Micki Trost, Strategic Communications Director/ ESF15 LeadColorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency ManagementMicki.Trost@State.CO.US Twitter: @COEmergency | @PIO3mickiCOEmergency.com| DHSEM.state.co.us

Colorado FloodsFast Facts & Coordinated Communications

Summary

•History of Colorado Disasters•Overview of Colorado Flood•ESF15 in the State EOC•Recovery & JFO•Lessons Learned

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13 Declarations for Colorado in 2012 & 2013

• Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides (DR-4145) - Declared 9/14/13• Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides (EM-3365) - Declared 9/12/13• Black Forest Wildfire (DR-4134) - Declared 7/26/13• Colorado Royal Gorge Wildfire (DR-4133) - Declared 7/26/13• West Fork Fire Complex Wildfire (FM-5031) - Declared 6/21/13• East Peak Fire (FM-5030) - Declared 6/21/13• Royal Gorge Fire (FM-5028) - Declared 6/11/13• Black Forest Fire (FM-5027) - Declared 6/11/13• Wetmore Fire (FM-5022) - Declared 10/23/12• High Park and Waldo Canyon Wildfires (DR-4067)

– Declared 7/28/12• Weber Wildfire (FM-2985) – Declared 6/24/12• High Park Wildfire (FM-2980) – Declared on 6/9/12• Lower North Fork Fire (FM-2975) – Declared 3/26/12

Colorado also experienced the Aurora Theater Massacre, Mesa County Landslide

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Colorado Disasters Since 1953

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2015 Spring Storms Disaster Request

• Storms began April 29 – May (possibly tie in through June as well)

• Daily rain, saturated soils, snow run off, tornadoes, landslides, levee breaches, water supply loss

• 9 counties / 10 towns declared emergencies

• State emergency declared• Preliminary Damage

Assessments • Request for Major Disaster

Declaration process underway for Public Assistance

• Managing expectations on Individual Assistance

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Colorado Wildfires

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2012:255,220 acres destroyed and more than 653 homes

2013:211,466 acres were burned and 1,852 homes destroyed

Scope of 2013 Flood Disaster• 10 Fatalities

• 18,147 people forced to evacuate

• 2,000 Square Miles Impacted

• 24 Counties

• 76 Dams with Flood Caused Damage

• 120 Bridges Needing Repair

• 485 State Highway Miles Affected

• 284 irrigation ditches damaged or destroyed

• 203 Businesses Destroyed / 765 Damages

• 1852 Homes Destroyed / 28,363 Damaged

o 28,362 Applied for FEMA Assistance

o 16,557 Received FEMA Assistance

• Still very active Fire Recovery at same time

• FEMA was already here! We know each other really, really well.

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8

Colorado Flood Recovery 2014

https://youtu.be/eAtCU9xTHPA?list=PLJshF96Aj8xagFf5v6DrQNBuNLWOk4gLf

Cost of Flood Disaster

$3.3 Billion in estimated damages.

$623.3 Million in home damages. $1.7 Billion in damage to state and local infrastructure. $535 Million to state & local highways. $555 Million in economic impacts.

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Initial Money Allocated • $329M is being used from our September Flood.  

o $1.1B in total to date.• $53M for our State Highways; total dollars to be allocated is $450M

o Additional $100M following appeal to FEMA• $267.3 M allocated in Public Assistance (PA)

o 20 of 24 counties approved for some level of PA and 1203 project worksheets submittedo Cost Share Committee in place to review projects requiring additional financial assistance

• $61.7M in Individual Assistanceo 11 of 24 counties approved for Individual Assistanceo 28,368 people have applied with 16,499 approved 

• $109.6M in loans provided by the Small Business Administrationo 2,138 home owners and 381businesses

• $58.4M in National Flood Insurance payments (over 1,950 claims)• $62.8M of the Initial tranche of CDBG-DR funds awarded on December 5 by HUD Secretary

Donovan• $199M of second tranche of CDBG-DR funds awarded.

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19

State Emergency Operations Center Response

SEOC Activities During Flood

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• SEOC Activated: September 11, 2013

• SEOC Staffing: Level I with 100+ including

FEMA Staff: 1,400

• SEOC Demobilized: September 29

• 18 Days – 24 Hour Operations

• Transition to Joint Field Office for 1 year.

SEOC Activities During Flood21

Mission Orders

319

Logs Orders in first week

195

Cost of State Resource Orders

$28.5 million (current)

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Search and Rescue•Early warning•Local public safety•Five FEMA USAR teams

▫Door-to-door

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Rescue and Evacuations

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National Guard Involvement• At the peak, more than 750 personnel, 21

helicopters, and 200 military vehicles supported flood response operations.

