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A publication of e.Republic
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ep

Issue 5 — Vol. 6

September/October 2011

EM09_cover.indd 1

9/15/11 1:56 PM
Knowledge is Power.

Knowledge Center™ is Fusion.
Use Knowledge Center™ to promote a virtual collaborative environment
to facilitate cooperation and provide instant access to information—anytime, anywhere.

Common Operating Picture (COP)
Interoperability
Fusion Center
Situational Awareness

Incident Management Software Solutions
Fully-functional, out-of-the-box, no training required.
Incident Management System

Hospital Incident Management System

Fusion System

Incident Command System (ICS)

Hospital Incident Command System (HICS)

Optimized intelligence sharing

Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources (CI/KR)

Hazard Vulnerability Assessment (HVA)

Secure, tiered access control

Situation Reporting (SITREP)

Patient/Triage tracking

Dynamic, configurable reporting

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Hospital Available Beds (HAvBED)

Interoperable with CADs

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PAGE
Learn More about Knowledge Center!

Be a part of our virtual EOC at the 2011 IAEM!
November 11-17 in Las Vegas, NV

“The

Knowledge Center’s ‘common operating
picture’ is something that every response
organization should strive for.”
— Commander Timme, US Coast Guard

“I

think this type of information sharing
is an example of how it should be.”
— Lieutenant Zupanc, Ohio Fusion Center

Don’t just report.

Communicate.
Call us: 412.635.3322
www.knowledge-center.com
Incident Management Software Solutions

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PAGE
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

EM09_04.indd 4

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PAGE
24/7 RELIABILITY
WITHOUT THE
24/7 ANXIETY.
Disasters. Natural, technological or

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• Helps you quickly prepare for, respond
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Offers subject to CDW•G’s standard terms and conditions of sale, available at CDWG.com. ©2011 CDW Government LLC. CDW®, CDW•G® and PEOPLE WHO GET IT™ are trademarks of CDW, LLC.

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PAGE
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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PAGE
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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PAGE
In here, 9-1-1 calls will be seen as well as heard.
AT&T NEXT-GENERATION 9-1-1 SOLUTIONS. When assessing an emergency, a video, photo or text

from the scene can be worth a thousand words. Today the standards are being developed to
enable text, video and images to be sent to 9-1-1 dispatchers to expedite incident response time.
With AT&T next-generation innovation, 9-1-1 centers can create perimeters around emergencies,
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All over a secure network that protects your mission-critical data. It’s a network of possibilities,
helping you prepare for tomorrow’s standards today. To learn more, visit att.com/publicsafety
© 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T marks
contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies.

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PAGE
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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Know the Situation
In an emergency, you need to understand what’s
happening now and what could happen next in order
to make the best decisions. Esri® Technology provides
you with comprehensive situational awareness and
actionable intelligence when you need it most.

Learn more at esri.com/emmag
Copyright © 2011 Esri. All rights reserved.

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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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PAGE
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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PAGE
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.

SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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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PAGE
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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PAGE
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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PAGE
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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PAGE
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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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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PAGE
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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ADVERTISEMENT

Enterprise administrators in the law
enforcement field also use this push
technology to deliver updates to users.
This can be done centrally by an IT
administrator, providing multiple
benefits. Officers on the beat aren’t
wasting valuable time updating
applications, and administrators can
rest assured that everyone has the most
up-to-date resources to maximize their
effectiveness on the job.

Trusted and Flexible
Security Options
Law enforcement organizations are
privy to many different types of sensitive
data and are duty-bound to protect it.
BlackBerry has long been a trusted platform in government and public safety
circles, and its reputation for security is
well earned.
The BlackBerry solution’s various
security certifications ensure the safety
of information sent from the device.
Clients in law enforcement especially
appreciate that BlackBerry meets the
FBI’s strict requirements for security,
since few other platforms do.
Among the BlackBerry platform’s
other security certifications are the S/
MIME and PGP support, end-to-end
triple DES encryption, FIPS 140-S
certification, Common Criteria EAL4+
certification and two-factor authentication
with the BlackBerry SmartCard Reader.
In addition, BlackBerry offers IT
administrators hundreds of security
options, so each organization has
granular control over its enterprise
security policies while allowing maximum
flexibility to officers and emergency
personnel on the job. In fact, there are
more than 450 policy options that can
be customized by organizations to meet
their specific security and access needs.
Policy changes can be implemented
centrally and seamlessly sent out to all
users in the field.

