Metro Crash Response Gets High Marks
The recent passenger train collison on the Washington, DC Metro system produced a well coordinated regional emergency resonse, that is receiving high marks from all quarters. Particularly noteworthy is how well interoperable communications between various agencies and departments worked.
It appears that the growing professionalism of the Emergency Management field, and efforts at improving all areas of emergency response in the Post 9/11, Post Katrina world are starting to bear fruit.
One area that remained problematic in this incident was a coordinated public communications effort. Proof positive that just establishing a JIC and putting up an organization chart isn’t enough to combat personalities and politics. Only when all involved recognize not only the benefits of a unifed public information effort, but also the necessity of putting aside short term political benefits of media expsoure, will we see real progress on this issue.
Despite what the manuals all say, the PIO position and function is often still a step-child in any incident command. Only when leaders begin to recognize that an informed public is actually an aid to the response effort, and that people can be trusted with information, will those attitudes begin to break down.
In a town that thrives on security clearances, and the “need to know”, it may be a difficult mind set to change. Overall, a textbook example of how a large scale incident should be handled.
See a nice recap of the efforts on The Christian Science Monitor page.
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