Caroline Tucker
WMAL.com
ROCKVILLE, MD – (WMAL) Montgomery County lawmakers were briefed Tuesday afternoon about how to improve emergency response for large-scale events.
It comes following the tragic gas explosion at the Flower Branch Apartments in Silver Spring in August 2016.
Seven people died and more than 30 people were injured.
The county’s internal auditor did an assessment of the response and shared recommendations with the Montgomery County board.
Bill Broglie told lawmakers that the audit is not meant to be critical of the county’s response but to take a step back to look at what improvements can be made in the future.
Immediately after the explosion, more than 160 residents of the apartment building needed assistance from community organizations and government agencies.
Housing, food, and health services were all provided to help in the immediate aftermath.
Broglie told council members that there were three areas where the review focus: incident command and management, coordination of non-profit groups and government agencies, and planning and preparation.
Fourteen different recommendations were given based off of interviews with volunteers and employees who helped with the response.
The audit identified the need for better communication between multiple agencies and non-profit organizations.
It was recommended that extra drills should be done to not only include first responders but all of the agencies that might respond to an emergency.
Broglie said that the Emergency Operations Center was not deployed for this incident, which can help with coordination on the scene of an event.
The audit suggested that the EOC be deployed in the future for an event where a large number of residents in the county are directly impacted.
Another issue that popped up had to do with cell phone coverage and wifi service. Officials say the service was not adequate to address all of the needs at the time of the incident, particularly when it came to service within the recreation centers where people were being housed.
It was recommended that those services be improved at all of the county’s recreation centers, in case those sites need to be used for other emergencies at some point.
County officials say the cell coverage is being updated at all of the centers and that they are looking into improving wifi coverage as well.
It’s estimated that it could cost around $20,000 to outfit each center that is designated as an emergency shelter.
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