Increased Productivity
Brings Cost Savings

MOBILE ACCESS TO LIVE VIDEO FEEDS
Security Center, the unified
security platform from Genetec,
affords law enforcement and
security professionals many
cutting-edge video surveillance
tools. With these tools, users can
view and control live video feeds
from surveillance cameras. This
provides critical information that
helps officers make the most
informed decisions on how to
respond to a particular incident
or individual.
While the system that
manages these feeds was
previously available from a
laptop, Genetec recently
launched Security Center Mobile
for handheld devices. Many of
Genetec’s customers leverage
Security Center for citywide
surveillance efforts when monitoring multiple sites. Rather than
relying on centralized personnel,
such as dispatchers, to explain
a situation to responding
officers via radio, police now
have access to vital data en
route, making them better
prepared to handle the scene
immediately on arrival.
“Many places in citywide
surveillance have cameras on the
street, but they have no way to
share what’s going on with field

mobile access to many important data
sources that expedite decision-making
in the field. Dispatch personnel can be
more effective in their primary roles too,
since officers are more self-sufficient
with mobile information tools.
Law enforcement agencies can
continue to benefit from mobile capabilities
in the future as well. Numerous third-party
companies develop applications specifically for public safety organizations,

Equipping the force with BlackBerry
smartphones can bring cost savings too,
since the BlackBerry smartphone allows

people,” said Jonathan Doyon,
Genetec’s director of product
technologies. “It’s a way to communicate more efficiently what’s
going on before they get on
site.” Centrally located security
officers can direct responders to
a particular video feed so they
can view the suspect or situation in advance, and tailor their
response accordingly.
Also included in Genetec’s
Security Center are vehicle
license plate recognition and
real-time building access
control systems, providing more
sophisticated capabilities to law
enforcement and security staff.
Genetec points to the
BlackBerry platform’s many
security settings as a reason
why the platform is a well suited
partner. Agencies can set very
specific guidelines for their
BlackBerry devices, to ensure
they are used for their intended
purposes. In addition, given the
sensitive data and access controls contained within Security
Center, a lost device could
potentially result in a facility’s
security being compromised.
With BlackBerry, though, a
simple remote data wipe of the
phone eliminates that possibility.

so users can add capabilities as they
become available.
BlackBerry devices offer a flexible,
secure and reliable mobile platform that
enables access to vital data for public
safety organizations and first responders. Partnering with BlackBerry, law
enforcement can optimize communication and situational awareness, which
helps responders keep themselves and
the public safe.

For more information, please visit
www.blackberry.com/publicsafety.

This e.Republic custom publication is sponsored by BlackBerry. © 2011 e.Republic Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
BlackBerry®, RIM®, Research In Motion® and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of Research In Motion Limited and
are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. Used under license from Research In Motion Limited.

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PAGE
“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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“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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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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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.

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How far did the $635.9 billion spent on
homeland security since 9/11 go, and what
happens when funding dwindles?

Homeland

Uncertainty
24

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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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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

26

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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

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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.

28

EM09_24.indd 28

9/14/11 1:03 PM

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PAGE
47 Of Everything And Everything In Its Place

Organize
What a mess! Cars in the shop, trucks in
storage, equipment everywhere. PR*VIDE
is a proven asset and inventory tracking
management system for public safety that
lets you know at a glance where to find your
stuff, especially in a crisis.

1

41

36
39
16
9

30

33
31
32

Share

37

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35

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42

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38

45

46
47

18
2

20
21

People out in the field can track equipment
they need to get their jobs done. No specialized
training or dedicated devices needed, just a
web browser.

Manage

22

PR*VIDE is so easy to set up and use, you can
move from mess to managed in only a couple
of weeks. PR*VIDE is powered out of the box
by world-class technology designed for stability
and speed of deployment.

23
24

10
29
7

25
4

26
27

6

14
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11

28
29

5

17
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13
8

Extend
19
40

3

Need to add more users? PR*VIDE can scale
up to thousands of users. Even across agencies.

Control
Budgets are only getting tighter. Stay in control
of your department’s assets without breaking
the bank to do it.

