Diandra Hayban: Keeping New York City Prepared

I’ve always been interested in public service and find a great sense of accomplishment in helping people during some of the hardest moments of their lives.

I’m also a planner and logistician at heart. I plan all the time, from family vacations to outings with friends. This field also allows me to foster my love for spreadsheets and developing strategies. It’s like building a new puzzle every day.

One part of my job is managing the stockpiles of supplies that are used to help shelter New York City residents during emergencies. I work with our third-party logistics provider to develop plans for getting supplies where they’re needed in an emergency. We have two main supply stockpiles. They’re on opposite sides of New York, making it possible to approach the city with supplies from separate directions.

New York is a unique city. It has a population of about 8.4 million, but many don’t have cars they could use in an evacuation. The city has identified approximately 500 facilities, mostly schools, that can serve as shelters for New Yorkers who may seek accommodations during a coastal storm emergency.

I was hired by NYC Emergency Management to work on post-Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. In the days leading up to the hurricane, the city opened approximately 80 shelters. Our team coordinated efforts to replenish supplies at each shelter, and to scale down resources prior to the shelters’ ultimate close.

After Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, the team worked to boost the efficiency of deploying the stockpiles. We assessed every shelter to determine its size and capacity, the number of loading docks, and even the sizes of the doors. We try to predetermine what supplies, and how many, we’ll send to each facility.

We make it easy for shelter managers to identify the items they’re receiving and how to use them. To streamline this process, we created a catalog of items in the stockpiles. Today, an employee at the command center can tell a shelter manager, "You’re getting this box, and these are the supplies in it."

In addition, we’ve worked to integrate the stockpile with other emergency support programs, such as our Commodity Distribution Point (CDP) program. If a disaster limits a community’s ability to access essential supplies, we can open the CDP to provide meals, water, and other supplies to residents.

One of our biggest accomplishments has been formalizing our donation program. We have always strived to donate soon-to-expire supplies from the stockpile, but now we’ve formalized the process. I work with a network of area agencies and non-profits to ensure all stockpile products that are nearing their expiration dates, but still have at least three months of shelf life, go to people in need.

While there are always unknowns, I try to create plans for any scenario and think through the steps needed to get supplies to the community. I aim for easily executed, well-tested plans that are flexible enough to meet the needs of the community during any emergency.