Collaborative comms: the US experience

When disasters span multiple jurisdictions, coordination and collaboration becomes critically important for effective responses.

During emergencies, reliable communications are critical. Disasters, such as 2017’s hurricanes, continue to test the US’s emergency communications capabilities. As disasters can cross jurisdictional boundaries, collaboration within and across regions is very important.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to review implementation of the Post-Katrina Act’s provisions related to disaster preparedness, response and recovery. The result is the report ‘Emergency Communications: Increased Regional Collaboration Could Enhance Capabilities’.

The report examines:

1. Challenges related to emergency communications that selected stakeholders have experienced.
2. Their views on DHS’s emergency communications assistance.
3. The regional working groups established by the Post-Katrina Act and their effect on emergency communications capabilities.

The GAO reviewed Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) reports and grant data for fiscal years 2011–16 and conducted case studies of three cities — Houston, Los Angeles and Boston — selected based on the number of declared disasters, DHS grant funding and geographic diversity.

GAO interviewed DHS officials; leaders of all 10 regional working groups and other stakeholders, including public safety officials in the case study cities; and others chosen for their expertise.

Findings

Selected first responders and public safety officials identified various challenges related to emergency communications. These challenges include attaining the interoperability of communication systems, obtaining funding, ensuring ongoing training and increasing the emphasis on communications during emergency response exercises.

For example, some stakeholders told GAO about challenges related to equipment that is not interoperable, and others said first responders need training after investments are made in new interoperable communications equipment.

To help address these challenges and as required by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (Post-Katrina Act), the DHS has provided technical assistance, such as training, and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants. It has also established regional emergency communications coordination working groups, which bring together stakeholders from different levels of government and the private sector within FEMA’s 10 regions.

While emergency communications challenges persist, stakeholders told GAO that DHS’s technical assistance generally meets their needs and that FEMA grants have helped them enhance emergency communications capabilities. In particular, stakeholders found training for specific communications positions was useful.

Houston-area officials said this training was critical in preparing first responders for Hurricane Harvey. Some stakeholders told GAO that FEMA grants helped them address needs that would otherwise go unfunded, including interoperable communications networks and equipment.

GAO found that the regional working groups have enhanced emergency communications capabilities through building relationships and sharing information. Within the respective regions, group members have:

• assisted each other during disasters and emergencies;
• developed technical solutions to enhance interoperability; and
• addressed policy concerns, such as the use of interoperable radio channels during emergencies.

However, most regional group leaders told GAO that more collaboration across the groups was needed. GAO’s prior work has also found that including all relevant participants can enhance collaborative efforts. Further, DHS’s strategic plan for emergency communications established a vision of collaboration among stakeholders across the nation.

While FEMA has encouraged collaboration among regional working-group leaders, cross-regional efforts have been limited and do not involve all group members. Developing and implementing an appropriate ongoing mechanism for collaboration could enhance emergency communications capabilities, such as by helping group members address common challenges.

Without ways for all members of these groups to collaborate across regions, members may be missing opportunities to share information and leverage the knowledge and experiences of their counterparts throughout the US.

Conclusions

When disasters strike or emergencies arise, they can span multiple jurisdictions, making coordination and collaboration critically important for effective emergency response. The regional emergency communications coordination working groups (RECCWGs) established by the Post-Katrina Act have enhanced emergency communications within their regions.

While the relationship building and information sharing within these groups have contributed to benefits at the regional level, nationwide collaboration among the groups has been more limited. Such collaboration could help the groups address common challenges by providing a way to improve the sharing of best practices and lessons learned and to allow members to leverage the knowledge and experience of their counterparts to improve emergency communications capabilities in their regions and nationwide.

Therefore, it could benefit FEMA to work with these groups to reach consensus on and to implement a mechanism for accomplishing cross-regional collaboration. A concerted effort focusing on these groups’ collaboration needs, while also considering FEMA’s resource constraints, could help FEMA and regional stakeholders determine an appropriate mechanism for collaboration moving forward.

In several instances, RECCWG members have reported assisting each other during disasters and emergencies, drawing on the relationships and information sharing fostered by the groups. For example, a member of the Region I group, which includes New England, told the GAO that prior to his group’s formation, emergency communications stakeholders from different levels of government in that region did not meet. However, because of the relationships the regional group helped to build, these stakeholders now meet regularly to develop communications plans for large planned events and have collaborated to provide communications support in responding to the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and other events both within and outside of the region.

According to a leader of the Region X group, relationships developed in the group were also helpful in responding to wildfires in Washington State in 2014 and 2015. In addition, after Hurricane Matthew and a major flood in 2016, Region IV group members drew on relationships developed in the RECCWG to coordinate support from other states in the region to assist South Carolina, according to a leader of that group.

Nearly all of these groups (9 of 10) have shared or are working to share information about resources that can be deployed during a disaster. At least three regions have consulted these resource compilations during recent disasters. For example, according to the 2016 RECCWG annual report, this information was used during Hurricanes Hermine and Matthew in 2016, severe storms and flooding in Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2016, and severe winter storms in New England in 2015.

The report’s overall final recommendation is that FEMA should work with regional working-group members to reach consensus and implement an ongoing mechanism, such as a national-level working group, to encourage nationwide collaboration across regions. The DHS has concurred with this recommendation.

This article is adapted from the GAO report, ‘Emergency Communications: Increased Regional Collaboration Could Enhance Capabilities’, issued April 2018.

Main image: FEMA Photo by David Fine.

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