Troxler sharing learned lessons around country

Published 12:00 am Friday, November 24, 2000

LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / November 24, 2000

HAHNVILLE – When disaster strikes in St. Charles Parish, who needs the mosthelp and how can they be found and helped? When disaster strikes. whether from industry, commerce or the weather,top concern is the welfare of the people, and technology is keeping officials up to date on who needs the most help.

Emergency Preparedness Director Tab Troxler lives and breaths this stuff.

Troxler virtually grew up in the department, coming in on a part-time basis at age 16 to help with computers while still attending Hahnville High School. Hebecame director four years ago.

He’s now a popular speaker across the nation, explaining emergency management lessons learned in St. Charles Parish.One of the items which draws much attention across the country is the risk assessment computer program, developed in-house during the past two years and capable of identifying places of concern, together with what they are threatened.

An example: one can plug in a particular Luling apartment complex and learn it is within the Waterford 3 hazard zone, within the hazard zones of the Taft industrial zone and the Motiva zone, as well as its vulnerability to a certain hurricane scenario. It is, however, out of the 100-year flood zone.The same can be done with businesses, recreation areas, schools, day care centers, churches and high-population areas.

What’s more, a database has also been assembled, and updated constantly, identifying what are called “special-needs people” and what hazards they face.

With that information, one knows how to react, depending on the type of disaster, Troxler said.

Troxler explained, “You have to know what affects your community.”In St. Charles Parish, for instance, the area is almost a textbook foremergency management since virtually any type of disaster can conceivably strike here – hurricane, nuclear disaster, chemical release, flood, barge or ship accident, fire and even earthquake.

This is a hazard analysis, identifying the threats. The second step is avulnerability analysis, to identify where the parish is weak in defense. In thiscase, hurricanes top the list, since they are completely unavoidable and cannot be stopped or prevented.

Risk assessment is the next step and here, an analysis of what is most likely to affect the most people. Hurricanes can affect the most people, but theydon’t hit here often. Floods are more likely to hit, and they can be defendedagainst.

Chemical releases can also be defended against, with proper notification and education of the people. Earthquakes, however, are extremely unlikely,though barely possible. One struck as near as Laura Plantation in St. JamesParish years ago.

The four phases to emergency management, Troxler continued, are mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Mitigation is what one cando to head off the most serious effects of a disaster. Preparedness istaking what defensive steps possible. Response is just that – how resourcescan best and most efficiently react. Recovery is how a community rebuildsfrom a disaster.

The computer program Troxler and his crew designed merged these ideas of emergency management with established emergency planning zones around the major industries.

“We needed a place to put all this data and a way to access it,” Troxler said.

They began with Waterford 3, using the zones to determine who is vulnerable and guidelines on how to react. They expanded this to cover each of the 27major industries and coupled it with the 100-year flood plain maps and the analysis of different hurricane scenarios.

“It’s grown on its own to be more than we ever expected it to be,” Troxler added.

Other examples of the program’s capabilities is identifying which eight public schools fall within the 100-year flood plain. Also, the location in the parishleast likely to be affected by disaster of any kind was also identified, making it the safest location to live in St. Charles Parish.Plans are to link it to the GIS system under development by other parish departments, so that any single property owner can know exactly what hazards, natural or man-made, threaten that location and what resources are available to assist. Also, a pipeline map is also being linked to theprogram as well.

Troxler has shown off the computer program to emergency planners across the country, earning high praise for the effort. His next major speakingengagement will be at the National Hurricane Conference in Washington D.C.during April 2001.

“It’s a moving, living record,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

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