Spring Storms and Other Emergencies

We talk with Mark Christie, Director of Cuyahoga County's Office of Emergency Management, about severe weather in Northeast Ohio, damage assessments, and how recovery decisions get made fast.

Mark gives some tips on preparing for hazards during thunderstorms, tornadoes, winter storms, and flooding that hits both rivers and basements, with info on ReadyNotify and the federal IPAWS system and a simple preparedness plan you can follow before the next storm hits.

Transcript

Welcome And Spring Hazards

0:00

Hi, everybody. Welcome to Clean Waterworks, a podcast about Clean Water. I'm Donna Friedman, your host, and I'm here with Mike Uva, your other host. Springtime is here, and with it, spring-related hazards. Dun-dun dun. And here to talk about how to prepare for them and how to cope with them is Mark Christie, the director at Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management.

The April Hailstorm And Damage Counts

0:21

What's like the most recent emergency that you worked on? We just had a hail storm in April. Solon? It was Solon. It was very localized. It was basically Solon, Bedford, Bedford Heights, Walton Hills. And that and the amount of damage that it caused. Aaron Powell, Jr. I saw a lot of people reporting about their windshields getting knocked out. Yeah. And uh, you know, for from the community perspective, you know, Solon or one of the you know, Bedford, Bedford Heights, they had entire fleet, you know, fleets of vehicles, city vehicles parked outside that would normally be parked outside, obviously, that uh you can't protect. Right. Um, that were all damaged, roofs, windshields, windows, uh, and then a lot of private property damage too throughout the communities. Just the sheer size of it and how concentrated it was in that area I haven't seen before. So, what was the office's role in that? So we were working with the communities um to do damage assessments. Uh following any emergency, we have to um interact with the areas that were hit and um begin compiling documentation on the um impacts of the event. That's done first and foremost to determine whether or not we're gonna qualify for any sort of state or federal assistance programs, whether it be for individuals, you know, private property owners, or for the local governments and jurisdictions to recover costs associated with their response or the damage to public infrastructure. Does someone have to declare an emergency? Uh typically, yes. At the county level, emergency um, you know, would be declared. The important component of that is that there's preset criteria and thresholds that need to be met in order for us to potentially qualify for those different forms of assistance, assistance I just mentioned. And so in this circumstance, we were far off from those thresholds and criteria. Even with the fact that the storm was such a significant event uh for this area, those thresholds uh and the criteria are very steep and stringent. And so we did not ultimately get near the level we would need to be to qualify. So there wasn't enough damage? Correct. Yeah. Another uh big component that plays into that is the insurable losses. So when you're talking about damages, anything that's insured is typically not uh tallied up into that calculation because that's why people have insurance, that's why cities have insurance to cover those costs. Um it's usually the out-of-pocket expenses that we have to hone in on very quickly to determine, you know, what the uninsurable loss is going to be. Aaron Powell Marky Mountain helped us with a presentation that we had in the city of Cleveland the other day about potential flooding and and flooding related to like large storm events, and I just thought that would be a good podcast, good intersection with our regional stormwater management program, but also recognizing that we do own a significant amount of infrastructure throughout Northeast Ohio and that emergencies can impact us too. And so I just wanted to hear a little bit more about the intersection between our work and the county's work and also help educate listeners about what to do during a storm and how they can be prepared. And is there a greater number of these types of events any time of the year, or is it spread evenly throughout the year? Yeah, it it's a good question. It depends. Uh, you know, obviously the different times of year bring different types of hazards and weather events. So, you know, during winter we're not as concerned about flooding as things are you know cold and frozen. So we're more concerned about prolonged uh power disruptions or uh issues pertaining to a lot of snow, you know, blizzard type events than in the summer, springtime. It's tornadoes, flooding, severe thunderstorms, hail, events like that. And then throughout the year, there's special events that are uh you know planned and hosted in the county, but we kind of treat those as like a practice to make sure that we're coordinating with the uh partners we need to be coordinating with should something occur uh during one of those events.

