CIP Update

March 9, 2008

This newsletter is for public agencies, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders involved or interested in public-private partnerships for joint emergency preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.

 

Michigan State University (MSU) produces the newsletter through the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP)-Community Facilitation Program under a grant awarded by the Training & Exercise Integration Division, Federal Emergency Management Agency, 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.

 
Michigan State University through the CIP Program will, “enhance cities, counties, and region’s capabilities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from man-made and natural disasters through public and private sector collaboration, communication, and cooperation.”  MSU facilitates public-private partnerships and the CIP Program is free of charge to participating communities.

 

Please visit our website at www.cip.msu.edu for more information about the program.

 

Participating Communities in the CIP Program
The CIP Program has been initiated in 35 communities in 21 states with over 2,700 participants establishing public-private partnerships for joint management of critical incidents. We are looking to work with other cities, counties and regions. Is there a location in the nation that you think may be interested in developing a public-private partnership? If so, please let us know.

 

Currently, we are working with the following communities:
Alabama  –  Hoover
Arizona  –  Casa Grande
California – Mountain View
Colorado  –  Littleton
Connecticut  –  Norwalk
Illinois  –  Lake-Cook Regional, Libertyville
Indiana  –  Evansville
Kansas  –  Douglas County
Maryland  –  Annapolis, Carroll County, Rockville
Michigan  –  Marquette County, Monroe, Oakland County
Missouri / Illinois – Gateway Citizen Corps Coalition, St. Louis
Montana  –  Lewis & Clark County
Nevada  –  Clark County
North Carolina  –  Buncombe County, Greensboro
Ohio  –  Brooklyn
Pennsylvania  –  Allentown, Bethlehem, Northampton County, Perkiomen Valley
Texas  –  Dallas
Utah  –  Layton, Sandy City
Virginia  –  Richmond
Washington  –  Redmond
Wisconsin  –  Brown County, Dane County, Eau Claire County, Milwaukee, Racine County
 
CIP Program Activities
March 6, 2008 – Eau Claire County, WI  (Initiating CIP Program)
March 14, 2008 – Wichita, KS  (Overview of the CIP Program)
March 19, 2008 – Santa Rosa County, FL  (Initiating CIP Program)
April 1, 2008 – Arlington County, VA  (Initiating CIP Program)
April 10, 2008 – Brown County, WI  (Facilitating Tabletop Exercise)
April 16, 2008 – Dallas, TX  (Facilitating Tabletop Exercise)
April 24, 2008 – Martin County, FL  (Initiating CIP Program)
May 7, 2008 - Hamilton County, OH (Overview of the CIP Program)
May 8, 2008 – Douglas County, KS  (Facilitating Tabletop Exercise)
May 28, 2008 – Superior, WI  (Initiating CIP Program)
June 11, 2008 - Horry County, SC (Initiating CIP Program)

 

National Response Framework
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released the National Response Framework (NRF), the nation's guide on how to conduct all-hazards response from the smallest incident to the largest catastrophe.  This 82-page document provides suggestions for communities, government entities, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on how to coordinate response efforts.  The NRF has three core components:  clarifying the fundamental principles of the National Incident Management System (NIMS); focusing on preparedness through planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, and applying lessons learned; and partnerships between government officials, emergency management practitioners, NGO's, and the private sector to create effective all-hazards response processes.  The NRF supersedes the National Response Plan (NRP).

 

Federal, state, tribal, and local public sector agencies are familiar with NIMS, NRP, and related documents which currently include the National Response Framework.  From the interests of the business community, the NRF addresses some key principles, such as private sector responsibilities to include:

  • Planning for the protection of employees, infrastructure, and facilities.
  • Planning for the protection of information and the continuity of business operations.
  • Planning for responding to and recovering from critical incidents.
  • Collaborating with emergency management personnel on pre-planning.
  • Developing and exercising plans.
  • Where appropriate, establishing mutual aid and assistance agreements.
  • Providing response assistance to local emergency management and public first responder agencies.

