Three Years Later: Lessons from the Joplin Tornado
Later this month will mark the three year anniversary of the catastrophic tornado that devastated Joplin, MO. Even as the city has rebuilt since that fateful May 22, 2011 afternoon when an EF5 multiple-vortex tornado swept through town, killing 158 people and causing an estimated $2.8 billion in damage, the memory remains crystal clear. Some things you just don’t forget.
As always, in the wake of a disaster people often ask what they could have done different, or better, to avoid or at least lessen the impact of such a large-scale event. A number of key players from the response to the Joplin tornado came together to produce a document, Joplin Pays It Forward, which aims to try to put into words the “aha” moments and frustrations they each had in the days and weeks after the tornado struck, writes Jane Cage, chairman of the Joplin Citizens Advisory Recovery Team, in her introduction to the document.
Among the many people who contributed to the document, Keith Stammer, director of the Joplin/Jasper County Emergency Management Agency, notes in his 25-plus years of work in emergency services he can see how his experiences prepared him for the disaster that occurred when the tornado struck Joplin—but, at the same time, they didn’t prepare him at all.
“The problem, so many times, is that we educate and train based on our past experience of what has happened, and not so much on what could happen,” Stammer comments. “The Joplin tornado is a prime example of what could happen, but one that is not often used in our classrooms. In the past we have trained for tornadoes, but never one that would strike us so hard that it would overwhelm our local resources immediately, thus requiring us to reach out to a large number of people and organizations for help and support, attempt to coordinate their efforts and all the while maintain ongoing, viable city operations.”
Mitch Randles, Joplin’s fire chief, also notes, “As I saw the extent of the completeness of the devastation and the length of the damage path, I quickly realized this was a situation much larger and more complex than our department or even our region could handle on its own. What I didn’t know at that time was that not only did we have a daunting long-term task ahead of us in performing search and rescue, cleaning up the city, and assisting in rebuilding, which included two of our five fire stations, but I, too, was a tornado victim. My home of 16 years had been destroyed as the tornado moved through the city of Duquesne just east of Joplin.”
Among the advice from Stammer and Randles contained in Joplin Pays It Forward:
- Developing pre-disaster relationships is a must. By establishing those relationships long before a disaster happens, you know everyone you’ll be working with firsthand when one does occur. That includes knowing what resources each individual/agency brings to the table, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the people and departments you’ll be leaning on for help.
- Ask for help. This goes hand-in-hand with establishing relationships in advance of a disaster. No department is an island, capable of handling anything thrown at it entirely on its own. Other agencies—local, regional, state and federal—exist to help, so don’t be afraid to call on them.
- Maintain control of the situation and employ unified command. Establish clear lines of authority and set priorities to best manage resources and personnel in your efforts to accomplish overall goals. That’s going to include keeping track of first responders who have self-deployed in the wake of a disaster and bringing them back into the fold as soon as possible so everyone can continue to work toward the same goal.
- Toss the disaster plan. Disaster plans are useful, and provide valuable framework for responding to a large-scale event. But disasters don’t follow plans. Take what you can from your plan but don’t feel beholden to it. After all, you’re responding to the disaster on the pavement, not the page.
- Don’t take “no” for an answer. The first arriving responders you meet in a disaster may not be in a position to provide additional resources or perform certain tasks. “No” isn’t a word we need to hear during a disaster response. If a responder can’t help, find out who can. Someone will be in a position to say “yes” so you can get the job done.
- Your personnel are victims, too. You’ll be helping a lot of people in the aftermath of a disaster, but you can’t forget to help your own. PTSD does happen and providers need outlets to discuss and appropriately deal with everything they’ve seen. Provide those outlets by making sure counseling is readily available for whoever chooses to take advantage of the offer.
- Ask yourself—“Am I prepared?” For EMS agencies that question will come up any time disaster plans are being put together. It’s why we train and drill and run simulated mass casualty events, so we can answer, “yes.” But also ask yourself that on a personal level. “Are you prepared to lose your home and all of your belongings? Do you have someone who can step up and deal with the insurance, clean up, and search for a temporary or long-term living arrangement? I for one wasn’t and I would imagine that most people aren’t,” writes Randles. “Now is the time to think about these problems and issues is before they arise.”
The full text of Joplin Pays it Forward can be downloaded for free as a PDF, or you can download the Kindle version for just 99 cents.
