Five-Day Hurricane Shelter Operation Without a General Staff
A Category 2 hurricane is forecast to make landfall in 36 hours. The county has opened three shelters in high schools, with a combined capacity of 1,800; 1,200 evacuees are expected within 12 hours. The shelters need cots, water, meals, generators, medical support, and security. The county has 40 law enforcement officers, 25 public health nurses, 12 school district staff, and a contract bus service. The county finance director is worried about reimbursement and has asked for documentation of all costs. The emergency manager has assigned an Incident Commander but no General Staff. The first 12-hour operational period begins at 18:00. The Red Cross is providing feeding, and a hospital is sending a mobile medical team. The IC needs an organization that can run for five days.
1. Identify the four General Staff positions and assign the primary responsibilities for this shelter operation.
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The four General Staff positions are Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration.
- Operations Section Chief: runs shelter operations, security, medical support, feeding coordination, and any evacuation transport. Operations would organize a Shelter Group for each school or a Shelter Branch if the three sites become complex.
- Planning Section Chief: maintains situation status, shelter populations, resource status, the Incident Action Plan, and demobilization planning. Planning should produce a 12-hour IAP for the 18:00 period and track when shelters reach capacity.
- Logistics Section Chief: orders and delivers cots, water, meals, generators, fuel, sanitation, communications equipment, and transportation. Logistics also manages facilities and food/water unit support.
- Finance/Administration Section Chief: tracks personnel time, equipment use, contracts, purchases, and reimbursement documentation for the county finance director.
The IC should not personally coordinate cots and security. A five-day operation requires delegation, a planning cycle, and cost documentation from the start. The General Staff also needs a clear span of control; each section chief should organize units or groups rather than supervising dozens of individual tasks.
2. Describe the planning cycle the Planning Section should use for the first 18:00 operational period and the next 12-hour period.
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The Planning Section should run a compressed but complete planning cycle. Before 18:00, it should gather situation and resource status, confirm objectives with the IC and General Staff, conduct a planning meeting, and publish an Incident Action Plan by 17:00. The IAP should include incident objectives, current organization, assignment list, communications plan, medical plan, and a safety message covering heat, generators, and shelter sanitation. The first operational period runs 18:00 to 06:00.
During that period, Planning should track shelter populations, resource shortages, and cost data. A planning meeting for the next operational period should occur around 04:00, with the next IAP ready by 05:00 and operations beginning at 06:00. The cycle repeats every 12 hours for the five-day operation. Planning should also prepare a demobilization plan as the storm passes and shelters close.
The reasoning is that a shelter operation is not static. Population changes, generator fuel, staff fatigue, and supply shortages must be anticipated. A 12-hour cycle gives Logistics time to order and deliver resources and gives Finance time to capture costs before records become chaotic.
3. A shelter manager asks Logistics for 200 cots immediately, but Finance has not approved the purchase. How should this be resolved?
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Life-safety needs should not wait for routine pre-approval. The Logistics Section Chief should confirm the need with the Operations Section Chief, document the request, and use emergency procurement authority to obtain the cots or an acceptable interim measure. Finance/Administration should be notified immediately so the purchase is recorded, but Finance is not the gatekeeper for an urgent life-safety requirement. The request should be logged with time, quantity, vendor, cost, and operational justification.
If cots cannot arrive before evacuees, Operations should use the shelter’s existing supplies or alternate bedding and report the shortfall to Planning so it is reflected in the next IAP. Finance should then reconcile the purchase with reimbursement requirements. The key ICS principle is that Finance tracks and documents costs; it does not override the IC’s authority to meet immediate life-safety needs. The IC should issue a clear delegation of emergency purchasing authority to Logistics to prevent this bottleneck from recurring during the five-day operation.