Deepwater Horizon Response – Crisis Comms and IT Role

Captain Marcus Woodring Sector Houston-Galveston Prelude

April 20th, 2010 – The Rig, , suffered a major marine casualty and fire. The rig sank a few days later, severing the riser connection, releasing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. There were 11 casualties as a result of the fire/explosion.

BP took on the role of the “responsible party” for the oil spill response efforts. The USCG and MMS (BOE-MRE) are co-chairing an ongoing investigation into the major marine casualty. Prelude Prelude Prelude Prelude Question #1

What would you name the incident and why??

A. The Transocean Incident B. The Deepwater Horizon Disaster C. The BP Oil Spill D. The Macando 252 BOP Failure

H1N1 – Previous names... CITGO Flash Flood Event EXXON VALDEZ 9/11 Other Commands

• The first Incident Command Post (ICP) was established in Houma, as the initial event occurred within the Morgan City COTP Zone. This ICP eventually became responsible for the entire State of Louisiana.

• Shortly afterwards, an ICP was stood-up in Mobile, to cover the States of Mississippi, Alabama, and the panhandle of Florida.

• ICP Florida was established for the State (other than the panhandle). Other Commands

• Because of the need to “broker” the resources available between multiple ICPs, i.e. boom and skimmers, a Unified Area Command (UAC) was established in Robert, and eventually relocated to NOLA.

• After the declaration of this event as a “Spill of National Significance” (SONS), a National Incident Command (NIC) was also established.

• At BP Headquarters in Westlake, the efforts to control the source was named ICP Houston. Structure

National Incident Command (NIC)

Unified Area Command (UAC)

ICP Houma ICP Mobile

ICP Houston

ICP Galveston ICP Florida Key Role Players

• NIC • Admiral • UAC (FOSC) • Admiral Mary Landry • Admiral Jim Watson • Admiral Paul Zukunft

The NIC serves as the strategic liaison between the White House and incident. The UAC unified the effort of the ICPs and served as the FOSC for the response. Each Federal ICP Commander was in turn designated as an FOSCR. Question #2

With multiple commands, in multiple states and jurisdictions, at all levels of government (Federal, State, Local), do you foresee any issues in communicating? Internal data sharing Public interface Joint command messaging Information Management – People and Resources Your boss... Pre-ICP Galveston Pre-ICP Galveston Pre-ICP Galveston

• Once the positive matches were confirmed, a command post was stood up, and a press conference was held. The newspaper headlines read “All Five Gulf States Impacted”. Question #3

What phone numbers need to be established immediately upon the realization you have a crisis?

A. Public Affairs/Media B. Volunteers C. Claims D. Wildlife

E. Ideas... Question #4

What IT resources do you need now that the crisis is going to be long term?

Internet Connectivity Phone lines Website(s) Facebook/Twitter Text Alerts E-mail distribution lists A new domain? ICP Galveston ICP Galveston

Galveston Island assessment teams ICP Galveston

Galveston Island assessment teams Question #5

Should you use “comparisons” to other events or regions to highlight your successes? Maybe...

EXXON VALDEZ DWH 1 state involved 5 states involved 1 Republican Governor 5 Republic Governors and a Democratic President and a Democratic President Tanker Wellhead 257,000 bbls spilled 5,000,000 bbls spilled <40 feet 5,000 feet Cold water Warm Water Rocky coastline Marshes and sandy beaches Sparsely populated Heavily populated No OPA90 exists OPA90/NCP exist No OSLTF OSLTF Slow media speed Internet speed for media No lives lost 11 lives lost Alaskan crude GOM crude Walrus, sea otter, salmon Turtles, pelicans, tuna Little tourism Tourism Industry $2.1 billion spent on clean up ~$20 billion spent on clean up Relativity EAGLE OTOME

EXXON VALDEZ

DEEPWATER HORIZON = 10K BBLS Alternate Response Technologies

ART Program • 123,000 ideas received from 100+ countries (came via phone call, e-mail, in person, with drawings, via politicians and actors) • 80,000 were wellhead related • 43,000 were spill response related

• Each was “filtered” and reviewed • 470 worth considering • 100 field tested • 30 had significant usage during response

• Still receiving over 100 ideas a day Question #6

What IT resources do you need to support this critical interface with the public?

A very robust database Some type of feedback mechanism Search engine for your database Ability to know what “stage” every idea is in

A new domain? IT Specific Facts

As of September 30th: • Websites hit by 30M unique users over half a billion times • 123,000 requests via “inquiry management” • 656,000 phone calls received from public • 30M e-mail alerts delivered in 4 months, over 50,000 people signed up • 40,000 FaceBook followers, 120 U-Tube videos with 2.5M views, 1,000 Flickr images posted • Live video feed from ROV • 13 different COPs rolled into one • Library of information/FAQ • 40-50 people a day working on IT issues ICP Galveston Facts

By the numbers: • ICP Galv – 121 people at peak • UAC – Over 48,000 people at peak • ICP Galv – 118 cubic yards recovered • UAC – 13 million feet of boom deployed • ICP Galv – No boom, one skimmer • UAC – 77 offshore skimmers (>800 total) • ICP Galv – No oiled wildlife • UAC – Est 4.9 million bbls spilled • ICP Galv – Cost was $1.2 million (26Aug) • UAC - $519 million in FPN costs (26Aug) Best Response Model

O Health and Safety r g a The Environment n GOAL i Economic Impact Serve the z American Public a t Public Communications i o n Stakeholder Involvement Conclusion

Any questions?