First Responder Credentialing: Still a Secondary Priority State & local agencies set the pace in development of FRAC ID cards to meet HSPD-12 requirements, but incident commanders need additional assistance - and, while waiting, should be advised to keep track of the number of fire trucks at the disaster scene. read
The All-Seeing Eye of Video Surveillance Private-sector security forces have been growing both in numbers and in capability since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Far too often, though, their working tools - detection & surveillance systems, primarily - are in urgent need of updating & modernization. read
Indiana and California A multi-victim washdown was a major component of a decontamination exercise at a U.S. post office in western Indiana. Southern California earthquake serves, literally, as a shakedown drill for future and more massive temblors in the foreseeable future. read
Maryland and Kentucky Maryland Governor O'Malley takes executive action to remedy state's long-standing communications problems. Kentucky Air National Guard provides neighborly help to earthquake "victims" in a West Coast state that looks suspiciously like California. read
Sorting It All Out: Triage, CERT, and EMS Community Emergency Response Team members are often the only medical "reserve" available to a community hit by a mass-casualty incident. But, like the medical professionals they are helping, they face some difficult questions impossible to answer. read
Plan Nationally, Respond Locally Flexibility, common sense, and operational efficiency are the hallmarks of the new National Response Framework, which builds on the solid but sometimes too rigid foundation of its predecessor doctrine, the National Response Plan. read
NIMS Training Plans: An Effort Without End If eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, its twin, eternal preparation, is the price of readiness. And of prevention. And recovery, restoration, and resilience. Relaxation, though, is not even in the vocabulary. read
Detection Equipment - An Ever Higher Technology Ceiling New state-of-the-art detection instruments of all types are now being deployed to determine the presence of and specifically identify a broad spectrum of chemical, biological, and radiological threats threatening the United States and American citizens. read
The Design of the Future U.S. Hospital System U.S. healthcare officials, working in close cooperation with long-range planners & political decision makers, are already pondering what the nation's future hospital infrastructure should look like. Here are some ideas to consider. read
Mass-Fatality Management Planning - A Hospital Perspective Most U.S. hospitals & other healthcare facilities focus their efforts on saving lives & helping those who are seriously injured. The handling of the dead, sometimes a large number at the same time, is a different but almost equally important skill. read
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CDC's Career Epidemiology Field Officer Program The innovative CEFO Program represents a new national resource that is already being used by 21 states to strengthen their own epidemiological preparedness capabilities, with other states sure to follow in the near future. read
The Gap Analysis Tool: Building Blocks for Preparedness Best-case estimates provide a shaky foundation for all-hazards disaster plans; worst-case estimates may cost more in the short term, therefore, but are a better working tool for post-incident response and recovery efforts. read
Containing the Threat: Eleven Million Challenges CBP falls short in its efforts to start implementing the "100-percent screening" mandate issued by Congress. The issues involved are numerous, costly, and extremely complicated. Nonetheless, failure is not an option. read
Three to Get Ready The could-have/should-have (but did not) scenarios of the past serve as abundant reminders that the cost of national preparedness is only a fraction of the much higher cost that must always be paid for not being prepared. read
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