 

To learn more, you can download the document from the NRF Resource Center, which also contains information on other relevant documents at http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nrf/.

 

Most Businesses Have Not Prepared for a Disaster
According to a survey of 461 companies conducted by the Las Vegas firm, Urban Environmental Research, 74% of businesses had never attended a meeting on disaster preparedness (Miller, 2008).  In addition, more than 40% of companies would classify a shutdown of two to seven days as "devastating" (Miller, 2008).  Further, almost 50% of businesses had never developed a business disaster-recovery plan.  Finally, Urban Environmental Research found out that 59% of businesses have not purchased business interruption insurance (Miller, 2008).

In light of these results, "What specific tasks are we doing to protect our people, property, information, and reputation?"  When reviewing internal policies, practices, and procedures used to plan for, prepare for, respond to, and recover from critical incidents, do they address one of the most important steps in emergency preparedness?  This includes a formal assessment of the risks and vulnerabilities your organization has experienced in the past and potential threats which may strike your business in the future.  Finally, determine which business continuity practices are being utilized and whether or not they have been tested.

 

Another important step for business preparedness is understanding the capabilities and limitations of public sector first responders.  The business crisis management plan may indicate contacting the local police, fire, or EMS during an incident; however, do you know these constraints? The timing is right for public-private planning, as cities, counties, and regions are approaching the private sector to collaborate on how both can leverage the potential of building a community-wide preparedness enterprise.

 

Don't be a statistic.  Look for opportunities to share ideas and resources with other businesses that may be ill-equipped.  For private sector organizations that do not have vast resources but have access to the Internet, here are some websites that provide free assistance:

 

There are numerous Internet resources available for your review.  However, some businesses do not have the resources or employers think it will not happen to them.  One method to combat apathy is to have prepared businesses share with others the importance of organizational preparedness.

 

Public/Private Partnership - Tulsa Partners
We profile public/private partnerships that agencies, organizations, or communities have developed for joint crisis management.  In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the non-profit Tulsa Partners group whose mission is building a disaster-resistant and sustainable community has been in existence for several years.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency's 'Project Impact' had a significant influence upon local leaders to create a coalition between the public sector, business community, non-government organizations, and citizens for crisis management.

 

Over the years, Tulsa Partners has offered a number of workshops, conferences, training seminars, and share various publications with the membership and community on preparing for, responding to, and recovering from critical incidents.  Within the organization they have created a number of standing committees, including the Disaster Resistant Business Council, Construction Task Force, and the Education Task Force.  Some of their larger events include the "Day Without Business" and the "Day Without Hospitals" seminars which attracted many participants.

 

Tulsa Partners also features a newsletter.  To learn more about their public/private partnership, go to http://www.tulsapartners.org.

 

Best Practices/Lessons Learned - BERT Toolkit
Santa Rosa County, Florida is committed to working with the business community, in addition to governmental agencies, residents, and other stakeholders.  This county is located on the Gulf Coast, approximately one hour from Mobile, Alabama and has experienced its share of hurricanes and other man-made and natural disasters. 

 

The first responder community, including the Santa Rosa County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has developed preparedness initiatives and programs for critical incident management.  The county OEM created the Business Emergency Recovery Toolkit (BERT), which is part of a three-phase program aimed at enhancing the ability of local businesses to recover from a disaster.  With support from local Chambers and other organizations, the county OEM raised over $6,000 to fund this program.  Phase 1 of the program includes the adoption of the Emergency Support Function 18 / Business and Industry Standard, which provides the missions, policies, structures, and procedures to integrate the business community into government crisis management.  Phase 2 is the BERT initiative.  Phase 3 of the program incorporates the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) - Community Facilitation Program into the community.  The initial workshop scheduled for March 19th. 

