Asheville Hurricane Helene AAR/IP

Perses Consulting led the development of the City of Asheville’s Tropical Storm Helene After-Action Review with a focus on evaluating the use and effectiveness of the City’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and overall emergency management program. The project emphasized identifying lessons learned, capturing best practices, and advancing the City’s capability to manage complex, long-duration incidents.

The City of Asheville was among the areas most severely impacted in Western North Carolina by Tropical Storm Helene. The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) remained activated for 156 days, and the City was without safe, potable water for 52 days. Having recently expanded its emergency management program and finalized its EOP in November 2023, the City’s response to Helene effectively served as a large-scale, real-world test of the new plan. The storm stress-tested the EOP, Department Annexes, the Severe Weather Annex, and supporting EOC procedures, revealing both strengths and areas for improvement in operational coordination, communication, and resource management.

Perses Consulting facilitated a total of 33 interviews, reviewed over 450 EOC documents, and developed and analyzed three (3) surveys for distribution to internal and external stakeholders, as well as elected officials. Through this data collection Perses Consulting identified 105 findings. Upon completion of the Draft After-Action Report Perses Consulting facilitated an in-person After-Action Meeting where all city department directors and command and general staff came together to discuss the findings and identify opportunities to implement the improvement plan.