[StBernard] BR officials say report biased

[Westley Annis]

BR officials say report biased

'Interoperability' rated poor

By GERARD SHIELDS
Advocate Washington bureau
Published: Jan 4, 2007

WASHINGTON - Baton Rouge-area emergency response officials on Wednesday
rebuffed a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report saying the region had
one of the worst metropolitan systems in the nation for communicating by
radio during disasters.

Although acknowledging varying levels of equipment compatibility and
financial resources, officials in an eight-parish region near Baton Rouge
studied by the federal government contend that they are making strides in
what is called "interoperability."

The local governments tested their systems last summer, an exercise that
came off with few communication mistakes, participants said.

"The whole point of an exercise is to find out your weaknesses and make
adjustments accordingly," said Mark Smith, a spokesman for the Louisiana
Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Also Wednesday, federal Homeland Security Michael Chertoff  pledged that the
75 metropolitan areas surveyed would have modern disaster communications
systems in place by 2009,  according to The Associated Press.

Only six of 75 cities and regions surveyed received top scores. Baton Rouge
was one of five regions that received the lowest scores. New Orleans also
had a below-average score.

The department report says the Baton Rouge region does not have a strategic
plan in place to guide collective communications interoperability goals and
funding.

The report covered East Baton Rouge, Ascension, East Feliciana, Iberville,
Livingston, Point Coupee, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana parishes.

Some agencies also failed to understand the interoperability plan while
others faced multi-agency communications challenges during exercises, the
report says.

The report was particularly critical on the region's reliance on cell phones
during a disaster.

"The apparent Baton Rouge public safety reliance on cellular technology
would prove especially ineffective in response to an incident wherein
commercial infrastructure were damaged or during a period of high commercial
communications traffic (e.g. hurricane preparation and response)," the
report says.

State Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Chalmette, wasn't surprised by the findings.
Boasso introduced legislation that would have required Louisiana to come up
with a comprehensive interoperability plan for the entire state. The measure
was killed in the House, Boasso said.

"The whole system has to be revamped in the way it's run," Boasso said.
"We're trying to hold onto a widgets factory."

The state did approve $20 million more for interoperability last year,
Boasso said, but more should be spent, especially in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina when radio towers toppled, silencing responders.

"I've seen people die because of interoperability," Boasso said. "It's so
critical."

Brian Fairburn agrees. The director of Livingston Parish emergency response
doesn't understand why government funding for improving radio communications
has dropped the last three years.

In 2004, the parish received $1.2 million for its communication system,
Fairburn said. Last year, the parish had to work with $400,000, he said.

"The needs are getting greater and the money is getting less," Fairburn
said. "The money is put out there in Washington but it doesn't get down to
the local level. I thought we were doing fairly well with the money that we
were getting."

So does Donald Ewing, who directs Pointe Coupee's emergency response.
Emergency officials meet regularly, sometimes weekly, with interoperability
as a priority, he said.

"It's the first thing that goes wrong in a disaster. Everybody knows that,"
Ewing said. "I think the report was pretty subjective. Based on the
criteria, I don't think it was too fair of an assessment."

Last year, the region received a $6 million federal grant to ensure
interoperability in six of the eight parishes in the region, said Anthony
Summers, assistant emergency response director in West Baton Rouge Parish.

The money required a $2 million local match.

Yet Travis Prewitt acknowledges the need for improvement. The East Feliciana
emergency response director notes that his Fire Department operates on
100-megahertz radios, while police use 450-megahertz. And neither can match
the 700-megahertz of the State Police.

But the 74-year-old Prewitt, who has been director for 25 years, said the
parish is committed to improving its system.

"It's a long stretch but we'll eventually catch up with the 20th century,"
Prewitt said. "And maybe even pop into the 21st century."

JoAnne Moreau, director of the East Baton Rouge Parish Office of Homeland
Security and Emergency Preparedness, will address the report at a news
conference today in the Metro Council Chambers.

Advocate staff writer Mike Dunne contributed to this report.

  
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