CIBOLA BEACON: Local Emergency Emergency management system

From using a smoke detector to planning a fire exit strategy, loading up on fuel for cold winter months or buying candles for power outages, we all plan our lives around the possibility of emergencies. Those who live in rural areas are keenly aware of “emergency planning” just to survive challenges of living away from town and conveniences. But, the common framework of individual and family preparedness applies to us all - it's “routine” to consider all necessary details to ensure safety every step of our day.

INFORMATION WEEK: Practical Disaster Recovery For Midsize Companies

Disasters happen, and when they do, IT had better be prepared, since businesses depend on information and the technology that manages it. For midsize companies, however, planning and equipping for disasters has been problematic. Where large enterprises have an array of specialized disaster-recovery systems from which to choose, and small businesses often can make do with ad hoc measures, midsize companies frequently have been caught in the middle--not able to afford big-bucks systems, yet needing more than just sending tapes off-site.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: New White House urged to bolster cybersecurity

WASHINGTON — A pioneering bipartisan report that will be released today calls on the incoming Obama administration to set up a high-level office to coordinate the defense of the nation's computer systems from cyber-attacks by rival nations, industrial spies and criminal syndicates.

NEW YORK TIMES: Playing it Safe Around Pirates

A week after pirates fired on one cruise ship near the Horn of Africa, a German cruise company has decided to play it safe in dangerous waters.

Hapag-Lloyd cruises announced today that a ship sailing from Genoa, Italy, to Dubai would unload 300 passengers and crewmembers before it reaches the Gulf of Aden, the lawless stretch of water off the Somali coast where pirates have menaced passenger boats, boarded cargo ships and hijacked a Saudi tanker loaded with $100 million in oil.

WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL: Inauguration celebration seen as ‘opportunity’ and ‘nightmare’ for D.C.

The inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama will create an economic boom and a logistical deluge for the District, according to organizers speaking to Greater Washington Board of Trade members Monday.

Having as many as 4 million people visit the region in one week -- about one-fifth the number that typically visit the region in one year -- “is an enormous opportunity or logistical nightmare” said Jim Dinegar, president and chief executive officer of the Board of Trade, to more than 100 business leaders gathered at the law firm K&L Gates. Dinegar said there were requests for parking spaces for 10,000 buses, enough to stretch around the Capital Beltway and up to Baltimore.

Companies should plan for emergencies, delays in delivery of goods due to packed roads, communications failures and other infrastructure deficiencies, according to Charles Fishher, vice president of James Lee Witt Associates. “When you bring this many people into the area you are going to see some stress to the system,” he said.

USA TODAY: Nuclear weapons decision awaits Obama

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — One of the most important national security decision facing President-elect Barack Obama will unfold in this remote valley of aging factories, where workers enriched uranium for the first atomic bomb of World War II.

Special Events Planning - Not Just Security

There has been a lot of discussion lately about whether FEMA should be in or out of DHS, with lots of good comments and thoughts on both sides. One of the big reasons to move FEMA out is to ensure that the all-hazards approached is maintained and the big picture is maintained.

Special Events (Contingency) Planning is a good example of the where the security focus can lose the big picture. When special events planning is led by the law enforcement-homeland security sector, it tends to focus on only the security aspect. Even some of the planning guides found on the internet developed by the law enforcement sector talk about other sectors such as fire, EMS, public health, public works and the like as "support" functions. This is not an indictment; this is the natural tendency of a sector to focus on their areas of expertise.

In fact, a good special events (SE) plan ensures that all sectors are represented and considered. All special events have different needs and areas of concern, with security being one of those areas. You can see this in the recent discussions of the Black Friday shopping incidents. Yes, security is an issue, but coordination between the retailer and local responders, the design of the buildings, and the psychology of crowds are also important issues. A good SE plan will use the principles of emergency management to coordinate, collaborate and communicate with ALL the players on a level basis, not just the familiar public safety agencies.

Also, a good SE plan is based on existing emergency/contingency/disaster plans. SE plans should not be an entity unto themselves. The SE plan should use the existing plans as the foundation, with the SE plan addressing the issues specific to the special event. If the SE plans are focused on the specific issues, it actually takes less overall time to plan, as the foundations are the same for each special event. Over time, this will make lead to stronger overall emergency planning for all situations.

Finally, the type of event covered by special events planning needs to be expanded. The minute someone says "we have always done that event this way, we don't need to go overboard, and nothing happens anyway", or something similar, should raise the red flags that this is probably the very event that needs a good planning effort. How many times do we have to after action an incident with the comment "who would have ever thought that could happen?" Have we already forgotten that lesson from 7 years ago?

For more information, see the IS 15a Special Events Contingency Planning training course.

Rethinking 700 MHz for Public Safety

Nov 21, 2008, By Sascha D. Meinrath

Emergency communications save lives.

The unfortunate corollary to this maxim: Communication failures kill. Increasingly attention is being focused on how to increase communication, not only within an emergency response organization, but also across first responders from different agencies. To remain fully connected, key communications officers have often adopted a "bat belt" approach with several communications devices - sometimes a half dozen or more - strapped to their waist. It's a necessity for communicating among the many different federal, state and local agencies' wireless networks during an incident.

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

TECHNOLOGY TIPS: Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy

Your entire emergency management system must be redundant - after all, it is supposed to be as disaster proof as possible.

If you have one of the emergency management information/incident management software programs, that's great. But what if it fails? Step back to basic word processing and spreadsheets. But what if that fails? Step back to paper-based management. All your forms should be usable at all these levels. All forms used in the software system should be printed and number of copies set aside for manual use. Your training and exercise program should include scenarios where the systems fail and you have to fall back on redundant methods.

Communications systems are another key area for redundancy. Do not rely on one or even two methods of communication. You may have to fall back all the way to runners, people physically running messages by hand. Yes, be concerned about information overload, but if it is a choice of too many or not getting through, go for too many. This can be an issue when members of your emergency response team complain that they get too many of the same messages. Your training must clearly explain the redundancy concept and the need to ensure that the message gets through.

These principles are equally applicable to the general public. Family emergency preparedness teaches concepts such as redundant communications among family members. Another example - while digital copies of important documents are good to have, it can be just as important to squirrel away that paper backup copy.

In the world of real estate, location is everything. In the world of emergency management, redundancy is the same. Ensure that redundancy is a key part of your planning.