Are You Prepared? Tips, successes and lessons learned from the - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Crisis Communications Are You Prepared? Tips, successes and lessons learned from the communications response to back-to-back unprecedented disasters in Santa Barbara County NATOA Webinar June 3, 2019 “Emergency Situations and Crisis Plans for PEG Channels” Presented By: Gina DePinto, APR Communications Manager, County of Santa Barbara

Are You Prepared? Are you prepared to respond and communicate through a disaster? You never know when it will happen.  Prepare PIO team for lengthy, 24/7 response  Prescript bilingual messaging, video and images before a disaster strikes  Communicate across multiple channels and methods

Thomas Fire: Stage Set for Disaster  Largest wildfire in California history until the Mendocino Complex Fire  Began Dec. 4, 2017 in Ventura County. Burned 44 miles from Santa Paula to Santa Barbara.  Damaged 13 watersheds and 17 named canyons above Montecito, Summerland, Carpinteria and Santa Barbara.  Caused $2.17 billion in damages, at a cost of $205 million to fight.

Timeline: Thomas Fire One-Day Local Santa Barbara County Fire Officially Enters Assistance Evacuation W arnings Fire Begins in SB County/ USFS Land Center Open I ssued for Smoke & Ash Ventura County Dec. 8 Dec. 5 Dec. 19-21 Dec. 4 Dec. 6 Dec. 9 Dec. 22 Evacuations Lifted Governor Proclaims SB County Proclaims State of Emergency Local Emergency; Presidential Declaration Proclaimed in S.B., Ventura, L.A., San Diego counties

Thomas Fire By the Numbers: CountyofSB.org Website Traffic 400K Call Center Activity Real-Time Interactive Highest Single Day Web Traffic Evacuation Map 8.5K 135,000 total page views 5 Million Does not include calls to 211 Smoke & Ash Declared Map Views Local Health Emergency 350K Free N-95 Masks Distributed

Flood After Fire

Montecito Debris Flow: 200-Year Storm  Unprecedented 1/2” of rain in 5 minutes on severely burned mountain range above Montecito.  Debris flows up to 20 feet high moving at estimated speeds of 30 MPH with mud, water, trees, cars, structures, homes, bridges.  30-mile stretch of Hwy 101 closed for two weeks between Ventura and Santa Barbara.  Mud, debris flowed five miles to the beach.  23 people killed; hundreds left homeless.

Timeline: 1/ 9/ 18 Montecito Debris Flow LAC Transitions 3:30 a.m. Press Conference M ontecito to Disaster Local Assistance Storm Drops ½” to Alert Community Center Opens Recovery Center Center Opens in 5 M inutes Jan. 12 Jan. 7 Jan. 20 Jan. 5 Jan. 17 Feb. 5 Jan. 9 M arch 7 H wy 101 Evacuations Debris Basin Opens Announced Clearing Begins Before Another Storm Feb. 13 : Feb. 8: Feb. 26: Power Boil Sewer restored water emergency to all notice work green- lifted completed tagged homes

1/ 9 Debris Flow Key Numbers

1/ 9 Debris Flow Response 2,323 first responders   120 evacuated by air  1,000 large and small animals evacuated or rescued Photo Courtesy of Santa Barbara News Press

Communication Objectives  Coordinate with Incident Command and all agency partners to deliver accurate and timely information.  Utilize all channels to communicate: alerts (text, email, landline, WEA), website, traditional and social media, CSBTV government access TV, call center/211, kiosks, daily televised press conferences and community meetings, evacuation shelter.  Monitor media and social media to correct and contain misinformation and rumors.  Communication focus to reach Spanish-speakers, and those with access and functional needs.

Communication Challenges 1. 3. Back-to-Back Unprecedented Disasters Bilingual Communications: Challenging for communication staffing 40% of county is non-English speaker. resources and training. 2. 4. Evacuations During Holiday Season: No Power, Communications, Utilities: 130,000 customers lost power in Thomas Evacuations ran Dec. 6-21. Schools were closed up to 18 days in December and January. Fire. In Debris Flow, thousands without power, gas, cell, cable TV, water, sanitation. SB City College and UCSB delayed finals. Evacuation fatigue prior to debris flow.

Joint Information Center

Robust Public Information Effort Staff and volunteer Public Information Team  All materials in English and custom Spanish   Created new storm readiness plan and evacuation protocol; led to Storm Ready-Set-Go Increased County’s emergency alert subscribers  by 194% Thomas Fire: 24/7 bilingual internal call center and  multilingual 211 cell center received 14,667 calls Thomas Fire: 32 press conferences and community  meetings shown live and streamed 150 press releases issued; 95 in Spanish 

Communication Tools County website – CountyofSB.org  Second website for Preparedness, Recovery and  Rebuilding – ReadySBC.org Interactive Evacuation Map and Risk Area Map   Media Relations: press releases, fact sheets, 209 Incident Reports CSBTV government cable channel   Social Media County e-news and Recovery e-newsletter   County Emergency Call Center and 211 Daily livestreamed press conferences and  community meetings  Kiosks

Preparedness and Recovery Website

Evacuation Interactive Map  5.6 million views of interactive maps Four evacuations following  January 2018 Debris Flow Threat will continue for  3-5 years 2019 brought three  evacuations

Media Relations

CSBTV/ YouTube

County E-News

Twitter: @countyofsb @csbenespanol Jan. 1-March 31, 2018:  368 tweets issued  4.8 million impressions  7,300 retweets  9,700 “likes” New Followers:  Nov: 33  Dec: 4,600  Jan: 1,687  Feb: 367  March: 916

Facebook Jan. 1-March 31, 2018: Dec. 1-31, 2017:  457 posts  381 posts  2.2 million reached  974,236 reached  33,245 page views  37,223 page views  691,123 video views  67,700 video views Prepare Branded Static Images in Advance to post on Instagram, FaceBook, Twitter

Instagram – Bilingual and Diverse Posts

Instagram Wall of thanks in the EOC One of our happy animal evacuees…

Community Meetings

Kiosks

Community Resilience Montecito Center for Preparedness, Recovery and Rebuilding Social media and #805strong wristbands

Questions? Thank You Gina DePinto, APR Communications Manager County of Santa Barbara gdepinto@countyofsb.org (805) 568-3428; cell (805) 319-9155