September 11th was a wake-up call for the way the government handles national emergencies. Being prepared for unexpected situations is challenging, and the General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service (PBS) has taken many steps to keep the government in business when disaster strikes.
As the landlord for more than 8,600 owned and leased federal civilian government facilities, PBS has a responsibility to anticipate what can happen, have procedures in place that minimize injuries and deaths, and have work spaces for our federal customers up and running as quickly and effectively as possible.
Disaster response and remediation occurs in large scale situations, such as in the Gulf region after Hurricane Katrina, but PBS is also prepared to respond to individual building incidents. Case in point, on June 26, 2006, 5.5 million gallons of water from a torrential storm filled the subbasement of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters in Washington, DC. The flooding was 20 feet deep in some areas and had inundated the building’s electrical and air handling equipment. Yet, in three days, the water had been pumped out, employees were relocated to temporary sites, the full extent of damage was being assessed, and planning had begun to quickly repair or replace the damaged systems. It was no small undertaking but by December, PBS had re-opened the headquarters.
Less than a year later, the emergency was multiple wildfires in Southern California. No PBS owned or leased federal space was affected, but the Forest Service’s Santa Clarita District Office, in the Angeles National Forest was destroyed. PBS found them interim facilities and partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to open a joint Field Office in Pasadena to coordinate federal, state, tribal and local response operations.
The broad range of natural and manmade threats to citizens and the government can be devastating. Hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, blackouts, tornados, a pandemic flu, terrorist events and individual building disasters can strike anywhere in the United States without warning. According to the National Emergency Framework, the federal government takes a unified approach to dealing with incidents. In this context, while PBS is not the first-line responder in most of these situations, one of the agency’s first priorities is to support FEMA in its work—providing communications, emergency relief supplies, space, office equipment and contracting services.
Emergency Preparedness — To protect, preserve and restore
Executive Orders 12656 and 12472 require GSA to develop Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP) to maintain essential functions during an emergency. The COOP is a rapid response document that contains processes, protocols and procedures that identify emergency personnel and articulate the course of action to be taken during an emergency. It also serves as a reference for points of contact, phone numbers, personnel, materiel phasing and other helpful information. With this process in place, responding consists of three steps: alerting employees, recovery of mission essential functions and ultimately returning to normal operations.
PBS makes major contributions to this effort and has found that the best way to get it right is to practice. GSA trains agencies to develop a COOP plan and run COOP exercises. In an IRS Blizzard of 2008 Exercise, a GSA Deputy Regional Emergency Coordinator joined with the IRS in a first of its kind training exercise, to conduct joint continuity of operations between the Massachusetts Field Offices and the Andover Campus, located in Andover, Massachusetts. In another challenge, a forty-two hour Pinnacle 2007 drill checked GSA’s ability to respond and recover from a terrorist incident. In both cases, the PBS objectives were to: find leased space for agencies displaced in the drill; work with our Federal Acquisition Service counterparts to execute the GSA contract schedules; and maintain and provide agency customer contacts and information including the use of GSA.gov and USA.gov.
In May 2008, GSA tested emergency preparations in the Washington, D.C. area in a hurricane response drill. In this instance, PBS and GSA as a whole successfully communicated its evacuation order and updated all tenants of the status of their buildings.
In the event of influenza pandemic outbreak, PBS determines the potential impact of the outbreak on the facilities it owns or leases. Using Center of Disease Control guidance, it performs reviews with Building Security Committees and major tenants on any aspect that may be harmful to the health and safety of building occupants and contractors. And if necessary, the PBS Commissioner and GSA Regional Administrators have the authority to close any federal facility in its custody.
Like all events requiring a COOP, the essential function of PBS is to locate and coordinate the use of available space for disaster management activities, provide real property expertise, maintain vendor and industry expert contacts, and retain and make available agency customers’ contact information.
