May 1, 2004 |
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RIOC Meeting on Disaster Plan Falls Short by Mary Camper-Titsingh |
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Fewer than two dozen residents gathered
in the
auditorium at PS217 last week to hear about emergency planning for
Roosevelt
Island. The meeting was the culmination of some eight months
of work
by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation following last
summer’s Blackout,
when some elements of Island services were caught flat-footed.
Residents, who were expecting to hear the result of “a study of the Island and its needs,” as suggested in RIOC President Herbert E. Berman’s April 17 column in The WIRE expressed profound disappointment bordering on anger. A lengthy presentation made by Michael Dendekker, a Public Information Officer from the City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) contained no information specific to the Island. He did warn residents, however, about the danger of leaving car engines running in their closed garages, apparently unaware that residents here have no closed garages. Dendekker’s hour-long talk was essentially a recital of information contained in the widely distributed Ready New York household preparedness guide. “Develop a household emergency plan,” he told residents before turning the microphone over to the Regional Director of the State OEM, Ted Fisch. Fisch presented organizational charts and offered details about the responsibilities of various segments departments of State government (not including RIOC), until he was interrupted with questions from several residents. “We need to know how Roosevelt Island will handle emergencies – what parents can do when they are separated from their children and there is no transportation available to or from our Island,” said Marianne Russem, a member of the Rivercross Board of Directors. Members of the Residents Association (RIRA) Common Council asked questions: • Nurit Marcus asked whether residents would find a RIOC Red Bus at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge after walking to Queens, if another Blackout disables subways and the Tram, and the Queensboro Bridge is closed to vehicular traffic, as it was in last summer’s emergency. • Vicki Feinmel asked if a community shelter had been designated for use in the event of extreme temperatures – heat or cold – during a power outage, and whether emergency water, first-aid supplies, blankets, and food would be available. • RIRA First Vice President Steve Marcus asked about a plan for deployment of equipment RIOC purchased after the Blackout, and why residents are not informed about its availability and responsibilities for its use. • RIRA President Matthew Katz asked whether the Island’s dock was being repaired in case evacuation only by water was possible. There were no answers. Katz, who discusses the session in his column (http://nyc1004 4.com/wire/2416/rirc.html), described the presentations of the City and State representatives the day after the meeting when members of the RIRA Common Council met with three members of the RIOC Board of Directors in a previously scheduled liaison session. “They were utterly unprepared to discuss any of the contingency plans for this place... They were going to a level of talking about the organizational charts for [their] organizations, as though this was the critical information Roosevelt Island needed to hear.” (The full transcript of the RIRA-RIOC Board liaison session is posted online at http://nyc10044 .com/wire/2416/liaison.html.) Katz continued, “There was not one word about Roosevelt Island.” Katz said that Sari Dickson, RIOC’s Vice President for Operations, was the only RIOC representative who spoke at the meeting, and she “said it was not RIOC’s responsibility to provide any emergency services.” On Wednesday, asked by The WIRE to clarify her position, Dickson wrote in an e-mail: “What I said was that there are professional emergency management planners at the State and City level. They are the ones that put together any emergency management plans because they are the ones with the expertise, and they will be the ones to carry out any emergency responses. RIOC is working with the people who have the experience in this area. We found that they are well aware of the Island and have always included the Island in the overall emergency plans of the State and City. They are now reviewing those plans in context of meetings with us and the community.” She continued, “I have to stress again that since they are the ones who will have to marshal appropriate air, land, and marine responses, any plans and procedures must come from them. RIOC will continue to participate in this process and will make the Island residents aware of any public progress.” The Residents Association Vice President for Government Relations, Margie Smith, who chaired the next day’s liaison meeting, reported asking Dickson at the end of the meeting, “Are we still in the midst of doing a study, or is this an update, or is this it – is this the last we’re going to hear?” She said that Dickson responded that “other than from time to time the OEM guys would come back and do this same thing for us, that’s it.” Smith said that when residents asked the OEM representatives if residents could work with them on an emergency plan for the Island, the response was that the OEM offices would work only with RIOC. During the emergency planning presentation, when Nurit Marcus asked the OEM representatives, “Can’t OEM force RIOC to develop and distribute a plan?” Ted Fisch of the State OEM responded, “No, it is up to your Resident’s Association to keep after New York City and State officials to press RIOC to develop such an emergency plan.” Dickson expressed disappointment at the low turn-out for the meeting. “It was meant as an opportunity for information exchange, but both sides wanted to give information, and did not want to hear what the other side was saying,” she said. Copies of the Ready New York pamphlet, published by the City OEM, will be distributed with a future issue of The WIRE. The item is currently out of stock and is expected in two to three weeks. Dick Lutz provided additional reporting for this article. |