Fire Chief Mitch Randles left his son’s graduation when he learned that a severe thunderstorm the Joplin (Mo.) Fire Department and the weather service were watching had turned ominous. Randles took his family to the city’s main fire station, also the emergency operations center, and instructed fire personnel to warn the public and take cover.

That day, May 22, 2011, an EF-5 tornado — the most-powerful and deadliest kind — swept through Joplin, completely leveling the city and killing more than 130 people. Among the severely damaged structures were the chief’s home and two fire stations. Clearly this was an event like no other in the city’s history. But it was only when the storm cleared and people emerged that officials began to realize just how devastating the event was and how daunting the response effort would be.

Randles’ team was prepared for a tornado. When weather reports warned of a severe storm, he reviewed the fire department’s contingency plans and assessed the resources offered by the Missouri Fire Mutual Aid System, which consists of departments across the state that promise neighboring departments access to apparatus, equipment and personnel during disasters.

PODCAST: Randles on Lessons Learned

In fact, the fire department’s chief officers had been watching the weather system since early afternoon and knew there was a significant threat of tornados. But as it dissipated later in the afternoon, many thought the system would turn into a nasty, but common Midwestern thunderstorm, Randles said.

When the storm re-intensified, the fire department sounded the outdoor tornado alarm 20 minutes before the storm reached the city and then again 3 to 6 minutes before it hit, right after funnel clouds were reported on the outskirts of the city of 49,024 residents. Randles said that while outdoor sirens are effective, his department developed and deployed a public-education campaign that encouraged residents not to depend on outdoor warning sirens. Instead, they are asked to purchase and monitor weather radios.

Such radios run around $20 and are linked directly to the National Weather Service. The devices provide a warning of approaching storms, whether they are just severe thunderstorms or tornados, Randles said.

“Warnings were put out via those weather radios as well, so between that and our local media I feel like we did as much as we could to warn the public about the approaching storm,” he said.

While the department had disaster plans in place, the size and scope of the event “is something you cannot plan for,” Randles said. The department quickly was overwhelmed by the amount of time the tornado was on the ground and the path of destruction it left.

In fact, as the tornado bore down on the town, the department was forced to suspend all responses to calls. Instead, Randles instructed fire crews to seek shelter at stations. Since most of its stations are 20 to 25 years old and built before the advent of safe rooms, fire personnel and civilians off the street were ushered into an interior space within the buildings, typically a restroom or a room with no windows in the center of the building, he said.

Then the tornado hit, and Randles quickly realized that the department’s plans could not adequately answer all of the city’s needs given the scope of the disaster. “So we worked quickly to get mutual aid and other chief officers, both from the department and the surrounding areas, to help manage the incident,” he said.

National Aid

Part of that help came from FEMA Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Task Force teams from the state of Missouri. One team deployed was Missouri Task Force 1, (MO-TF1) based in Boone County, which was uniquely suited for this response, as it was qualified and equipped to search for and rescue victims entombed in collapsed reinforced-concrete and steel structures.

At its most effective level, Task Force 1 is a highly sophisticated response team and chiefs have to be flexible regarding those department members who work on it, said Bob Rennick, chief of the Jefferson City (Mo.) Fire Department, as being a US&R member requires a significant investment in time, management, training and equipment.

“Whenever there is a deployment … the city has supported their deployment,” Rennick said.

Joplin also requested the activation of statewide fire mutual aid, as well as support from the other mutual-aid organizations, including law enforcement and public works. Rennick’s role was to coordinate the out-of-region fire mutual-aid assets, which included incident-support teams sent to the Joplin EOC.

Rennick also sent Capt. Matt Schofield with the Task Force 1 team, which relies on surrounding departments and supporting local agencies that provide the personnel and equipment to respond to major disasters within the state, when needed. In total, Task Force 1 for the Joplin incident consisted of 85 first responders from across the state who left their day jobs to be deployed federally.

Schofield’s team was mobilized in the late evening of May 22 and arrived at 2 a.m. the next day. They were welcomed not only by massive destruction but also by the threat of another round of severe thunderstorms — including, potentially, more tornados.

Schofield said that they saw signs of the severe damage as they neared Joplin. “We saw a lot of vehicles on the highway that were overturned,” he said.

Task Force 1 has been deployed to 10 incidents of national significance, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the space shuttle Columbia disaster, and was pre-staged in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit. Schofield credits the help of supporting agencies for the ability of the task force to be deployed when and where needed in the aftermath of major disasters.

Also key was state funding, which is the foundation of US&R teams, as states must first build their arsenal of apparatus, equipment and personnel in order to be eligible. Right now, the U.S. has capped nationwide teams at 28 due to funding priorities.

“You can’t just show up one day and say you want to be a FEMA US&R team,” Schofield said. “You have to build the team and infrastructure and prove you have a viable asset. “

Schofield’s US&R team brought 14 vehicles to Joplin of different sizes, including tractor trailers to transport search-and-rescue equipment. They also brought unique skill sets and enough resources to be self-sufficient.

“Our training is geared to search and rescue beyond the capability of local fire departments,” Schofield said. “Our goal is not to be a drain on the local resources because we already know they are overwhelmed by the incident. So we … bring everything we need to survive and to support our search-and-research operations.”

When the team arrived, it was still stormy. They checked in at the Joplin EOC and mobile units brought in from other statewide mutual-aid departments. Their first task was to make contact with residents, search dilapidated buildings, record their findings and provide feedback up the chain of command to the EOC.

Assets used included highly trained, federally certified search dogs and thermal infrared cameras and seismic listening devices to find life in the heavy concrete and steel rubble piles, Schofield said.

“By the time a big team like US&R or mutual aid is activated statewide, the local resources have done a lot of that initial work, as far as the volume of patients with immediate assistance,” Schofield said. “So we come into to do what we call a secondary search.”

That entails methodically sifting through the structure, layer by layer, to ensure that it is completely searched, Schofield said. The searchers are tracked using GPS and mapping software.

“[This gives us] the ability to say objectively that this crew has been at this place at this time,” he said.

Schofield added that the data later is used for training, which includes an honest assessment of the response, its outcome and any lessons learned.

“If we can have objective GPS data that shows us what’s been done, then we know where to send those resources in the future,” he said.

While the response effort went smoothly, Schofield believes that the multi-jurisdictional effort could have worked better if all departments used the same terminology. Codes and slang added some confusion and further showed the need for language standardization that should be adopted nationwide.

“We can do better in that area,” he said.

Ego also needs to be addressed, according to Rennick. Some department members still feel a sense of territorialism and want control of an incident. It’s important that mutual-aid teams are seen and used as the necessary cache of equipment and human assets that they are, in order to address large-scale events, Rennick said, adding that protocols like NIMS exist to guide all involved through the process.

“Mutual-aid and federal partners are there to help, not take over operations,” he said.

Rennick said that the disaster was yet another eye-opener for officials. In fact, first responders in the state have been tested extensively by Mother Nature recently, through ice, snow and wind storms, as well as flooding.

“We’ve found several shortcomings,” he said about the response.
Specifically, Joplin’s tornado emphasized the need for fire departments to enhance their search-and-rescue capabilities, Randles said. He added that the federal government, following the 9/11 attacks, put a lot of emphasis on CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) training — which is good. But an all-hazards approach would be better, he said.

“I think an all-hazards approach with search-and-rescue capabilities is the future of the fire service,” he said. “It’s where we need to be headed.”

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