As Wayne County freezes, emergency officials pass the buck

Recent snow storm in Detroit area; inset, James Buford, director of Wayne County Dept. of Homeland Security (photo: snow storm, DetroitDerek via Flickr.com)

As thousands struggled to cope with freezing temperatures during widespread power outages this week, emergency management personnel and equipment — including generators — remained idle in Wayne County as vacationing officials passed the buck on responding to the weather emergency.

“I’m sure there are plans [for dealing with winter power outages],” said the lone employee in the Wayne County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management on Monday, “but I haven’t been here that long, and I really do not know what they are.”

The department’s director, James Buford, told Michigan Messenger on Monday that he was on vacation. He acknowledged that that he had not been in touch with DTE Energy about the power outages. He said that he had not directed his department to begin damage assessment activities nor ordered any warming stations opened. Buford also said he did not know how many people were without power.

Buford said his department normally takes action only when a state of emergency is declared or when contacted by local municipalities. Neither occurred, he said.

Opening shelters, he added, “is normally the function of the Red Cross or Salvation Army.”

According to the Red Cross and the Michigan State Police, the counties’ emergency management agencies are the lead agencies in responding to hazardous weather. On Monday, as 135,000 homes and businesses in the metro Detroit area remained without power, Red Cross and DTE officials expressed surprise that they had not been contacted by Wayne County officials.

In power outage situations the city of Detroit or the Wayne County government is normally in communication with DTE Energy about the need for shelters, said Scott Simons, spokesman for the energy company. “We have not heard from them … I am unaware of any warming stations set up in the Detroit metro area.”

With approximately 2 million residents, Wayne is Michigan’s most populous county.

Buford’s department, which has received millions in federal homeland security money, does not lack for resources to deal with a weather emergency. According to the department’s Web site it has an emergency operations center, which can support emergency/disaster response with online mapping tool; a special information response vehicle capable of “on the fly,” countywide disaster assessment; a fleet of field operations/command post vehicles, including a 42-foot commercial Winnebago with a large meeting room and restroom; a six-wheel drive truck with communication box for use during hazardous weather conditions; and an unknown number of small portable power generators to provide power for emergency lighting and heating equipment.

While thousands lack electricity in the Detroit area, none of this equipment has been used.

According to the Wayne County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Web site, the organization’s mission is

“To take the lead role in coordinating the County’s responsibility to plan, analyze, conduct and maintain programs to preserve and protect lives and property from major emergencies and disasters of all types. In this capacity, it maintains a current adequate emergency management program for the County of Wayne and all participating local municipalities.”

The department is also responsible for maintaining equipment to respond to a nuclear event at the Fermi II nuclear power plant in nearby Monroe.

There is no information about current power outages on the Web site. The most recent publication on the site appears to be a newsletter from January 2005.

The emergency management system appears to have worked in some storm-hit areas. Shelters were set up in Roscommon and Iosco counties. Hot meals were provided to those without power in Lansing, Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, according to Dave Gutierrez director of disaster services for the state coordinating chapter of the Red Cross.

“We rely on county officials to get in touch with us,” Gutierrez said.

Emergency management officials say it’s important to reach out to vulnerable populations because winter storms and power outages can be deadly. According to preparedness materials supplied by Guttierrez, “Many older Americans literally freeze to death in their own homes after being exposed to dangerously cold indoor temperatures or are asphixiated because of improper use of fuels such as charcoal briquettes which produce carbon monoxide.”