Anchorage's new emergency plan still has no chapter for disease outbreaks

Anchorage adopted a new emergency operations plan in June. It does not have a chapter for pandemics.

The plan carries hazard appendices for avalanche and landslide, civil unrest and terrorism, dam failure, earthquake, extreme weather, flood, hazardous materials, severe erosion, transportation accident, utility disruption, volcano and wildfire. Communicable disease is not among them. The plan states that tsunami, communicable diseases and air pollution will be added in the next update.

A memorandum going to the Assembly on Sept. 1 says the plan underwent "a substantial review and update" and does not say what changed. The plan itself lists 34 changes, each dated and attributed, between June 2024 and June 2026.

Most of them cite the Emergency Management Accreditation Program by standard number. EMAP is a voluntary national program that measures emergency management programs against dozens of standards through peer review, and Anchorage appears to have worked through them item by item: assigning specific people to incident command roles, defining areas of responsibility for recovery and mutual aid, adding incident action planning procedures.

Six functional annexes are new. The plan now covers agriculture and natural resources, critical infrastructure and key resource restoration, food, water and commodities distribution, volunteer management, prevention, and resource management. None of those existed in the prior version.

One change, dated April 27, added how the municipality will use public alert and warning systems for "Ready" and "Set" wildfire notifications and the federal IPAWS system for "Go" orders. Another the same day defined Temporary Evacuation Points. A third added planning assumptions for the effects of rain in winter.

The plan names who fills which role when the Emergency Operations Center activates. The Marketing Supervisor at the Anchorage Public Library serves as the EOC Public Information Officer. The Port of Alaska Safety Officer serves as EOC Safety Officer. The Anchorage Health Department's emergency preparedness coordinator runs Operations.

Some of the underlying data has aged. The plan's population figures come from the 2020 Census, and it cites an economic forecast that ran through 2025 and a three-year outlook that has since expired. Its hazard analysis rests on the 2022 All Hazards Mitigation Plan, which the municipality is now updating.

Anchorage has recorded five declared local emergencies since 2018. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance promulgated the plan under municipal code and state law, which requires every political subdivision to keep a written disaster plan. Portions of the document are exempt from public disclosure. The rest is posted on the Office of Emergency Management's website.