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Merrimack Valley Natural Gas Explosions After Action Report September 13 - December 16, 2018

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Merrimack Valley Natural Gas Explosions After Action Report September 13 - December 16, 2018 Merrimack Valley Natural Gas Explosions After Action Report September 13 - December 16, 2018 2018 Merrimack Valley Gas Explosions After Action Report Published January 2020 Table of Contents 1.0 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Overarching Themes ..................................................................................................................... 1 2.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Report Scope and Structure .......................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Incident Overview ......................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Community Geography and Demographics ................................................................................ 11 3.0 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................... 13 3.1 Steering Committee .................................................................................................................... 13 3.2 Participating Agencies and Representatives ............................................................................... 14 4.0 Incident Timeline ............................................................................................................................ 16 5.0 Focused Review Areas .................................................................................................................... 24 5.1 Initial Response ........................................................................................................................... 24 First Responder Activities ................................................................................................... 24 Scene Organization ............................................................................................................. 30 Initial Decision Making ........................................................................................................ 31 Immediate Actions to Protect the Public ............................................................................ 32 Information Sharing ............................................................................................................ 38 5.2 Ongoing Response ...................................................................................................................... 41 Command and Coordination ............................................................................................... 41 Continued Operations ......................................................................................................... 46 Immediate Human Services ................................................................................................ 48 Resource Demobilization and Logistics ............................................................................... 52 5.3 Recovery Efforts: Restoration and Reconstruction ..................................................................... 54 Appointment of a Chief Recovery Officer ........................................................................... 54 Development of Restoration/ Reconstruction Plan ............................................................ 56 Information Sharing ............................................................................................................ 66 5.4 Recovery Efforts: Human Services .............................................................................................. 69 Recovery Resource Center .................................................................................................. 69 Interim Housing ................................................................................................................... 73 Rent Recoupment ............................................................................................................... 92 Greater Lawrence Disaster Relief Fund .............................................................................. 92 Financial Support to the Business Community ................................................................... 97 Support to Local Restaurants .............................................................................................. 99 6.0 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 100 Appendix A: Findings Matrix ..................................................................................................................... 101 Appendix B: Improvement Plan ................................................................................................................ 108 Appendix C: Acronyms and Abbreviations ................................................................................................ 114 Appendix D: References ............................................................................................................................ 116 i 2018 Merrimack Valley Gas Explosions After Action Report Published January 2020 List of Figures Figure 1: Structures Burn or Explode As a Result of the Natural Gas Over-pressurization. ......................... 6 Figure 2: Map Showing Merrimack Valley Damage. ..................................................................................... 7 Figure 3: Governor Baker Provides an Update to the Media at the Unified Command Post. ...................... 8 Figure 4: Night Descends Upon the Lawrence South Common Trailer Site. .............................................. 10 Figure 5: Community Demographics by the Numbers. ............................................................................... 11 Figure 6: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with Impacted Communities Highlighted. .......................... 12 Figure 7: Timeline Depiction of First Operational Period, September 13-14, 2018. .................................. 16 Figure 8: Overall Event Timeline, September 13-December 16, 2018. ...................................................... 17 Figure 9: Fire Mobilization Resources in the Staging Area. ........................................................................ 25 Figure 10: Gas Explosions Interoperable Radio Communications Plan (Transmit Frequencies Removed) 28 Figure 11: Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Photo of Unified Command Post and Staging Area.................................. 30 Figure 12: Initial Situational Awareness Map Developed by the CFC. ....................................................... 31 Figure 13: Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) Sent to Lawrence Residents. ............................................... 33 Figure 14: Map of Electrical Outages on September 13th, 2018. ................................................................ 35 Figure 15: Locally Operated Emergency Shelter Statistics.......................................................................... 37 Figure 16: Governor Baker Addressed the Public at a Press Conference. .................................................. 39 Figure 17: MSP Incident Command Vehicle. ............................................................................................... 42 Figure 18: Render-Safe Teams Access the Interior of a Structure to Inspect the Gas Meter. .................... 46 Figure 19: Examples of the ATC-45 Standard Inspection Cards. ................................................................. 47 Figure 20: WEA Sent to Lawrence Residents on September 16. ................................................................ 48 Figure 21: Lines at the Columbia Gas Claims Center on Sunday. ............................................................... 49 Figure 22: Signage Directing Andover Residents to Pomps Pond Showers. ............................................... 50 Figure 23: Entrance of MEMA’s Recovery Office on Merrimack Street in Lawrence. ................................ 52 Figure 24: Volunteers Distributing Donated Food and Goods at the Lawrence Senior Center. ................. 53 Figure 25: Initial Proposed Recovery Organizational Chart. ....................................................................... 55 Figure 26: Snapshot of Columbia Gas’ Initial “Path to Service Restoration” Plan. ..................................... 57 Figure 27: The Massachusetts National Guard Staging for Missions. ......................................................... 57 Figure 28: The Massachusetts National Guard Distributing Electric Hot Plates. ........................................ 58 Figure 29: Two Types of Space Heaters Distributed. .................................................................................. 59 Figure 30: Columbia Gas Daily Briefing Slide: Operation Assessment Dashboard. .................................... 60 Figure 31: Graphic of “Gas Ready” phase. .................................................................................................. 61 Figure 32: Map of Eight Work Zones. ......................................................................................................... 61 Figure 33: Snapshot of “House Ready” Work. ............................................................................................ 62 Figure 34: Example Columbia Gas Flyer with Appliance Options.
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