2-1-1 Disaster-Related I&R Best Practices
Compiled by Jonathan Padgett,
May 24, 2010
I.
Plan ahead
a. Create a detailed business contingency plan and Emergency Operation
Manual (EOM) if you don’t already have one.
i. If you don’t know where to go or what to do if your agency is
evacuated or destroyed, your Information & Referral system—
however developed for disaster—will be effectively useless.
ii. Train and drill your staff on these disaster contingency plans. Make
sure they understand where and how the agency will continue
operations even in the wake of a major disaster.
b. If possible, partner with local and state governmental entities.
i. Get to know your area’s Offices of Emergency Preparedness.
ii. Seek to get 2-1-1 added to any city or state disaster plan.
1. One of the reasons things went so well for Louisiana 2-1-1
during the hurricanes of 2008 is because of our close
relationship with the state.
iii. Not only will your disaster related info and resources be the
freshest and most relevant if you know how and where to get it, but
your 2-1-1 system will be well positioned for overall growth and
funding. The role 2-1-1 plays in a disaster is crucial to any
community, and governmental collaboration is a great way to get
the word out about what we do during times of disaster.
c. Build or purchase a web based Disaster Related I&R interface (see II
below).
i. If the disaster is more than minor (i.e., affecting relatively few
people in your community), you must be prepared to switch your
Disaster Related I&R interface entirely over to the disaster
appropriate software interface in short order.
1. You will regret any delay.
ii. Train your staff on your Disaster Related I&R interface ideally well
before any disaster occurs.
1. Be sure that at least several staff members know the system
well enough to train volunteers during the acute phase of a
disaster.
d. Write up an MOU with a sister agency (or agencies) to potentially share
the burden of disaster I&R in need.
i. If you are a part of a 2-1-1 statewide system, convince all regional
2-1-1 agencies to use a single web-based Disaster Related I&R
interface in the lead up to, during and after a disaster.
1. This can and will take training and coordination for statewide
2-1-1 folks.
ii. Seek out out-of-state 2-1-1 agencies that use a single web-based
Disaster Related I&R interface.
e. If you have the luxury of anticipating impending disaster, do not hesitate to
make the switch from your regular Information & Referral system to your
Disaster Related I&R interface.
II.
Know what you’ll need in a 2-1-1 Disaster Related I&R interface
i. It should be web based.
1. Advantages:
a. You don’t have to rely on a single network that could
be destroyed.
b. If you have a Voice Over IP phone system, a web
based interface means calls can be taken from
anywhere in the world with a fast Internet connection.
c. If you’re on a statewide system, all of your regional
offices can use the regular I&R software package of
their choice and still use this single, web accessible
interface in times of disaster.
d. If the high volume of calls swamps your local or state
2-1-1 area, other 2-1-1s out of state may use the
same Disaster Related I&R interface to assist with
overflow calls.
e. Resource specialists may enter disaster related
updates and resources from the field.
ii. Should be robust technologically.
1. SQL Server based product is a good idea.
2. Hosting server should have the capacity and power to be
used by dozens if not hundreds of simultaneous users
without significant delays.
3. Should ideally have a very secure, identical (mirrored) server
site many miles away from the original site just in case the
system fails.
4. The programming itself should be well designed and as bug
free as possible.
iii. Should have qualified, dedicated, round the clock support service
available.
1. During the acute phase of a disaster, problems crop up
OFTEN at all times of the day and night.
2. Make sure your developer or future vendor has the staff
resources to accommodate you, and get what you expect
from support staff in writing!
iv. Should contain at least the following tabs:
1. Intake sheets
a. With at least Caller Zip, Caller Need, Date/Time
(automatic and manual) and General Notes fields.
2. Shelters
a. Whether opened or closed
b. Type (state, city, red cross, etc)
c. Purpose
d. Whether it accepts pets or not
e. Capacity
f. Current Population
g. Address
h. Directions
i.
Special Populations field
j.
Various notes and comments fields
3. General Updates
a. By community, county, parish or neighborhood
b. Anything from FEMA trailer talking points to home
assessment information to curfew information
c. Ordered by default from most recently added to least
recently added.
