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CIOs Offer 'Lessons Learned' After Disasters

IT specialists from four California counties offered "lessons learned" about how preparedness and an updated disaster plan can minimize damage when a wildfire or earthquake causes havoc.

“We need to set up a website — stat.”

Those words were an indication for Ventura County’s assistant chief information officer, Rodney Lanthier, that the now-infamous Thomas Fire was going to cause IT havoc for weeks and months to come. The historic blaze would char almost 300,000 acres — but the county’s IT apparatus, because of preparedness, largely survived.

“We didn’t lose one network hub, no apps — nothing,” Lanthier said this week during a session on disaster preparedness. The seminar, attended by dozens of California IT leaders, was part of this week's spring conference of the California Counties Information Services Directors Association (CCISDA).

Lanthier’s account of how his county’s IT staff and infrastructure weathered the firestorm was one of four California county case studies of disaster preparedness and recovery. Besides Ventura’s Lanthier, IT leaders from Sonoma, Napa and and Santa Cruz counties also recounted their experiences with wildfires and earthquakes.

The purpose of the somber seminar was to share information on what roles technology played in the disaster response and in the mop-up afterward — which, in some cases, continues for months after the flames are doused and the quake rubble removed.

Presenters were Napa County CIO Jon Gjestvang, whose county was racked by a magnitude-6 earthquake in August 2014; Kevin Bowling, Santa Cruz County’s director of information services; John Hartwig, representing Sonoma County’s IT team; and Ventura County’s Lanthier.

While each county’s experience with disaster was different, the “lessons learned” that they shared were generally similar:

— Train staffers in emergency response before an emergency occurs. Have phone trees and other communication systems and notification policies in place.

— Make sure devices are charged, available and familiar to users. One CIO described the disappointment of having satellite phones on hand, only to find that half of them had no charge.

— Stockpile devices such as cellphones, satellite phones, laptops and backup routers and hubs before they’re needed.

— Make sure necessary networks are redundant, fully functional and accessible. That includes cellphones and landlines as well as Internet services.

— Keep diesel fuel on hand so that when power fails, backup generators can stay up and running.

— Use GIS and other technology to keep public-facing websites updated with evacuation zones, escape routes and disaster perimeters.

— Create an “EOC in a box” — an emergency operations center in a trailer that’s self-contained and can be moved from site to site as needed. The trailer should contain wireless access to Internet, phone services and other emergency needs.

— Have emergency kits for staffers, including breathing masks, plenty of bottled water, etc.

— Clear brush in a “defensible space” around critical facilities — cell towers, emergency operations centers, evacuation centers.

— Establish relationships with neighboring counties in case mutual aid is needed. This includes Internet access, data storage and IT support.

Dennis Noone is Executive Editor of Industry Insider. He is a career journalist, having worked at small-town newspapers and major metropolitan dailies including USA Today in Washington, D.C.