Emergency Management Archives

The Friendly Neighborhood Chemical Weapons Store

Adam Montella March 11, 2009

It doesn’t take much money, time, or a genius IQ to build a clumsy but extremely effective chemical weapon that could kill thousands of people. But a pickup truck would be needed to haul “the makings” from the local warehouse or agricultural combine.

Pandemic Preparedness: Strategies to Protect the State Workforce

David G. Henry March 10, 2009

H5N1 avian influenza has recently resurged in Southeast Asia, scientists continue to warn that the next pandemic, based on all scientific data, is inevitable.

Bioterrorism Exercise: A Taste of the Real Thing

Stephanie Ostrowski and Crystal Castillo March 4, 2009

Food poisoning – whether intentional or accidental – can have lethal consequences. In either case, it is CDC’s job to find out what caused it, what treatments are recommended, and how it can be contained.

Incident Management Teams: A Blueprint for Success

William MacKay February 25, 2009

Some time ago the nation’s firefighting community recognized the need for an efficient and effective method of managing wildland incidents that involve thousands of response personnel and cover hundreds of square miles. The result was a concept of a team, rather than a single incident commander (IC), that by working

New Focus on Private-Sector Preparedness Standards

Diana Hopkins February 11, 2009

At last! A Federal Register notice asks the nation’s business community to comment on ideas that have been submitted to upgrade the disaster-preparedness capabilities of the U.S. private sector. Read, heed, and proceed – but do it fast.The nation’s private-sector businesses – a generic term that includes not only manufacturers,

How the NDMS Can Be Made More Effective

Michael Allswede January 28, 2009

The Spirit of Volunteerism is a noble virtue, and has been embraced by millions of Americans. Many of them volunteer once too often, though, creating a difficult dilemma for NDMS and other agencies that have a joint claim on their skills and services.

The Mumbai Attacks – Lessons for the Western World

Joseph W. Trindal January 14, 2009

The terrorist attacks two months ago in Mumbai provide a number of lessons for emergency-services agencies throughout the world. The attacks, which represented an ever-increasing level of sophistication and ingenuity of terrorist activity worldwide, started during the evening hours of 26 November 2008 when small teams of armed terrorists launched

Changes and Clarifications – NIMS Upgrade Released

Stephen Grainer January 14, 2009

On 18 December 2008, long-awaited revisions to the National Incident Management System (NIMS) – officially described as an “upgrade” by the former acting director of the NIMS Integration Center, Albert Fluman – were published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and are now being implemented.The effort to improve the

Safety: Those Who Stay Behind

Joseph Cahill December 10, 2008

The evacuation of a major city devastated by a natural disaster or an act of terrorism takes multi-agency cooperation, numerous training drills, & dedicated professionals who have the courage needed to stay in place while saving the lives of others.

The Human Dimension: Identifying and Treating Disaster-Related Stress

Kay C. Goss December 10, 2008

After a disaster, emergency managers – along with other federal, state, tribal, and local leaders – begin rebuilding the communities struck, whether by natural or human-induced incidents. The recovery process calls out for the best of leadership and partnership in the region. Debris removal, the re-opening of schools and businesses,

Important Homeland Security Input: High-Ranking PNSR Group Releases Its Final Report

Martin D. Masiuk December 10, 2008

The report, perhaps the most important and best grounded national-defense and homeland-security document released since 1947, includes numerous recommendations that, if fully implemented, will add immensely to current and future U.S. defense capabilities.

DHS STEPs Forward to Identify NIMS Technology

Rodrigo (Roddy) Moscoso December 3, 2008

Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 (HSPD-5), which required the development of a National Incident Management System (NIMS) framework to coordinate the responses of local, state, and federal agencies to domestic terrorist attacks, was signed in December 2003. The NIMS framework is based on the Incident Command System (ICS) developed by

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