|
Direct Links to Case Studies
|
Case studies on emergency preparedness and response, public health preparedness, and crisis management (in collaboration with the Kennedy School’s Case Program) have been developed for use in Harvard executive education programs. These cases are available through the Kennedy School case study program for use in programs at other universities or in private training worldwide.
Wal-Mart’s Response to Hurricane Katrina: Striving for a Public-Private Partnership (Case and Epilogue)
As Hurricane Katrina roared towards the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts in late August 2005, public sector agencies, area residents, and private businesses alike took measures to prepare for the approaching storm. Among the latter, giant retailer Wal-Mart made an especially comprehensive effort – stocking stores in the storm zone with special merchandise; stationing teams to evaluate stores as soon as the hurricane passed; and staffing a centralized emergency operations center in order to find displaced employees, re-open stores, and help stricken communities. But after Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic flooding, overwhelming government’s capacity to effectively respond, Wal-Mart found itself playing a larger role in the response than it had ever anticipated. The following chaotic weeks raised important questions about whether the public sector could take full advantage of the retailer’s strengths and capabilities, and whether it was ready to accept a larger role for Wal-Mart and other private sector companies in responding to national emergencies.
Thin on the Ground: Deploying Scarce Resources in the October 2007 Southern California Wildfires
Within a three-day span in October 2007, two-hundred bushfires sprang up throughout Southern California, 22 of which quickly grew into major, out-of-control wildfires. Firefighting resources were soon stretched precariously thin, with almost every available engine company in the region deployed to battle the fire siege. There were no engines in reserve should more fires emerge or spread, and local fire departments had become reluctant to send mutual aid to early fires, worried that they might have to confront late-breaking fires within their own jurisdictions.
Just as state and local-decision makers were in the fall of 2007, readers of this case are confronted with uncomfortable questions about how to think about—and plan for—resource scarcity in an emergency.
“Broadmoor Lives”: A New Orleans Neighborhood’s Battle to Recover from Hurricane Katrina (A, B, Epilogue)
On January 11, 2006, residents of New Orleans’s Broadmoor neighborhood were shocked to learn that a city planning committee had proposed giving neighborhoods hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina just four months to prove that they were still viable and, hence, worth rebuilding. Incensed at what they viewed as a betrayal by their own city government, Broadmoor residents began to consider how to save their neighborhood from the bulldozers.
This case tells the story of a core group of Broadmoor residents who took the lead in organizing the planning process for their still-scattered community. Part A provides background on Broadmoor and details the early steps taken by the community to organize an all-volunteer redevelopment planning effort. Part B follows two strands of the Broadmoor planning effort: (1) how residents met to discuss and vote on components of the plan and how they resolved differences over goals and priorities; and (2) how the neighborhood adopted a strategy of “partnerships” with outside organizations and corporations to get help in implementing its ambitious redevelopment plan. A brief sequel describes progress in key areas of the plan.
On Tuesday, August 23, 2005, meteorologists in the US National Weather Service spotted a tropical depression in the southeastern Bahamas. The A case tells the story of the lead-up to the storm, detailing the plans that officials would draw on to prepare for the hurricane's onslaught, the steps that were taken to evacuate and shelter hundreds of thousands of residents in metropolitan New Orleans, and the communications among different agencies and levels of government as the storm drew near; it shows officials concerned about the effects of the hurricane, but confident that their preparations were commensurate with the challenges that Katrina would pose. The B case tells the story of the first week of the post-landfall response to Katrina, describing both the devastation left by the storm and the largely ineffective efforts of officials to respond to the overwhelming need it created. It provides an opportunity to consider the operational issues of emergency response, particularly the problems of interagency, interjurisdictional, and intergovernmental coordination in an enviroment where infrastructure and communications systems had been almost entirely destroyed.
Security Planning for the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston (A, B, C) When the city of Boston applied to host the Democratic Party presidential nominating convention of July 2004, it did so in the belief that the event would bring the city both prestige and economic benefit. But by the time the convention was to be held, the terrible events of September 11, 2001 had intervened and, as a designated "national special security event," the convention was now subject to the tightest possible measures for security and protection.
When Imperatives Collide: The 2003 San Diego Firestorm (Case and epilogue)
In October 2003, multiple fires that burned for some two weeks, scorched hundreds of thousands of acres, destroyed thousands of buildings, and took 24 lives. One conflagration, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, became the largest in state history. This case tells the story of what can happen when the operational imperative—to fight fires effectively but safely—collides with the political imperative to override established procedures as necessary to protect the public.
The U.S. Forest Service and Transitional Fires
This case outlines the operational challenges of decision making in a common example of high stress, high stakes, urgent situations: dealing with potentially rapidly evolving wildland fires. These "transitional fires" are extremely dangerous to firefighters -- in part because firefighting teams do not always recognize their warning signs. The case explores the characteristics of firefighting teams and allows discussion of the ways in which they are well, and not so well, organized and adapted to the challenges posed by a transitional fire.
When a emergent infectious disease arrives in Canada from southern China in 2003, the public health system struggles to quell a deadly epidemic that threatens to get out of control.