What Emergency Management Actually Does

4:05

Can you talk a little bit about the Office of Emergency Management? Sure. Every county has an emergency management office in the state of Ohio. And so we're the office for Kyogre County. Fundamentally, what those offices are are charged with doing is developing the emergency operation plan for the county and really acting as the coordination point amongst all the different moving parts of the county. So all the different communities, police, fire departments, service departments, partner agencies like the sewer district, Red Cross, the county level emergency management agency is the office that is responsible for ensuring that all those agencies can plan together and then ultimately work and respond with one another when those larger events happen. We're hosting trainings and exercises, and then ultimately when when events happen, we have an emergency operations center that will stand up with those partners in the room to help with resource coordination, information sharing, whatever the event might call for. We're in support of that local incident commander. So typically that the events are occurring in a community somewhere or communities, uh, and we are just working to help ensure that those communities have the resources and support they need to re ultimately respond and recover from

Tornado Aftermath And Weeklong Outages

5:14

the events. I can think of a couple of emergencies we've had when we had that major power outage. Was that two years ago? There was a a prolonged power outage on the heels of the 2024 tornadoes. Is that the one you're referring to? Yeah, that. We had uh several tornadoes affect the multiple communities on the west side. And in some cases, some of the communities, some of the residents were without power for a week. That was an interesting experience for me because I think um in this area there's an unspoken tolerance that I think our citizens have in Northeast Ohio that usually being without power for a day or two or three, you sort of know how to adapt and and work and live with that. Kind of used to it. Right. A week long is is a whole other animal that our population's not accustomed to. So it was significant. And maybe, you know, if you're if you live in a hurricane prone area or wildland fire prone area, you might have a different tolerance for it or different, you know, different muscle memory for it. But um a week-long power outage here was definitely significant for our population because we just don't you know have that recent experience of of an outage that long. Um but our office was heavily involved in and again doing the damage assessment component. Because there was power outages, we were working to secure additional food uh resources for certain areas that were were particularly hit hard, and we knew we had residents that were, you know, were experiencing you know from some food scarcity vulnerabilities. Um we also coordinated oxygen generation trailers for the population that needed to refill their oxygen tanks that were unable to do so. We were working with uh the state of Ohio to coordinate and integrate ODOT resources uh with our public works department and with the city services departments to for the re-clearing. You know, it went uh fairly efficiently because we do have those relationships with the partners already pre-built. Another interesting aspect of that was that we were also able to work with um some volunteer groups to assist with the residents in their cleanup efforts. So there's a group called uh Southern Baptists and there's a group called Team Rubicon. They both have uh trained chainsaw teams that can come in and help uh remove debris on people's private property because cities can't do that, they kind of can't do that. But there could be somebody on a fix fixed income that just doesn't have the means or the ability to coordinate, you know, a private service to come out and do that. So uh we were able to leverage relationships with those types of groups, bring them to the area for a week, and they were able to take calls for service to certain areas to help uh assist residents that had those needs, which I was you know really appreciative of because it I know it really helped out people that um were struggling with their recovery. That storm was interesting because there really actually wasn't that much rainfall. We didn't have too many areas that were really hammered with with rain, but it was those tornadoes that were kind of crazy. Aaron Powell Right. I mean, we were fortunate, no reported injuries or fatalities, uh definitely caused some damage to the properties, but those are repairable uh issues. And so we were fortunate in that regard. Aaron Powell When I'm thinking about emergencies, you know, there are a few that for sure come to mind. Like the flooding in the one valley in Texas, that was really bad. Okay recently with Cam Mystic. Yeah, that was so sad. You know, forest fires. Like in Ohio, what are we most looking at for emergencies and how is

