NIUSR Talks

2007-01-16T17:08:00.001-08:00

NIUSR: What We Do

Thanks again to Tom Rowles for all his work in putting together these videos.

2007-01-16T17:08:00.000-08:00

Who Is NIUSR - Video

Thanks to Tom Rowles for putting this together for NIUSR

Standards lacking for preparedness ratings

2006-06-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Reader's Digest is coming out (July, 06) with their list of urban areas and rating how prepared they are for a crisis. RD focused on three main categories: emergency readiness, crisis communications and medical response.

Among the security measures reviewed were:
ratio of first responders (police, fire and medical) to residents;
proximity of federal search-and-rescue teams;
clear instructions on city websites regarding evacuation plans including residents with special needs;
communication capabilities between first responders;
the existence of 24-hour emergency alert systems;
number of hospital beds per residents.

How is Reader's Digest qualified to measure the preparedness of our urban areas?

The answer is simple. They aren't, but no one else was doing it, so they took it upon themselves.

This reveals three opportunities for NIUSR:

Support RD for their initiative and recognition of the issues, and use this as an opportunity to critically review their work, offer our expertise, endorse the study (if appropriate) and potentially join them in this effort (they may want us to lead, as experts).
RD is about to give this issue a spotlight and I think NIUSR should take advantage of that to talk about our "imperatives" and our progress, to date.
Standards! What are they? Where are they? RD suggests that they don't exist, so they did their best to come up with some. This is a gap that NIUSR needs to fill, until someone with more authority, expertise or resources wants to fill it.

I would like to hear from you and especially, your thoughts on what the standards should be.

Feds go for the guns

2005-09-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

The AP & Washington Times articles have spurred much discussion this morning among NIUSR members.

Here are the articles:

AP - US Military Could End Up Leading the Fight Against Mother Nature
Washington Times - Bush Seeks To Federalize Emergencies

Lets hear from you, using the [comments] link below.

King For A Day

2005-09-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

I thought we'd mix things up a bit today and try something a little different to spark the brain cells and get folks thinking.

Situation One: You been contacted by President Bush and advised that you are the new Director of FEMA and that the Cabinet Level post has been re-established. Your job is now to prepare for Hurricane Rita while simultaneously revamping the organization and leading the Agency in responding to the Katrina aftermath.

Challenge: Name the first 5 things you would accomplish and how you would go about accomplishing them.

Situation Two: You been contacted by President Bush and advised that you are the new Director of FEMA and that the Cabinet Level post is not going to be re-established. Your job is now to prepare for Hurricane Rita while simultaneously revamping the organization and leading the Agency in responding to the Katrina aftermath.

Challenge: Name the first 5 things you would accomplish and how you would go about accomplishing them.

Obviously, we each have those ideas that we believe could re-baseline or further enhance the organization, but putting those ideas into actionable items isn't the same thing. One of the exercises here is to get everyone to look beyond the surface issues, explore the root cause(s) and effect(s), and then determine possible methods of overcoming the obstacles. Of course, we at NIUSR say identify the opportunity for improvement, understand the opportunity and why it needs improving (because we all know that if something isn't broke, then don't fix it), and then articulate how to implement the improvement. Who knows, maybe someone inside the beltway will read the responses to this post and take some valuable nuggets away.

Bryan

Communications Interoperability

2005-09-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

I will begin by citing the closing statement of Senator John McCain during his "FLOOR SPEECH ON INTEROPERABLE COMMUNICATIONS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICIALS" on 13 September, 2005 to wit:

“I will conclude by sharing 9/11 Commission Chairman Kean’s comments as stated on CNN’s Late Edition this past Sunday, “[w]hat’s frustrating is it’s the same thing over again. I mean, how many people have to lose their lives? It’s lack of communication, our first responders not being able to talk to each other.... Basically it’s many of the things that, frankly, if some of our recommendations had been passed by the United States Congress … could have been avoided. But on the ground, the people that get there first can’t talk to each other because the radio communications don’t work. They haven’t got enough what’s called spectrum. So there is a bill in Congress to provide first responders spectrum. The bill has been sitting in Congress, nothing has been happening, and again, people on the ground -- police, fire, medical personnel – couldn’t talk to each other. That’s outrageous and it’s a scandal and I think it cost lives.” I couldn’t agree more.”

