40 attendees representing City, County and State Agencies work to prepare formal after action report
Submitted by John Ball, Madison County Undersheriff
(Wampsville, Oct. 4, 2013) Representatives from the City of Oneida, Madison County and State agencies attended a four-hour workshop to discuss the response to the major flooding that impacted the City of Oneida earlier this summer.
Candid discussions were focused on how the incident was responded to during the initial 36 hours, citizen evacuation and sheltering, communications during the incident, short and long term recovery efforts, including what has been done to date and what future plans are being developed.
The workshop, jointly coordinated by the City of Oneida Mayor’s Office, Madison County Sheriff’s Office, Madison County Emergency Services Office and Public Safety Communications Center (E-911), was planned over the past two months by representatives from each agency, including Oneida’s Acting Mayor Max Smith, Madison County Sheriff Allen Riley, County Emergency Manger Joe DeFrancisco and E-911 Director Paul Hartnett.
The purpose of the workshop was to bring all the agencies that assisted in this disaster to discuss the response, identify what worked well, what didn’t work well, and create plans for remediating issues that require attention, or have presented opportunities for improvement.
In addition, methods and modes of communication used during the incident, and the gaps identified, were also discussed and documented.
“This disaster affected the City, my community, in such a life changing way – getting all the key responders together at once was priority, and working with the Sheriff, we were able to get this much needed discussion to take place very quickly” said Acting Mayor Max Smith.
“With the event very clear in all of our minds, as well as the residents who were impacted, this was an absolute necessity to frankly and openly critique ourselves – how we reacted – and what we need to do better in the future,” said Sheriff Allen Riley.
In addition to the Mayor and Sheriff, County Emergency Manager Joe DeFrancisco and members of his staff, E-911 Director Paul Hartnett and members of his staff, representatives from the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, Madison County Health Department, City Public Safety Commissioner Doug Lippert, City Attorney Nadine Bell, Fire Chief Greg Myers, Police Chief David Meeker, City Engineer John Rauscher, City Clerk Sue Pulverenti, members of the City Common Council and other City departments, as well as representatives from the Oneida Nation Police Department, Nation Grid, NYS Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Services – Emergency Management, NYS Police, NYS Department of Transportation and Oneida County Emergency Management participated in the event.
The workshop, facilitated by TREX Planning Associates from Ava was made possible through funds from the NYS Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.