Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management

xix

Foreword

Allen Barnes

City Manager of Gonzales, Texas

Early in my career in municipal government the importance of planning for

the unexpected was hammered home one warm and bright February afternoon.

e natural gas company that serviced our area was required by the Texas Railroad

Commission to remove and replace all of the yellow poly pipeline they had laid

in the 1970s. Yellow poly was everywhere. Instead of digging and removing the

pipe they decided to bore underground in order to be able to pull the replacement

pipe into place.

Sitting in my office thinking all was right with the world, I received the call.

It was from Martha, who served as our utility clerk and telephone receptionist.

“Allen, I just got a strange call from a lady. She said she turned on her gas range

and there was water coming out.” I knew that Martha knew there was condensa-

tion in the gas lines from time to time so I asked, “Did you tell her it might be

condensation in the lines?” To which I nearly choked on the response I was given,

“Yes sir, but she has about 5 gallons of condensation on the floor and it’s still com-

ing out.”

e gas company had bored into a water line. e water at 65 psi followed the

path of least resistance and infiltrated their 15 psi intermediate gas line. Water

quickly began to fill the gas line and enter their distribution system. From the time

of the first report, it took the gas company more than 2 hours to find the source of

the water. e following 2 weeks, which included the coldest cold snap in years,

left a large majority of our small community with no heat. e emergency response

on the part of the gas company started out fine but ended up disorganized. After

a few days they began digging without regard to other underground utilities and

caused problems for the city’s understaffed water department by ripping water lines

out of the streets. After I pleaded with them to stop their random digging and ulti-

mately threatened one of their vice presidents with, “If you rip out another one of

my water lines you and I will have to fix it and I don’t know how,” they reassessed

xx  ◾  Foreword

their approach and took time to plan a strategy that was acceptable to the city. is

calamity taught me the necessity of planning for the unexpected.

Having to learn this lesson on the fly showed me that I hadn’t served my citizens

very well. I learned I should have been ready. From that day forward I said I would

never be caught unprepared.

Professors Nick Valcik and Paul Tracy have assembled the case studies in this

book to help current and future governmental managers recognize the importance

of getting ready for what the next telephone call might bring. e reader takes

away an appreciation for the mindset of many of those who worked through each

scenario in the book. e reader understands, in most cases, why they did what

they did. Good decisions and bad decisions, you get a good understanding for the

value to plan for the unexpected. e reader will also be able to assess the actions

of governments and their officials after the fact. Written without judgment, this

compilation allows readers to put themselves in the place of these officials. Valcik

and Tracy show the student and the government official alike that critical proper

planning can’t stop unexpected events, but that you can be prepared.

You also get an appreciation for the fact that some events cascade beyond all

planning. You will see that some events appear to present one set of issues but evolve

into situations beyond expectations. e reader sees that all events have a life of

their own and every decision made will impact the outcome positively or negatively.

In government service anything can and will happen. Valcik and Tracy have

selected a wide variety of case studies to help the reader prepare for that phone call

when you least expect it. Now if you will excuse me, I have to catch my phone,

it’s ringing!