“Get Smarter” by visiting...
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solution brief and a free product demo.
Let’s get started!
IAEM Conference, November 11-18 in
Las Vegas (booth 210 hosted by IBM)

PR VIDE Pro

provista.com 510-794-1885

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PAGE
crisis caused
aves behind Japan’s nuclear y at reactors at home.
Tremors and tsunami w icans to look more closel
Amer

30

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PAGE
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

31

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PAGE
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.

32

EM09_30.indd 32

9/14/11 1:16 PM

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PAGE
nc
lia
mp
o
fficial Seal of C

e

L

oo

kf
or

The
O

The Key to What You Need
TCPN helps you get the exact products and services you need from
the vendors you want, all while meeting state procurement laws.
Along with our contracts for office supplies and facilities TCPN has
awarded vendors that offer solutions for energy, technology, and
transportation.
So when you need something fast or want to choose your vendor,
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

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PAGE
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Em mag sep11

  • 1. A publication of e.Republic no ep Issue 5 — Vol. 6 September/October 2011 EM09_cover.indd 1 9/15/11 1:56 PM
  • 2. Knowledge is Power. Knowledge Center™ is Fusion. Use Knowledge Center™ to promote a virtual collaborative environment to facilitate cooperation and provide instant access to information—anytime, anywhere. Common Operating Picture (COP) Interoperability Fusion Center Situational Awareness Incident Management Software Solutions Fully-functional, out-of-the-box, no training required. Incident Management System Hospital Incident Management System Fusion System Incident Command System (ICS) Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) Optimized intelligence sharing Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources (CI/KR) Hazard Vulnerability Assessment (HVA) Secure, tiered access control Situation Reporting (SITREP) Patient/Triage tracking Dynamic, configurable reporting Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Hospital Available Beds (HAvBED) Interoperable with CADs Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 3. Learn More about Knowledge Center! Be a part of our virtual EOC at the 2011 IAEM! November 11-17 in Las Vegas, NV “The Knowledge Center’s ‘common operating picture’ is something that every response organization should strive for.” — Commander Timme, US Coast Guard “I think this type of information sharing is an example of how it should be.” — Lieutenant Zupanc, Ohio Fusion Center Don’t just report. Communicate. Call us: 412.635.3322 www.knowledge-center.com Incident Management Software Solutions Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_04.indd 4 9/13/11 2:46 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 5. 24/7 RELIABILITY WITHOUT THE 24/7 ANXIETY. Disasters. Natural, technological or HP StorageWorks P2000 G3 MSA FC/ iSCSI Dual Combo Controller LFF Array human. It doesn’t matter. The network CDWG 2006327 needs to stay up and running. With best- • Delivers an affordable, high-performance storage array solution offering the flexibility of 8Gb Fibre Channel or FC and iSCSI connectivity, 64 snapshots standard and optional Remote Snap replication in-class vendors, dedicated account managers and highly trained solution architects, we’ll help you create a plan with the right products and services to fit your needs and budget. The HP ProLiant DL385 G7 Rack-mount Server peace of mind is just an added bonus. CDWG 2078436 All you have to do is call or click. • Two AMD Opteron™ 6174 Twelve-Core processors (2.2GHz) 800.767.4239 | CDWG.com/continuity • Memory: 16GB std., 512GB max. (DDR3) • Hard drive: none ship std.; 16TB max • Flexibility for any business need CA ARCserve® D2D Advanced Server Edition CDWG 2091890 • Uses less storage and provides a fast, flexible recovery • Helps you quickly prepare for, respond to and recover from the disruptions that threaten your core operations Offers subject to CDW•G’s standard terms and conditions of sale, available at CDWG.com. ©2011 CDW Government LLC. CDW®, CDW•G® and PEOPLE WHO GET IT™ are trademarks of CDW, LLC. Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_04.indd 6 9/13/11 2:48 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 7. Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_08.indd 8 9/13/11 2:56 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 9. In here, 9-1-1 calls will be seen as well as heard. AT&T NEXT-GENERATION 9-1-1 SOLUTIONS. When assessing an emergency, a video, photo or text from the scene can be worth a thousand words. Today the standards are being developed to enable text, video and images to be sent to 9-1-1 dispatchers to expedite incident response time. With AT&T next-generation innovation, 9-1-1 centers can create perimeters around emergencies, reroute PSAPs during disasters and view 9-1-1 caller information on a graphical map display. All over a secure network that protects your mission-critical data. It’s a network of possibilities, helping you prepare for tomorrow’s standards today. To learn more, visit att.com/publicsafety © 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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. 