AI Fame Rush Review – Virtual Influencer Creation In Just Minutes
Em mag sep11
1. A publication of e.Republic
no
ep
Issue 5 — Vol. 6
September/October 2011
EM09_cover.indd 1
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2. Knowledge is Power.
Knowledge Center™ is Fusion.
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3. Learn More about Knowledge Center!
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4. ON THE COVER
24
Contents
Homeland
Uncertainty
How far did the $635.9 billion
spent on homeland security since
9/11 go, and what happens when
funding dwindles?
FEATURES
Cover photo by Flickr/Tom Harrison
16
An Evolving Profession
Some of the pre-eminent women in
emergency management share how
they got into the field and how it’s
changing (for the better).
30
Nuclear Concern
Washes Ashore
Tremors and tsunami waves behind
Japan’s nuclear crisis caused
Americans to look more closely
at reactors at home.
DEPARTMENTS
36
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
When the Sky
Turned Black
Was spring’s explosion of tornadoes
and escalated death toll linked to c
limate change, or was it just bad luck?
46
CAMPUS SECURITY
Teaming With IT
CHRISTOPHER PENLER/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Universities bridge the cultural
divide between IT, campus safety
and emergency management.
50
PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY
Smart Response
Incorporating technology in
transportation systems can
improve the safety of first
responders and the public.
4
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6. ELISSA JUN/FEMA
Contents
Group Publisher:
Founding Publisher:
VP Emergency Management/
Homeland Security:
Don Pearson dpearson@govtech.com
Tim Karney tkarney@govtech.com
Martin Pastula mpastula@govtech.com
(916) 932-1497
Publisher:
Scott Fackert sfackert@govtech.com
(916) 765-1875
Executive Editor:
EDITORIAL
Editor:
Associate Editor:
Managing Editor:
Chief Copy Editor:
Contributing Editor:
Staff Writers:
Steve Towns stowns@govtech.com
Editorial Assistant:
Jim McKay jmckay@govtech.com
Elaine Pittman epittman@govtech.com
Karen Stewartson kstewartson@govtech.com
Miriam Jones mjones@govtech.com
Jessica B. Mulholland jmulholland@govtech.com
Hilton Collins hcollins@govtech.com
Corey McKenna cmckenna@govtech.com
Natalie August naugust@govtech.com
DESIGN
Creative Director:
Art Director:
Senior Designer:
Illustrator:
Production Director:
Production Manager:
Kelly Martinelli kmartinelli@govtech.com
Michelle Hamm mhamm@govtech.com
Crystal Hopson chopson@govtech.com
Tom McKeith tmckeith@govtech.com
Stephan Widmaier swidm@govtech.com
Joei Heart jheart@govtech.com
PUBLISHING
VP of Strategic Accounts:
Regional Sales Directors:
East
West, Central
Jon Fyffe jfyffe@govtech.com
Leslie Hunter lhunter@govtech.com
Shelley Ballard sballard@govtech.com
Account Managers:
DEPARTMENTS CONTINUED
Melissa Sellers msellers@govtech.com
Erin Gross egross@govtech.com
Business Development Director: Glenn Swenson gswenson@govtech.com
Bus. Dev. Managers:
Lisa Doughty ldoughty@govtech.com
John Enright jenright@govtech.com
Pat Hoertling phoertling@govtech.com
Kevin May kmay@govtech.com
Regional Sales Administrator:
Christine Childs cchilds@govtech.com
National Sales Administrator:
Jennifer Valdez jvaldez@govtech.com
Director of Marketing:
Andrea Kleinbardt akleinbardt@govtech.com
Sr. Dir. of Custom Events:
Whitney Sweet wsweet@govtech.com
Dir. of Custom Events:
Lana Herrera lherrera@govtech.com
Custom Events Managers:
Tanya Noujaim tnoujaim@govtech.com
Gina Fabrocini gfabrocini@govtech.com
Custom Events Coordinator:
Megan Turco mturco@govtech.com
Custom Events Admin.:
Sharon Remeiro sremeiro@govtech.com
Dir. of Custom Media:
Stacey Toles stoles@govtech.com
Custom Media Editor:
Emily Montandon emontandon@govtech.com
Sr. Custom Media Writer:
Jim Meyers jmeyers@govtech.com
Custom Media Writer:
Noelle Knell nknell@govtech.com
Custom Media Proj. Asst.:
Courtney Hardy chardy@govtech.com
Dir. of Web Products and Svcs.: Zach Presnall zpresnall@govtech.com
Web Services Manager:
Peter Simek psimek@govtech.com
Custom Web Products Manager: Michelle Mrotek mmrotek@govtech.com
Web Advertising Manager:
Julie Dedeaux jdedeaux@govtech.com
Web Services/Project Manager:
Adam Fowler afowler@govtech.com
Subscription Coordinator:
Eenie Yang subscriptions@govtech.com
East
56
14
DISASTER RECOVERY
EM Bulletin
West, Central
Irene’s Wrath
The hurricane caused such intense flooding, it
forced FEMA to redirect funds that would have
gone toward rebuilding areas previously struck
by disaster.
53
58
42
PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY
Major Player
Photo Essay
East Coast Quake
Diversion and Misdirection
The Oslo, Norway, attacks were two-pronged
and designed to confuse first responders.
William Jenkins, Director of Homeland
Security and Justice for the U.S. Government
Accountability Office
REST OF THE BOOK
78
Products
8
Letters/Calendar
CORPORATE
CEO:
Executive VP:
Executive VP:
CAO:
CFO:
VP of Events:
Chief Marketing Officer:
Chief Content Officer:
80
Eric’s Corner
10
Hiring — the Right Way
Dennis McKenna dmckenna@govtech.com
Don Pearson dpearson@govtech.com
Cathilea Robinett crobinet@centerdigitalgov.com
Lisa Bernard lbernard@govtech.com
Paul Harney pharney@govtech.com
Alan Cox acox@govtech.com
Margaret Mohr mmohr@govtech.com
Paul W. Taylor ptaylor@govtech.com
Point of View
82
Ten Years Later
Emergency Management (ISSN# 2156-2490) is published bi-monthly by e.Republic Inc,
100 Blue Ravine Road, Folsom, CA 95630. Application to mail at Periodicals Postage
Pending at Folsom, Calif. and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes
to: Emergency Management, 100 Blue Ravine Road, Folsom, CA 95630. Copyright
2011 by e.Republic, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Opinions expressed by writers are not
necessarily those of the publisher or editors.
Last Word
12
Article submissions should be sent to the attention of the Managing Editor.
Reprints of all articles in this issue and past issues are available (500 minimum).
Please direct inquiries for reprints and licensing to Wright’s Media: (877) 652-5295,
sales@wrightsmedia.com.
After Tragedy, Change
In the News
Subscription Information: Requests for subscriptions may be directed to subscription
coordinator by phone or fax to the numbers below. You can also subscribe online at
www.emergencymgmt.com.
100 Blue Ravine Road, Folsom, CA 95630
Phone: (916)932-1300 Fax: (916)932-1470
www.emergencymgmt.com
6
e
The inside pages of this publication are printed
on 80 percent de-inked recycled fiber.
A publication of
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8. Reader Feedback
EDITOR’S NOTE: In the July/August issue, the
article Experience Required about the Los Angeles
Emergency Management Department’s (EMD)
internship program, which seeks to provide
real-world experience for the next generation of
emergency managers, sparked many comments
online at www.emergencymgmt.com.