Now, even though the lack of sufficient spectrum coupled with the geographic spectrum management issues are clearly valid concerns, I’d like to point to a very different, yet equally contributing factor affecting interoperable public safety communications. I call it “the Vendor Syndrome”. As with any technology in our free enterprise, competition is spurred by a valid customer need, coupled with who can deliver the goods with requisite “bells & whistles” for a decent price. This tends to drive competition to the point where standards are implemented, but not necessarily in the same way or using the same schedule. This means that any manufacturer can claim “Standards Compliance” while remaining predominantly proprietary, thereby protecting and/or increasing their market share and unseating the competition.

Remember, open competition was the anticipated result of setting the P25 standard, with the interoperability requirement that P25-compliant equipment from any qualified manufacturer must work together seamlessly. In addition, the P25 suite of standards provides an open interface to the radio frequency (RF) subsystem to facilitate interlinking of different vendors' systems. Product options however, may sometimes dictate equipment be procured exclusively from a single manufacturer, thereby effectively limiting or eliminating interoperability. It is important to be aware of this if interoperability is important to your communications. Vendors today include Motorola, M/A-COM, EF Johnson, iCOM, Bendix King, RELM, KENWOOD, DATRON, Thales, and Vertex just to name a few.

It is important to note that P25 is not a "single standard", but really a "number of individual protocols" that can be mixed and matched. A "Project 25 compliant" system may really use only a few of the many standards. For instance, a P25 system may be conventional or trunked, use encryption or transmit in the clear, and carry voice, data, or both.

OK, I’ll end this entry, but would like to ensure that everyone understands that we must be willing to agree to disagree. Nobody has to agree with anything I’ve said, but don’t go flaming just because everyone is steadfastly standing by their solution as the greatest. I say, as long as a system meets its user requirements, then they may have a valid position from which to debate. However, wait until they bring some outside organizations into their jurisdiction and see if they can communicate with the visiting teams' portable/mobile radios. If they can’t, then there’s a problem.

Bryan

Legacy Missions

2005-09-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

Terrorism is getting all the DHS-related press. Consequently, most people inside and outside government think that the legacy missions of agencies like FEMA and the Coast Guard have been supplanted by terrorist related responsibilities to a much greater degree than they actually have. While it's true that a lot of planning for terrorism has been added to what was already on our plates, the legacy missions of FEMA and the CG have changed very little with the move to DHS.

I may be wrong, but I believe that what was lost in FEMA more than anything was the leadership skills and subject matter expertise in key places. The legislation that moved FEMA didn't change its mission as far as I can remember. For that reason, I take Dr.Sylevs' advocacy for radical change with a grain of salt. I stand to be corrected. We would all like to see the federal government revolve around our mission areas, but it's too big and complex for that to happen.That's not to say that we shouldn't use teachable moments to call attention to our needs.

Dan Lemon

Let's Put Your Hand on the Plough

2005-09-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

There is an old axiom in farming…

“If you put your hand on the plough you finish the row”

Well we have put our hand on this blog, but I’m not sure at our present pace that we will even get the row started.

Let’s give everyone on the NIUSR Executive Board access to be contributors and post directly to the blog, not just a few of us with the remainder of the group being shuffled to the back page in the comments section.

Let’s discuss issues in front of the world, at least those that are not confidential, so that we draw people’s attention. The intent of the blog is not to hear ourselves talk but to spread the word.

What's Next?

2005-09-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

Let's take a look at what could be the potential for follow-on hazards related to our recent disaster in the Gulf.

Displaced citizens are being temporarily relocated across the country. Now health officials have stated that the potential risk of Hepatitis is high for those who spent any amount of time in the post-hurricane water. Good-hearted samaritans, without asking or knowing, are taking some of these individuals into their homes, which creates the potential for large scale spread of the viral infection.

Flood waters rose to a very significant level and devasted structures. Anyone who has been in a post-flood restored environment knows that mold will soon appear. Since the flood waters were so severely contaminated, and since it will take time to remove the debris and condemned buildings, the next logical stage of the threat is mold. Mold can create numerous health risks but not everyone thinks about it beyond the pungent odor it creates.

Re-flooding due to the immense ground saturation is a very likely event. Repairing levies and de-flooding the area is great for creating access, but provide absolutely no relief from the saturated ground, which will store the un-evaporated water until the next heavy rainstorm or surge, at which time a new flood will occur.

So let's put our heads together and think of those things that can occur beyond the obvious, and then think of mitigating the risk, and then tell someone who can take the appropriate action.

"Katrina and the Waves"

2005-09-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

In keeping with the "hot news" of today, I would like to focus on current events surrounding our Gulf Coast states.

