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After-action review: Asheville officials say emergency plan held during Hurricane Helene but identify training, redundancy gaps
Summary
City staff and consultants told council that the emergency operations plan and new EOC were effective during Tropical Storm Helene, enabling thousands of rescues, water distributions and meal efforts; the after-action review identified 108 findings, training and redundancy needs, and next steps including broader exercises and EOC follow-ups.
City emergency-management staff presented an external after-action review of the city’s response to Tropical Storm Helene at the Sept. 9 City Council meeting and said the new emergency operations plan (EOP) and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) materially improved response coordination but revealed training, staffing and partner-integration shortfalls. Assistant Fire Chief Jeremy Knighton, who leads the city emergency-management program, briefed council on the process and findings. He said that the EOP—completed in 2023 and activated for the storm—translated into quicker decision-making and coordinated operations during a complex, multi-lifeline failure that included outages of power, water and…
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