“There are many ways to achieve goals as individuals and organizations. It’s in our community’s
best interest that organizations and agencies invest
in our returning military personnel and our graduates. What I see as important in this article is that the
L.A. EMD has identified and addressed a need that
benefits both the individual and the organization.
One department cannot be the total answer, but it
can lead the way. Hopefully others will follow.”
— John
“I am a recent college graduate with a [bachelor’s]
in emergency management. I was lucky enough to
obtain two internships during college. I worked
for the city of Fort Worth and also for FEMA. The
job with FEMA has turned into a spot as a DAE
[disaster assistance employee]. Now this is not the
ideal job for someone my age, [but] it does provide
training and a decent paycheck. One of the biggest
hurdles is the willingness to relocate. I have had
several jobs that I turned down for the simple fact
JOY BROWN/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
that I did not want to move. I suggest that people
look into FEMA to get your foot in the door.”
— Marc
“Real-world experience for emergency management is not unattainable. There are plenty of
military veterans that are chock-full of it. If the college kids chose to go the school route rather than the
military route for that field, I think it is reasonable
that they struggle.”
— Scott
“Lack of diversity in emergency management
has been a contributing factor to the lack of fresh
ideas. Filling your staff with all military, police and
fire veterans results in siloing of ideology with a
lack of adequate research being put into planning.
Students who took the risk to attain bachelor’s and
even master’s degrees in areas of homeland security
and emergency management shouldn’t be penalized for it. Providing opportunities as entry-level
positions should always be a consideration, not
only because it grows the field into one with a more
professional appeal, but also it provides a diversity
of opinions and experiences in the planning and
response phases. These types of internships are
clarifying the ideas and experiences that future
emergency managers need in order to develop the
necessary skill sets to do their jobs more effectively.
Congrats to the L.A. EMD for having one of the
only comprehensive [emergency management]
internship programs in the nation.”
— Michael
Your opinions matter to us. Send letters to the editor
at editorial@govtech.com. Publication is solely at the
discretion of the editors. Emergency Management
reserves the right to edit submissions for length.
Emergency Management Events
18-19 October
25-26 October
2 November
WOMEN IN DEFENSE
NATIONAL FALL
CONFERENCE
Washington, D.C.
SECURETECH
PUBLIC SAFETY
AND SECURITY EXPO
Ottawa, Ontario
Speakers, panelists
and networking with
women representing
the spectrum of the
defense and national
security arena.
SecureTech is a new
international public
safety conference and
showcase organized
by the Canadian Association of Defence and
Security Industries.
http://wid.ndia.org
www.securetech
canada.ca
11-17 November
ALL-HAZARDS/ALLSTAKEHOLDERS SUMMIT
Los Angeles
The All-Hazards/AllStakeholders Summit will
address man-made and
natural hazards — fires,
floods, earthquakes,
terror events — the Los
Angeles area faces and
address best practices in
preparing for and mitigating these crises.
Contact: Liese Brunner at
800/940-6039 ext. 1355
for registration information,
and Scott Fackert at
916/932-1416 for
sponsorship information.
30-1 Nov./Dec.
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF
EMERGENCY MANAGERS
ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Las Vegas
This conference provides
a forum for current
trends and topics, as
well as information
about the latest tools
and technology in emergency management
and homeland security.
INDUSTRIAL FIRE,
SAFETY & SECURITY
San Antonio, Texas
Learn about best
practices for all types
of incidents from
industry leaders and
technical experts.
www.ifssevent.com
www.iaem.com
www.emergencymgmt.
com/events
8
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10. Point of View
Ten Years Later
By Jim McKay | Editor
H
How do you measure the return on investment on the estimated $635.9 billion spent on homeland security since
9/11? That’s a question Adam Stone asks in this month’s
cover story, Homeland Uncertainty, which outlines the last
10 years of homeland security spending and its future.
lot less. Will this impact homeland security in terms of preventing attacks? Who knows, but a lot of locals are nervous
about it.
In a sidebar to Homeland Uncertainty, it’s a bit easier to
quantify the return on investment for interoperability since
9/11, but the results aren’t impressive. We’re not close to
having a national public safety broadband network and, in
Though it’s hard to quantify the results of money spent to
some areas, are still struggling with interoperability at the
prevent attacks, it’s dangerous to infer that we can relax sim-
lowest levels. The homeland security director I mentioned
ply because there hasn’t been a major attack on the U.S. in
previously said, “It’s not any better than it was 10 years ago.
the last decade.
If it’s gotten better, I haven’t seen it.”
Even though al-Qaida is on the run, its members still
On a more optimistic note, Elaine Pittman’s story, An
have their sights on the U.S., and we must remain vigilant.
Evolving Profession, talks about the emergence of women
But focusing only on al-Qaida is a mistake. Other groups are
in emergency management. In a field dominated by the
cultivating individuals within the U.S. to wreak havoc on us.
retiring fire chief or police chief, the number of women
A homeland security director recently expressed to me
entering the field and having a major impact is inching
concern that an attack by one of the local militia groups
upward, albeit slowly. Hearing how some of these women
may be imminent. He said al-Qaida was still a threat, but
cracked open the doors to the “good old boys’” network is
was worried that not enough focus was on some of these
an interesting read for anyone in emergency management
other groups.
or those hoping to get into the field.
Homeland Uncertainty is primarily a report on how states
The evolution of emergency management is good for
and municipalities are being asked to do more with less — a
women, and it’s certainly good for emergency management. k
Best Public Safety/Trade
2009, 2010 and 2011
Maggie Awards
2010 and 2011 Magazine
of the Year Top 3 Finalist
Less Than $2 Million Division
Questions or comments? Please give us your input by contacting our editorial department
at editorial@govtech.com, or visit our website at www.emergencymgmt.com.
L E A D , F O L L O W O R G E T O U T O F T H E W AY.
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12. In the News
The attacks of 9/11 forever
changed the concept of homeland
security in the United States.
Numerous departments and
programs were created to support
and enhance national security,
and aspects like airport security
have drastically changed. This
timeline provides insight into the
different factors and actions that
led up to the terrorist attacks on
Sept. 11, 2001, and how the nation
responded to be better prepared
and secure.
SOURCES: IMPLEMENTING 9/11 COMMISSION
RECOMMENDATIONS, PROGRESS REPORT 2011,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
FLICKR/ANDREAS ECKHARDT
L E A D U P TO 9 / 11
The U.S. DHS and other
federal partners have
built a capacity to
more extensively vet
individuals applying
for visas or travel to
the United States.
The DHS in collaboration
with the departments
of Justice and State has
signed Preventing and
Combating Serious Crime
Agreements with 18 countries, including Germany,
to share information about
terrorists and criminals.
EARLY 1999
APRIL 1999
1999 AND 2001
APRIL 2001
Osama bin Laden summoned
operatives to Afghanistan to
discuss using commercial
aircraft as weapons and
developed a list of potential
targets in the United States.
TODAY
In concert with public- and
private-sector partners as
well as international allies,
the federal government
has developed a multilayered information sharing
security strategy to target
and identify both known
and unknown individuals
who may pose a threat to
the United States wherever
the operational planning
might occur with the goal
of preventing such persons
from entering the country.
The hijackers began to
obtain passports and
visas for travel to the
United States.
Many of the hijackers
prepared for the 9/11 attack
while living in Germany.
The hijackers began
arriving in the U.S. on
tourist visas with cash and
traveler’s checks acquired
in the Middle East.