• Aviationo Rescued/evacuated 2,526 civilians and

1,047 petso Largest air US evacuation since

Katrina• Ground search and rescueo Rescued/evacuated 707 civilians and an

estimated 300 petso Transported over 20,000 FEMA provided

meals and served over 5,000 meals

6

National Guard Rebuilding Roads• In 17 days, the 947th EN CO Army National Guard and

CDOT established a line of communication from Lyons to Estes Park.  

• The National Guard and CDOT reopened US 36 in 52 days, one month ahead of schedule.

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EMAC• National Guard

▫ Utah National Guard

▫ Kansas National Guard

▫ Montana National Guard

▫ Iowa National Guard

▫ Wyoming National Guard

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EMAC•Public Assistance – 8 States•Preliminary Damage Assessment – 1 State•Hazard Mitigation Grant Program – 1

State

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Isolated Communities

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• Access• Travel time of 1.5 hours longer

than pre-flood drive time• Ability for disaster assistance• Utilities and connectivity• Distance to the nearest medical

facilities and public safety response

• 5,620 Households, remained after initial rescue and evacuations

Isolated Communities• What challenges we

counted on:▫ Communications▫ Access▫ Energy▫ Food

• What challenges we didn’t count on:▫ Stragglers▫ Second homes▫ The extent of private

roads and bridges

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State Recovery Activities

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• State Recovery Plan • Joint Field Office (JFO)• Governor’s Recovery Office established. Now

transitioned into Colorado Resiliency and Recovery Office

Long-Term State Recovery Plan

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Overall Mid to Long Term Strategy Framework

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Environment

- Wetlands - Riparian habitat - Critical Habitat - NEPA Requirements - Mitigation Efforts - Other

Stream / Floodplains

• Zoning• ABFE• BFE• Housing

• Land Use• Transportation

Corridors• Reconstruction

of Public/Private Infrastructure

• Future land Use• Future Zoning

Housing

• Manufactured Housing Communities

• Multi-family Structures

• Single Family Structures

• Residents - Owners & Renters

• Small Business• Communities

Infrastructure

• Private Roads• Private Bridges• County Roads• County Bridges• State Owned

Elements• Dams

• Access to Homes & Emergency Services

• Water Rights• Ditch &

Irrigation Companies

Debris

• Sediment• Tree / Brush

(Woody) • Building,

Pavement & Structure

• Land Use• Transportation

Corridors• Delays to

Public/Private Rebuilding

• Reconstruction / Retrofitting of Structures

Community / Economic

• Small Business• Private Non

Profit (PNP’s)• Cultural /

Historical

• Tourism (Loss)• Community

Services (Loss)

• Customers & Tax-base (Loss)

• Facility Use • Access to

Public Materials

Recovery Area

Issue:

Type:

Impacts to:

State Recovery Plan35

Intermediate• Housing

– Intermediate solutions

• Debris• Infrastructure

– Reestablish Lifelines

• Behavioral Health• Mitigation

Short-term• Emergency, then temporary access

– Guard (AT) and CDOT

• Temporary housing• Public health• Debris• Business restoration• Behavioral health• Mitigation

Long-Term State Recovery Plan36

• Colorado Recovery Office

• Hiring six local recovery coordinators

• Mitigation Specialist

• Voluntary Agency Liaison

• Federal Disaster Recovery Coordination (FDRC)

Integration – Colorado Recovery Office

• Ensure Unity of Effort▫ Agencies are taking responsibility for their functions▫ Eliminate duplication

• Strategic Oversight▫ Goals and objectives▫ Develop metrics and project management systems▫ Consistent and uniform media message

• Private-Public Partnerships• Private Fundraising• Transparency• Community Ombudsman

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Public Information Efforts• State EOC Public Information Staff / Emergency Support Function 15

(ESF15)

▫ 2 State Staff

▫ FEMA External Affairs in SEOC

▫ FEMA External Affairs from Region VIII in mobile command.

• Local public information efforts

▫ Supplemented with Type III Incident Management Team members initially

▫ Supplemented with Type II IMT members

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Strategic Communications Plan

COEmergency Blog

Twitter

COEmergency

Facebook

COEmergency

DHSEM Website

Twitter READYColorad

o

CORecovers Website

Website READYColorado.com

Public Information Efforts – Blog• Fast Facts formatted information posted twice

a day following conference call with each local emergency manager and DHSEM regional field managers.

• 234,757 page views in first 100 days of flood.

• Vetted information is posted directly to Blog. No news releases.

• Posted maps of disaster.

• Google Forms for PDA

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Local Info Sources

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Transition to Fast Facts• Updated twice a day following conference calls

with local emergency managers and State Regional Field Managers.

