One common sentiment that can hold people back from thinking outside the box is, “That’s how it’s
always been done.” Lessons learned and best practices are critical components of disaster preparedness
efforts. However, no matter how many lessons are learned and best practices are discovered, the pursuit
for new lessons and even better practices should never end. In this January 2022 edition of the Domestic
Preparedness Journal, a new year begins with four new ways of looking at disaster preparedness.
The proliferation of climate change, political strife, and general societal divisiveness is changing the nature of the work of emergency managers. The (ongoing) COVID-19 global pandemic, devastating hurricane and wildfire seasons, tenuous political situations, and broad unrest impact local communities in significant ways. Emergency managers are those who officials trust to lead response and recovery to this growing list of emergencies and disasters. They facilitate multi-agency responses to complex incidents, often serving in silence while providing critical backbone services.
When incidents are catastrophic and/or happen in compromised environments, complexity can increase
rapidly and dramatically, compromising response objectives and resulting in catastrophic failure. The
cost of these failures is measured in destruction and human lives, making even minimal reductions in
capabilities untenable. A rapidly changing environment requires that the modern emergency manager is
capable of quickly understanding community needs, including the needs of underserved populations and
traditionally underrepresented groups.
Transportation security is the act of ensuring the protection and continued functioning of mobility systems for both people and commerce. It includes air, maritime, and all forms of surface transport. Transportation security is an enormous undertaking involving all government levels, the private sector, volunteer organizations, and the public. These organizations must work together to identify, prepare for, and respond to any threats or hazards that could affect the transportation infrastructure or the people and goods that travel within it.
A quick search through articles on DomesticPreparedness.com for the word “resilience” reveals a
possible shift in focus for preparedness professionals over the years. In 2005, the Domestic
Preparedness Journal published many resilience articles that focused on creating standards and plans in
order to more rapidly return to normalcy. By 2010, there seemed to be a greater focus on funding,
grants, and other resources needed to be able to sustain operations when disasters occur. By 2015,
education, communication, and collaboration were key buzz words in articles on resilience. Then 2020
arrived along with much reflection on what could have been done better to be resilient in the face of an
unprecedented event and how to endure the consequences of past decisions.
This year marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Many events were held to commemorate the
lives that were lost and to honor those who survived yet still ran into the danger zones to save lives
in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. However, one special event hosted in Washington, DC on 30
September 2021 was particularly impactful as it recounted that fateful day through firsthand accounts.
Some presenters have told their stories many times over the years while others shared their heroic
actions publicly for the first time in two decades. The District of Columbia’s 2021 Interoperability
Summit “20 Year Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Attack on America: Never Forget,” was organized by
the District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency’s (HSEMA) Office of the
Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC), in conjunction with the Metropolitan Washington Council
of Governments (MWCOG) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure
Security Agency’s (CISA) Emergency Communications Division (ECD).
Traditional definitions of domestic preparedness have been influenced by the Cold War and international terrorism. As the 20-year milestone of the 9/11 attack on the United States passed, domestic terrorism also has made its mark on the interpretation of domestic preparedness. It is time for a fresh look, considering pandemics, local human-caused and natural catastrophes, reoccurring threats (like wildfires, earthquakes, and cyberattacks), and crumbling domestic infrastructure. The landscape of emergency response actions and readiness of public and private agencies in a globally interconnected world has left a deep scar on domestic preparedness and how risk is evaluated both nationally and internationally.
In 2021, many questions have been raised about resilience. Is more known about resilience and have more leverage tools been retained to establish resilience at will than a decade ago? What ideas and notions were expected 10 years ago in energizing resilience tasks, activities, and operations? Has the leverage needed been acquired to apply proven strategies and operational systems for implementing post-disaster resilience with skill and confidence? Did a collective experience with mega-disasters since 2011 equip communities with new and innovative pathways to achieve resilience? The answers to these questions are far less than clear.
On 5 November 2021, an apparent crowd crush at the Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas resulted in ten deaths and untold injuries. While the criminal investigation is in its early stages at the time of this article, the music festival undoubtably represents some failures of safety and security planning and execution.