Local Risks And Flooding Types

8:32

that changing with climate change? Aaron Ross Powell We go through a process really comprehensively every five years, but we're always constantly assessing our threats and hazards. Uh the last time we went through it, you know, we uh were on the heels of COVID, so public health emergencies, infectious diseases were, you know, a highly concerning hazard just because everybody was so keenly aware of how devastating and disruptive they can be. Um but the natural hazards, uh severe thunderstorms, severe winter weather, tornadoes, those are typically the ones that that cause us issues. Um Superstorm Sandy 2012, that was technically the remnants of a hurricane. So we can be affected by a hurricane. Um that actually caused uh us to have a um uh presidential declaration of an emergency in our county because of all the damage that that event caused to our area. So that was technically the remnants of a hurricane. So flooding is certainly an issue that we talk about here at the Regional Sewer District, and our stormwater program is designed to address some of the problems that come with flooding. Can you talk a little bit about different types of flooding? Sure. We are see different types of flooding. There's the river type flooding that is, you know, you you will see sometimes in um maybe due to ice jams or uh, you know, a high high volume of water type weather event, either in Valley View or or in the Rocky River. That's more the traditional type of flooding that people are accustomed to seeing uh when the you know river or canal you know swells. The other type of flooding that we see more regularly that is more problematic is the uh infrastructure type flooding, the flash flooding, uh sewer backups like you know in people's basements, where you have these really intense periods of rainfall that you can't you know even recall a similar event ever occurring in your in your memory in this area. And uh then you'll be left with a lot of drainage issues on roadways, infrastructure issues, or um, unfortunately, you know, uh sewer backups or flooding in people's basements. And um, you know, we've gone out and done damage assessments countless times in different areas where people are telling us stories that they've you know lived in a given house for 30 years and never had that happen. Didn't even think it was possible to happen because you just see these events happen occasionally now that so much rain comes in such a short amount of time that it just has nowhere else to go. You know, we definitely get involved in all aspects of that of the different types of flooding. But the infrastructure and basement flooding, that is that's a persistent problem that that uh I think we've seen with more regularity recently. Aaron Powell I do uh, you know, I I live on the west side and it's been crazy with ODOC construction. And I think they're putting in more drainage because there was a lot of like highway flooding on the west side. So I think infrastructure flooding is definitely a thing, whether it's underpasses or you know, just poor drainage in certain areas. So when you get one of those downpours, it becomes really risky. Yeah. And I could you would know more than I would, but I've even noticed it's like a change in construction. When I I see a lot of new builds, they'll have like little retention or detention basins now as part of their parking lots, which I I don't recall seeing that, you know, 10 years ago or 12 years ago. Yeah, there's codes now where they're required to do that when they build, and there used to not be. And so a lot of the development, you know, in the city of Cleveland, um, even some of a lot of our inner ring suburbs, like they were already built out. And so if they were already built out, there wasn't necessarily retrofitting, right? And so now that you're seeing some of these new developments go up, they are required to do stormwater management.

Flood Dangers Insurance And Backups

11:52

Aaron Powell For someone who's never experienced flooding, what are some of the dangers that you might not even think about? The street is flooded, so I can't drive my car, but what what are some of the dangers that people have to be aware of? Aaron Powell That's the biggest one. Is that people, I think, underestimate how little amount of water it takes to move your vehicle. Uh and so thinking that you have uh you know a larger SUV and I can get over this roadway that's got a little bit of water on it, uh that's a big no-no. You know, there's countless times that that results in them needing to be rescued by uh a fire department uh just because they underestimate how how the little amount of relatively small amount of water it takes to actually cause a problem for a vehicle that's trying to uh traverse a flooded roadway. The other issue is You mean they get stuck or the car actually lifts. Will get stuck or it'll lift. Either one is a problem. Um so that's why you hear it from all sorts of different organizations. You know, turn around, don't drown. Don't uh put yourself in a position where you're trying to take a risk, drive over a flooded roadway. It's not worth it. And so that's uh a message that is is very consistent across all the different types of organizations we work with. Uh the other issues pertaining to flooding, understanding your, you know, what your risks are, depending on where you live, knowing that uh if you're if you're moving you know adjacent to a body of water or a river or you know, some sort of water feature, that there's a potential that could present a problem when there's a high rain event, and just making sure that you do your homework, making sure that you understand what your um how your insurance policy operates, uh what sort of provisions it has for basement backup, for you know, just general flooding. Um, that's very important. I think people oftentimes will find out that they're underinsured or not insured for certain types of flooding events. It's just really important for them to have a conversation with their insurance company and and ensure their policy covers what they want it to cover and and protects them from their risks. Then, you know, when I mentioned you know flooding in basements, obviously that can be dangerous depending on electrical concerns or other just whatever the type of water is that is in someone's basement, it's probably not worth trying to go down there and stand in in uh flooded basement if you can avoid it, uh, wait till it recedes. Talking about basement backups, you know, the the sewer district has done a lot of work to help prevent basement backups in some of our inner ring suburbs. One of our programs that we have is called the Member Community Infrastructure Program, and that's $25 million a year that we have in grants for communities to work on their local sewer systems. So a lot of times you'll have these um sewer systems that maybe they have the sanitary in the same trench as the the storm sewer, and that can lead to a lot of stormwater pushing into the sanitary system and then that pushing into people's basements. So this grant, those projects can target, you know, removing stormwater from the sanitary system because it does cause a lot of issues for basement backups. So our communities can take advantage of that, and that's every single year, and for the next couple of years it'll be $25 million. That's great.

