by Eric Holdeman: Emergency management in the blogosphere
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See information below on the first FEMA Think Tank Conference Call. There is a list of topics that will be covered. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to listen in. Perhaps some of you who do can leave a comment on this blog post to share what you thought of the concept and the topics being covered today.
Please join FEMA Deputy Administrator Richard Serino as he hosts the first FEMA Think Tank conference call, being conducted from the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
Thursday, January 26, th 2012
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Eastern (1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Central)
Call in number: 800-593-0692
Password is Think Tank January
Deputy Administrator Serino announced in November the launch of the FEMA Think Tank. The January 26th call will be the first of monthly calls to discuss ideas generated through the online process. Information about the Think Tank first appeared online in FEMA’s blog post and can be found at the following link: http://blog.fema.gov/2011/11/launching-fema-think-tank-forum-to.html.
The call will be open to a national audience of State, local, and tribal governments, and to all members of the public, including the private sector, the disability community, and volunteer community, who share an interest in improving the Nation’s role in emergency management. Individuals who would like to access the captioning for this event may do so by following the link below: http://fedrcc.us//Enter.aspx?EventID=1897142&CustomerID=321.
During this call we will discuss three innovative ideas generated from the online forum. The ideas we will discuss are:
Community Mapping to Implement the Whole Community Concept
U.S. National Grid as the Response Language of Location
Incorporate Preparedness into School Curriculums
The individuals that submitted these ideas will provide a brief presentation.
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I had the opportunity to chat with Peter Mozloom, VP, Cyber Solutions, Modus Operandi about cyber security here in the United States. This discussion included the threats and the status of our preparedness efforts and what we can do better.
Peter held up the Department of Defense (DOD) as having done a good job over the years. All the military services are on the same sheet of music. They share documentation, installation, vulnerability tests, penetration tests, back-up and recovery procedures. Much of what they have accomplished could easily be transferred to other business and industry settings—but, we tend to want to re-invent the wheel. He remarked specifically about the electrical and power generation industry not building on what already exists.
You need to have a Security Vulnerabilities Program in place. The current electrical grid does not have the protection it needs and as we move more towards a Smart Grid here in the USA it will increase the risk of attacks getting through.
Today there are attacks getting through all the time. You can’t prevent everything so having a capacity to respond quickly is very important. While we sometimes hear of issues with banking systems and credit cards it would be a bit of chaos if bank revealed every time a penetration of their system was attempted. People’s confidence would be destroyed. Because they are a regulated business the banking industry is one that is doing the most to prevent cyber-attacks from being successful.
Yet, we are still islands that need to be better connected. Cross domain solutions are needed while maintaining boundaries between entities. He shared that keeping things separated provides the boundaries. Manual switches are not all that bad and not everything needs to be controlled via the Internet. He noted one common problem with working across disciplines and infrastructures. He suggested that a “Captain Crunch Decoder Ring” is needed to understand the language of the group or discipline in order to sort through the jargon of the folks you are working with.
Since Peter has worked in the DOD environment I asked about how much of the cyber work in DOD is being done with military (civilian and military) personnel versus civilian contractors. It is about a 60% contractor and 40% military mix of resources. In general you pay about twice as much for a contractor than you do an internal position. But then, you don’t incur the benefit and retirement burden of an organic person.
I asked about the source of cyber-attacks. He mentioned countries like Russia and China, from which attacks are coming all the time. China is developing their own secure operating systems for their country. They are designing it in house. We need to do the same for our critical infrastructure protection for the Smart Grid. In contrast, Microsoft sold the Windows operating source code to China. They reengineered it and we are now in the reactive mode.
When an attack is ongoing what should you be doing? Evidently our emergency management system of getting everyone in one room after an attack is a good way to respond. He stressed having the relationships in place before the event (does that sound familiar?). One key aspect is sharing what is happening to your organization since an attack can spread. When there is the first inclination of anything happening is the time to share what you know.
What would an interview be without some mention of social media? Is it a risk or is it part of the solution? Peter shared that he thinks social media will be big. It is a two edge sword so that it can be used to orchestrate an attack or to create awareness.
Lastly, he gave me “Peter’s Prediction” for 2012. He expects many more cyber-attacks will be coming across the spectrum.