Best Practices
This state of readiness and attention to detail has proven to make a difference when confronted with the real thing. This past April, after a predawn earthquake centered near West Salem, Illinois, PBS employees began e-mailing updates on conditions in Illinois and Indiana only two hours after the tremor shook. By mid-morning, PBS had received reports from 17 federal buildings and 70 leased locations that there were no injuries or damage. Now the focus is on the 2008 hurricane season.
PBS property managers in the Gulf Coast Region are holding educational meetings with tenants to distribute disaster preparedness information. An important facet of this effort is alerting people about the dangers associated with such situations as high winds, downed power lines, storm surges, flying debris, environmental hazards and lack of services often associated with hurricanes.
The best practices learned over the years move future emergency preparedness forward. Since Hurricane Katrina, PBS now plans for a storm one category higher than what is forecast and begins emergency preparations for all buildings in danger, instead of just along the projected path of the storm.
GSA hosts small business community forums to let citizens know how to offer their products or services to PBS for disaster relief and recovery purposes. In advance of foreseeable problems, GSA sets up IDIQ contracts with construction firms to preposition needed materials and deliver recovery services.
Useful Tips
Emergency preparedness is a top priority for both public and private owners and managers. It requires extensive thought and effort, but there is no doubt this is a worthwhile investment. Here are a few suggestions preparing for and responding to emergency situations.
- Prioritize business activities, support functions, and staffing and supply needs.
- Identify the pathways that, given a disaster, will most effectively get operations up and running and eventually back to normal.
- Develop phased responses to a broad spectrum of emergency scenarios.
- Always pay attention to the details.
- Determine exactly how you will maintain communications with all employees.
- Support employees in developing emergency plans for their families.
- Discover problems and fix them—test and test again.
- Prepare staff so that they execute the plan in an emergency — preparation thwarts panic.
- Develop your own Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) plan and keep it updated and ready to roll.
These initiatives and many others are how PBS fulfills its commitment to keep the government in business.
For more information on any emergency preparedness issues, please visit ready.gov.
Preparedness 101
9 Tips to Better Protect People and Property
An ounce of prevention is worth millions of dollars in disaster recovery costs. Is your emergency preparedness plan up to snuff? Here are some guidelines to augment an already existing plan.
- Bring Your Dream Team Together. If you haven’t already, put together a preparedness team of mission-critical staff and develop “what if” exercises and drills where team members propose responses to a number of emergency scenarios.
- Communicate Well and Often. Develop a multi-layered crisis communication plan that creates a fast and effective line of communication with tenants, local authorities and agencies, and the media — be proactive in your messaging.
- Define Your Policy. Determine how your company’s leave and salary policies will apply in emergency situations, such as a pandemic flu outbreak, when a significant portion of your workforce may not be able to come to work.
- Cross Train Across Your Portfolio. Cross train essential personnel to provide critical services, train across your portfolio whenever possible to ensure all available personnel can respond to an emergency.
- Think Locally. Review local evacuation procedures and identify the agency that will issue evacuation orders, determine how the evacuation order will be communicated and where evacuation routes and shelters are located.
- Don’t Think Locally. Develop a list of primary, secondary and out of region suppliers to ensure your organization’s ability to rebound from a catastrophe is not hindered by a lack of resources.
- Work Remotely. Identify off-site work facilities or telecommuting capabilities to ensure business continuity.
- Drill It In. Make certain all of your tenants are aware of the building evacuation procedures, and encourage tenants to participate in evacuation drills
- Educate Yourself, Share Your Knowledge: Talk to your industry colleagues to see how they are designing their plans and share information. When it comes to public safety and security, information is not proprietary.
*These tips were first published in the Fall 2007 issue of the BOMA Kingsley Report. Look for an upcoming issue of the BOMA Kingsley Report in the November/December issue of The BOMA Magazine.
Anthony E. Costa is the deputy commissioner of the Public Buildings Service of the U.S. General Services Administration. He serves as the chief operating officer in charge of asset management and design, construction, leasing, operations and disposal for a real estate portfolio of more than 352 million square feet in more than 8,600 public and private buildings accommodating more than one million Federal workers. He can be reached at anthony.costa@gsa.gov.