ReadyNotify Alerts And IPAWS Messages

14:51

So when I'm like reading my book quietly and then my phone starts screaming about something, is that you? It might be me. Okay. I apologize. But uh I'm like a cat on the ceiling, like dangling because I'm like so scared because it's so loud. So tell me about that. So we have the our office coordinates the county's mass notification system, which we refer to as ready notify in our county. What's it called? Ready notifying. Okay. Um or code red by another name. He has to say it quickly because it's one word. It is for one, yes. It's ready notify, but it's one word. And then the N is capitalized. It's capitalized. Yeah, ready notify. Yeah, a lot of people do that. Yeah. We coordinate the system. We also enable its use by communities for their own messaging. So we we view it as the one interoperable countywide mass notification system for Kyago County. We have about 45 of our communities that use it for their own messaging. We also have 20 some agencies that also use it for their own messaging. But when a weather event are happening, if there's warnings, residents that have subscribed to our system can check boxes to receive certain types of notifications that they want to. So if you want to receive flood warnings, if you want to receive tornado warnings, if you subscribe to our system by checking the box, you will. And uh that is in all likelihood while you're receiving those messages from our system at at you know all hours of the night when there's warnings. Those are automatically pushed through our system from the National Weather Service. They're the authority that actually issues the warnings. So when does it switch from like subscriber only to like this is an emergency? We have to notify people, like it has to happen. Yeah. There's a system referred to as IPOS, which you may have heard of or seen. It's the federal infrastructure to coordinate messaging through multiple channels. So uh if you're thinking about the emergency alert system, if you think about the uh wireless emergency alert system, if you're thinking about the scrolling bars on TVs, notifying of you know Amber alerts, uh it is that system that basically we can we use our uh mass notification system to send a message out through iPAUS. And that is when like I'll give you the example of if there is a law enforcement operation occurring in an area, and you want people to stay indoors. We can be requested to send a message out to that affected area, uh put a polygon on a map based off of you know the request what what the requester is is asking for, and that will send a message out using that system to anybody that is in that area based off of their cell phone being there and being proximate to the towers that are within that polygon. You know, let's say there's an event happening downtown or a bad accident happening on the interstate, and the city of Cleveland wants to put out a message that says this, you know, this roadway is closed and people should divert. Yeah. That a message using that system would ensure that people that are just passing through don't live here, don't work here, have never even heard of Ray Notify. They're just passing through, but their cell phone is proximate to a tower where that message is relevant for. So that's why they would receive that message. Aaron Powell Is there a giant red button with like a glass cover over it that you have to like flip up and hit to like send this magical notification? Aaron Powell Uh There's not a giant with there's not a red button, uh giant red button, but in order to be uh authorized to do that type of messaging, you do have to apply for it and get certificates from the federal government. Aaron Powell And then I guess my second question is that there's so much going on all the time in the world, and I feel like there is a tendency for numbing out or not paying attention or things like that. And I feel like in your role especially, there's like this um you don't want to cry wolf situation, right? And so for those like urgent events, like how do you is there a process? Like, say Fairview Park calls you and is like, this thing is happening and I need you to send out an IPAUS thing. How do you determine there's flowcharts, there's lists, there's all sorts of materials that help ensure that you're doing messaging responsibly and and uh intelligently. You want to make sure that people are familiar with receiving messaging through that means, but you don't want to desensitize them to that