Interview Protocol and Interview Notes for Ronald Bashista

Ronald Bashista is the emergency preparedness director of WPI. Below is the protocol we followed.

In Advance to the Interview

1. Ask for permissions and consent

• “Do we have your permission to voice record and transcribe the interview? We will be taking notes during the interview in either case.”

o No

2. Ask about accommodations

• “Would you like to see the list of questions before the interview?”

o Yes

3. Determine location, day, and time for the interview

• November 25, 2019

Before Starting

4. Introduce ourselves

5. Thank him for allowing us to interview him 6. Permissions before we start

• “Any information you give us may be used in our report. If you have any sensitive information that you are not allowed to share, you are not required to tell us. Just let us know when we ask the question.”

• “Do you give us permission to use your name in our report, which would be available to the public, or would you like to remain anonymous? We will also ask you this again after the interview in case you change your mind.”

o Yes 7. Introduction

• Background of the National Emergency project and how the interviewee will help us with understanding typical emergency prevention, protocols, and response

Questions

8. “Can you give us a little background on who you are and how you became involved in emergency response and your current position as the Emergency Preparedness Director of WPI?”

• Military service, emergency manager for the city of Boston, now is the emergency preparedness director of WPI

9. “What do you do on a daily basis that relates to emergency protocols?”

• Introduces four steps of emergency management

o Preparation, mitigation, response, recovery

o Mitigation and recovery are the two that are more significant 10. “Can you give us more detail on the plans you have in place in the case of natural

disasters/emergencies?”

• Ask follow-up questions about things that aren’t clear in the steps

• Plans in place in case of emergencies

o WPI’s Emergency Preparedness Manual available near exits on campus 11. “In terms of prevention and response, what protocols didn’t work in the past and why

didn’t they work?”

• “What protocols did work and why did they work?”

• Good practices and examples

o Analyzing both known threats and non-apparent threats

o Evacuation and a “shelter and place”

▪ Can move people to shelters or can have them stay in their homes

▪ Build schools and community centers with the intention to have it be a shelter for emergencies

o Having mass shelter plans

o Having a point of distribution

▪ Food, medical supplies, etc.

97

▪ Snowstorms - city of Boston able to get people to stay out of the roads because of enforcement of fines

▪ Watertown manhunt, Boston marathon bombing - city of Boston able to get people to stay inside and shut down businesses because people were well informed that the “threat was real”

▪ Florida during hurricanes - people are always evacuating, cars are always lined up on the roads prior to its landfall because they were used to hurricanes and knew how serious it can be

o Having multiple methods for communication and having multiple set plans in place

▪ Social media, notices on people’s doors

▪ WPI - notification texts, calls, RAVE alert

o Having face to face communication during emergencies

▪ If not possible, video teleconference

o Effectively educating the public

▪ WPI - not possible to fully educate everyone, WPI’s preparedness manual is in every room but students are not required to read it, more training is only given to facilities, staff, and people who will be around for a while

• Bad practices and examples

o Not communicating how bad the threat was

▪ Hurricane Sandy - Manhattan tried to evacuate people but few listened

• Why - never had to evacuate before, people didn’t believe the threat was serious, Manhattan is densely populated

• Need to be shown what to do every step of the way

o Not having a mass shelter plan

▪ Hurricane Katrina - New Orleans’ “superdome nightmare”, shelter had no sanitation, medical care, or place to sleep, some people died

• Favorite quote

o “Plans are nothing, planning is everything” -Eisenhower

12. “Can you describe examples of past emergencies that you or your colleagues had to deal with and tell us what went well and what were the main challenges?”

• Covered in #11

13. “How do you educate and prepare people who might be involved in an emergency?”

• N/A already described in #10 and covered in good practices in #11 14. “How does the government respond and cooperate with WPI?”

• Did not ask

15. “For a town in a mountainous area like Monteverde, what characteristics do you think makes a good prevention and response plan?”

16. “Is there any other information you have that may help us with our project?”

• Annexes

o Communication

o Hazard - fire dept, police, etc.

o Support - evacuation plans, etc.

17. “Is there anyone else you recommend we should interview or contact?”

• Meghan Gomes, see Appendix H.1 for interview

o Director of Worcester Emergency Management

o Manager of the local emergency planning council/committee

End

18. “Thank you for allowing us to interview you.”

19. “Do we still have your permission to use your name?” or “Do you still want to remain anonymous?”

• Can use name

After the Interview

20. Follow up email the day after to thank them and ask any questions that were unanswered

21. Possibly ask for another interview or ask if he can respond to emailed questions