August 31,
2006
This newsletter is for cities, counties, and communities involved in public-private partnerships for joint emergency preparedness, planning, and prevention.
Michigan State University produces the newsletter through the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP)-Community Facilitation Program under a grant awarded by the Office of Grants & Training, Preparedness Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This newsletter provides ideas, suggestions, best practices, and lessons learned to establish critical incident protocols using public-private partnerships.
Please go to: www.cip.msu.edu for more information about the program.
Participating Communities
Allentown, PA / Annapolis, MD / Bethlehem, PA / Brooklyn, OH / Carroll County, MD / Casa Grande, AZ / Clark County, NV / Douglas County, KS / Evansville, IN / Hoover, AL / Lewis & Clark County, MT / Libertyville, IL / Littleton, CO / Marquette County, MI / Milwaukee, WI / Monroe County, MI / Northampton County, PA / Oakland County, MI / Perkiomen Valley, PA / Redmond, WA / Racine, WI / Richmond, VA / Rockville, MD / Sandy City, UT
We are currently working with 24 communities and will work with another 25 cities, counties, and communities over the next couple of years. Of the available CIP Programs, we are in contact with 10 communities. Is there a location in the nation that you think may be interested in building a public-private partnership for joint emergency preparedness? If so, please let us know.
Critical Infrastructure Protection
The protection of the national, state, and local critical infrastructure is an important part in securing our future. The challenge to identify what is critical infrastructure, how to assess its level of protection, how to enhance the level of protection, and how to sustain the protection of the critical infrastructure is being debated and implemented. Fortunately, the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) June 2006 version is available.
The foundation for the NIPP is the management of risks, which provides a framework for establishing processes for combing consequence, vulnerability, and threat information. The building blocks for these activities include setting security goals, identifying assets, assessing risks, prioritizing, implementing protective programs, and measuring the effectiveness of the program.
On a local level, what are communities doing to protect the critical infrastructure? Are state guidelines clearly providing guidance and assistance to communities on this effort? Is the business community, those identified as critical infrastructure, involved in the decision making discussion, or is the local government directing it? Federal, state, and local agencies and organizations are working hard to ensure the protection of the national critical infrastructure. But there appears to be much more to do on this, and the question becomes, "are you part of the discussion or waiting to be told what others have decided?"
If you want to view the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, it is available on our CIP Information website and the directions to enter the website are below in the "Recent Postings to the CIP Information Website". Additionally, you can contact your state's homeland security and/or emergency management agency which will provide further information.
Partnership Program for Recovery
Hernando County has a population of approximately 130,000 and is located an hour north of Tampa, Florida. This county, along with most of Florida has experienced an unusual number of hurricanes the last couple of years. Hernando County is aggressive at preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the impact of man-made and natural disasters. Florida still feels the after-effects from a significant number of destructive hurricanes that crossed the state in 2004.
As a result of numerous discussions between different public agencies in the county, area businesses, civic leaders, and citizens, the Hernando Emergency Recovery Council (HERC) was formed by the business community. Robert Kanner, president of HERC, declared that the organization's mission is "recovery", and its members represent area businesses and non-profit organizations. According to Kanner, HERC's job is to assist the community in recovering from a crisis or critical incident. HERC has over 30 members with an organization that includes nine key areas of recovery, including housing, education, health care, food, animal care, and transportation.
According to Tom Leto, Hernando County Emergency Management Director, who was interviewed by the local media about HERC, "The better you are at organizing resources in advance, the better you can respond to the disaster. It's difficult to organize resources at the last minute" (St. Petersburg Times, 2006, para. 10).
Kanner reported they are continuing to recruit more organizations to join their group, as they build their resource capability. HERC is also looking to collaborate with adjacent counties to establish mutual aid agreements. For more information on the Hernando Emergency Recovery Council, please contact Bob Kanner at (352) 597-7762.
