feedback and then uh put the plan together, post it online, and then just keep having that dialogue with the community.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: I should, you know, also mention that uh in the whole public safety uh arena as it speaks, so includes public safety fire and police and health and medical and electrical and all those things that go into making sure that we're all safe, they all have input as well.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it also applies to them.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um so their input's appreciated um as well as everybody else.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: So love how we had the sirens going on in the downtown.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, perfect timing.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll we'll probably leave the meeting and try to find out what's going on.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: This is what happens when you you record these downtown Tulsa things happen.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: So uh well guys, thanks for for coming by and talking about this very important uh plan and and and also these meetings to help prepare for that.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: Have I missed anything?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want to add anything else for for the viewers to know?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think uh we just really appreciate uh the public safety community of practice.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um we appre really, really uh every day they strive to make it safer for the people that live and work in in Tulsa County.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we really appreciate all the effort that the communities um provide in terms of engaging with them to try to reduce risks um and make people safer.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we just really appreciate that and take that opportunity to say that.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: And and for those who want to follow along with these upcoming meetings, uh, we do have these posted on our Facebook and and we'll be putting out more uh marketing to promote these events, um, particularly this coming up one on October 14th.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this podcast will air ahead of that meeting so folks can uh can plan ahead.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: All right, thank you guys.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you guys for being here, and we will see you all next time on the County Line podcast.