4. Local Assistance Centers
a. Address, Hours, Phone number, Assistance Available
(mental health pros, Red Cross)
5. Important Numbers
a. Anything from local Sheriff to local EOP numbers
6. Resources
a. Indexed by AIRS disaster-related taxonomy
b. Contains all the usual resource fields ideally.
c. If vendor software, should link to “regular” resource
database.
d. Can document referred resources to call sheet
records
7. Rumor control is also a plus. You’ll want to amend you
handouts with that.
v. Should have at least simple reporting capabilities
1. Potential funders (including especially government officials)
love after action reports—even relatively simple ones.
2. You can use these reports for quality assurance: to compare
your overall call sheets filled out with overall number of calls
answered.
3. Every section—from intake sheets to evacuation shelters—
should have sensible data export capabilities in the event
you need to share this raw data with another entity or
system. Having comprehensive data export capability
expands reporting capabilities far beyond the native
capabilities of the Disaster I&R interface.
vi. Should have administrative as well as resource specialist security
settings
1. Ideally, a 2-1-1 agency administrator should be able to
create an unlimited number of users per site.
2. Administrators should be able to add and delete fields or
even activate and deactivate tabs.
a. For instance, not all community 2-1-1s (especially
ones with a working 5-1-1) need to keep up with road
closures. In which case a potential road closure tab
would need to be deactivated.
3. There should be both regional and system wide
administrator security settings to keep chaos from ensuing.
a. The dreaded “too many cooks in the kitchen”
syndrome
vii. Should be exceedingly flexible
1. Disasters come in many forms. Your Disaster Related I&R
interface should be able to adapt to any disaster which
comes your way.
a. Consider Hurricane Katrina, the California wildfires,
the Cedar Rapids flooding, the H1N1 pandemic and
the Gulf oil spill. Not all disasters are created equal
and you may be asked to track fields which are not
“standard” to the software product you’re using.
viii. Should be VERY easy to use and train folks on.
1. If the agent or resource specialist functionality is too
complex, one of the major points of having such a disasterrelated tool is rendered moot. Additional functionality at the
cost of basic usability is not worth it.
2. You may end up training hundreds or more volunteers on the
interface. Be aware of that as you build or analyze a piece
of disaster related I&R software.
3. Consider developing a simple, disaster-related I&R training
manual and video before a disaster. Have all regular staff
read the manual and sit through the training. When disaster
strikes, the training materials will be ready for your
volunteers.
ix. Should be specifically geared towards disaster and ONLY disaster
1. Non-disaster functionality (e.g., the ability to dump a whole,
pre-disaster resource database into the Disaster Information
& Referrals Interface) can disrupt usability and system focus.
a. The more non-disaster functionality the system has,
the more complex it becomes, the harder it becomes
for the user, and—finally—the more apt the user is to
stop using the system altogether.
III.
Make sure the information flowing into your system is groomed,
updated and deleted in a timely fashion.
a. In the days and weeks during or following a disaster, it is easy to become
overloaded with information—and records (especially community and
governmental updates) become stale almost immediately.
b. Assign trained resource specialists to constantly review and groom data
as needed.
IV.
Remember: any Disaster Related I&R System interface is temporary by
design.
a. As call volume decreases, more and more calls may fall into a standard
I&R category.
b. If your local health and human services aren’t completely wiped out (as in
New Orleans post-Katrina), you will probably go through days or even
weeks of using the Disaster Related I&R System interface concurrently
with your regular Information & Referral System interface.
c. There are at least a couple of vendors that have recently added disaster
related I&R functionality to their existing products. While this is a positive
development, these new modules should be assessed based on I&R
disaster best practices to see if they have the minimal functionality and
usability.
i. For the rest of us not using these amended products, you can
expect the acute phase of the disaster to bleed slowly into the
recovery phase of the disaster (which will resemble normal 2-1-1
operations more than the frenetic, chaotic pace in the days during
and following the disaster).
V.
Consider using a Disaster Related I&R software product that
experienced 2-1-1 agencies outside of your area are using
a. Remember—when and if your area experiences a major disaster—using
the same Disaster Related I&R interface as out-of-area 2-1-1 agencies
gives you the capability of overflow your (possibly massively increased)
calls.
b. Moreover, using the same Disaster Related I&R interface as other 2-1-1
agencies throughout the country means you may be able to help other
areas impacted by disaster with overflow calls.
VI.
Contact Information
a. Jonathan Padgett, 2-1-1 DRT Emergency Manager
i. Email: jpadgett@vialink.org
ii. Phone: 504-897-4877 (w), 504-251-6650 (c)