You're In Charge of a Shelter!

The "big one" hits. (Insert your most likely local emergency/disaster here.) You, for WHATEVER reason, go to a local shelter. You bring some gear. People in the shelter, even though in a state of shock from recent events, recognize you as the person who was always encouraging others to prepare, or see you as the most prepared. So they elect you to be in charge! You have about 200 people in your shelter. It has minimal supplies. Some people have brought some stuff (perhaps they are lurkers on ETS), others have just the clothes on their backs (and consider themselves lucky to be alive). Figure 48-hours until you get outside help of ANY kind. Has anyone had any decent training for this?

How do you maintain security? Sanitation? Do you "redistribute" supplies for the good of all? Do little kids get to eat, while healthy adults wait? What if someone does not want to cooperate with the group?

If you work in public safety, or are a Red Cross volunteer (or paid staff), you could be in this very situation. Everyone is looking to you to take charge and make the tough decisions. Ideas?

If the shelter is already planned for a local disaster, the people in charge are already in charge.

HOWEVER, if your neighborhood is cut off and you have a large barn, THEN you would be making the rules.

Security: Who do you trust most? That's your security.

Sanitation: If you have a barn, you probably have sawdust, chips or straw, and some 5-gallon buckets. Put them together for use as toilets, empty outside in a pile of straw or hay designated as a compost pile.

Sharing: 48 hrs isn't all that long. Ask the people with supplies if they are willing to share. Most probably will. If they aren't, too bad. The others now have incentive to plan ahead.

Food: You give the kids enough to keep them quiet, but if there's a workforce, that is the group that needs to get the real nutrition. Reverse it, and the kids still won't be helping anyone when the adults go down if the waiting-for-help period gets extended.

If someone doesn't want to cooperate, tell them to hit the road, but you might want to divest them of their long-range weapons before they go.

Emergency shelters are not democracies, and don't ever forget it.

Sue (never PC) <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

This would be one of those "hot topics" I mentioned in the "ETS Community LTS Plan" thread in Campfire in an urban survival situation.

First off, is the Shelter a Democracy, or a Dictatorship? What do State laws say you can and cannot do? Usually when shelters are opened, and you're expecting help in 48 hours, then a state of emergency has been declared. Any special "powers" given to you or your staff?

Someone in the shelter must be a leader. Maybe that is the Shelter Manager, maybe it's not.

FWIW, a friend of mine is a reserve police officer. He was in a shelter, in full uniform, and was leaving. The shelter manager said "You can't leave!". As he continued to the door the shelter manager grabbed him by the upper arm, hard as he was walking out (wind had died down) and said "You can't leave!!!". He turned around and said "If you touch me again, you'll be leaving with me".

FEMA Independent Study Pgrm

Course Listings

Professional Development Series

I would recommend:

IS-1 Emergency Manager: An Orientation to the Position

IS-230 Principles of Emergency Management

IS-240 Leadership & Influence

IS-241 Decision Making and Problem Solving

IS-242 Effective Communication

Conversely, you could use the Theodore Roosevelt management style - Walk quietly and carry a big stick...

Ben

Yep, bureaucracy at it's finest. I don't leave such issues to agents and their promulgation of mostly worthless writings, unless I expect them to run the shelter, in which case they don't need me.

If I am in charge, then sorry folks, but it is the law of Benjammin. If you are family, you will be provided for. If you are a friend, then I expect that you already have pretty much what you needed in the first place, and you're just coming down to keep us company and pool resources. If I don't know you, then you need to demonstrate that you can be trusted before you are admitted. That will likely involve voluntarily identifying any and all provisions, supplies, tools, weapons, and such before you are admitted. If you hide anything and you are caught, you may be expelled depending on whether I feel you can be trusted or not. If you refuse to divulge but admit you are packing, I may allow you to stay in a holding area and be interviewed by other occupants trained in that sort of thing until they convince me you can be trusted with what you brought and don't want me to know about.

If you bring food or supplies and others in the shelter are want for some of it (highly unlikely, but it could happen) and you won't share, then it will not be taken from you, but we will remember your generousity (or lack thereof) the next time you come to the provisions desk, hat in hand, asking for something you need. That includes provisions we may have received from aid agencies.