 

The county OEM has 2,500 toolkits available for the business community, which can be requested via telephone, in person, or online at the OEM website, through local chambers and TEAM Santa Rosa Economic Development Council.  The BERT toolkit contains business continuity information, checklists to assist businesses in developing plans, information on where to find more assistance, and volunteer information (Wilks, 2008).

 

For more information on this program, please contact the Santa Rosa County Office of Emergency Management at either (850) 983-5360 or

emgmt@santarosa.fl.gov.

 

Best Practices/Lessons Learned - Earthquake Training
Lewis and Clark County (Helena), Montana is actively working with the business community through their public/private partnership program.  These types of cooperative groups seek joint planning, exercising, and training that may be cascaded throughout the community. 

 

For example, the Morrison-Maierle Engineering Company recently provided four Post-Earthquake Building Safety Evaluation classes for architects, building managers, engineers, and volunteer fire fighters at no cost.  The training included FEMA's ACT-20 course to educate a pool of volunteers on damage assessment following a major earthquake.  To learn more about this type of training, please contact the Lewis & Clark County Disaster & Emergency Services at pspengler@co.lewis-clark.mt.us.

 

Hurricane Katrina and Gulfport - What did we Learn?
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee created the Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI), which assists communities in developing tools and methods to anticipate and mitigate the impact of man-made and natural disasters.  The CARRI team has been working with Gulfport, Mississippi and identified several lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina. 

 

Two years after the disaster, community leaders were interviewed and offered a number of lessons on the importance of creating community resiliency:

  • Leadership that produces results - important to show immediate progress, however small.
  • Patience - a long term building process with many challenges.
  • Responsibility - carries from the individual to the organization to the community and that citizens should take action and not wait for the government to act.
  • Preparedness - a community needs a comprehensive, flexible, and scalable plan.
  • Communication - a process must be in place to communicate with all levels in the community.
  • Relationships - before a catastrophic event, there must be a commitment to collaboration between government, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and citizens (ORNL, 2008).

 

To learn more about CARRI or the lessons from Gulfport, please visit the website at www.ResilientUS.org.

 

Recent Postings to the CIP Information Exchange Website
The CIP Information Exchange website is a large database for public and private sector professionals interested in homeland security, emergency preparedness, business continuity, disaster recovery, and emergency management.  It also contains research publications, government documents, news items, and more.

 

To enter the CIP Information Exchange website, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and enter “msu.msu@angel” in the User/NetID and “partnership” (both without quotation marks) as the password to log in. On the next page, please click on CIP, which launches the main menu.

Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are a variety of recent postings, including:

  • Business Continuity Case Study
  • When Workers are Targeted by Animal Rights Groups
  • IAFC Seeks Best Practices in Critical Infrastructure Protection
  • Domestic Extremism Update

 

There are numerous other resources located on the website. To locate a specific topic, utilize the "search" function. 

 

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 wish to be on this list, please reply to this email.

 

Disclaimer
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or Michigan State University.

 

Sources
Miller, V.  (February 25, 2008).  Rainy day preparations - Disaster planning essential to small and big businesses alike.  Las Vegas Business Press.  Retrieved on February 26, 2008 from: http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2008/02/25/news/iq_19819486.txt.

 

Wilks, J.  (February 12, 2008).  Disaster kits ready for area businesses.  Santa Rosa's Press Gazette.  Retrieved on March 3, 2008 from http://www.srpressgazette.com/news/emergency_2757___article.html/businesses_county.html.

 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).  (February 2008).  Gulfport: Lessons From Tragedy.  CARRI Newsletter, Community and Regional Resilience Initiative.

 

Brit Weber
Program Director
CIP-Community Facilitation Program
School of Criminal Justice
Michigan State University
1407 S. Harrison Rd., 335 Nisbet Bldg.
East Lansing, MI 48823
Work:  (517)  355-2227   Cell:  (517) 206-1640
weberbr@msu.edu
Please visit our website:  http://www.cip.msu.edu