Archives "June 22, 2010"

The objective of the workshop held June 17th and 18th, 2010 was to review the procedures required for MSY (New Orleans International Airport) Incident Command Post (ICP), TSA Screening Facility and the Cargo #4 ramp (a.k.a. the special events ramp or west ramp) to ensure all stakeholders are prepared for the 2010 hurricane season’s evacuation plan for MSY and to identify any areas requiring improvement.

Briefings included the command and control aspect of the ICP, TSA Screening Facility and Cargo #4 operations for monitoring incoming and outgoing parish buses and evacuation aircraft. 

Additionally, the following critical elements were discussed:

.         H Hour Evacuation Timeline from H-120 through L+24

.         Operation of TSA Screening Facility to include passenger manifesting and security screening

.         Discuss ground movement from parish pickup points (PPP) to MSY as well as ground movement from the TSA screening facility to Cargo #4 ramp

.         Coordination with Department of Defense (DoD) airlift at pCom® MSY

.         Coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region VI/Louisiana Incident Field Office (IFO) Movement Coordination Branch (MCB),  Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP), Louisiana EOC (Emergency Operation Center), Dept of Social Services (DSS), Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) charged with creation of a flight manifest.

LA DSS counted on it’s staff as well as it’s vendor partners to make the drill a success.  Tom Bock Project Manager from EWA ( Electronic Warfare and Associates) and their evacuation and registration software, Phoenix.  Barry Walker from Northrop Grumman provided IT support and Squire Tech Solutions team provided the satellite service and satcoms  hardware support.  DSS used one of the 8 pCom® satellite trailers as the primary communication platform for the Air Evacuation Drill at MSY.  The pCom® Satellite trailer provided Internet communications via wired and wireless points for 5 laptop PC’s inside the building to manifest 72 people in less than 4 ½ minutes.   The Stakeholders where pleased with the processing speed to create a manifest of evacuees enabling FEMA and DoD to meet the timeline for  getting the flights off the ground.