The DHS partners with the
Terrorist Screening Center,
the National Counterterrorism Center and other
federal entities to analyze
travel-related data in
order to better understand
and anticipate the travel
patterns of known or
suspected terrorists.
12
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13. Today there are 72 recognized
fusion centers in the country
that serve as focal points at
the state and local level for
the receipt, analysis, gathering, and sharing of threat
and vulnerability-related
information.
The Nationwide
Suspicious Activity
Reporting Initiative helps
to train state and local law
enforcement to recognize
behaviors and indicators
related to terrorism, crime
and other threats while
standardizing how those
observations are analyzed
and disseminated.
State and local law
enforcement officers can
determine whether an
individual is on a watch list
through the National Crime
Information Center.
Multilayered security
measures are now in
place to enhance aviation
security, including the
prescreening of passengers;
the deployment of new
technologies; and training
of airport security and law
enforcement personnel to
better detect behaviors
associated with terrorism.
Since 9/11, the capacity
of frontline security personnel and new technologies
has significantly expanded.
All checked and carry-on
baggage is now screened for
metallic and non-metallic
threats by new technologies,
as well as more than 52,000
transportation security
officers at more than 450
airports across the U.S.
All commercial aircraft have
been secured through the
hardening of cockpit doors.
Additional layers of security
include: the deployment of
Federal Air Marshals, the
Federal Flight Deck Officer
program, in which eligible
flight crewmembers are
authorized by the TSA to use
firearms to defend against
violence, and the crewmember behavior recognition and
response training program.
2001
2001
SEPT. 11, 2001
SEPT. 11, 2001, 8:19 A.M.
SEPT. 11, 2001
The hijackers enrolled
in flight schools and
conducted cross-country
surveillance flights to
identify aircraft that
would produce their
desired impact.
Several of the hijackers
were apprehended by U.S.
law enforcement for various traffic violations.
The hijackers passed through
security checkpoints at four
U.S. airports, allegedly carrying knives, box cutters and
concealed weapons on their
person or in carry-on luggage.
Flight attendants and
passengers began reporting
hijackings of the aircraft
via airphone.
Air traffic control operators,
military personnel and first
responders on the ground
lacked situational awareness of what other agencies
were doing to address the
developing crisis.
The Transportation
Security Administration
(TSA) ensures that foreign
students seeking training
at flight schools do not
pose a threat to aviation
or national security. The
TSA performs background
checks, including government watch list matching,
a criminal history check
and an immigration
status check.
Through the use of mobile
and fixed-site technologies,
voice radio systems used
by first responders are
more interoperable than
ever. Since 9/11, the federal government has made
significant organizational
changes and investments
in training and technical
assistance to improve
emergency communications capabilities.
The National Emergency
Communications Plan and
Incident Command System
have established standardized plans, protocols and
procedures to improve
command, control and
communications.
Emergency Management 13
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14. 99%
100% OF HOSPITALS had an emergency
response plan for at least one of six
hazards studied (epidemic-pandemic,
biological, chemical, nuclear-radiological,
explosive-incendiary, and natural
incidents). The breakdown:
93.2%
addressed chemical
accidents or attacks
Planning
for Emergencies
addressed biological
accidents or attacks
97.8%
81.3%
addressed
natural disasters
addressed nuclear
or radiological
attacks
94.1%
SOURCE: NATIONAL HEALTH STATISTICS REPORTS,
NO. 37; MARCH 24, 2011; 294 HOSPITALS SURVEYED
addressed epidemics
or pandemics
Improving Local
Situational Awareness
TO ENHANCE INFORMATION SHARING
and improve situational awareness at the local
level, the U.S. DHS enlisted the help of St. Clair
County, Mich.
The county is the site of a Virtual City pilot, a
platform that allows for the sharing of GIS data and
information feeds across departments and government levels and aims to develop a Microsoft-based
platform for information sharing, said Jeff Friedland,
St. Clair County’s emergency management director.
Although St. Clair is a smaller county — with
about 170,000 residents — it frequently works with
Canada and has a high concentration of critical infrastructure. When approached about participating in
the pilot, Friedland said the county was willing, but
he required two things: The system had to be costeffective, and the county’s staff had to be able to input
95 to 99 percent of the data without relying on GIS
technicians or the company to make updates.
The Web-based system, dubbed RESILIENT, provides a common operating picture
for the county. Viewable data includes: location
of government facilities; special needs populations; at-risk areas based on present chemicals;
ongoing 911 incidents and public schools.
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THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY’S SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DIRECTORATE
EM Bulletin
79.6%
addressed explosive or
incendiary accidents
67.9%
of hospitals had plans
for all six hazards
Moving Toward Next-Gen 911
IN AUGUST, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski unveiled a five-point plan to move the
nation onto next-generation 911 (NG911), which would allow people to submit voice, text,
data, photos and video over an IP-based network to public safety answering points, the communications centers that dispatch emergency calls.
“It’s hard to imagine that airlines can send text messages if your flight is delayed, but you
can’t send a text message to 911 in an emergency,” Genachowski said.
The plan includes:
1. Developing location accuracy mechanisms for NG911.
2. Enabling consumers to send text, photos and videos to public safety answering points.
3. Facilitating the completion and implementation of NG911 technical standards.
4. Developing a NG911 governance framework.
5. Developing a NG911 funding model.
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Reconnecting Patients Post-Disaster
THE WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH SERVICES is conducting a statewide pilot of a new Web-based patient tracking system that officials say will help reunite
survivors of mass casualty incidents with
their family and friends. The system will
facilitate early notification to friends and
family regarding patients’ conditions and
whereabouts.
“People may not have identification on them,
and they could be unconscious,” said Denny
Thomas, co-chairman of the Wisconsin Hospital Emergency Preparedness Program leadership
committee. “This is one way for family and friends
and everyone to keep track of these patients. They
don’t have to have a lot of known information.”
Emergency medical technicians place an armband on the patient that contains basic identifying
information, such as gender and approximate age.
The band is read by a scanner, and the information
can be used to track patients as they receive care.
14
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16. 16
ANDREA BOOHER/FEMA
L
Like all professions, emergency
management has evolved throughout
the years to become what it is today
— a defined field of work that’s paving
a career path for future employees.
The modern concept of emergency
management has grown from the civil
defense days — when in 1941, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt created a federal
office to protect civilians and respond
to community needs in wartime.
As state and local governments saw
the need for programs focusing on
emergency management, veterans and
retired first responders were the go-to
candidates to fill these positions.
Emergency management has had its
share of challenges as people — from
government and the public — sought to
understand what it is and why it’s important. Even though historically there has
always been some aspect of emergency
management in the United States, hurricanes and earthquakes in the late 1960s
and early ’70s were catalysts behind
legislation and an increased focus on
natural disasters. Then in 1979, FEMA
was created by presidential order, and
people saw the likenesses between the
agency and civil defense. There also was
a shift toward focusing on all hazards.
Since the profession was traditionally filled with first responders and
veterans, it was a male-dominated
field, but that’s changing, and
programs are developing to educate
the work force’s next generation.
A survey by the Emergency Management Professional Organization for
Women’s Enrichment (EMPOWER) from
2006 showed that the field is evolving to
include a greater percentage of women
— but the employment growth is slow.
Of the 202 respondents (71 percent of
which were female), only 10 percent
had more than a decade of experience.
The majority of respondents, 35 percent,
had fewer than five years’ experience.
