Parts of the East Coast were been hammered by natural disasters. First, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake centered near Richmond hit central Virginia. Then, strong thunderstorms arrived from the Midwest while Hurricane Irene churned along the Atlantic coastline.

But first responders were ready for the worst, said Rob Brown, chief of the Stafford County (Va.) Fire and Rescue Department. I spoke with Brown about his department’s preparation, including how his team survived nature’s 1-2-3 punch and his request for an IAFC Go Team — two-person teams available in 10 FEMA regions that assist in the organizational response and recovery after significant emergencies and catastrophic events hits an area.

What steps did you take to prepare for Hurricane Irene?
This has been an interesting seven days for us, because first the epicenter of the earthquake was only 20 miles from our county. At the time the earthquake hit, I already was at FRI planning on an early return as I watched the path of Hurricane Irene. Tuesday, the earthquake hit and with the help of the Atlanta Fire Department, I got on a flight quickly.

We transitioned into earthquake response while we still had a planning team focused on the hurricane. Then, just when we were wrapping up the earthquake response, we had massive thunderstorms on Thursday from the Midwest ahead of the hurricane. That caused considerable damage and exacerbated the earthquake damage.

So now we are working two incidents and watching Irene. Still, most of the area’s power was restored, and we were able to do some recover work before the hurricane. We did request an IAFC Go Team because we had injured command staff (unrelated to the earthquake) and were dealing with multiple incidents at once. They sent us chiefs from Clearwater, Fla., and from Salado, Colo.

As the hurricane rolled in, the department responded to debris, road blocks and 8,000 to 10,000 citizens who were without power. That went on for three, 12-hour operational periods within 36 hours, and then we shut down the EOC on Sunday evening.

Did you have access to mutual-aid besides the two chiefs from the Go Team?
In the D.C. area, we coordinate amongst all of the departments in northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. So long before Irene hit, we had a conference call with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ fire chiefs and knew — since the entire area was affected — that resources needed to come from outside the area. That’s why we called the Go Team.

We are lucky in this area to have all combination departments, so we have volunteers to call in to staff additional apparatus. During this time we staffed our ambulance bus, our medical support unit … which normally would be unstaffed. So relying on our volunteers, we didn’t have to reach out to other jurisdictions for any on duty personnel, just for those command resources.

What does it look like on the ground as of Aug. 31?
Right now, we are trying to support the people and counties without power. All the roads were re-opened within 12 hours of the hurricane, so now we are just trying to help the community while they wait for the power to be turned back on, which is expected on Friday.

Were there any lessons learned from the incident?
The good news is that we were able to take the 1-2-3 punch. The lesson learned is to lean forward. In this case, we probably could have gotten through the situation without requesting the Go-Team, but it wouldn’t have been a smart thing to do. It’s better to be over prepared and request resources early. I do know that there were some people requesting resources as the hurricane was approaching and that’s just not the right time. You can’t call for them in the middle of the storm because you are not going to get them.