10 EM09_10.indd 10 9/13/11 2:22 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 11. Know the Situation In an emergency, you need to understand what’s happening now and what could happen next in order to make the best decisions. Esri® Technology provides you with comprehensive situational awareness and actionable intelligence when you need it most. Learn more at esri.com/emmag Copyright © 2011 Esri. All rights reserved. Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_12.indd 12 9/13/11 1:20 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_12.indd 13 9/13/11 1:21 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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. SHUTTERSTOCK.COM 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 EM09_14.indd 14 9/13/11 2:18 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 15. Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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. EM09_16.indd 16 9/14/11 12:09 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_16.indd 17 9/13/11 11:19 AM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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. 9/13/11 11:20 AM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 19. Thought Leadership Profile | BlackBerry A SECURE PARTNERSHIP BlackBerry smartphones improve situational awareness by delivering critical information directly to first responders. ADVERTISEMENT EM07_BlackBerry_TLP.indd 1 8/17/11 10:28 AM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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. EM09_BlackBerry_TLP.indd 2 8/31/11 1:42 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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.” EM09_BlackBerry_TLP.indd 3 8/31/11 1:42 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 22. ADVERTISEMENT Enterprise administrators in the law enforcement field also use this push technology to deliver updates to users. This can be done centrally by an IT administrator, providing multiple benefits. Officers on the beat aren’t wasting valuable time updating applications, and administrators can rest assured that everyone has the most up-to-date resources to maximize their effectiveness on the job. Trusted and Flexible Security Options Law enforcement organizations are privy to many different types of sensitive data and are duty-bound to protect it. BlackBerry has long been a trusted platform in government and public safety circles, and its reputation for security is well earned. The BlackBerry solution’s various security certifications ensure the safety of information sent from the device. Clients in law enforcement especially appreciate that BlackBerry meets the FBI’s strict requirements for security, since few other platforms do. Among the BlackBerry platform’s other security certifications are the S/ MIME and PGP support, end-to-end triple DES encryption, FIPS 140-S certification, Common Criteria EAL4+ certification and two-factor authentication with the BlackBerry SmartCard Reader. In addition, BlackBerry offers IT administrators hundreds of security options, so each organization has granular control over its enterprise security policies while allowing maximum flexibility to officers and emergency personnel on the job. In fact, there are more than 450 policy options that can be customized by organizations to meet their specific security and access needs. Policy changes can be implemented centrally and seamlessly sent out to all users in the field. Increased Productivity Brings Cost Savings MOBILE ACCESS TO LIVE VIDEO FEEDS Security Center, the unified security platform from Genetec, affords law enforcement and security professionals many cutting-edge video surveillance tools. With these tools, users can view and control live video feeds from surveillance cameras. This provides critical information that helps officers make the most informed decisions on how to respond to a particular incident or individual. While the system that manages these feeds was previously available from a laptop, Genetec recently launched Security Center Mobile for handheld devices. Many of Genetec’s customers leverage Security Center for citywide surveillance efforts when monitoring multiple sites. Rather than relying on centralized personnel, such as dispatchers, to explain a situation to responding officers via radio, police now have access to vital data en route, making them better prepared to handle the scene immediately on arrival. “Many places in citywide surveillance have cameras on the street, but they have no way to share what’s going on with field mobile access to many important data sources that expedite decision-making in the field. Dispatch personnel can be more effective in their primary roles too, since officers are more self-sufficient with mobile information tools. Law enforcement agencies can continue to benefit from mobile capabilities in the future as well. Numerous third-party companies develop applications specifically for public safety organizations, Equipping the force with BlackBerry smartphones can bring cost savings too, since the BlackBerry smartphone allows people,” said Jonathan Doyon, Genetec’s director of product technologies. “It’s a way to communicate more efficiently what’s going on before they get on site.” Centrally located security officers can direct responders to a particular video feed so they can view the suspect or situation in advance, and tailor their response accordingly. Also included in Genetec’s Security Center are vehicle license plate recognition and real-time building access control