The U.S. Department of Homeland
Security’s annual employee survey also
shows similar numbers — more women
work for the department, but change
isn’t happening quickly. Survey results
indicated that in 2007, 32 percent of the
department’s employees were women;
in 2010, 37.5 percent were female.
Nancy Ward surveys
storm damage in
Kentucky as FEMA’s acting
adminstrator in 2009.
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17. BY E L AINE PIT TMAN | A SSO CIATE E DITOR
An Evolving
Profession
Some of the pre-eminent women in emergency management share
how they got into the field and how it’s changing (for the better).
Emergency Management 17
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18. ANDREA BOOHER/FEMA
A look at some of the pre-eminent
women working in emergency management roles provides insight into how they
got into the field, positive changes they’ve
seen and what’s in store for the future.
Undefined Career Paths
Aside from the traditional method of filling
emergency management roles with secondcareer professionals, another common way
people got into the field was by accident. “We
are trending away from people, like me, who
backed into the field,” said Nancy Dragani,
executive director of the Ohio Emergency
Management Agency, who began her career
as a disc jockey with Armed Forces radio
and joined the National Guard when she got
off active duty. Dragani spent time at a local
agency before going to Ohio Emergency
Management as a public information officer.
“Like most people in my generation, I
really backed into it; it wasn’t something that
I intentionally went to school for or wanted
to be,” she said. “It simply was something that
as I learned about it, interested me, so I began
looking for opportunities to get into the field.”
Although Dragani eased into the position as the state’s director, her background
gave her a unique view into the role.
Working in public affairs, she was required
to know about all of the agency’s functions.
And before leading the agency, she also
served as director of operations. She’s by no
means the only person who took an indirect route into emergency management.
Nancy Ward, administrator of FEMA
Region IX, began her career working in
California’s Department of Social Services
for 15 years. After federal disaster declarations in the state, she volunteered with a grant
So Long Good Old Boys’ Club
Emergency management has been called the
“good old boys’ club,” which can be attributed to the field’s tradition of hiring from the
military and first responders. That’s not to say
that women aren’t included, but by default,
the roles have been primarily filled by men.
Claire Rubin, who has held various roles
in emergency management and homeland
security over the last 33 years and now works
18
EM09_16.indd 18
JOHN GRANEN
FEMA Region IX Administrator
Nancy Ward visits residents
and volunteers in Rancho
Bernardo, Calif., following the
devastating San Diego fires
in 2007.
program that provided assistance to families
and individuals affected by a disaster. “I did
that in 1983 and just loved what I got to do
in terms of going out to recovery centers
and talking to disaster survivors about our
program and what we could help them
with,” she said. “I just fell in love with it.”
Ward volunteered after every disaster
and eventually was running the program.
From there she moved to the Governor’s
Office of Emergency Services where she
oversaw operations, individual assistance
and recovery programs. Ward joined FEMA
in 2000 as the response and recovery division director for Region IX — which
includes Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada
and five U.S. territories — and became
the regional administrator in 2006.
“I think that women migrate toward these
kinds of jobs, because they have an innate
characteristic that they want to help,” she said.
The traditional way of local-level employment also mimics Dragani’s and Ward’s stories.
Barb Graff began working in the Bellevue,
Wash., city manager’s office in 1983, and
following the Loma Prieta earthquake of
1989, the city created an emergency management program. Although Loma Prieta struck
Northern California, Graff said it was a
“seminal incident” that started many programs
in the Pacific Northwest. “I had already
declared to the city manager that I was ripe for
a new opportunity,” she said, “so the change
knocked on my door when we created the
first-ever emergency management program.”
Graff stayed in that role for 15 years before
moving to Seattle, where she has directed
the city’s Emergency Management Office
since 2005.
Although these are just a few examples of how people traditionally started
working in emergency management, they
represent the majority of the field — that
is until changes within the last decade
opened new doors for career seekers.
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19. Thought Leadership Profile | BlackBerry
A SECURE
PARTNERSHIP
BlackBerry smartphones improve situational
awareness by delivering critical information
directly to first responders.
ADVERTISEMENT
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20. ADVERTISEMENT
W
ith public agencies across the
country feeling the squeeze of
declining revenues, impacts
are far-reaching, affecting services
across the board, including law enforcement. It has been widely reported that
many local police departments are being
forced to thin their ranks, and in some
cases, change their service delivery
model to reflect new staffing realities.
A reduction in officers directly affects
response capabilities. Incidents that
used to prompt the dispatch of officers
may now be directed to online or telephone self-reporting tools. According
to USA Today, budget cuts have led
many local police forces to limit officer
responses to violent crimes only. This
change brings an increased degree of
risk for officers, who are now responding to a greater percentage of volatile,
potentially violent situations.
According to the National Law
Enforcement Memorial Fund,
86 officers were killed in the line of
duty in the first half of 2010. In 2011,
92 officers have been killed in the same
period of time, representing an increase
of 7 percent. More disturbing is the fact
that the number of officers killed by
gunfire during those same periods has
increased by 34 percent.
“Whether this increase in gunshot
deaths is the result of increased
gang violence, armed robberies in a
bad economy or ‘suicide by police’
incidents, this trend indicates that
first responder organizations need to
have technologies in place to improve
situational awareness,” said Tim Karney,
founding publisher of Emergency
Management magazine. “They also need
the capability to monitor the responder
when they are in the field.”
Maximizing Situational Awareness
Situational awareness is simply
defined as the knowledge of what is
POCKETCOP ENABLES QUERIES ON THE GO
Police officers rely on many
sources of information to help them
make the right decisions in the field.
PocketCop from InterAct Public
Safety is an application designed to
ease access to criminal and motor
vehicle databases for law enforcement. At a traffic stop, for example,
officers can run a license plate to
see if a vehicle is stolen, or if the
photo of the registered owner of
the car matches the driver. They
can also use the tool to quickly find
any warrants against the person
in front of them.
Previously, patrol officers
without laptops in their squad car
or officers on foot or using other
modes of transportation had to
request assistance
from dispatchers,
who may not be
able to give the
inquiry top priority
because of more
pressing concerns. That even
applies to officers assigned to
patrol vehicles.
“Every officer
is going to be
out of the car
for some part of
their duty,” said
Myles Tillotson, InterAct’s director
of marketing for mobile products.
PocketCop for BlackBerry®
smartphones equips officers with
vital query capabilities wherever
they are and whatever their duty.
Whether during a traffic stop, at the
scene of a call or walking a beat,
they can easily get federal, state
and local information that helps
them approach a situation with
appropriate caution and handle
it appropriately.
PocketCop has demonstrated
that it meets the needs of both
small and large departments. In
one rural community, officers must
frequently leave their vehicles to
patrol areas inaccessible by car.
PocketCop eliminates the need
for other equipment and lengthy
communications with emergency
dispatchers, freeing dispatchers
to focus on incoming calls from
the public. In a large urban area,
officers must be able to move
around the community. With
PocketCop, they’re not tethered
to their vehicles, so they can be
where they need to be and still get
the information they need instantaneously. PocketCop is also an
essential tool for gang units and
other undercover officers and
investigators. Because they’re
using a standard BlackBerry
smartphone, they look like they’re
just texting, so they don’t draw
unwanted attention.
The application from InterAct also
helps officers share vital information
with other officers. Police questioning
individuals in the community, due
to suspected gang activity, for
example, can enter a field report
using PocketCop. “When another
officer makes a query on that same
individual, that field interview is going
to come up again, providing information officers can use to connect
the dots,” Tillotson said.
