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Amid the Debate Over FEMA’s Future, Providing Temporary Generators to Impacted States is One Disaster Response Mission Best Led by the Federal Government

By Eric Cote, Founder and Project Director, Powered for Patients

From the early days of the current Trump administration, the future of FEMA has been in serious question. President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have talked about eliminating the agency. In January, when visiting Los Angeles County following the devastating wildfires, President Trump criticized FEMA’s recent performance in other disasters, saying, “I say, you don’t need FEMA, you need a good state government.”

In the ensuing months, thousands of FEMA employees have been terminated and major programs, such as the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program, have been eliminated. In a Washington Post article published earlier this week, state and local emergency managers have made it clear that they’re no longer counting on FEMA to help their jurisdictions recover from disaster.

“We have heard him loud and clear,” said Alan Harris, the emergency manager for Seminole County, Florida, referring to the President’s comments.  The Washington Post reports that Harris is considering hiring more temporary staffers, solidifying mutual aid agreements with other governments and locking down contracts for vendors who can provide heavy equipment, temporary traffic signals and other post-storm necessities.

These are prudent moves amid the uncertainty but there are particular disaster response activities that are best led by the federal government, including the large-scale deployment of temporary generators to impacted states. Following a Presidential Emergency Declaration, the governors of impacted states can request deployment of temporary federal generators to restore power to facilities whose generators have failed, or to bring power to essential facilities without backup power, such as disaster shelters.

The federal fleet, comprised of generators owned by FEMA, and augmented by large privately owned rental fleets, is the largest in the nation. Large packs of generators of varying sizes, including some large enough to power hospitals, are pre-positioned around the country to accelerate deployment. This mission is carried out jointly by FEMA and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), with assistance from the U.S. Army’s 249th Engineer Battalion and private contractors.

This federal fleet has been called upon many times following disasters that trigger prolonged power outages. In the massive federal response to Hurricane Maria, which ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, even the vaunted federal fleet ran out of smaller generators needed to run health clinics and gas stations.

States have effectively supported each other in disaster responses for years, thanks to the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), a national disaster–relief compact among the states and territories ratified by the U.S. Congress. But large-scale deployment of temporary generators is not something states could effectively manage, primarily because few states have the temporary power assets often needed during extended outages. Even if neighboring states were to combine their temporary emergency power assets, this collective resource would still pale in comparison to the federal fleet. Further, a large-scale regional disaster, such as a major hurricane, would likely deplete limited state temporary power assets, leaving few if any generators available for deployment to neighboring states.

There’s plenty of room to debate which federal agencies should lead the temporary power mission, but the Trump administration should make it clear that the large-scale deployment of temporary generators to hospitals, wastewater treatment plants, and other critical facilities impacted by prolonged power outages is a mission best led by the federal government.

Eric Cote is the Founder and Project Director of Powered for Patients (P4P), a 501c3 non-profit that works to safeguard backup power and expedite power restoration for critical healthcare facilities. P4P accomplishes its mission by facilitating increased collaboration between public health preparedness leaders, emergency managers, healthcare facility managers, and utilities.

Los Angeles County EMS Agency Tackles Aging Hospital Generator Fleet with Deployment of Advanced, Real-Time Generator Monitoring Technology

Deployment of Power P.I.O.N.E.E.R. Tool to County’s Single Generator Hospitals Will Provide Unprecedented Situational Awareness of Generator Failures During Power Outages

The Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency is tackling the county’s challenge of an aging hospital generator fleet by deploying an advanced technology that will provide automated, real-time alerts anytime a hospital generator experiences a mechanical problem during a power outage.

Recently, the Power P.I.O.N.E.E.R.® tool was installed at two of Los Angeles County’s single-generator, acute care hospitals. P.I.O.N.E.E.R.®, which stands for Power Information Needed to Expedite Emergency Response, continuously monitors generator performance and sends automated, real-time warnings to designated individuals anytime a generator experiences a mechanical problem during a power outage.  

The deployments represent the first time a U.S. hospital is making automated, real-time generator threat alerts available to government emergency managers. These real-time alerts are a major improvement in situational awareness and will enable accelerated deployment of government generators and provide a valuable head start in planning for a potential hospital evacuation. The early warnings will also give utilities the opportunity to quickly assess options for prioritized power restoration including switching feeder lines to a hospital in cases where two lines exist and one of them is still able to provide power to the hospital. 

Deployment of Power P.I.O.N.E.E.R. to single generator hospitals was considered especially important since these facilities have no redundant emergency power, and as a result, put patients at greater risk if the facilities experience a total loss of emergency power. The LA County EMS Agency is tapping its HHS Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) funding to cover the cost of deploying the Power P.I.O.N.E.E.R. tool in the county’s single generator hospitals.

Power P.I.O.N.E.E.R.® was developed by the 501c3 non-profit Powered for Patients as part of a Department of Homeland Security-funded initiative to spur advances in generator monitoring technology that would provide an early warning to government officials and utilities when critical facilities face a threat to emergency power during an outage. Power P.I.O.N.E.E.R. is also designed to provide ongoing, real-time updates on the status of efforts by government officials, utilities and service providers to respond to a stricken facility.  Powered for Patients has been leading an emergency power preparedness initiative for the LA County EMS Agency since May 2019. The multi-year initiative was launched to help ensure that Los Angeles County and its municipalities, along with its electric utilities and critical healthcare facilities, are employing best practices in minimizing threats to emergency power and expediting government, utility and private sector response when threats to emergency power arise during power outages.

“Given the ongoing threat of Public Safety Power Shutoffs, and the potential for other types of power outages in Los Angeles County, we’re excited to see Power P.I.O.N.E.E.R. providing real time situational awareness of generator threats at the county’s single generator hospitals,” said Eric Cote, Project Director for Powered for Patients. “This visibility is especially important since single-generator hospitals have no redundant emergency power and in some cases are relying on older generators. As more of LA County’s single-generator hospitals deploy Power P.I.O.N.E.E.R., the impact of this powerful new tool in protecting patients will become even greater.”  

Concern about outdated hospital generators in Los Angeles County is driven by a recently completed analysis documenting a seriously aging fleet. The analysis of the generator fleet in Los Angeles County’s hospitals is part of the LA County EMS Agency’s ongoing emergency power preparedness initiative being led by Powered for Patients.  The analysis reflects survey data from the county’s 80 hospitals that participate in the Hospital Preparedness Program which have a combined total of 271 generators. The useful life expectancy of a generator is approximately 30 years of age and the recent analysis showed that 87 out of the 271 generators, or 32 percent, are older than 30 years of age, with 40 of these generators between 40 and 49 years of age and 15 of the generators older than 50 years of age.

Among LA county’s 14 single-generator acute care hospitals that participate in the Hospital Preparedness Program, nine of these facilities, or 64 percent, have generators over 30 years of age, including three with generators between 40 and 49 years of age, three with generators between 50 and 59 years of age and one with a generator that is over 60 years old.  There are no federal or state requirements that limit the age of a hospital generator as long as the generator can pass periodic tests. However, Cote noted that these tests don’t represent the true challenge an aging generator would face if it were required to operate continuously for extended periods of time.  

Despite the aging fleet, the analysis showed some positive signs when it comes to investment by hospitals in new generators. Over the past ten years, Los Angeles County hospitals have collectively purchased 48 new generators.