History of emergency management policies in Virginia and a public policy analysis.

1. Emergency Management Policies
Commonwealth of Virginia Group
Anne Curtis
Tony Humphrey
Elisa Johnson
Jeremy Lasich

2. State Agencies
• Virginia Governor’s Cabinet
• Secretary of Public Safety oversees 11 agencies
• Emergency
Management (VDEM)
• Alcohol Beverage
Control
• Education
• Corrections
• Criminal Justice Services
• Fire Programs
• Forensic Science
• Juvenile Justice
• Military Affairs
• Virginia Parole Board
• Virginia State Police

3. State History
1942 - Virginia General Assembly creates Office
of Civilian Defense to protect citizens against
enemy attack with an emphasis on coastal areas
and military centers. The office was abolished
after World War II ended.

4. State History
1950 - The Office of Civilian Defense was re-
established in response to the atomic age and
the Cold War and re-named the Office of Civil
Defense. Many cities and counties maintained
stocked fallout shelters complete
with medical supplies.

5. State History
1969 - The remnants of
Hurricane Camille in
Virginia, centered in Nelson
County, killed more than
150 people and caused $113
million in damages. This
storm began to shift the
focus of emergency services
from nuclear toward other
types of natural and
human-caused disasters.

6. State History
1972 - Tropical Storm
Agnes hits Virginia, killing
16 people and causing
more than $222 million in
damages.

7. State History
1973 - Governor Linwood Holton signed
the Emergency Services and Disaster Act
that replaced the Office of Civil Defense
with the Virginia Office of Emergency
Services (VOES).
Agency staffing expanded from 24 to 40,
including training, communications, public
information, and regional staff.

8. State History
1976-78 - During the oil embargo, VOES
absorbed the Governor’s Energy Office and
added about 20 people to the agency. In 1978,
the agency’s name was changed to the Office of
Emergency and Energy Services
(OEES).

9. State History
1985 - Roanoke River system floods due
to Hurricane Juan on Election Day,
affecting large portions of central and
western Virginia.
Energy services activities transferred to
the new agency and OEES became the
Department of Emergency Services.
Downtown Roanoke

10. State History
1989 - The federal Robert T.
Stafford Disaster Relief and
Emergency Assistance Act
(Stafford Act) became law and
created a systematic method in
place today of coordinated federal
assistance to states and local
governments for disasters.

11. State History
1993 - The “Blizzard of the
Century” buried western
Virginia in as much as three
feet of snow, and an historic
F4 tornado hit
Petersburg/Colonial
Heights.
Walmart in Colonial
Heights hit by tornado

12. State History
2000 - OEES’ name was changed to the Virginia
Department of Emergency Management (VDEM).

13. State History
2001 - Terrorists hijacked
American Airlines Flight 77
and intentionally flew it into
the Pentagon, killing 189
people.
Pentagon

14. State History
2003 - Virginia’s most costly natural disaster,
Hurricane Isabel, caused 36 deaths and $1.9 billion
in damage. Five million people were without
power, the highest number on record.

15. State History
2003 - VDEM became accredited by the Emergency
Management Accreditation Program (EMAP), the
fifth state organization to do so. VDEM was re-
certified by EMAP in 2010.

16. State History
2006 - The $6.5 million state-of-the-art Virginia
Emergency Operations Center opened in
Chesterfield County.

17. State History
2008 - The Virginia Interoperability Picture for
Emergency Response (VIPER) was launched,
providing a GIS supported common operating picture
for emergency response.

18. State History
2011 - Governor Bob McDonnell established the
Virginia Disaster Relief Fund following an
onslaught of tornadoes nearly every week in April.

19. State History
2011 - A disaster trifecta
included an historic 5.8
magnitude earthquake and
severe flooding from Hurricane
Irene and Tropical Storm Lee
killed 10 and caused an
estimated $129 million in
damage.

20. State History
2013 – VDEM Celebrates its 40th anniversary.

21. State History
2013 - SB381 transfers
homeland security
responsibilities from the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
to the Secretary of Public
Safety.
Brian Moran

22. State Policy
Virginia Emergency Services and Disaster Law
• Established in 1973
• Amended in 2000 and 2008
• Title 44-146.13 - 44-146.40; Code of Virginia

23. VESD Law
Established for three reasons:
1. Create a “State Department of Emergency
Management” (now VDEM)
2. Confer emergency powers to the Governor and
executive heads
3. Provide for rendering of mutual
aid with other states and the
federal government

24. VESD Law
Powers and duties of the Governor
and VDEM:
• Governor serves as the Director
of Emergency Management
• VDEM lead is Coordinator of EM
• Direct mandatory evacuations
• Declare a state of emergency

25. VESD Law
Powers and duties of the Governor
and VDEM:
• Control and regulate resources
• Commit state resources
• Request federal assistance
• Conduct an annual statewide
drill
Tornado Drill

26. VDEM
Works with local government, state and federal
agencies and voluntary organizations to provide
resources and expertise through the four phases of
emergency management:
• Prepare
• Response
• Recovery
• Mitigation

27. VDEM Leadership
• Jeff Stern – State
Coordinator
• Curtis Brown – Deputy
Coordinator
• Brett Burdick – Deputy
State Coordinator

28. VDEM
• Receives 80% of funding from Stafford Act
• Divided into 7 regions
• Region 7 is Northern Virginia

29. VDEM
Key responsibilities
• Support local agencies
• Respond to request for
resources
• Personnel
• Equipment
• Water
• National Guard

30. VDEM
Key responsibilities
• Monitor for situational
awareness
• Regions are eyes and
ears for decision
makers in Richmond
• State office works with
national agencies
• Coordinate with other
state partners
• Police and Fire
• Health
• Transportation
• Schools
• Social
Services

31. Interviews
• Dave McKernan, Fairfax
County OEM Coordinator
• Jeff Kezele, VDEM Region 7
Deputy Coordinator
• Dawn Eischen, VDEM
Director of Public Affairs

32. Analysis
Kingdon Streams
• Problems: WWII, Cold War, Hurricane
Camille, 9/11 were focusing events,
opening policy windows that enabled
change.

33. Analysis
Kingdon Streams
• Policy: Stafford Act largely defined state role
as “middle man,” facilitator of resource
allocation from federal to local
governments. “Policy entrepreneurs”
primarily in Governor/Secretary offices,
VDEM is more operations-focused.
• Political: 9/11 “national mood”
particularly intense in jurisdictions
actually targeted, including
Virginia.

34. Analysis
Baumgartner and Jones’ Punctuated Equilibrium
(Smith)
• 9/11 in particular, created “shift in policy, and
a new point of equilibrium” - definition of
EM focused on terrorism, received greater
resources dedicated to function and
heightened level of importance among state
agencies.
• In Virginia that single terrorism
incident was the exception: natural
disasters continue to be EMS’
primary reason for being.

35. Analysis
Baumgartner and Jones’ Punctuated
Equilibrium (Smith)
• “Changes in issue definition altered
structural arrangements of policy…system”
• “Venue shopping” –Punctuated
equilibrium provides opportunity for
more optimal venue. In Virginia,
VDEM recently moved from
Veterans Affairs to Public
Safety.

36. Analysis
Schneider and Ingram’s Burden/Benefit Model
(cited by Smith)
• Advantaged – Northern Virginia, business
owners (who have developed own
emergency mgmt. procedures) –minimum
burden, maximum benefits.
• Contenders – the “rest” of Virginia
(gun owners, “old South”) –
medium burden, medium
benefits.

37. Analysis
Schneider and Ingram’s Burden/Benefit Model
(cited by Smith)
• Dependent – disabled, Hispanics, poor –
maximum burden, minimum benefits.
• Deviant – illegal immigrants –
maximum burden, minimum
benefits.

38. Analysis
Pareto Model (cited by
Smith)
• “Northern Virginia gets
too much – everyone
understands this.”
J. Kezele, Region 7
Deputy Coordinator)
• Pareto Inferior Model:
Northern Virginia needs
the least, gets the most.

39. Analysis
Funding
• “Budget Game” (Bardach, cited by Smith): expenditures
are short-term assessment measures, “spending money
shows that something is being done.”
• “Power Law” (Baumgartner and Jones, cited by Smith):
“Shock to the system” – i.e., 9/11 – overcomes
institutional inertia and results in dramatic budget
increases.
• Concept of causality to rationalize significant
resources: “Generating an estimate of the
counterfactual, or what happens to Y in the
absence of X” (Smith) – i.e., potential risks
of NOT dedicating significant funding to
emergency management.

40. Analysis
Implementation
• Top Down/Bottom Up (Pressman & Wildavsky):
•Inter-governmental is Top Down: Funding in
particular goes from Federal through State to
Local. Stafford Act defined roles for each level,
and Dillon Rule applies relative to state/local
relationship.
•Intra-governmental (state) is Top Down: Region
is “eyes and ears” for Richmond but
direction comes from HQ.
•Implementation is Bottom Up:
Localities are primary agencies
responsible for EM.

41. Analysis
Implementation
• Decision points (Pressman & Wildasky): The
more approvals that have to be granted for
action to be taken, the higher the likelihood that
action will not be taken.
• “System is overwhelmed” – D. McKernan, Fairfax
County OEM Coordinator. Too much
paperwork and too many bureaucratic
barriers result in “fed/state versus
local” as opposed to state and
local working together.