The American Red Cross in Greater New York (ARC/GNY) participated in a day-long tabletop Chapter Disaster Readiness Exercise and Evaluation (CDREE) on January 12. The exercise was designed to evaluate the Chapter's preparedness to respond to a large-scale disaster in the New York metropolitan area.

The drill focused on the decision-making process of senior-level personnel, on the effectiveness of the Chapter"s Disaster Response Plan and on the coordination required to deploy hundreds of staff and volunteers to respond to a simulated emergency in Greater New York. In this case, the "emergency” was a powerful explosion and fire in Co-Op City, a large high-rise housing and retail complex in the Northeast Bronx, right before a July 4th holiday.

This “disaster” resulted in hundreds of dead and injured, and the need for the Red Cross to shelter, feed and counsel more than 2,000 people for a three-day period.

The evaluators determined that the Chapter performed at Level III, which indicates a readiness to meet the needs of 250 families affected by a disaster for up to three days. Nineteen out of the 800 plus U.S. Chapters are rated Level III. None have a Level IV rating, which signifies readiness for multi-jurisdictional response coordination for more than 250 families for three days.

“This exercise was a great learning experience and a terrific way for our Chapter to sharpen its preparedness skills,” said Scott Graham, Chief Response Officer for American Red Cross in Greater New York and Job Director during the drill. “We must now set our sights on Level IV.”

In response to the attack, ARC/GNY -

1. Set up a Reception Center and large shelters in two New York City public schools, outfitting them with cots, blankets and comfort kits.
2. Called vendors to arrange for 2,000+ meals for those affected, plus snacks, water and other supplies needed to support the shelters and the first responders working at the incident site.
3. Organized shifts for hundreds of staff and volunteers over a three-day period.
4. Established continuous communications links with other responding agencies and local service organizations.
5. Engaged in media coordination with OEM and other agencies and issued frequent electronic and print bulletins to the public, staff and volunteers.
6. Initiated a system to train and track spontaneous volunteers.
7. Implemented a disaster fund-raising program to receive and solicit donations to help victims of the disaster.

Thirty-five ARC/GNY staff and volunteers representing seven groups and activities participated in the drill, including:

• Community Services (COS)
• Individual Client Services (ICS)
• Staff Services (SS)
• Partner Services (PS)
• Information Management Support Services (IMS)
• Material Support Services (MSS)
• Organization Support (OS)

During the exercise, two facilitators, Suzy Davidson, Solutions Manager for the Northern New Jersey Red Cross Chapters and Joselito Garcia, Readiness Officer for the Red Cross Northeast Service Area, provided situation updates, moderated discussions and critiqued our performance. According to Ms. Davidson, “No other chapter in the US has been exercising at Level IV like ARC/GNY was today.”

Advisors Wilfredo Rosario, Chapter Solutions Manager, Northeast Service Area, and Mona Bookman, Assistant Chapter Executive for Response, Bergen-Hudson Red Cross, helped the Chapter prepare by facilitating two practice exercises during the two months prior to CDREE.

ARC/GNY CEO Teresa Bischoff and Chief Administrative Officer Richard Kane also observed the exercise, along with Board Member George Greenwood and Virginia Mewborn, a Director of Training Exercises for OEM. Ms. Bischoff praised all participants. “I appreciate your hard work, dedication, and openness,” she said. “The exercise gave us an opportunity to see our strengths, determine where we need improvement and the best way to make that improvement happen.”

“This was an important event for our chapter and illustrated how much talent we have and the strength of our teamwork,” said Mr. Graham. “The energy level during this team effort was awesome,” he added.

A morning-long debriefing on January 13 was attended by ARC/GNY Chairman Bill Gray, New York Area Chair and Board Member Carlos Portes, and ARC/GNY Board Member Bob Dinerstein. “There’s nothing more important than the readiness of our Chapter,” said Mr. Gray at the conclusion of the evaluation. “I’m gratified by the outstanding results the participants achieved.”

More Photos:

Facilitators Joselito Garcia and Suzy Davidson guided the Chapter through the simulated three-day disaster response exercise and provided ongoing feedback, advise and encouragement. (Photo: Larry Geiger)


Members of the Partner Services Team during the CDREE work on communications with other agencies. From left are ARCV/GNY Labor Liaison Bruno Soto and volunteers Sally Phipps and Mike Emmerman. (Photo: Annie Lazar)


All movements of personnel and materials were tracked on large posters throughout the exercise. Here. checking on the status of simulated shelter operations are, from left, Rebecca Terranova, Debra Dean and Sidney Ko. (Photo: Mara Leventhal)


Attending the day after CDREE debriefing were, from left, ARC/GNY Chief Response Officer Scott Graham, Chief Administrative Officer Richard Kane, Chairman of the Board William Gray, CEO Theresa Bischoff, Board Members Bob Dinerstein and Carlos Portes, and, with back to camera, Deputy Chief Response Officer Bob Imbornoni. (Photo: Larry Geiger)