An article published in 2013 discussed the considerable challenges of quarantine order implementation and enforcement during a future pandemic or other serious threats to public health. That discussion was after the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), but before the re-emergence of the Ebola virus in West Africa. The level of preparedness for the rapid execution of federal quarantines has not greatly improved since 2013. The nation’s readiness may have even diminished during the current pandemic due to social, political, and organizational discord.
One common sentiment that can hold people back from thinking outside the box is, “That’s how it’s
always been done.” Lessons learned and best practices are critical components of disaster preparedness
efforts. However, no matter how many lessons are learned and best practices are discovered, the pursuit
for new lessons and even better practices should never end. In this January 2022 edition of the Domestic
Preparedness Journal, a new year begins with four new ways of looking at disaster preparedness. 
The proliferation of climate change, political strife, and general societal divisiveness is changing the nature of the work of emergency managers. The (ongoing) COVID-19 global pandemic, devastating hurricane and wildfire seasons, tenuous political situations, and broad unrest impact local communities in significant ways. Emergency managers are those who officials trust to lead response and recovery to this growing list of emergencies and disasters. They facilitate multi-agency responses to complex incidents, often serving in silence while providing critical backbone services. 
When incidents are catastrophic and/or happen in compromised environments, complexity can increase
rapidly and dramatically, compromising response objectives and resulting in catastrophic failure. The
cost of these failures is measured in destruction and human lives, making even minimal reductions in
capabilities untenable. A rapidly changing environment requires that the modern emergency manager is
capable of quickly understanding community needs, including the needs of underserved populations and
traditionally underrepresented groups. 
Transportation security is the act of ensuring the protection and continued functioning of mobility systems for both people and commerce. It includes air, maritime, and all forms of surface transport. Transportation security is an enormous undertaking involving all government levels, the private sector, volunteer organizations, and the public. These organizations must work together to identify, prepare for, and respond to any threats or hazards that could affect the transportation infrastructure or the people and goods that travel within it. 
This year marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Many events were held to commemorate the
lives that were lost and to honor those who survived yet still ran into the danger zones to save lives
in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. However, one special event hosted in Washington, DC on 30
September 2021 was particularly impactful as it recounted that fateful day through firsthand accounts.
Some presenters have told their stories many times over the years while others shared their heroic
actions publicly for the first time in two decades. The District of Columbia’s 2021 Interoperability
Summit “20 Year Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Attack on America: Never Forget,” was organized by
the District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency’s (HSEMA) Office of the
Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC), in conjunction with the Metropolitan Washington Council
of Governments (MWCOG) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure
Security Agency’s (CISA) Emergency Communications Division (ECD). 
Traditional definitions of domestic preparedness have been influenced by the Cold War and international terrorism. As the 20-year milestone of the 9/11 attack on the United States passed, domestic terrorism also has made its mark on the interpretation of domestic preparedness. It is time for a fresh look, considering pandemics, local human-caused and natural catastrophes, reoccurring threats (like wildfires, earthquakes, and cyberattacks), and crumbling domestic infrastructure. The landscape of emergency response actions and readiness of public and private agencies in a globally interconnected world has left a deep scar on domestic preparedness and how risk is evaluated both nationally and internationally. 
In 2021, many questions have been raised about resilience. Is more known about resilience and have more leverage tools been retained to establish resilience at will than a decade ago? What ideas and notions were expected 10 years ago in energizing resilience tasks, activities, and operations? Has the leverage needed been acquired to apply proven strategies and operational systems for implementing post-disaster resilience with skill and confidence? Did a collective experience with mega-disasters since 2011 equip communities with new and innovative pathways to achieve resilience? The answers to these questions are far less than clear. 
On 5 November 2021, an apparent crowd crush at the Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas resulted in ten deaths and untold injuries. While the criminal investigation is in its early stages at the time of this article, the music festival undoubtably represents some failures of safety and security planning and execution. 
An article published in 2013 discussed the considerable challenges of quarantine order implementation and enforcement during a future pandemic or other serious threats to public health. That discussion was after the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), but before the re-emergence of the Ebola virus in West Africa. The level of preparedness for the rapid execution of federal quarantines has not greatly improved since 2013. The nation’s readiness may have even diminished during the current pandemic due to social, political, and organizational discord. 