messaging. So you don't want to inundate people needlessly with messaging that may or may not be too relevant or pressing for them. So it is a balance that I think is perpetual, you know, that some people have different tolerances for that. But what I will say is our, you know, 59 different communities with their, you know, almost every community has its own police and fire department. Those are typically the individuals or the agencies that we're interacting with that are requesting that type of messaging. They're professionals, they understand the nuances there and they understand what to request and when to request it. And and we and we kind of follow their lead in support of them. I think the one that I got most recently, you probably got this too, but I was here at work was the squall uh alert. I had never gotten that before. We're like, squall? Like, what is a squall? And then immediately, like two minutes later, it's like complete whiteout outside. And I was like, oh, I guess that's a squall. The National Weather Service also has their own capability to send warnings for certain things. And ODOT does as well. I mentioned the roadway incident. Um if it's a like an ODOT managed road, they can send their own. They can send uh their own messaging too. So it's just a matter of you know, there's certain eligible local authorities, governments that can that can access that type of system. How do people sign up for the weather alerts? Ready notified.us. Ready notify. Ready notified.us is the simplest way to uh to sign up for our county's mass notification system. Aaron Ross Powell One of the things that you brought up is like this idea of tolerance. And I guess I've never really thought of that before when it comes to emergencies. Like, you know, we we in Northeast Ohio, I think we do have a high tolerance for flooding because it does happen. You know, flash flood warnings happens all the time in Rocky River watershed. And but then I think about in Houston when they had that giant blizzard come through and like freeze all of their infrastructure and people didn't have power, they didn't have heat, like all of that. Like they did not have a tolerance for that. That wasn't something that they normally dealt with. So I guess my question is how do you balance your time when it comes to planning and training for maybe these things that are more likely to happen but at a bigger scale versus things that are significantly less likely to happen, but could cause significant impact because the tolerance is so much lower? Yeah. I mean, that's a that's a really great question. You know, we are constantly trying to assess our risks and vulner vulnerabilities to to um you know all hazards. And I mentioned that we do exercises and trainings. Obviously, we're very active when events end up occurring. In all those activities, we're constantly evaluating what works well, what didn't work well, uh, how can we improve for next time? And then also you you mentioned these larger events that happen in Texas or out in California. We even look at those types of events too, and sort of have this introspection like if something like that were to happen here, you know, how would our nursing homes fare for uh this type of event? Or how would you know our population deal with a prolonged outage of you know gas or power? We try to have that like comprehensive perspective on what can and does happen here. There's only so much time and resources, you know, they're finite. So you do have to prioritize like what plans you're updating versus uh Um, you know, and and what resources you're maybe purchasing in advance. If you look back at April 15th, I mean that hail, nobody had seen something like that happen here. And what is the lesson learned for these communities? You're gonna build a garage for all your vehicles and house your entire fleet. So there's there's there's an element of like you control what you can and prioritize what you can. You just have to be as strategic as possible and and realize your limitations. And and um, but I think if you're if you're focusing on always improving, always uh you know, uh always evaluating other events that are happening and trying to learn and improve upon yourself out of them, then I think that's that's the best you can do. So once something like that happens and you start to see more of those intense storms happening, do you develop a checklist for residents to prepare themselves for those types of events, knowing that they're gonna happen more