PocketCop’s messaging capabilities allow users to communicate
privately, a feature that especially
comes in handy when they need to
keep information from high-profile
cases off police scanners. Alerts
can also be sent out automatically
to officers in the area without ever
having to be voiced over a police
radio. For instance, if an officer
runs a plate and the vehicle comes
up stolen, officers in the area will
be automatically alerted. Officers
can also call for assistance
by pushing a single button in
PocketCop. The program uses
GPS to alert other officers and
show the mapped location of the
officer in need of backup.
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21. happening that informs decisions as to
how to respond. If an officer has a comprehensive understanding of a situation,
he or she is better able to respond in the
most appropriate and effective manner,
contributing to the safety and well-being
of responders and the community.
Existing mobile applications already
enable officers to access details and
photographs on individuals, vehicles or
addresses. Now new mobile capabilities,
including officer locations, live video
feeds, biometric fingerprint readers and
remote reporting, are enhancing the
type of real-time information available to
command staff and responders.
Officers are no longer tied to their
patrol cars, and officers on foot, bicycle,
motorcycle and horseback can access
data resources in the field.
Law enforcement and emergency
management agencies are increasingly
turning to BlackBerry smartphones to
help optimize situational awareness
and communication among responders
in the field. Companies developing innovative applications in public safety point
to the unrivaled reputation of the
BlackBerry platform for security, its
multitude of custom user settings and
its cutting-edge ‘Push’ architecture as
some of the reasons that make
BlackBerry a well suited partner.
‘Push’ Architecture
Increases Speed
Public safety personnel reap a
substantial benefit with the push
capability, available through the
BlackBerry® Enterprise Server. Rather
than the device actively polling for
new messages and information, data
is automatically pushed out to the
BlackBerry smartphone as soon as
it is received. When every second
counts, agencies can rest assured that
emergency communications will go out
right away, even when carrier signals
are compromised. Senders receive
confirmation that their alert was sent
and received. And because data is
pushed to the device, rather than the
device draining battery life to actively
request it, BlackBerry devices can go
for longer periods in the field without
needing to recharge.
ACTSOFT’S COMET APPS EXPEDITE
INCIDENT RESPONSE
Reducing response times is
a top priority for public safety
organizations, making tools that
can improve response times
essential. Actsoft provides GPS
tracking via a mobile app on
the BlackBerry smartphone that
gives public safety decisionmakers a better picture of how
to allocate resources for all
kinds of incidents. Dispatchers
can actually see where all
on-duty officers are in the field
— not just where their cars are.
This enables faster and more
informed decisions as to who
should respond to a situation.
“With a mobile device on the
hip of the officers, first responders not only get a snapshot of
their vehicle locations, but the
‘feet on the street’ as well,” said
Eric Rabinovitz, vice president of
operations for Actsoft.
Some prominent law enforcement agencies use this tracking
feature to improve their crowd
control capabilities at largescale public events. In 2010,
GPS tracking proved its value
by enabling rapid response to
a missing child alert at a major
public venue. From their mobile
headquarters on site, police
quickly identified the officers
who were closest to where the
child was last seen and began
the search immediately. Within
five minutes, the child was found
and reunited with family. Without
this tracking system, this frightening scenario might have
ended very differently.
A status enhancement offered
by Actsoft allows even more
detailed information on which to
base response decisions. The
status feature lets officers inform
others of their availability from
their BlackBerry device, eliminating
back and forth radio communication to determine the most
suitable responders, decreasing
response times even further.
“Utilizing the base features of
our solutions, such as colorcoded alerts, grouping icons
and status updates, we are
able to paint a very valuable
picture of the entire field
operation for our clients,” said
Rabinovitz. “Radio communication is still a valuable tool, but
it only allows for one-to-one
communication. Our system
shows instant updates on
everything happening in the
field at any given time.”
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23. “When I first got into
[the field], it was very
male-dominated,
and of the men in
the field, it was very
military-dominated.”
JOHN GRANEN
Barb Graff, director, Seattle
Emergency Management Office
Emergency Management 19
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24. “We are trending
away from people,
like me, who backed
into the field.”
as a consultant, said that in the late 1970s and
early ’80s, it was hard to find other women
working in the field. She said that Susan
Tubbesing, the University of Colorado at
Boulder’s Natural Hazards Center director at
the time, wanted to have women and minorities attend the center’s annual conference.
Tubbesing would call Rubin to inquire about
women she knew in the field to increase the
event’s diversity. “It definitely required an
effort to find them,” Rubin said. “They just
weren’t working in the field, or if they were,
they were mostly much younger and therefore
not in positions of enormous responsibility
yet, because we were working our way in.”
That sentiment is echoed by others. Marg
Verbeek, an associate with Good Harbor
Consulting and past president of the International Association of Emergency Managers,
said that when she attended conferences 20
years ago that brought together as many as
500 participants, only a handful of women
were present. And even today, when it comes
to high-level roles, there are few women
heading state offices. During Ellen Gordon’s
time as administrator of the Iowa Homeland
Security and Emergency Management office
from 1986 to 2004, she said there were never
more than three women in similar roles
nationwide. That number hasn’t increased
drastically since then. Gordon said there are
now five females who are state directors.
Emergency management’s civil defense
roots contribute to the lack of diversity.
“When I first got into [the field], it was very
male-dominated, and of the men in the field,
it was very military-dominated,” Graff said. “I
think that still continues to some extent at the
state level, but I have seen a big change here
in Washington. I’ve seen many more women
at conferences, professional development
opportunities and much more networking.
So I think it’s evened out quite a bit.”
Another contributor is the nation’s tradition
of hiring first responders pursuing second
careers in emergency management. In some
instances, it’s still a driving factor. “There
definitely is a group of folks in emergency
management who feel if you have not been a
true first responder — meaning police, fire,
[emergency medical services] — that maybe
you don’t really know how it all works,”
said Kirby Felts, assistant director of the
University of Virginia’s Emergency Preparedness Office. “I would argue that. I think
that I could be a good emergency manager
without having to respond on scene to deal
with and be in the heat of the moment.”
Graff pointed out that these issues aren’t
unique to emergency management and
20
LARRY HAMILL
Nancy Dragani, executive director, Ohio
Emergency Management Agency
Continued on p.72
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26. ADVERTISEMENT
Managed Emergency
Communications Systems
Functional Requirements for Next Generation MNS
Berkly Trumbo, Siemens Industry Inc.
Functional Requirements for
Next Generation MNS
While the latest update to NFPA redefines
Mass Notification as “Emergency
Communications Systems (ECS)”, the end
user community is formulating expectations
related to the future functionality of today’s
alerting solutions.
Numerous best practices have surfaced
since alerting technology began its rapid,
main stream adoption and the NFPA is
looking to incorporate pressure tested
protocols in the new code. The latest
updates refer to “wide-area” and “distributed
recipient notification” in addition to
building notifications. Wide area being the
geography surrounding a building on a
particular campus and distributed recipient
notification as “expanded beyond the
facility and the area, to be accomplished
through means such as telephone calls, text
messaging, and emails”.
So far, colleges, corporations and
government entities have made significant
investments in technology platforms and
end point devices towards a goal of safer,
more secure campus environments but
still have not solved all critical messaging
challenges. As an industry, emergency
communications has vaulted forward from
the days of single tone sirens but new
gaps in functionality are appearing when
considering a holistic approach to mass
notification. Emergency Management
professionals have been left with a complex
array of disparate systems to use when
seconds count the most.
Communication is the backbone
of effective emergency management.
