Incident Command System (ICS) Training for Field-Level Supervisors and Staff (2016)

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6 Matchbox-type cars can be bought in sets from internet resources that include construction equipment, cones and signage. Emergency responder vehicles and passenger cars also come in sets. On the internet these sets are generally less than $20 for thirty or more small vehicles. You can use little buildings to complete the community, but these can be expensive. For a more flexible and cost-effective approach, create a building foot print with a sheet of plain cardstock cut to relative scale to represent significant buildings, parking lots, parks and other aspects of the community. Label the cards, or draw symbols on them to identify the building or community element that the card represents. As students work through the scenario, they can move the vehicles and traffic control devices and block roads to simulate the progress of the problem. As you demonstrate scenarios you will develop a collection of community element footprint cards that can be reused. The vehicles can be used for training in many configurations.

7 CHAPTER 2: COURSE DEVELOPMENT AND PILOT PROGRAMS NCHRP 20-59 (30) Incident Command System (ICS) for Field-Level Transportation Supervisors and Staff Developed by Mineta Transportation Institute Frances L. Edwards, MUP, PhD, CEM, Principal Investigator Daniel C. Goodrich, MPA, CEM, MEP, CSS, Research Associate James Griffith, MPA, Student Research Associate July 18, 2015

8 BACKGROUND In 2013 the Transportation Research Board undertook NCHRP Synthesis 20-05/Topic 44-12, Interactive Training for All-Hazards Emergency Planning, Preparation, and Response for Maintenance and Operations Field Personnel, to discover what kinds of Incident Command System (ICS) training were being offered for State Department of Transportation (State DOT) field supervisors and personnel. Yuko Nakanishi, Ph.D. and Pierre Auza researched the kinds of training available, and discovered a gap. (Nakanishi and Auza, 2015) There was a robust collection of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Independent Study on-line courses on ICS, as well as a number of classroom half day and full day courses, but none was designed especially for transportation personnel. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) created National Incident Management System – A Workbook for State Department of Transportation Front Line Workers (2009) to provide ICS training that was transportation oriented and did not require computer skills, but it required extended reading and writing to complete. Even the FEMA IS-100.PW that was designed for public works personnel—which might have been expected to include transportation workers—focused more on floods, pipelines and energy issues and little on transportation-specific roles like evacuation support, debris management and restoring traffic circulation to and within damaged areas. There was also no short course that would be appropriate for a field personnel training day where multiple topics would be covered, nor any brief refresher sessions suitable for tailgate meetings at the beginning of the work day. Nakanishi and Auza noted the importance of this gap and the need to fill it. “Emergency response is becoming a larger part of state, tribal, and local transportation staffs’ responsibilities,

9 from the front office to the front lines” in NCHRP Synthesis 468 (p. 5). “As budgets tighten, public sector employees are being asked to do more with fewer resources.” (p.6) “[Training] is needed … to prepare field personnel to perform reliably and effectively with other partners under the National Incident Management System (NIMS), regardless of the agencies’ size or the nature of the occurrence, leading to improved preparedness for emergencies.” (p. 6) State departments of transportation are required by the National Incident Management System (NIMS) (HSPD-5, 2003) to offer ICS-100 and IS-700 for all personnel who may be part of a field response using ICS, with supervisors needing additional training at least to the ICS-200 level. Homeland Security Presidential Directive–5 requires all Federal departments and agencies to adopt the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and to use it in their individual incident management programs and activities, as well as in support of all actions taken to assist State, tribal, and local governments. The directive requires Federal departments and agencies to make adoption of NIMS by State, tribal, and local organizations a condition for Federal preparedness assistance (through grants, contracts, and other activities).” (FHWA, 2009, p. ii.) While Presidential Policy Directive-8: National Preparedness (PPD-8) (2011) removed the NIMS training mandates that used to detail the specific ICS training required for personnel in specified organization levels (DHS, 2011), and substituted the achievement of locally-driven core capabilities for the training mandates (DHS, 2011, p. 8; Edwards, 2015), the need to deliver the basic information on field level ICS integration among agencies still remains. There are several challenges to State DOT agencies in delivering meaningful ICS training to field personnel. First, State DOT field-level personnel may have little exposure to ICS beyond the computer-based or workbook-based class. Second, and perhaps most important, ICS is a seldom- used skill for most State DOT field personnel. Therefore, State DOT field personnel would benefit from a more interactive approach to delivering the ICS information, based on principles of andragogy, for example as expressed in the discussion-based “sandbox” approach to training.

10 When State DOT personnel are in the field they need to be able to assert their roles in ICS to personnel in other professions who may not understand transportation personnel as emergency response providers, but only view them as ancillary “logistics” providers. As Caltrans’ poster asserts, “No roads, no codes,” meaning that without passable and safe highways the other emergency response providers cannot reach the victims or areas of need, so collaboration among highway patrol and State DOT personnel is essential to manage traffic and road operations, while collaboration with fire and EMS personnel is required to meet the life safety needs of the traveling public. During 2009-2010 the researchers had been delivering emergency operations center training courses to the staff members of a large state’s DOT. The researchers visited all the districts in the state and heard a consistent message: transportation workers have a problem integrating with ICS structures in the field. The three most common challenges were maintaining the safety of staff in a highly dynamic environment like a wildland fire or flood, obtaining adequate personnel support like meals and sleeping accommodations at remote ICS events, and getting the support of DOT field staff members in documenting the event and the work to support requests for reimbursement from federal and state sources to protect district maintenance budgets. These themes provided a framework for developing the modules in this course. In 2014 TRB funded a project to fill the training gap by creating both a transportation- oriented brief refresher on ICS principles and terminology, and a set of transportation-oriented refresher presentations and supporting ICS aides that would be appropriate for briefing training at the beginning of a work day, or as short modules during a day-long multi-purpose training event. Specific tasks were established to lead to the desired set of andragogy-informed training elements. Recognizing that many State DOT field level personnel are unused to being indoors for

11 long periods of time, and to sitting during the workday, the course was designed to take less than 1 hour to deliver the basic ICS refreshers (Module 1a), and less than one hour to review the ICS position roles (Module 1b). The class was designed to be flexible in its scheduling, as either multiple 1 hour events or short events as part of a longer training day. A second module was developed using the “sandbox” approach to interactive learning, where kinetic aspects include having students use a scenario to understand the work of ICS, and to move small vehicles around to exemplify the actions needed. METHODOLOGY Several methodologies were used in the design and construction of the course suite. First a literature review was conducted to determine what courses might be available and what strategies might best support the development of the needed State DOT field staff ICS materials. Next leaders of two State DOTs, Tennessee and Florida, were interviewed to obtain information for meaningful scenarios that could be used in the kinetic aspects of the training. In addition an interview with a Washington State contract engineer was conducted to understand aspects of the Skagit Bridge collapse and reconstruction that might be useful in developing course materials. A well-known fire service ICS expert, Fire Chief Gerald Kohlmann of South San Francisco Fire Department, served as the subject matter expert for the interface between State DOT field personnel and ICS on the State Highway System (SHS), or when State DOT personnel were assisting with off-SHS ICS activities, such as wildland fire access management. The researchers then developed a three aspect training set to meet the needs of State DOT field personnel. The classroom course Modules 1a was developed as a PowerPoint-supported lecture. Module 1b was developed as an interactive presentation with the students actively