systems, providing more sophisticated capabilities to law enforcement and security staff. Genetec points to the BlackBerry platform’s many security settings as a reason why the platform is a well suited partner. Agencies can set very specific guidelines for their BlackBerry devices, to ensure they are used for their intended purposes. In addition, given the sensitive data and access controls contained within Security Center, a lost device could potentially result in a facility’s security being compromised. With BlackBerry, though, a simple remote data wipe of the phone eliminates that possibility. so users can add capabilities as they become available. BlackBerry devices offer a flexible, secure and reliable mobile platform that enables access to vital data for public safety organizations and first responders. Partnering with BlackBerry, law enforcement can optimize communication and situational awareness, which helps responders keep themselves and the public safe. For more information, please visit www.blackberry.com/publicsafety. This e.Republic custom publication is sponsored by BlackBerry. © 2011 e.Republic Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. BlackBerry®, RIM®, Research In Motion® and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of Research In Motion Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. Used under license from Research In Motion Limited. EM09_BlackBerry_TLP.indd 4 8/31/11 1:43 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_16.indd 19 9/13/11 11:22 AM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_16.indd 20 9/13/11 11:26 AM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 25. Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 safety net or networking nightmare? Sygnal™ mass noti cation gives you a complete range of products for any project. In critical moments, your customers need to send messages with con dence, and they rely on you to choose the right spec for their needs. Sygnal mass noti cation is industry-leading technology you can specify for every customer, whether it’s a single building or a complex campus. Sygnal gives customers the ability to reach people inside, outside and at their side, for maximum contactability when it matters most. ou get the con dence of recommending the best they get the con dence that they can reach them all. usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies Answers for infrastructure. Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 28. How far did the $635.9 billion spent on homeland security since 9/11 go, and what happens when funding dwindles? Homeland Uncertainty 24 EM09_24.indd 24 9/13/11 2:49 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_24.indd 25 9/13/11 2:50 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 26 EM09_24.indd 26 9/13/11 1:51 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 EM09_24.indd 27 9/14/11 12:59 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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. 28 EM09_24.indd 28 9/14/11 1:03 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 33. 47 Of Everything And Everything In Its Place Organize What a mess! Cars in the shop, trucks in storage, equipment everywhere. PR*VIDE is a proven asset and inventory tracking management system for public safety that lets you know at a glance where to find your stuff, especially in a crisis. 1 41 36 39 16 9 30 33 31 32 Share 37 34 35 43 42 44 38 45 46 47 18 2 20 21 People out in the field can track equipment they need to get their jobs done. No specialized training or dedicated devices needed, just a web browser. Manage 22 PR*VIDE is so easy to set up and use, you can move from mess to managed in only a couple of weeks. PR*VIDE is powered out of the box by world-class technology designed for stability and speed of deployment. 23 24 10 29 7 25 4 26 27 6 14 15 11 28 29 5 17 12 13 8 Extend 19 40 3 Need to add more users? PR*VIDE can scale up to thousands of users. Even across agencies. Control Budgets are only getting tighter. Stay in control of your department’s assets without breaking the bank to do it. “Get Smarter” by visiting... Provista.com/public_safety today for a solution brief and a free product demo. Let’s get started! IAEM Conference, November 11-18 in Las Vegas (booth 210 hosted by IBM) PR VIDE Pro provista.com 510-794-1885 Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 34. crisis caused aves behind Japan’s nuclear y at reactors at home. Tremors and tsunami w icans to look more closel Amer 30 EM09_30.indd 30 9/13/11 12:01 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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 31 EM09_30.indd 31 9/13/11 12:02 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 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. 32 EM09_30.indd 32 9/14/11 1:16 PM Designer Creative Dir. Editorial 100 Blue Ravine Road Folsom, CA 95630 Prepress Other OK to go 916-932-1300 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE
  • 37. nc lia mp o fficial Seal of C e L oo kf or The O The Key to What You Need TCPN helps you get the exact products and services you need from the vendors you want, all while meeting state procurement laws. Along with our contracts for office supplies and facilities TCPN has awarded vendors that offer solutions for energy, technology, and transportation. So when you need something fast or want to choose your vendor, 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 ���� ������� ������ ����� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� � PAGE