I've read in countless articles and online forums that everyone is looking for a scape-goat or someone to blame for the response & recovery efforts, or perceived lack thereof, in Mississippi and Louisiana. One posting in particular caught my interest. It is a posting of an article run by the New Orleans Times-Picayune on July 24, 2005 (six weeks ago).

The message was clear and simple: City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give a historically blunt message: "In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own."

Staff writer Bruce Nolan reported: "In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm's way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation."

"In the video, made by the anti-poverty agency Total Community Action, they urge those people to make arrangements now by finding their own ways to leave the city in the event of an evacuation.

"You're responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you," Wilkins said in an interview. "If you have some room to get that person out of town, the Red Cross will have a space for that person outside the area. We can help you."

Now, if there is one recurring message that has been echoed by many, yet apparently embraced by far fewer, it is that citizens and communities must come together and become self-sufficient. CERT/NERT and numerous other good programs have started at the grassroot level and have seen success. But in order to be a success, they had to be supported by everyone in the community from the leadership to the populace.

Will the aftermath of Katrina and her violent waves provide us with another wakeup call? Or will we as a nation, once again, fall victim to our short-term memory and be content with the fact that these types of catastrophic disasters could never happen in our hometown?

Thoughts for Labor Day

2005-09-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

My Thoughts for Labor Day....

It is a unique occurrence in this Country that professional responders are completely overwhelmed...

Social issues sometimes greatly complicate disaster response...

Logistical support in disasters (food, water, gas, medicine) sometimes stumbles...

But some of the death and suffering that occurred last week should never have happened...

Communications should not completely break down...

I don't understand how it could happen here...

Frank

How high-tech is coming to the rescue

2005-09-02T04:46:00.000-07:00

Scientists bring gadgets to post-Katrina disaster scene

Story Originally Published at www.msnbc.com by:
Alan Boyle
Science editor
MSNBC
Updated: 4:27 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2005

In Hurricane Katrina's wake, researchers are bringing cutting-edge technologies to the disaster area, just as they did after catastrophes ranging from the 9/11 terror attacks to last year's Asian tsunami.

The search-and-rescue tools include devices and software that can turn walkie-talkies into Internet grids when the phones are out, robots and aerial mini-planes that can look for signs of life amid the wreckage, and sensor systems that can sniff out public health threats in the storm's aftermath.

"Just as people, after the tsunami, deployed this ad hoc array of Internet boxes and sensor devices in Asia, they will come in this time and do it again," said Paul Saffo, director of the California-based Institute for the Future, who is himself a search-and-rescue volunteer.

What Could Be The Future

2005-08-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

Since this is my last day as guest blog master, I thought I would share my vision of the future and invite you to participate in this blog with your thoughts and ideas.

Building on the work done by Eric Frost and the people at Cal State University San Diego in disaster data collecting using the band width of the university system to collect information sent in by the technology that is in place today (cell phones, text messaging, camera phones, blackberries, etc.), and the technology that will be available in the future, we could develop a system in this country for collect and disseminating disaster information.

Combine that with the interest shown by Cal State University East Bay and their Multimedia program folks in developing a game-based format, disaster preparedness and response training model based on CERT skills.

Add to that the fact that, with the Citizens Corp initiative and the funding attached, most communities in the past few years have developed some type of CERT training program.

We create a new delivery system for our disaster preparedness initiative by: training young people in disaster preparedness and response with the game-based program that appeals to the rhythm of the youth; feeding them into the existing system of CERT programs in the communities so that they are part of the system and can practice the hands-on skills that they have been taught; linking them into the university system for disaster reporting so that they have a critical role to play in a disaster and thus giving them ownership for their efforts.

Inexpensive, non-labor intensive and fun for the participants.

Food for thought….

Frank Lucier

Let's Focus On New Delivery Systems

2005-08-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

The need for community preparedness was never clearer than the night of the Loma Prieta earthquake. We were working in the Marina district of San Francisco, surrounded by dozens of collapse, leaning and burning buildings. People wanted to help, and they were a great help to us that night. But they had no skills and, in most cases, didn’t know what to do without some direction from us.

Shortly after the Loma Prieta earthquake, we started a CERT type program in the city. I could see in the eyes of the first class that graduated from our program that they love the class and felt empowered by the skills they had learned.

This look and feeling that I got from the graduates fueled my passion for wanting to expand the program. But it was not about making me feel good, it was about the people. When I left the fire department 7 years ago, we had trained 8,000 people in the city, we were training about 500 people every 5 weeks, and people had to wait about 6 months to get into a class.