Being able to reach everyone in a
timely matter with the proper
information is the key to making the
right decisions and mitigating
negative outcomes.”
-Lt. M. Smith Tennyson Commander,
Governmental Security
St Johns County Sheriff’s Office
Leveraging the Network for Premise
Based Solutions
A popular model which comprises the
foundation of most Mass Notification
Systems currently deployed is a web-based,
multi modal offering residing completely
outside of the IT infrastructure of a business
or campus. This model is based on sound
logic considering continuity of operations
planning but many times, the IT network
on-campus is one of the institution’s
greatest IT assets. It is common for CIOs
to invest a large percentage of their
overall budget into the infrastructure and
oftentimes buildings are so “wired” that the
degree of functionality end users are getting
from their emergency communications
systems is but a fraction of the capability,
the whole truly being greater than the sum
of its parts.
A managed systems approach to emergency
communications systems is becoming a
popular topic between IT, Facilities, and
Public Safety stakeholders. A site audit of
a campus footprint can reveal a wealth
of network devices that are capable of
delivering an emergency message but
are not configured to do so. Thinking of a
variety of end point devices as underutilized
assets, one can ask the crucial question
“how do I make marginal adjustments that
will yield exponential returns related to
functionality?” LCDs, sirens, LEDs, desktop
computers, and the ever-present fire panel
are but a few examples of devices that are
only serving in a fraction of their capacity.
The response which serves this
question best is to use a premise based
solution, bundling all end point devices
under a single managed emergency
communications architecture effectively
creating a system of systems.
Consolidating Command and
Control Communications
A managed emergency communications
system can include web based alerting as
one part of a holistic approach to critical
messaging. To date, volume has been the
underlying theme of mass notification
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27. ADVERTISEMENT
but we are moving towards a blended requirement of scalable
functionality to include accuracy and granularity in campus
communications. Emergency Management professionals have
identified the need to have a laser focus after delivering the first
wave of warnings. Pinpointing a building, floor, or office/classroom
offers a unique value proposition when considering scenarios
wherein conditions affecting the people inside a structure are
changing or are different for one location versus another. Having a
single user interface which manages all end point devices and allows
direct communications with predefined groups or one particular
modality will prove to be an invaluable feature of future message
management.
Conclusion
Experts agree that the right technology mix can act as a force
multiplier in incident management. Well constructed plans and
highly capable individuals are doubly effective when given the
correct tools to utilize during an emergency.
Emergency communications systems are evolving towards a
managed system model as opposed to a collection of disjointed,
boutique applications. Advances in technology are affording end
users more options regarding a consolidated approach to critical
communications and incident management professionals are
seeking scalable solutions which will make the most of past and
future investments.
About Siemens Industry Inc.
For more than 110 years, Siemens
has been a leader in building controls innovation, fire solutions,
and security systems. With 400 locations throughout North
America, Siemens
is positioned to provide customized services and support for our
clients’ specialized needs. For more information visit
www.siemens.com/ keyword “Sygnal”.
About the Author
Berkly Trumbo is a Mass Notification Systems (MNS) specialist
with responsibility for Florida and the Caribbean related to
emergency communications technologies. Mr. Trumbo can be
reached at berkly.trumbo@siemens.com or 954/ 364-6820.
ass noti ation in a
oor
i ing
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28. How far did the $635.9 billion spent on
homeland security since 9/11 go, and what
happens when funding dwindles?
Homeland
Uncertainty
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29. BY A DA M STONE | CON TRIBU TING W RITER
Members of Congress are not so lucky. When
they sit down to tackle funding for homeland
security, they do so in the public eye. As a result,
specifics of homeland security spending have
been largely off limits until the most recent
budget cycles: No one wants to take the political
risk of trimming “security.” The present fiscal
crunch at the national level, however, and calls
for federal belt-tightening, have put security on
the table — likely to the chagrin of lawmakers.
“Security is always an issue that nobody
in Washington wants to look bad on,” said
Jena Baker McNeill, senior policy analyst for
PREPAREDNESS GRANT COMPARISONS
Running the Numbers
Norberto Colón doesn’t like the way the
budget numbers are shaping up. If things go as
expected, he said, emergency management in
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, is going to take a big hit.
Even now, the threat of budget cuts has frozen much of the county’s emergency planning
work. “We’ve refocused on finishing programs
that are already ongoing, as opposed to looking too far out in the future,” said Colón, the
county’s deputy chief of staff for Public Safety
and Justice Services. “Right now any long-term
planning projects that require dollars or equipment are going to have to be placed on hold.”
Colón has good reason to be concerned.
Cuts in 2011 to grants for states from the U.S.
DHS and FEMA have taken a hit. Proposed cuts
for 2012 could reduce funding by as much as
another 50 percent.
One thing at least is certain: States and
municipalities are being asked to do more
with less. The 2011 homeland security budget
includes a 21 percent cut in grants to the states.
In May, the House approved a 2012 budget that
would implement another 50 percent reduction
in state grants.
y
Nominally those numbers come from Congress, working in consultation with the president. At least that’s true in so far as the overall
DHS budget goes. When it comes to distributing that money among the states and high-risk
areas that enjoy Urban Areas Security Initiative
(UASI) grants, however, the process is less clear.
State grants from the DHS begin with a
$500,000 portion for each state and territory.
Further, grants are issued based on population:
New York drew $91 million for 2011, California
received $73 million and, lowest on the chart,
the U.S. Virgin Islands with $1.16 million.
FY 2010
State and Local Programs
% Cut from 2010
Firefighter Assistance Grants
% cut from 2010
All FEMA grant programs1
% cut from 2010
1
FY 2011
FY 2012 (H.R. 2017)
$3 billion
$2.23 billion
26%
$810 million
0%
$3.38 billion
19%
$1 billion
67%
$350 million
57%
$1.7 billion
59%
$810 million
$4.17 billion
SOURCE: HOUSE.GOV
TOM McKEITH
S
ince Sept. 11, 2001, the nation has
spent a reported $635.9 billion on
homeland security. But as we pass the
10th anniversary of the attacks and
wrestle with dire economic issues,
homeland security funds are being constrained.
A look into homeland security funding
since 9/11 raises almost as many questions as
it answers. How is money apportioned? Are we
spending enough — and how would we know?
Are we, in fact, any safer?
These questions make homeland security
funding a contentious issue in any economic
climate, but especially the current one.
Total includes all preparedness grant programs distributed by DHS, some not listed here.
For more information: http://chsdemocrats.house.gov/sitedocuments/addlinfo.pdf
Distribution of UASI grants — which in
2011 lost $162 million from 2010’s $887 million figure — is by comparison somewhat more
obscure. States assess their own risk; then the
DHS runs the numbers through a complex riskand-threat formula that it keeps secret. Security
experts make a compelling argument for this
opacity. It makes no sense, they say, to give terrorists an inside look at the thought process
behind national risk assessment. Why red-flag
potential vulnerabilities?
Still, concerns have been raised about the
outcomes of this allocation process. Researchers
at Northwestern University looked at UASI
funding from 2005 to 2009 using their own risk
assessment formula. In their estimation, New
York and Chicago received too little, while California’s Los Angeles-Long Beach area received
too much. They determined that New York City
ought to have received an additional $15 million
to $92 million in UASI funding in 2009.
The DHS doesn’t have to justify its outcomes;
it has the advantage of a classified process.
homeland security at the Heritage Foundation.
“They are always being told: Next time there is a
terrorist attack, there will be blood on your hands.”