Next Steps for Communities Participating in the CIP Program
In the CIP Program we hold three workshops with each community over a period of nine to twelve months. At the first workshop, which is used to build the partnership between the public and private sectors, MSU utilizes break-out sessions. These break-out sessions are designed so that people can meet each other and discuss an emergency preparedness topic common to both sectors. At the end of the day, the last break-out session is where we ask the participants what "next step" ideas or suggestions they have for the group to do from that point on. By this time, they would have discussed the value of partnership building, emergency response, command and control, risk assessment, and more. The participants have realized there are other topics that need further discussion between the public sector and business community.
We keep track of the "next step" suggestions and make sure that each community has them for future reference. The majority of readers of this newsletter are those who have incorporated the building of a public-private partnership for joint critical incident management. Therefore, here are some of the ideas that were presented from the CIP workshops around the nation, which might be of value to you:
If you would like the complete list, please send me an email requesting a copy of the next step ideas, and I will email it to you.
Michigan - Emergency Preparedness & Business Continuity Conference
Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan is hosting their third annual Emergency Preparedness & Business Continuity Conference on October 20, 2006 from 8am to 4:30pm. The sessions will be business impact analysis and continuity planning, fire prevention and inspection for your business, cyber security for financial institutions, workplace violence, and others. The opening session speaker is Richard Marshall, Esq., with the National Security Agency and the closing session speaker is Michael Brown, former Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
For more on this conference, please go to http://www.sba.oakland.edu/ce.
Free Training - Truck & Railroad Transportation Systems
Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response (TRANSCAER) is a voluntary national outreach effort that focuses on assisting communities prepare for and respond to a possible hazardous material transportation incident. TRANSCAER is sponsored by the chemical manufacturing and transportation industries, which assists communities with major transportation routes to address community concerns about the movement of hazardous materials.
Also, it focuses on forming community and industry partnerships, reviews existing emergency response plans, conducts transportation flow studies, reviews resource and training needs, conducts exercises, and creates on-ongoing dialogue with local officials for issues affecting the transportation of hazardous materials.
Through the TRANSCAER organization, BSNF Railway Company held 115 events throughout the country and trained over 3800 emergency responders on hazard materials awareness, emergency response, and railroad familiarity. Additionally, the Norfolk Southern Corporation provided 186 rail emergency training classes, drills, and tabletops in 20 states. For communities in states which CSX Transportation operates, you may request, free of charge, the CSX Community Awareness Emergency Planning Guide through www.csxhazmat.kor-tx.com, along with a free study and/or video on emergency response to railroad incidents.
To learn more about TRANSCAER, visit their website at: http://www.transcaer.org
Recent Postings to CIP Information Exchange Website
To enter the "CIP Information Exchange" website, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and enter your user/password ID (or use msu.msu@angel in the User/NetID and "partnership" as the password to log in). Click on CIP, which launches to the main menu.
Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are just a few of the following postings:
There are numerous other resources located on the website. To locate a specific topic, use the "search" function, which can be found on the main menu page on the right-hand side in the green task bar.
Starting a CIP Program
Feel free to make a referral to the MSU staff about possibly starting a CIP Program elsewhere in the United States. We can use your assistance!
Past Newsletters
If you are interested in viewing past CIP Update newsletters, please go to www.cip.msu.edu and select "Newsletters" from the main menu.
Closing
If you have any topics and/or ideas for a future CIP Update newsletter, please contact Brit Weber at weberbr@msu.edu or (517) 355-2227 or other MSU staff members. About every three weeks you will receive this newsletter via email. If you no longer want to be on this list, please reply to this email.
Sources
St. Petersburg Times. (August 14, 2006). After Disaster, Help Can Come From Nearby. Retrieved on August 15, 2006 from: http://www.sptimes.com/2006/08/14/Hernando/After_disaster__help_.shtml
Brit Weber
School of Criminal Justice
Michigan State University
1407 S. Harrison Rd., 335 Nisbet
East Lansing, MI 48823
Work: (517) 355-2227
Cell: (517) 206-1640
Visit our website at www.cip.msu.edu