Hurricane Godzilla Hits NYC! Command Center Set Up in Scarsdale High School

Category: Schools

Published: Wednesday, 07 January 2015 15:29

From Left: Noah D. Goldberg, Westchester Office of Emergency Management, Maggie Favretti, SHS Social Studies Teacher, Marc Sennick, US Coast Guard, Connor Pasquale, SHS Graduate and current Freshman at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Gerald Stoughton, Port Authority (retired), Ira Tannenbaum, NYC Office of Emergency Management. Ms. Favretti reached out to many government agencies and community members to help development the emergency management portion of the class and kept the simulation experience as real-life as possible with the help of leadership team shown above.

What if the mother of all hurricanes unexpectedly hit New York City? What would we do? Not to worry, the students of Scarsdale High School's City 2.0 classes have all the answers. Rooms 170-172 were all a buzz on Wednesday, January 7th as the three sections of the newly introduced class Redesigning Urban Life in Real Time: City 2.0 collaborated on a simulation exercise to deal with the approaching hurricane Godzilla. The anticipated category 2 storm (Sandy was a category 1) required intense preparation and communication between all the relevant city agencies. Fortunately, Scarsdale students had done their homework and were ready to handle anything that was thrown their way. People are refusing to evacuate? They are on it! People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are protesting the Mayor's lack of a plan for household pets? They've got it covered. The MTA is refusing to send their people out in dangerous conditions? The Unified Command Center is ready to take charge!

Scale model of New York City built by students under the supervision of Ms. Yokana, Art and Architecture Teacher, in only 5 days.

SHS teachers Maggie Favretti, Jennifer Maxwell, Fallon Plunkett, and Lisa Yokana were the designers of this course, completing much of their work and research through the Scarsdale Center for Innovation. As described in the course catalog, it allows students to apply a range of disciplines to an exploration of New York City. Students were introduced to the "design-thinking" concept as a collaborative, human centered, problem solving process. The course developers hoped to provide an "experiential" education for their students, and the emergency management simulation today definitely achieved that goal. Students were asked to participate as members of the NYPD, the Office of Emergency Management, the Coast Guard, the Department of Sanitation and as workers in many more areas. Even social studies department chair John Harrison played the role of the mayor of New York City!

It would be hard to overstate the level of student engagement witnessed today during this simulation. Students were focused, excited, talking and asking a lot of questions. They were working well together and with their instructors, members of the community, and public service representatives who aided in the planning and execution of the day's event. This class filled three sections in its first year and is poised to become a very popular offering for seniors. The Scarsdale Center for Innovation and the teachers who designed and delivered this experience deserve tremendous credit for a job well done!

Robin Ah Hee and Oliver Shenberg represented the Office of Emergency Management on the Unified Command Center team. Ms. Ah Hee took on a communications role and briefed the other teams on their objectives. Mr. Shenberg helped to diffuse an awkward moment for the Mayor of New York City (Social Studies Department Chair John Harrison) when he was caught off-guard about the plans for evacuating household pets.

The Office of Emergency Management on the Unified Command Center team.

Bryant Lo and Laurence Rosenstadt were on the NYPD team. They were concerned with safety and security and dealing with everything from mandatory evacuations to concerns about looting.

Mick Esposito was on the Coast Guard team working on recovery operations as well as safety and security. He told me they were concerned about people ignoring security measures and taking unnecessary risks in the water to experience the major waves.

Nina Lurie (far left) was the communications person from the Department of Sanitation. They were concerned about potential flooding among other things. Zoe Verzani (center) and Kayla Joyce (right) were with the FDNY. They were focused on making sure they had enough trained personnel on hand to deal with the crisis as well as transportation and supplies for their crews.

Large signs like these were posted all over the room to keep people on task.

Robin Ah Hee providing direction from the Unified Command Center to the various work teams.

The agenda for the simulation.