Hind sight is always 20-20, but what did these numbers really mean?

Training 8,000 people seems like a lot, but it was less than 2½% of the population, not a real culture changer there. Training 500 people every 5 weeks is not such a grand number when you consider there were 750,000 people in the city. At that rate we could cover the whole city in about 200 years.

And what about the waiting list? Would you wait 6 months for some product?

I think we had the wrong delivery system. I think that the CERT program has the wrong delivery system. The present delivery system is costly and labor intensive. Because of this it is never going to change disaster culture, the delivery system is just too slow and cumbersome.

I think we should start focusing on new delivery systems, something that will have more of an impact on our communities.

Frank Lucier

Maybe We Should Change The Rhythms

2005-08-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

I was raised in the fire service in San Francisco. I won’t say “grew up” because I always hope to keep some part of the child within me. Our training was rules, tools, evolutions and repetition. But they didn’t teach us what we really needed to know, and when we went out the door it was all different.

Out the door we faced a different rhythm, the pulsing rhythm of the heat, the crescendo of the noise and the dance of the fire. Nothing I had been taught prepared me for this dance. At first I did not understand it, but the more I was exposed to it the more my body and mind moved in time with it and the more I loved this dance…the pulsing, the rhythm, the music.

As I look back I realize that our training was incomplete. We had missed a huge portion of what was the real job…the rhythms.

As I look out at the state of community preparedness in this country, I think that we are missing a large portion of what is the real job….changing the culture. The only was to change culture is to start with the youth, and to do this we have to understand the rhythms that move them. This is an MTV, Play Station generation, skilled at the use of technology, which the rest of us struggle to make work.

If we are going to change culture and attempt to educate young people about emergency preparedness and response, we can not use the traditional delivery system of class room education. I just doesn’t work…just look at the test scores across the nation. We are happy if our youth can read at a fifth grade level, when we should be striving to teach them deductive and inductive reasoning.

We have to be aware of their rhythms and start thinking about using the technology that so intrigues them. If the DOD can use video games to train boots on the ground, shouldn’t we be using it to train our young people in emergency response?

Maybe, just maybe, we are playing the wrong song and they don’t understand the rhythm.

Frank Lucier

Citizens Engagement in Emergency Response

2005-08-22T05:37:00.000-07:00

For some reason, some Biblical principles come to mind that might help to understand why citizens are generally unengaged in emergency response, and what approaches might be effective in changing that culture. There are two parables (stories) in Matthew 13 about sowing seed. In the first parable the seed represents a message. In the second parable the seed represents people. It is as if those who respond to the message in the first parable then become the message; people are scattered in the midst of culture so that through them the message becomes visible in a way that more people are reached and receptive.

Informed and Receptive Citizens

I advocate interagency partnerships that could exist at the federal, state and local levels for educating “the masses.”

Once people graduate from high school, they are busy, focused largely on what’s actually happening, and have powerful interests and concerns that dominate what they focus and act on.

We can sow information to adults. But like the seed the farmer sows in the first parable, some will fall along the path and birds will eat it. Some will fall on rocky places, where it won’t have much soil; it will spring up quickly, but when the sun comes up, the plants will scorch and wither because they had no root. Other seed will fall among thorns, which grow up and choked the plants. Still other seed may fall on good soil, where it will produce a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

We need to get the right message into the hearts and minds of good soil. The most impressionable and receptive people in the world are 10-13 years old and people who have immediate needs in their lives--even terrorists know this. Students are thinking about and planning their future, but most adults are consumed living it rather than preparing for it.
Government needs the right message, attractively packaged and delivered by methods that are effective with youth and adults today. It needs to be sown wherever good soil can be found, rather than where apathy and regular life interests and struggles choke it out. Authorities responsible for emergency preparedness (the farmers) at all levels should partner with authorities responsible for education to ensure that every child and young person knows, understands, and can apply information that can make them responders rather than victims. No child should be allowed to escape untrained.

More than Responsive

Bare spots must be re-seeded, and seed needs to become mature and naturally reproduce itself, so that dependence on farmers is decreased. Adults who were informed and receptive when in school must not only be able and willing to implement what they learned, but must also help teach their children and others. They must, in large numbers, become more than responders, helping to produce other responders…applying the principle of multiplication rather than addition.

We need sound and mandatory basic training built in every middle and high school, and then we’ll need to plant seeds with adults periodically and at teachable moments in their lives. Many “graduates” will be responders rather than victims if the school training is well implemented, but they’ll still need some support. Authorities responsible for national and local emergency preparedness can do a lot to help adults, especially by working through partnership opportunities.

