EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ARCHIVES
Connecting: Benefits & Risks
Catherine L. Feinman
June 23, 2021
To take a multidisciplinary, multijurisdictional approach to disaster preparedness and response, agencies and organizations must connect both in person and virtually. Mutual aid agreements enable agencies to share resources and develop a collaborative strategy for addressing emerging threats. Although predicted by experts, the threats that presented over the past year
Fixing Americaās Healthcare Supply Chain
James M. Rush Sr.
June 2, 2021
The buildup to World War II illustrated the negative effect that huge wartime demand for medical supplies, equipment, and pharmaceuticals had on public and private healthcare systems in the United States. After the war, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) began building and pre-positioning federally owned medical materiel in storage depots
Impact of Critical Biosecurity Reports ā Uncertainty Remains
Robert C. Hutchinson
May 26, 2021
Domestic Preparedness published an article in 2016 discussing the uncertain impact of several biosecurity reports on national planning and preparedness for biosecurity and pandemic threats. The article focused on the consistent and repeated warnings of the consequences for failing to plan and prepare for a multitude of biosecurity threats. The
What Are Preparedness Professionals Doing?
Catherine L. Feinman
May 26, 2021
With all the thought, planning, and training that go into disaster preparedness efforts, communities theoretically should be ready for any threat and hazard that they face regularly ā severe storms, wildfires, hurricanes, power outages, earthquakes, droughts, mudslides, etc. However, that is not always true. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Post-Hazard Event Airport Recovery
Jaskanwal P. S. Chhabra, Greg Brunelle, Youngsuk Kim, Junichi Sakai and Deepak Pant
May 12, 2021
The role airports play in the world is critical. Even a minor disruption to their operations has immediate cascading impacts, which can be familiar to anyone who has experienced a delayed departure and the dreaded āWill I make my connection?ā stress that follows. However, airport disruptions create far greater economic
National Preparedness Failure: Hindsight Is 2020
Michael A. Brown
May 5, 2021
In February 2021, the Congressional Research Service released an evaluative nonpartisan report on the National Preparedness System (NPS). This report noted problems and difficulties experienced in 2020 during the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. For example, lack of personal protective equipment, disorganized logistical distribution, and other issues that demand attention. In
Formalizing the Role of Intelligence & Investigation
Michael Prasad
April 28, 2021
Emergency managers need actionable intelligence before, during, and after disasters. More than just situational awareness, the collection, analysis, and sharing of intelligence can provide an incidentās response and recovery command and general staff with much needed decision-making information.
Coastlines Are Now a Moving Target ā Literally
John Englander
April 21, 2021
In March 2021, a Cape Cod weather station in Chatham, Massachusetts was abandoned due to coastal erosion. With much media coverage, some of the articles mentioned that the situation is likely to worsen. The fact that they associated the erosion with climate change and that it was a weather station
Public Order Policing & Volunteers
Erik Westgard
April 14, 2021
Two days into the May 2020 George Floyd riots in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, hundreds (on the way to ~1,500) of properties were burning, with smoke visible on the horizon. Top leaders appeared on television stating that law and order were breaking down and urging calm within the community. Based on
Understand the Terrorist, Preempt the Threat
Laura Ehrmantraut
April 7, 2021
It is important to understand why people do the things they do when trying to figure out an individualās motives and reasons. It is even more captivating when it involves an individual doing unspeakable actions toward another, such as murder or abuse. When it comes to terrorism, there are many
Embracing Resilience: At a Crossroad of Opportunity
Greg Brunelle and Deborah Weiser
March 31, 2021
March 2021 marked the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan (Tohoku) Earthquake. On the afternoon of 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9.1 megathrust earthquake struck where the Pacific Plate subducts underneath the Honshu region of Japan. This was a massive event. The earthquake rupture lasted 150-160 seconds, with shaking
Tips & Tricks for Effective Disaster Planning
Robert J. (Bob) Roller
March 24, 2021
One of the most critical yet least understood core emergency management capabilities is planning, which reduces the chaos present during a disaster. However, the emergency management community is awash in various planning systems, various types of plans, and confusing terminology that complicates the work. This often causes problems when emergency
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