• Media pushed to wait for the updates that were posted for the facts.

• Information also emailed to executive leadership.

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Public Information Efforts – Google Forms

• Google Forms used to collect Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDA) from:▫ School Districts▫ Rural Electric Companies▫ Special Districts▫ Private Non Profits

Public Information Efforts - Twitter18

• Get accurate information out as fast as possible.

• Rumor Control.

• Donation and Volunteer management and monitoring.

• Retweet Local Jurisdictions .

• Created 2013 Official Flood List and shared with media and community members. Embed on blog and push out on social sites.

• Instructed media to follow Twitter account for updates.

• News releases were not sent out.

• Requests for assistance on Twitter.

3782 Followers Added - 100 Days

Posted 1,025 Tweets

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Tweets for Help• From family members with parents who refused

to evacuate.• College students stuck on a fourteener without

cell service.• Canadian traveler who hadn’t checked in with

family members.

Actions

• Everything taken seriously.• First step was to connect with local jurisdiction

and pass on.• Connect with search crews through State EOC

after vetted by Fusion Center.

Public Information Efforts - Facebook• Share local jurisdictions information on COEmergency.

• Northeastern counties communicated almost exclusively through Facebook, not Twitter.

• Answered questions from public.

• Recovery information heavy.

• Posted and received photos.

• Posted more detailed information than on Twitter, but never connected the two accounts.

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700 New Likes - 100 Days

Public Information Efforts – Google Website• CORecovery.Info Created

▫ Organized by Recovery Support Functions

▫ ESRI map provided utilized for Disaster Recovery Centers locations and Small Business Association locations.

▫ All FEMA Joint Field Office (JFO) News Releases and Fact Sheets posted.

• Photo albums shared

• Functional site

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Public Information Efforts – PIO Connections

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•State EOC ESF 15 conference call daily▫FEMA ESF15▫State ESF15▫Type II IMT PIOs

•State EOC connected to local PIOs▫Direct email, social media, text▫Through state liaison – Regional Field Manager

• Joint Field Office▫Daily hot wash call with JFO and Field External

Affairs.

Public Information Efforts – Media Calls18

•Around the clock•Skype for television and radio•Media from around the world•State EOC received nationwide and

worldwide requests•Local PIOs had bulk of in-state media

requests.•Documentaries started the first week.

Public Information Efforts – News Conference

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• News Conference & State EOC Tours▫ 1 news conference: FEMA

Adminstrator Craig Fugate, Governor and Senators

▫ Almost impossible to get media to State EOC that is far removed from the disaster areas.

▫ Important to get coverage of the work behind and away from the front lines.

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Mapping•Google

Maps•Crisis Map•ESRI Maps

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Mapping• One of most significant tools a PIO can use to

share disaster/ incident information.• Best Practice: PIO and GIS staff understand

each other and how to use maps to get information to impacted community.

• Significant efforts made to train local PIOs to map.

• Google Crisis map pulls in all individual jurisdiction maps and layers onto one map.

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Mapping•Google

Maps•Crisis Maps•ESRI Maps

READYColorado Website & Hazard Map

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Public Information Efforts – Joint Field Office

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• 2 State ESF15 and 100+ FEMA External Affairs• Utilize the FEMA staff• Ask for help with news releases, fact sheets, talking

points.• State Lead must know what is going on and who to

ask for information.• Participate in JFO and all meetings

▫Command & General Staff▫Planning Meeting

Public Information Efforts – Lessons Learned

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• Get accurate information out quickly.• Create relationships now.

▫ PIOs: local, state, federal▫ Congressionals and local officials▫ Non Government Agencies▫ Private Partners

• Take basic trainings. Basic PIO (G290) Advanced PIO (E388) ICS 100, 200, 300, 400 NIMS 700 IS 800 IS 49 Social Media – be proficient in

Twitter, Facebook and monitoring across multiple platforms

• Learn and understand FEMA ESF15• Learn and understand how all-hazard

response and recovery works. It is not the same as wildfires.

• Pace yourself and your staff. Recovery is brutual and mentally

exhausting. Take care of yourself and each other.

• Get out and see the disaster▫ Blackhawk ride to isolated communities▫ Civil Air Patrol flight

• Establish Trust with Leadership▫ To post as you know▫ Eliminate lengthy approvals

• Learn to map for public information.• Delegation of Authority for public

information

Public Information Efforts – Lessons Learned

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QFNFR88s8HCmfZ3h4IbETneXN4WVMF4CzH3IONdFzZQ/edit

Micki Trost, Strategic Communications DirectorColorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency ManagementMicki.Trost@state.co.us Twitter: @COEmergency @PIO3mickiCOEmergency.com | DHSEM.State.CO.US