We can support the involvement 300 million U.S. citizens in making our nation safer and more secure in many ways, such as: ensure that everyone in or leaving the military is trained to handle personal and neighborhood emergencies; include interesting printed and video materials with annual mailings of tax forms that families can review in preparation for possible safety or security threats; fund police and fire authorities and auxiliaries to personally deliver to every household every 3-4 years a simple emergency kit with goodies like a shake-to-charge LED flashlight, and spend 3 or 4 minutes face-to-face encouraging household residents to go over the included information together; work with the media to do short public service announcements and to use relevant daily news opportunities to plug a lesson learned from a citizen perspective; etc.

The goal is a citizenry that is informed, receptive, responsive, and purveyors of the message.

Dan Lemon

Cell Phones At Risk!

2005-08-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

Bill Medigovich has provided us with a notification from the Defense Security Service (part of DoD) about three vulnerabilities within our cell phones. You'll find a link to the announcement, here, and Lois has provided us with information from one of her sources on how to combat these vulnerabilities.
____________________

Most cell phones today have a talk secure mode as well. Check your phone, usually takes only a moment to set it. Make sure your provider supports this mode, and your voice call is encrypted. The down side is a few less channels of communication and a higher chance of fast busy. For example on a Motorola phone the feature is under settings and is called Talk Secure. Unfortunately there is no standard naming for these menus, but usually they can be found under more settings if you want to play with it.

There are also the next step of devices where there is more encryption such as: http://www.safetalks.net/ so there are a range of solutions depending on your security level.

Finally, no one is immune from tracking (Not saying this is accurate but, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/24/world/main703982.shtml, and in a better example http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/07/30/international/i141807D12.DTL

Kevin McCoy

Eating the Elephant

2005-08-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

How do we make our community-based programs more self-sufficient?

This question has loomed over many communities. We all know that our world operates on a finite budget, but requirements growth always finds a way to creep into the equation.

Although there are many great ideas floating around such as garnering discounts from local retailers for active participants, we should peel the layers back and start understanding the root causes for things such as individual non-participation, inability to maintain adequate equipment and supplies, resistance and continuous assaults on EPMG and other grant programs.

If someone were to ask you why you aren’t actively participating in a CERT or similar program, what would be your first response (no pun intended)?

If you were to ask a retailer why they arent donating equipment such as flashlights and hardhats to CERT, what do you think there answer would be?

Should we pursue some form of strategic national campaign with a well-known retailer like K-Mart, Best Buy or others to implement a discount program similar to Food Lion's and Walgreen’s?

Of course, we can’t eat the whole elephant at once. But we could eat it all if we were to take it one bite at a time.

Citizen Centric Mitigation

2005-08-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

In his book “Stronger in the Broken Places: Nine Lessons for Turning Crisis into Triumph”, James Lee Witt (former Director of FEMA) states that “Groups don't think; they react. More than that, they fantasize, imagine, fear, fabricate, compete, compensate, placate, and supplicate. With their many arms and legs flailing wildly, they wrestle with illusions.”

Each of us has experienced this "reactive" sensation in our daily lives either on the job, or at home. Thus, we can relate to the plethora of situations that create a death spiral into an abyss of uncertainty. We often become so overcome by the events taking place around us that we tend to let things "slip to the right". I would like to take this opportunity to welcome each of you to the NIUSR Blog and encourage you to submit your thoughts and opinions on ways that we as a “group of the willing” can work together to become more proactive and less reactive to all-hazards situations. Only through this free flowing exchange of ideas can we identify effective measures and work toward implementing ways to overcome adversity and promote “citizen-centricity”.

TAURUS Report - Predictions of the London Underground Bombings

2005-08-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

What did you think about the TAURUS Report that was provided by NIUSR member, Geoff Williams of Scotland, UK? This is our chance to continue the conversation from the Friday morning conference call.

Geoff Williams & The TAURUS Report

NIUSR Blog

2005-08-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

As of 9:31am, NIUSR has launched their first blog. Your senior editor, as always, is Lois Clark McCoy, and this week's guest editor is Bryan Morgan.

We are asking all NIUSR members to sign up to be a guest editor for at least one week per year. This would involve posting articles, responding to comments and providing other editorial comments for that particluar week.

This blog is easy to use, and should require much time, as you will be notified of comments during your editorial week.

Please sign up here.