Congress’ willingness to step up to the plate
comes at an especially bad time for the emergency management community. States overall
find their coffers depleted by the ongoing recession. At the same time, planners at the state level
have come to rely increasingly on support from
Washington when it comes to matters of security.
“Even before the economy got bad, you could
see that state and local governments were facing increases on their budgets. Seeing that the
federal government was willing to take on more
and more, they were perfectly willing to have
that happen, so they routinely shortchanged
their budgets,” McNeill said. “Why would they
invest in preparedness if they really felt that the
federal government will be here if things get
really bad?”
Now states and locals have written that money
ney
out of their budgets, only to find their federal
funds dwindling.
Emergency Management 25
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30. The economic climate has been an impetus
in recent security cutbacks. Not only has it
placed tough choices before the states, it also
has driven calls for greater fiscal responsibility
at the federal level. Concerns about the debt,
the deficit and overall economic well-being all
have combined to bring new pressures to bear.
The net result will be more than just a paring back, however drastic, on state and regional
spending. The greater worry for some is that the
money will dry up altogether.
“The biggest concern is whether they limit
the number of UASIs,” Colón said. “People have
proposed going to just the top 10 areas, and
obviously we wouldn’t make that list.”
In April, U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.,
introduced a bill that would limit the number
of UASI recipients to no more than 25. There
presently are 64 designated UASI municipalities
in the United States — however, for fiscal 2011,
33 regions didn’t receive funding.
Others are feeling more confident about their
place on the list, although the prospect of reductions still looms large for planners trying to make
the tough choices of emergency management.
In the Portland, Ore., Office of Emergency
Management, Interim Public Information Officer Dan Douthit said he takes comfort in the
knowledge that his UASI continues to make
the cut. Still, he’s living lean, with a 2011 grant
that’s down by half from the year before. This
comes after years of steady declines: In 20082009, Portland’s $7 million in funding already
represented a sharp decline from prior years’
$10 million levels.
Some projects will go untouched. Equipment purchases, for instance, already have been
funded for the coming year or two, and with
that money already in the pipeline, those efforts
will still go forward. Douthit is less certain
about large-scale efforts like regional planning
projects. These could be curtailed by the cuts,
“but it still remains to be determined,” he said.
“We’ll have to prioritize even more closely
the goals and objectives we want to achieve the
most,” Douthit said. “It could mean we continue
to pursue the same number of objectives, but in
a smaller way.”
Where’s the ROI?
There’s every indication that the cuts feared by
Douthit and other emergency managers nationwide could come to pass. In May, the House
Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee
approved a bill to fund the DHS for 2012 at a level
down 2.6 percent from the prior year. That’s 6.8
percent less than the president’s proposal. That bill
would reduce FEMA funding for state and local
programs by 57 percent or $2.1 billion.
Underlying all these discussions is a fundamental concern in Washington about the
results of its vast multiyear, multibillion-dollar
investment in security. At a time when more
people are calling for accountability, budgetmakers want to be able to say with confidence
that DHS programs, including grants to states,
are giving the nation its money’s worth.
Before putting the question to the states and
municipalities, maybe it would be fair to ask the
same question at the federal level.
An amalgamation of 22 other agencies, the
DHS “answers to 108 congressional committees,
subcommittees, caucuses and the like, about four
times as many as the departments of State and
Justice combined,” according to news reports.
“Officials and staff spent about 66 work years
responding to questions from Congress in 2009
alone. That same year, homeland security officials said they answered 11,680 letters, gave 2,058
briefings and sent 232 witnesses to 166 hearings.”
Is the nation getting its money’s worth from
these efforts? How would one possibly know?
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the nation has spent a
reported $635.9 billion on homeland security.
Can one chart the ROI on the billions spent
since 9/11?
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Still on the List?
INTEROPERABILITY STILL AN ISSUE DESPITE BILLIONS SPENT
Ten years ago, the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks introduced mainstream America
to the war on terror, al-Qaida and ramped
up the discussion on communications
interoperability. Earlier this year, U.S. Special
Forces killed al-Qaida leader and 9/11
mastermind Osama bin Laden. But a decade
after the attacks, interoperability — or the
ability for emergency first responders to
communicate with one another regardless
of the technology they use — remains very
much a work in progress.
Regional public safety interoperable
networks are up and running in some places,
like Los Angeles and Montana, and others are
in the works. But, despite billions of dollars
spent
sp across the country, interoperability
remains on the to-do list for most. And the
re
ultimate goal, a nationwide interoperable
network for public safety and emergency
personnel, isn’t much closer than it was in
2004 when the 9/11 Commission released
its report on the tragedies.
“It is about time for the Congress of
the United States to make good on its
commitment to the first responders and
public safety community of this country,
to build them an interoperable broadband
public safety communications network,” said
Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania governor
and the first secretary of the U.S. DHS, which
was created in response to the attacks. “The
technology exists, the capability exists, but
what is lacking, what is sadly lacking, what is
tragically lacking, what is shamefully lacking
is the political will to build this system.”
Experts say progress on national
interoperability has been slowed by evolving
technology — like the convergence of
voice and data communications — along
with widespread use of proprietary and
incompatible communications gear.
“Proprietary equipment” are two words
that make officials shudder at a time when
voice and data are being viewed as essentially
the same types of technology. The current
environment doesn’t just hinder crossagency communication; it also increases
costs and slows innovation. “The staff of the
FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security
Bureau believe that proprietary solutions
and market dominance play an important
role in the problems with interoperability,
innovation, cost and competition in the
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31. The 9/11 attacks prompted
massive federal homeland
security spending, but
that’s being constrained in
the current budget crisis.
market for public safety communications
equipment,” wrote FCC Chairman Julius
Genachowski in a 2010 report.
Both the FCC and federal lawmakers
recently took steps toward building a
national network. In January, the FCC
designated Long Term Evolution as the
communications standard infrastructure
for the network, which Genachowshi said is
key to its creation. Now legislation is being
presented to carve out new spectrum for
public safety users and to provide funding
for the build-out of the national network.
Several bills would reallocate space in the
700 MHz band of spectrum — known as the
D Block — for dedicated public safety use,
allowing more users to be on the network, as
well as additional applications.
“Reallocation is the best way to ensure
that public safety has the leverage to
incentivize the public-private partnerships
and network-sharing arrangements that
are essential to constructing a nationwide
broadband network,” said U.S. Rep. Henry
Waxman, D-Calif., in July at a legislative
hearing to address spectrum and public
safety issues. “Moreover, reallocation allows
us to plan for public safety’s transition
to broadband.”
LACKING FUNDS
Billions of dollars have been poured into
interoperability during the last decade,
but lack of money is an issue holding the
national network back. There is concern
about the system’s expense, but that
money should be focused on this project
because it enhances public safety and
national security.
Dick Mirgon, past president of
the Association of Public-Safety
Communications Officials International,
said scarce funding is hindering progress,
but it’s not just impacting the federal
government’s eff orts. Public safety
agencies typically replace their equipment
every 10 to 20 years, but technology
is changing much faster than that.
“There’s not enough money to keep up
with technology, nor is technology costeffective because of those proprietary
networks,” Mirgon said.
By Elaine Pittman, Associate Editor
Emergency Management 27
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32. Pushing for More
So the variables are considerable. Will federal
budgets remain under exceptionally tight scrutiny? Will the states be able to close the gap?
Pressed for metrics, will states be able to quantify their success?