Build A 72 Hour Kit

22:49

frequently? Aaron Powell One of our like core missions is the public education and outreach components. We go to community events, we host our own outreach activities, we try to um really encourage personal preparedness. We have lists, other reference materials that we pass out. The the primary points we're hitting on is making a kit, an emergency uh emergency supply kit, assembling basic items that will enable you to self-sustain for up to 72 hours should there be an emergency that happens that really kind of creates a disruption to resources in your area. So things like water, medication, food, you know, non-perishable food. The other important part of this is understanding how you're going to receive important notifications and messaging during emergencies. So we we encourage that as another really uh important measure to take before bad things happen is just know where you're gonna get your information from, know where you're gonna get your warning from, know how your community will interact with you following the event. And the third thing is getting involved before events happen. So volunteering with a, you know, a cert team or some sort of other uh group that is active in preparedness or emergency response, uh just doing that will, I think, create a better mindset of of how you're going to react in an emergency and and generate that muscle memory for you. And I think it's just a good way to uh sort of be a productive member of of your community. How many gallons of water do you keep in your basement? It's the the rule of thumb is is one gallon per person per day. Okay. So how much water do you have in your basement, Mike? Uh well, obviously I have sixteen gallons of water in my basement. Is it just sitting there because of a backup or is it water that is potable water? That's potable. Okay. Oh boy, I'm behind. Do you have an emergency kit? I talk about doing that, you know, in a go bag and all that. Right. Oh, a go bag. And you should have one for your car and your house. Oh. So are there some resources that you could recommend for people along those lines of places to find these kind of checklists? Uh our website, Cyogacounty.gov forward slash ready, is our office's website. But then ready.gov is the federal version of our website that uh has all sorts of lists and and you know general guidance and recommendations for preparedness in general, but then also for building kits for your you know, your car and and your home. And also depending on you know, sort of what uh stage of life you're in, too, if you're an elderly person that relies on medication or has glasses, uh they even go, they drill down into uh that level as well. Um, that they'll have specific guidance for uh different types of people that might you know have different needs or or um vulnerabilities. Aaron Powell I need to go bag in my car and at my house. Correct. So the car one is is especially important during the winter months. So if you have car trouble or are stranded, you know, during a frigid time or a blizzard, uh having things like gloves, granola bars, flashlights, you know, some very fundamental tools that could just help you self-sustain in your vehicle and stay safe and warm. A blanket um also is important. Say safe and warm uh well if someone you know can actually eventually reach you and help uh take you somewhere if your car if if in the event your car is broken down or you're stranded. It's very similar to the house kit where you're just really trying to find items that will keep you comfortable and safe for a period of time while you wait for help. Got it. And one of those crank radio things. That's a weather radio. That's a that's a very good I have one of those. You have one of those? That's a very good item to have in your kit. Yeah. I think those are becoming less and less prevalent, but they're still very important and they're very reliable. Um so I would yeah, I strongly encourage a weather radio in your in both kits because cell phones, power, you know, those those types of uh services oftentimes do get disrupted by events. Uh those weather radios are pretty resilient. So we know the water rule. Is there a food rule? I eat a lot of snacks. The the food rule really is non-perishable items or less perishable items that are more shelf stable that you can put in a kit and keep there for a period of time and not have to worry that they're going to expire anytime soon. But things like granola bars, canned goods, obviously, those are the types of stable type items that uh would be good to keep in a kit. There's MR meals ready to eat, MREs, those are also very easy. Right. Yeah, you those have a shelf life of like 20 years. That's serious. So that's yeah, so that'd be serious, but also the out of you know, peace of mind. Mark's like emergencies are serious, Donna. Take this seriously. Yeah. You're not getting what I'm saying.

Mutual Aid And Why Mark Does This

27:08

Can you talk about that um mutual aid program a little bit? Sure. So in public safety in general, mutual aid is very common. That uh you mentioned Fairy Park earlier. Fairy Park has a large fire. They likely have mutual aid agreements with Rocky River, Lakewood, Bayville, and surrounding departments to share resources and help support uh one another when those larger events happen because one department you know might be overwhelmed by the incident. Uh so that's in a very, you know, um, a very simple uh example. That is what mutual aid is. Similarly, for public works and service departments, uh an event like the 2024 tornadoes can occur where you're gonna have a service department, a city service department that's completely overwhelmed with the amount of vegetative debris that they have to move, process, and then manage, you know, a debris pile on. So similarly, there's mutual aid processes and mechanisms in place for service departments and public works to share resources, manpower and resources. When we first sat down, you mentioned that you took an early interest in public safety. Yeah. I was always interested in public safety. My undergraduate uh degree was in criminology. I thought I was uh going to go the law enforcement route, but um once I began working in the county's 901 center, uh I was very close to the emergency management agency. And the more I learned about emergency management, the more I just really enjoyed it. Uh, I saw that it touched all public safety disciplines. And uh I saw that the work you're doing changes daily. You know, oftentimes on blue sky days, we are pushing paper, we're in you know, classrooms doing trainings, we're doing exercises, uh, we're writing plans. But then when events happen, we flip a switch and we're out in the field supporting, you know, the the response. So it really is the diversity of work and uh you know it's the public service aspect of of being part of a public safety uh entity is is what drew me to it. I fell in love with it a long time ago, and I think everybody that works in our office has a very similar l mindset about it. Mark Christie is director at the Cuyoga County Office of Emergency Management. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Thanks for coming on today.