Hong Kong Copes with SARS, 2003: The Amoy Gardens (Case and epilogue)
In the last days of March 2003, the frightening new disease known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, seemed to threaten to spread out of any control in the one of the world’s most densely-populated cities: Hong Kong. The SARS outbreak at Amoy Gardens became an exercise in crisis management for public health officials in Hong Kong—with their counterparts around the world either observing or actively advising.
When Prevention Can Kill: Minnesota and the Smallpox Vaccine Program (Case and epilogue)
Describes President Bush’s program in 2002-2003 to vaccinate health workers and emergency responders against smallpox – and the difficulties that emerged in trying to implement that program worked in Minnesota.
Charting a Course in a Storm: US Postal Service and the Anthrax Crisis
Describes how the USPS responded when it was struck by devastating anthrax attacks in multiple attacks through the mails. Covers the initial response to protect employees (including the complexities of the problem at the Brentwood facility in Washington, DC), efforts to keep the mails moving to the greatest extent possible, and early steps toward decontamination of facilities and recovery.
White Powders in Georgia: Responding to Cases of Suspected Anthrax After 9/11
Although no spore of real anthrax showed up in Georgia during the anthrax attack period, the state was inundated with thousands of calls about suspect white powders – with the effect of severely overloading local emergency responders, state health officials, the FBI, and the CDC. The case describes efforts by local and state officials to develop appropriate procedures to triage and prioritize possible cases, conduct tests of possible anthrax, and protect and reassure worried first responders.
Command Performance: County Firefighters Take Charge of the 9/11 Pentagon Emergency
Describes how the Arlington County Fire Department – utilizing the Incident Management System – took charge of the large influx of fire fighters and other emergency workers who arrived with the purpose of putting out the fire and rescuing people in the Pentagon following the September 11 suicide jetliner attack.
"Almost a Worst Case Scenario": The Baltimore Tunnel Fire of 2001 (A, B, C)
A train laden with hazardous materials derails in the freight tunnel under downtown Baltimore, leading to evacuation of Camden Yards baseball stadium, the threat of a severe explosion, ruptured water mains, and a stubborn underground fire that severely challenged emergency responders.
The West Nile Virus Outbreak in New York City (A, B, Sequel)
Case A tells how public officials in New York City in 2000 discovered sentinel cases of a hitherto unknown disease and identified it with assistance from the state, CDC, veterinary pathologists at the Bronx Zoo, and university researchers. Case B and the Sequel describe how the city organized a massive mosquito spraying effort, first in a single borough and then citywide.
Coping with Crisis: Hong Kong Public Health Officials and the "Bird Flu"
This case recounts the efforts of Hong Kong public health authorities first to identify and then control a dangerous new flu virus not previously known to infect humans. The case focuses on the authorities' communication with the public, as they must seek to quell public fears notwithstanding their own incomplete knowledge of the disease. The case, too, describes the crisis management decision to undertake a massive slaughter of Hong Kong chickens, once they are shown to be the host of the deadly but difficult-to-transmit virus.
Standoff in Waco – The Branch Davidians
In development.
Security Preparedness for The World Trade Organization (WTO) Meeting – Seattle, 1999
In development
Threat of Terrorism: Weighing Public Safety in Seattle
With a terrorist arrested in late December 1999 at the Canadian-Washington State border in a car laden with explosives and no certainty about his target, the city of Seattle debates whether to proceed with its planned Millennium celebration at Seattle Center and the Space Needle.
The Shootings at Columbine High School: Responding to a New Kind of Terrorism
Within minutes of the shootings at Columbine in 1999, numerous emergency response agencies – including law enforcement, fire fighters, emergency medical technicians, and others – dispatched personnel to the school site. Under intense media scrutiny and trying to coordinate their actions, they sought to determine whether the shooters were still active and rescue the injured.
To What End? Rethinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose (Case and Sequels 1 and 2)
This case study tells the story of San Jose, California, one of the first 27 cities in the country to participate in a federal domestic preparedness program. Between 1997 and 1999, a specially created city task force mounted several full-scale terrorist attack exercises, but—despite the best of intentions—found all of them frustrating, demoralizing, and divisive, creating ill will between the exercise planners and the first responders. The exercise planners therefore began to look for a more effective way to design the future training sessions.
Safe But Annoyed: The Hurricane Floyd Evacuation in Florida
With a major hurricane about to strike the Florida coast in 1999, emergency officials seek to evacuate those living right along the coast. But many more citizens than expected decide to evacuate, clogging roads and overloading emergency facilities. How should targeted evacuations be managed and emergency officials communicate with citizens during major natural disasters?
Anthrax Threats in Southern California
Describes how California communities in late 1998 were struck by a series of anthrax hoaxes, how they responded (and over-responded), and how they then developed protocols of response and disseminated them to multiple jurisdictions.
Security Preparations for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games (A, B, C)
Describes efforts by state and federal government entities to plan in advance for security protection for the Atlanta Olympics. Also recounts the Centennial Park bombing and emergency response.
The City of Chicago and the 1995 Heat Wave (A, B)
Describes the silent crisis in Chicago during the summer of 1995 when more than 700 people died of heat-related illness, most before the city recognized that an “epidemic” was going on.
The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (A, B, C)
Reviews how local, county, state, and federal agencies responded and coordinated their activities in one of the nation’s most severe riots in terms of lives lost and property destroyed.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |