Lessons from Superstorm Sandy

A NJ recovery story
Lou Cirigliano
Director of Operations
TODAY’S OBJECTIVE
Hurricane Irene:
 hurricane strength August 21 2011.
 Moved up the coast to make second landfall in
NJ near Little Egg Inlet Sunday August 28 with
winds of 70 MPH.
oHowever it moves up coastline with shore
almost within the eye section as the center
sparing the coast. Inland areas affected more.
Passaic, Bergen. Morris counties hit hard.
 Pier, Waterpark, Summit Public Rec, and all
shore towns were presently in season. Closed for
that weekend, and ½ day Friday.
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Labor Day weekend 4 days away
“How do you get to Yankee Stadium?”
Practice, Practice, Practice
~ Arthur Richman, NY Mirror 1950’s
HEED
THE
EARLY
WARNINGS!
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“Forget about the category with this,” said CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano. “When you have
trees with leaves on them still, this kind of wind and rain on top of that, you’re talking about
trees that are going to come down, power lines are going to be out and the coastal flooding
situation is going to be huge.”
Sandy is still predicted to merge with a strong cold front from the west and morph into a
“superstorm.”
This “will energize this system, so we’ll actually get an intensification of this system,”
Uccellini said.
The resulting storm could sit over New England, making untold trouble for millions of
residents, even dumping heavy snow in the Appalachians.
“Expect it to move very slowly,” said James Franklin of the National Hurricane Center. “The
large size of the system and its slow motion will mean a long-lasting event with two to three
days of impacts.”
The tropical storm force winds will likely spread over a vast distance, potentially up to 700
miles across, stretching from North Carolina to Maine, which could mean widespread power
outages, according to CNN’s Weather Unit.
Sandy has taken on a lopsided form, and its heaviest winds should be in the northern and
eastern sections of the storm as it nears land — and be directed inbound toward the
coastline (exactly where CBP ended up being)
Mike Seidel arrived and set up at Jenks, while Jim Cantore come to Seaside. That is NEVER a
good sigh.
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Thank you Irene
Park prep
◦ Canvases and scenery panels removed
◦ Sky Ride chairs come off
◦ removing mobile trailer-mount rides from pier, (specific rules apply to each ride. A given
ride may operate in 30mph winds, but must be torn down if expected 70mph.
◦ securing outdoor furniture
◦ emptying basements
◦ Secure loose items such as signage, umbrellas, plants, garbage cans…even fiberglass
figures around the park
◦ Go-Karts
◦ Disconnect electrical to carts/ticket booths. Move booths indoors.
◦ Main power to the pier is disconnected prior to evacuation.
◦ Chemical storage
Bring critical items up to the highest points possible. (Computer towers,
servers)
Leaders lead
All hands on deck! We preped for 6 days prior and were completed the day
before. All team members pitched in across department lines
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Written and reviewed EAP, Business continuity plan, storm protocol plan
What items are needed?
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Sandbags
Flashlights (and batteries) – some flashlights use the 6V lantern battery which is not a common one
Plywood
Generators (and gasoline for them) (make sure they are operational)
High-speed pumps for excess water
Tarps
Glow Necklaces (to light stairways)
Rope to secure outdoor items
Will staff need to be relocated?
If electric is turned off, what about perishables? Animals for aquarium…??
Contact your contractors to plan on recovery issues
Message on website/social media
Who is speaking to media prior and what is the message? Crisis Communications Plan
Take pictures of everything
Plan for extended days out of the office…. contacts, files, passwords, employee contact
list
What about your staff…do they have time to prep their personal property?
“Whether an organization survives a crisis
with its reputation, operations and financial
conditions intact is determined less by the
severity of the crisis than by the timeliness
and effectiveness of its response.”
Helio Fred Garcia, "Strategy & Leadership", 2006.
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Don’t fall into the “Irene Trap”
NJ: Power Outages state wide, 2.6 million people in NJ without
power.
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Monmouth County averaged 10 days without power.
Union it was 9 days.
Ocean averaged 8 days.
Some towns out for as long as 22 days and 17% were out for more than 10
days! (stats from Dept of Energy)
$7.8 Billion in residential damage and lost income based on
insurance records obtained for a Rutgers study, 325,000 housing
unit damaged. Toms River (CBP surrounding community) 1 in 4
homes suffered damage.
$3.56 Billion in damages to businesses and lost revenue. Atlantic
City lost 9 conventions, 23,000 rooms, and $31 million in
spending. NJ tourism, in 2011 generated $4.4 billion was down
30% in 2013.
$2.2 Billion loss to municipalities based on building and
infrastructure damage, emergency expenses, and loss of tax
revenue.
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no power to charge cell phones and no landline
service
◦ how to communicate with critical staff members?
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Gas shortage in NJ lasted until November 13th.
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Access to work may be limited.
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Looting potential
◦ Can’t commute to work, or fill generators.
◦ SSH and barrier island access denied until Nov 12.
◦ When you can return, can you still use offices? Pre-plan for
where you can have temporary business continuity.
◦ Can your staff even go to work if their personal home was
affected.
◦ Only access would be via a road that had 3 breaches from
the ocean to the bay.
◦ Should the worst happen, even more supplies to mitigate
problems such as chains, locks, signs are needed.
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Time for Leaders to lead.
Batteries
Flashlights
All-weather gear
Work gloves
Medical gloves
Medical masks
Temporary work lights, lightbulbs
Fans to dry out, and remove smells
Extension cords (LOTS of them!)
Small refrigerators for food items, milks, etc
CLEAR garbage bags
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Manpower!
Temporary Fence
Locks, chains
Hand Sanitizers
Porta-johns
Ruined items: get inventories, write serial numbers,
take pictures.
Do NOT throwINVanything
away!
ITEM
QTY
PRICE
PACK
TOTAL
CHROMATE (see side -->)
PERFORMANCE TOO 4007 PC O-RING ASST. #W5202
WORK GLOVES
WELDING GLOVES - MARINE WELDING SUPPLY
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1
1
5
$
$
$
14.99
15.05
16.70
Keep every receipt!
Make duplicate copies of everything
ea
dz
pair
$
$
$
$
22,146.06
14.99
15.05
83.50
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Media.
◦ Who is doing the talking?
◦ One consistent and clear message
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Corporate Structure
◦ who is in charge?
◦ Who is making the critical decisions
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ID’s for staff members? (police access)
Communicate with local government or your
Mayor might turn out to be an
2013 season for Breakwater Beach
- we were greeted with record rainfall for June and a cooler
than average start.
 By August, BWB down 37.9% YTD
 Pier rides didn’t open till July 26.
 Many buildings had extensive repairs and some that were too
bad to repair didn’t come down until March. Too late to
rebuild for 2013
 Electric to our main buildings not restored until May 3rd
 Many department heads offices displaced until mid-May
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Customers book vacations and make plans early.
Locally 1 in 7 houses occupied by June
Many not sure if to rebuild, to raise house, new flood plans,
or if they will get recovery money to do the work required.
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Just as recent as mid-January 2015, Fair
Share Housing stated that over 10,000 New
Jersey homes were approved for Federal
funds in the state’s Reconstruction,
Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation
program.
Only 328 have been rebuilt.
Only ½ have received any money.
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You cannot possibly pre-plan and prep enough in advance of any
situation.
Know your local merchants. If one different power grids can they
assist you in your needs?
Having a plan works
Invest in a good camera to take pictures of everything, but you
will be very busy, so have a person who can do all of the
documentation.
Get out in front of your story in order to control it with the media
You learn survival skills you didn’t know you had.
You will see people at their best….
….and worst. Beat those who consider a tragedy and opportunity.
Good Samaritans abound.
Keep order, Step up and lead. Control chaos. Don’t wait for the
Calvary.
You cannot solve what you can’t control
Use the wide range of info available!
a sense of humor helps
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Superstorm Sandy was the deadliest mid-Atlantic hurricane since Agnes swept up
Chesapeake Bay in 1972
The Raritan Bay shore and Monmouth and Ocean counties took the brunt of what
hurricane center analysts called unprecedented damage, with 22,000 homes
uninhabitable in the days after the storm. In all, 650,000 homes were affected by
Sandy
The surge was between 11 and 11.5 feet above sea level at the Battery in lower
Manhattan, and measured at 12.65 feet at Kings Point, near the eastern link
between the upper harbor and Long Island Sound. The ultimate tide height at
Sandy Hook is unknown because the tide gage there stopped working, but a high
water mark of 8.9 feet above ground was found at the Coast Guard station, the
report says.
Sandy rainfall was measured at 11.62” in Wildwood Crest – south of landfall.
A peak flood height of 7.9 feet above ground was found at Keyport, where the
surge funneled up Raritan Bay to its deepest. Surge heights over ground were 4 to
5 feet along Barnegat Bay and 2 to 4 feet in Atlantic and Cape May counties, the
report says.
Sandy lost its hurricane character at 5 p.m. Oct. 29, as it approached New Jersey
and began pulling in cooler air to become what meteorologists call an extratropical cyclone.
The storm center as calculated from radar records came ashore near Brigantine,
farther north than early reports that had Sandy making landfall south of Atlantic
City. At 6:24 p.m. that evening barometric air pressure at Atlantic City bottomed
out at 945.5 millibars, almost as low as the 941 mb record set by the catastrophic
1938 hurricane that destroyed eastern Long Island
A NJ recovery story
Lou Cirigliano
Director of Operations
Casino Pier & Breakwater
Beach
800 Ocean Terrace
Seaside Heights, NJ 08751
732-793-6488 x-8203
lrc@casinopiernj.com
www.casinopiernj.com