Any Eventuality

Five days after the floods hit Brisbane in January, the city’s port was fully reopened to shipping, enabling the delivery of critical fuel and other vital commodities for Queensland.

Such a rapid return to operations reflected not only incredibly hard work by many of the port’s employees, but also the success of an emergency plan that stood up to some severe testing.

What lessons were learned? “Every crisis is different and there is always something we can take away and use to improve our systems,” says Alistair Baillie, managing director of Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd (PBPL). “One of the most important things to remember is that your plans must be flexible, and you should be prepared to come up with innovative solutions to unique problems.”

The port has an ‘All Hazards Emergency Plan’ and when the floods hit Brisbane, the port emergency response team was activated immediately, says Mr Baillie. “We regularly review and test our emergency plan by holding multi-agency exercises, so everyone is well practised in what to do when a crisis occurs.”

In fact, the port was involved in planning some days before the floods hit – then the actual emergency response lasted for five days, while the port was closed. The port company then moved into business continuity and recovery mode.

While Maritime Safety Queensland is one of the lead agencies for maritime emergencies, PBPL is responsible for ensuring the shipping channel is safe for navigation.

“The top priority in every crisis situation is safety,” says Mr Baillie. “In this case, it was about the safety of people, and of shipping and navigation. Once we were satisfied that conditions were safe for our team to get out on to the water, the next priority was to clear the channel and berths of obstructions to make it safe for shipping.”

The port’s hydrographic surveyors worked long hours under very difficult conditions to assess depths and the presence of any sunken obstructions, and the port’s marine crews removed over 60 objects in the week after the flood. “These efforts meant the harbour master was able to fully reopen the port to shipping within five days of the flood,” says Mr Baillie.

It’s all very well having a detailed emergency response manual in place and holding any number of exercises – but most ports hope, of course, that those plans will never face such a severe test.

Mr Baillie says PBPL’s team is highly skilled and experienced in crisis management, and its emergency plan sets out clear actions and responsibilities. The leader of the response team allocates duties and responsibilities and frequent briefings are held to update on progress and decide next steps.

As soon as the immediate response is under control, the focus switches to the longer-term ramifications, ensuring the business and those of PBPL’s tenants will be able to continue operations without delay.

In Brisbane’s case the crisis did confirm that the port’s emergency response procedures are effective, but the flood proved to be a unique situation in terms of scenario planning, says Mr Baillie. When the last major floods occurred, in 1974, the port complex at Fisherman Islands had not been built; so, unlike the rest of Brisbane, there was minimal data to show what might happen.

“The port proved to be extremely resilient and we now have a comprehensive set of data to allow us to plan for any future events of this. We also had to devise some innovative solutions to problems we had never encountered before, and it was very rewarding to see how our team rose to the challenge in such a high-pressure situation.”

In a major crisis, the other important factor to manage is staff fatigue, he emphasises. “When a situation goes on for more than a couple of days, it’s vital to monitor your team and ensure everyone takes a break. This can be difficult when people are immersed in the crisis and wanting to see it through to a resolution, but for us the wellbeing of our people is always the most important consideration.”

On the other side of the world, the Port of London Authority prides itself on its resilience and reliability – for example, if problems arise at one of its two port control centres, all VTS functions can be seamlessly switched to the other.  

Emergency planning and business continuity – two linked but distinctly different issues – are increasingly important for ports, says Julian Parkes, the PLA’s harbour master (safety management system) and port security officer.

Emergency planning considers how the port authority responds to, for example, a collision in the river with potential for injuries, explosion or pollution. 

The PLA’s business continuity plans, meanwhile, are based on three broad disruption events: a reduced number of people available to work, for whatever reason – imagine flu, snow or flood; no facilities to work in – through power cut, fire or flood; and disruption to communications or IT infrastructure.

“You can put any scenario you want together and it will fit into one or more of those particular situations,” says Mr Parkes. “Our strategic planning is based on this concept.”

The first priority would be to gather all the information and understand the situation clearly, he says. Core services such as pilotage and VTS would be prioritised, and all departments would have clearly laid plans ready to follow.

Next year, the PLA will face exceptional challenges, with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the London Olympics putting additional pressure on the River Thames.

The authority is involved in various forums around the Olympic Games and maritime safety. For example, hundreds of additional yachts and leisure craft are expected to descend on the Thames and nearby inland waterways for the Olympics, with obvious implications for safety – especially as some are likely to arrive without any moorings booked.

And the Olympic Delivery Authority is predicting that 6%-8% of spectators will travel to several venues by river, meaning more frequent and busier passenger services on the Thames.

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