Over the winter, the Vineyard was battered by a historic nor’easter that dumped snow across the Island and caused power outages. Now, county officials are pushing for better coordination for emergencies that hit the Island.
The Olson Group, an emergency management consulting firm hired by Dukes County, proposed the creation of an Island-wide emergency management coordinator position and a Multi-Agency Coordination Center (MACC) during a presentation on Thursday.
About 20 people gathered in the Oak Bluffs Public Library to learn about the Island-Wide Emergency Management Strategic Plan, a proposed strategy to address crisis preparedness and response on Martha’s Vineyard and Gosnold. It comes after a winter of harsh storms that the firm said showed a lack of emergency planning by the six distinct Island towns.
Olson Group President and Founder Kyle Olson said that the emergency management coordinator would be responsible for facilitating communication amongst the towns to better prepare for and respond to Island-wide disasters.
“This position would support Island-wide preparedness and recovery activities and act as an integration hub for the towns and the agencies that are involved in this,” Olson said.
Olson highlighted how regional coordination makes securing aid from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) an easier process compared to towns making individual grant requests.
“The documentation for an entire county that is organized and coordinated and has all the information assembled in the same way in the same flavor is going to be readily acceptable to FEMA,” Olson said. “You’re building critical mass, and you translate that into your reasonable request for what you are entitled to because you stepped up and saved the day for some people who might otherwise not be with us.”
Although how the position’s salary would be funded is unknown, county officials said utilizing a combination of money from grants and the towns is possible.
Meanwhile, the MACC would be a centralized physical, virtual, or hybrid hub to consolidate resources, public information, and documentation for crises resulting in Island-wide infrastructure damage and significant reimbursement needs. The center would be staffed by current town officials.
Olson underscored the simplicity and importance of the MACC.
“It doesn’t need to be a physical center with a lot of TVs,” Olson said. “Those six different towns are each putting out their own messaging. It would make sense to make sure that they’re all sending out the same messages.”
The proposed plan comes after a historic nor’easter struck New England in February, blanketing the Island in over 20 inches of snow and leaving 10,000 people without power or heat for several days.
Olson said that the Island-wide response to the snowstorm wasn’t calculated enough in advance.
“There was sharing of information, but it was very much ad hoc, and that can get you in trouble for a big event of sustained duration,” Olson said. “The strategic plan, therefore, is all about putting together a coordinated architecture. It’s about pulling people together to work together more effectively.”
Olson said that he hopes all six towns approve the plan by 2027, and it’s fully implemented by 2031.
The next step is for the towns’ emergency management directors to discuss the plan, before recommending its adoption to their select boards.