One thing all who come to our shelter should know. Anyone who is admitted and accepted into the group will be cared for and protected to the maximum extent we are capable of. I can't promise it will be smooth and without incident, but if you follow the rules and try and get along, then you have about as good a chance as you are likely to find.

Well said, Sue.

Troy

Funny, I've been in this exact situation, right here at home, when the Delaware River floods happened, both in April 2004 and September 2005.

First of all, shelters suck. There's no nice way to put it, they are not a fun place to be, ever.

One of the most important things to do is to triage people's attitude. There's several classes:

1. Whiners. (It's so cold, it smells, I'm hungry, when can we go home, where's my dog? my cell phone does not work, isnt' there anything else on TV?)
2. Helpers. (What can I do? What do you need? Where should I bring this box?)
3. Helpees. (I actually need help here, because I can't walk/breathe/stand whatever).
4. Self-Appointed Experts, Slime-Molds and Scuzz-Balls (opportunistic creeps who generally make a bad situation worse)

In proportions, you have 70% helpers and a random distribution of the rest. That's good. Unfortunately, the rest can become a bit annoying to those people charged with operating the shelter.

For the most part, if you have a decent action plan - or for that matter ANY action plan - and you can devise a way to maximize your "Helpers" it seems to go well. For example, story time for the kids is a great use of helpers.

One other thing I learned is the a lack of sleep leads to very, very hot tempers (in me and in others) and a break of the "routine" is exceedingly distressful to people. For example, just closing a road in our area generated altercations that were quite dramatic.

Boredom and a lack of information is a huge factor.
One thing that really made things go well was an internet connection and a large video projector that allowed people to see the weather report, the river crest forecast and general news and information as we got it. I was able to build a simple web page with all the basic data on it, and we set that up at the fire house.
As far as food and sanitation, that was a job for the "Helpers". We had to make some meals for the firehouse and people of the community, we just told people we need food, and the food came. We told people we need fuels (gas and diesel) and the fuel came. I think that was the biggest lesson for me. Give people something meaningful to do, and they will be aligned with you to deal with the situation. It's those with nothing to do that cause all the problems.

Oh, and, after the April floods, when the river came up again in September....yes, I did decide to carry a gun. The flooding in September was major (3rd worst ever recorded), and the scope was greater, the population affected larger and the level of anger that ended up directed at anyone at all higher. I never needed to show or use it, but I can assure you that personal security was, and is an issue in these situations.
While the situation in NOLA was, perhaps, the most extreme example of a shelter situation gone bad, to be honest, I can see the ingredients of it all right here in an affluent community. It might not go quite as far, and it might not happen quite as quick, but the altercations that did happen were frightening in their speed and ferocity.

One thing I'd LOVE to see as a "Standard Issue" in shelters is this:
http://www.mobileinternet.bz/index.htm
or something similar.

"Give people something meaningful to do, and they will be aligned with you to deal with the situation. It's those with nothing to do that cause all the problems."

Beautifully put! Unfortunately, for some people, being a problem is exactly what they want to be. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Sue

Yep, those are real "Rod Serling" moments.

In Red Cross Disaster services, you are expeced to take 4-5 courses (can't remember, don't feel like turning around to break out my books) in shelter operations before you are signed off to work/run a shelter (Intro to disaster, Shelter Operations, Mass care and Feeding, and I can't remember the rest)

One of the big things is "enlist the help of the shelter residents" - it makes them feel like they have some control, lessens the workload, improves communications with the residents - etc

Interesting thread. I still stand by my decision to shelter in place. Why subject yourself to the "FocazioScale" of individuals at a shelter. I enjoy Martins take on things, hope he doesn't mind the ad lib. I'd show up and some over zealous Shelter Manager who probably doesn't know anything will try to redistribute my goods to some fella who never perpared..I don't think so. I'd rather just take care of my own. Pretty crappy attitude...Yes I know. Just seems these days that civilization is coming down to two types...the Planners and the Users. If you plan, there will always be someone who doesn't that will use you.

No shelter for this guy. NO set the standard if you don't want to abandon your home...you don't have to. Even if I had no home, wife and kids might head to a shelter...but I think my tent would serve me just fine.

Again Interesting thread.