CHRISTOPHER PENLER/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Robert Reich, President Clinton’s Secretary
of Labor and a professor of public policy at
U.C. Berkeley recently called the billions spent
on homeland security typical of wasteful government spending. “It makes no sense,” Reich
told Homeland Security Newswire. “For every
dollar a terrorist spends seeking to create havoc
in America, we spend at least $1,000 trying to
prevent it. If the goal of the terrorists is to slowly
bankrupt America, they have hit on a pretty
good strategy.”
On the state side, at least some aspects of
emergency management are easy to quantify.
In March 2011, for example, the International
Association of Emergency Managers and
National Emergency Management Association
put out a report examining the outcomes of
Emergency Management Performance Grants,
and concluded that they were delivering.
While 2009 saw 59 disasters requiring a
presidential declaration and federal assistance,
some 180 disasters required a gubernatorial
declaration at the state level, but no federal
assistance. Another 122 events required state
resources but no declaration. In total, the
report found that some 44,637 local and tribal
emergency response incidents were supported
utilizing Emergency Management Performance
Grant funds.
Still, any “payback” for emergency planning
remains on murky ground.
“It’s difficult to measure [outcomes],” Douthit
said. Much of the work of emergency management involves planning, rather than immediate
effects. It’s hard to put a number on that. “But it’s
clearly a benefit,” he said. “In Portland, the public
information officers are much more coordinated
and regularly communicate during any type of
incident. That’s something that didn’t occur to
the same extent prior to the grant.”
The problem is endemic to the system. States
must demonstrate that they have mitigated risk.
Yet their degree of risk is determined by the
DHS, based on an undisclosed formula. While
there are many local metrics one might utilize,
the big-picture goals arguably remain elusive.
It’s hard to equate the
billions spent since
9/11 with lives saved.
In the pursuit of adequate funding levels,
state and municipal emergency managers likely
will need to take matters into their own hands.
Since Congress stands on the front line when
it comes to creating budget plans, analysts say,
the emergency management community needs
to put the weight of its efforts into convincing
legislators on the merits of its work. Congress
doesn’t labor in the abstract: Show representatives pictures of disasters mitigated, lives saved,
tragedy averted, and you’ve given them tools to
use in pushing for appropriate funding.
Even before sending word to the U.S.
Capitol, emergency managers can lobby at
the local level. “We rely on our local elected
officials to send a message up to Washington,”
Colón said.
Taken even one step further back: Lobbying
begins by sharing successes and building the
buzz around emergency management activities.
“The first responder community itself is our
biggest advocate,” Colón said. “We get together
regularly; we share ideas through Facebook and
Twitter. All of those conversations educate all of
us so that we are able to go to our elected officials and talk about these things.”
As successful as those conversations may be
in the long haul, they likely won’t ease the shortterm pain.
“Something will have to give,” said Lorin Bristow, managing partner at consulting firm Galain
Solutions. “There will have to be cuts in personnel and equipment and preparedness and training. There is really no way around that.”
If there is a silver lining it is this: Ultimately it
will be the emergency managers themselves who
decide where the money gets spent, however
much or little money there may be.
“Those local people have been put in place
by their citizens and for their citizens,” Bristow
said, “so you trust those people to ask for and
to spend that money wisely. I trust the people
at the local level to be responsible for deciding
what their communities need and how best to
protect them.” k
Adam Stone writes on business and technology from
Annapolis, Md. He also contributes to Government
Technology magazine.
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34. crisis caused
aves behind Japan’s nuclear y at reactors at home.
Tremors and tsunami w icans to look more closel
Amer
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35. LEAR CONCERN
NUC
SHES
A
W
AS
H I LT O N
C O L L I N S
|
S T A F F
W R I T E R
/
I L L U S T R A T I O N
B Y
T O M
M c K E I T H
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36. EARTHQUAKES
WITHIN 50 MILES
OF NUCLEAR
POWER PLANTS
•
Earthquakes
Fault Lines
JAPAN SUFFERED ITS WORST NUCLEAR
ACCIDENT IN SPRING 2011: On March 11,
a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan’s east
coast caused tsunami waves in the Pacific Ocean
that crippled power plants, rendering them
incapable of pumping coolant to nuclear reactors. Fatality and injury estimates by Japanese
authorities worsened by the day, with the
number of deaths totaling 15,726 on Aug. 23.
And nuclear-related complications made
things worse.
Tremors triggered the automatic shutdown
of 11 nuclear reactors. Emergency generators
started to run mechanics and water pumps
to cool the reactors, but tsunami waves were
higher than the seawalls built to protect
the reactors. Flooding destroyed electrical
power and cooling ability, causing reactors
to overheat and some to melt down. The
government evacuated more than 200,000
people to escape potential radiation exposure. Four days after the waves hit, radiation leakage prompted then-Prime Minister
Naoto Kan to warn residents in northeastern
Japan to stay indoors to avoid sickness.
Rapid containment efforts helped avert
nuclear destruction, but the work is far
from done. Power plant fissures have leaked
radioactive water into the ground, requiring
massive purification efforts that could take
years — or even decades — according to
some estimates.
The disaster raised an interesting
question: If tremors and waves compromised Japan’s nuclear power plants, could
other disasters threaten
coastal nuclear power
plants in the United
States and elsewhere?
Source: http://californiavsjapan.blogspot.com
PACIFIC THREATS
Monterey
California is arguably
more famous for temblors in
coastal regions than anywhere
else in the country. Countless fault
lines crisscross the land, comprising major faults like the San Andreas,
as well as smaller, collateral faults.
Southern California is home to two
commercial nuclear plants: the Diablo Canyon
Power Plant near San Luis Obispo and the
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station that’s
southeast of Long Beach. They have two reactors each in the heart of earthquake country.
“What happened in Japan is called ‘station
blackout,’ where you lose offsite electrical
power and backup diesel generators, which
are necessary to power the pumps to keep
coolant going and prevent fuel from
melting,” said Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear
policy lecturer at University of California
(UC), Santa Cruz, and president of the
antinuclear nonprofit Committee to Bridge
the Gap. “Nothing about California reactors
would prevent a similar kind of blackout.”
Diablo Canyon, owned by the Pacific Gas
and Electric Co., is located in Avila Beach,
sandwiched between the San Andreas Fault
on the right and the Hosgri Fault to the left
— offshore in the Pacific. With this neighbor-
Diablo
Canyon
San Luis
Obispo
Santa Barbara
Los Angeles
Ventura
Riverside
Orange
San
Onofre
San Diego
ing quake zone in the ocean,
Diablo Canyon could be due for a
local tsunami.
“The faults that we have offshore are
strike-slip faults,” said plant spokesman Kory
Raftery, “and those faults wouldn’t produce
the same sort of a sea-level rise that you
would get from a subduction zone fault,
which was what they had in Japan.”
A thrust fault between the Pacific and
North America tectonic plates generated
Japan’s now-notorious Tohoku quake that
ruptured the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant. The shaking started underwater
near the east coast of Honshu, close enough for
THE SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION is at
risk of tsunami damage from underwater landslides
since it’s near the Pacific Ocean in California.
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37. nc
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take a look at our list of TCPN Official Contract Holders...they’re all
competitively bid and bid law compliant. See what the purchasing
power of governmental entities working together nationwide can do
for you and your budget!
Key in www.TCPN.org today!
®
www.TCPN.org
Designer
Creative Dir.
Editorial
100 Blue Ravine Road
Folsom, CA 95630
Prepress
Other
OK to go
916-932-1300
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