Bennie Haynes, left, and John Anderson talk Tuesday at the Boynton Terrace Apartments Senior Activities Building about safety plans at the complex.ONLINEGo to CHA's website at www.chahousing.org to see CHA's emergency operations plan. After going to the page, click on the "about" option at the top of the page.
For the first time in more than a decade, the Chattanooga Housing Authority has updated its emergency operations plan.
The plan promises annual fire inspections and evacuation drills twice a year. It also includes a safety plan for severe weather, civil disturbances and natural disasters, but public housing residents want CHA to do more.
Intercoms that could be used to communicate with residents don't work in some rooms at Boynton Terrace, residents say, and they want them repaired. One Dogwood Manor resident started a petition this week asking CHA to install exhaust fans to remove cooking smoke since the new windows in renovated apartments don't open.
The updated emergency operations plan went into effect Aug. 27. It's the first update since 2001.
September is National Preparedness Month, during which the Federal Emergency Management Agency urges agencies and households to develop emergency plans.
"The old plan, while appropriate in 2001, no longer matched the staffing or structural organization of the agency," said Mike Sabin, CHA's director of low-income housing.
CHA's board said this new plan will be reviewed annually instead of sitting unchanged for more than a decade.
CHA had a plan in 2001, but it didn't get much attention until two downtown high-rise buildings less than a mile apart caught fire within a single year.
The Patten Towers fire in May 2013 uprooted all 241 tenants for a month. Then an electrical fire at Jaycee Towers in March led to all 150 tenants being evacuated. Neither building is owned or operated by CHA, but the fires caused concern among CHA residents nonetheless.
Boynton Terrace, CHA's largest senior high-rise building, this summer had its first fire drill in a decade after those two fires. Another drill is scheduled in October. Boynton residents selected leaders on each floor whose duty is to ensure that all people on the floor exit the building. Leaders also make weekly checks on residents, a practice begun after three people were found dead of natural causes in their apartments within a month.
CHA's new emergency plan calls for keeping lists in each resident office of disabled residents and those who need assistance leaving a room, and sharing the lists with fire officials.
The plan also includes a list of agencies such as American Red Cross, Hamilton County Emergency Services and the Salvation Army that assist people during emergencies.
Residents said they're pleased that the plan also addresses tornadoes.
On Tuesday morning, lights from at least three red firetrucks flashed outside Boynton Terrace after smoke from cooking food triggered fire alarms. Firefighters said they're at Boynton at least five times a week, sometimes three times a shift. It's usually nothing serious, but if a true emergency occurs, residents will know what to do.
"Having some plan is better than having nothing," said Boynton resident council president Bennie Haynes.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.