The Role and Function of the Liaison Officer: Lessons Learned and Applied after Superstorm Sandy.

In October 2012, Superstorm Sandy had a wide impact on the public across New York City (NYC). The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) activated its incident command system (ICS) and deployed a liaison officer (LNO) to the NYC Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at NYC Emergency Management (NYCEM) 24 hours a day for 6 weeks. This prolonged response period, coupled with environmental effects on NYC's coastal communities, increased public awareness of Sandy's health impacts, requiring a broad scope of interagency coordination and operational input from the liaison officer.