Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management

59

Chapter 4

Case Studies:

Disasters from Natural

Forces—Floods

Johnstown Flood, Pennsylvania, 1889

Stage 1 of the Disaster

You are the mayor of a town of 30,000 people. Your town mainly consists of blue-

collar steel workers that are of German descent. Unfortunately, your town has been

built on a floodplain where two rivers meet and the riverbanks have been narrowed

to give the town more land to construct residential housing and other buildings.

is leads to some minor flooding from time to time. In addition, the South Fork

Dam located upstream needs maintenance badly, but is not being maintained by the

local hunting and fishing lodge that is responsible for its upkeep (U.S. Department

of the Interior, 2007a).

1. What is your plan of action? As the leader of the community, you should

encourage precautionary measures on the issue of flooding because it is a

recurring problem and can be a potentially bigger problem in the future.

e mayor should undertake a study that will review the planning and

zoning ordinances of the town and direct the town council to take action

on restricting certain development along the river. An emergency plan of

action and evacuation plan should be developed for the citizens of the town

as well as identifying resources that may be needed in case of an emergency.

60  ◾  Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management

Additionally, the South Fork Dam should get the proper maintenance and

evaluation to ensure that the town is fully protected from any type of cata-

strophic dam failure.

2. What is your communication plan? e mayor’s communication plan should

include the town council members and make them aware of the potentially

dangerous situations that can occur if certain issues are not dealt with appro-

priately. Additionally, the mayor should begin to develop support for better

planning and building ordinances with the town’s staff as well as the housing

developers. e mayor should be in contact with the party responsible for

maintenance of the South Fork Dam as well as the town’s first responders.

e community at large should be made aware of any emergency or evacu-

ation plans that currently exist. Resources need to be put in place to ensure

that the mayor can communicate with the town residents in times of crisis.

3. What resources do you need to acquire for the problems that have occurred or that

could occur? One of the bigger problems that the mayor will face is getting the

resources to fix the South Fork Dam. e general population currently does

not feel any sense of urgency in making repairs or even maintaining the dam.

4. What government entities do you need to interface with to accomplish your plan

of action? As stated earlier, the mayor needs to interface successfully with the

town council. Communications with the town council are imperative for getting

the resources needed to repair the dam, as well as for passing any type of build-

ing or zoning ordinances concerning the development that is continuing along

the river. e mayor will also need to communicate with the town’s top adminis-

trator to get staff support for developing an emergency or evacuation plan.

Stage 2 of the Disaster

On May 31, at 4:07 p.m., the South Fork Dam collapses after a heavy rain fall. e

collapse sends 20 tons of water that is 60 feet high hurtling toward your town at

40 miles per hour (U.S. Department of the Interior, 2007a).

1. What is your plan of action? You must communicate to your staff that the

town needs to have all available first responders evacuate the town, starting

with the residences nearest to the river. Other than attempt to evacuate the

town, there is very little you can do at this point since the flood is quickly

coming toward the town. Your time to act and your options to take different

approaches to blunt the impact of the flood are extremely limited at this junc-

ture. Evacuating the town is the best plan of action to take with the factors

that are at work in this disaster.

2. What is your communication plan? e mayor needs to enact an evacuation

of the town. To do this, the mayor must get word to the residents by any

means possible that they should evacuate to higher ground. You have no

modern communications, so you will need to rely on couriers on foot with