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My interview with Jack Hayes, Assistant Administrator for the National Weather Service (NWS) is now up on the Emergency Management Magazine's website, see 2011's Weather Is a Precursor of Things to Come
I believe Jack was pretty straight with us on what the NWS is doing to help and how things have improved in the recent past. When I think of the partnerships that local and state emergency management agencies have with Federal agencies I believe that the National Weather Service is the one we rely on the most and who have made great efforts to connect with emergency managers and to provide services. This is even more so than FEMA. Maybe it is the criticality of the information they share or their orientation to sharing information that has forged this strong bond.
It is great to see the NWS now able to mention the words "climate change" since it was verboten back in the previous administration. My next blog posting is going to be on the recent FEMA Strategic Foresight Initiative and changing weather patterns will play a major role in our adaptation to future circumstances.
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Predicting the future and what will happen is a game played by many futurists, all hoping that their predictions will come true and their books and speaking engagements will be in great demand. FEMA is also playing the game, but in this case with 800 other people who participated in the formulation of their most recent publication Crisis Response and Disaster Resilience 2030: Forging Strategic Action in an Age of Uncertainty For this report we should be hoping that their predictions don't come true since it will be a demanding 18 years between now and then.
This is one of those documents that I read cover to cover. If anything they perhaps didn't go far enough in describing the challenging environment that we are in today and how rapid change is coming in the future. Where I think the uncertainty will come from is how will we respond as a nation and as an emergency management discipline. There are things outside of our control, but we will have to adapt. Check out the chart on page 12 that looks a different scenarios, not hazard scenarios, but how we'll adapt or choose not to adapt and just let things "play out." They paint a many forked road that we can travel down. Will government continue to shrink and get even smaller? Personally, at the current pace I think the "well-to-do" will all be living in gated communities at some point in the future. There will be a huge underclass and then a much smaller group of others with the education and the economic resources to succeed and prosper in a knowledge economy and society.
Paging through my notes on the document I've either circled, underlined or written sidebar notes on every page. You will definitely be hearing more about this publication in multiple blog posts in the future.
If you want to hear a David Kaufman, FEMA Office of Policy and Program Analysis speak about this report tune into EmForum.org on January 26th. Remember they always have a written record of what was said during the program if you are not able to tune in. Unfortunately I've got another work conflict and I won't listen live so I'll be reading the record tomorrow night.
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Interestingly or unfortunately the day the Tornado Recovery Action Council was to render its report to Alabama's Governor the state suffered another outbreak of severe weather, including winter-time tornadoes.
You can read the report Cultivating a State of Readiness
One encouraging comment in the report read, "We listened to people who attended our community forum at Lake Martin. They spoke of moving beyond the traditional municipal and county lines that separate them, and instead viewing the Lake Martin community from a regional perspective." Since I believe in regional action, partnering, coordinating and collaborating this is a bit of good news. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes a disaster to bring that level of understanding to the fore.
My hope for those communities is that they stay the course "together" into the future.
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“Beware of the big play; the 80-yard drive is better than the 80-year pass.” Fran Tarkenton This last weekend was a big one for football with the two teams now identified and headed to the Super Bowl.
But, let’s reflect on the above quote. First, if you are not old enough to know, Fran Tarkenton was a scrambling quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. When you think about our programs they do not generally go forward in great leaps and bounds. Typically, it is the “ground game” of 3-7 yards of progress at a time. Just grinding it out a day at a time, another planning meeting, one new contact, one more training session.
When you look behind you hopefully you’ve moved the emergency management ball down the field, one yard at a time. That is how we make the difference in our community. Eventually we may see the goal line, cross it and start all over again. All in an effort to put points on the resiliency scoreboard.
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We have talked for years about trying to get into school systems in order to have our emergency management messages heard early in a child's life so that they can take that learning with them into adulthood. There are programs out there for teachers and schools to use. Nationally there is Ready.gov/kids and back in the day, here in Washington State Tremor Troops was an early course targeting children in K-6th grades that we pushed to get into schools.
BUT, there is a significant challenge in all of this for teachers and schools. Once upon a time schools were about education, but today they serve a whole host of other purposes and deal with issues that have nothing to do with the curriculum and teaching. Some children are only getting meals that provide healthy foods when they come to school either for lunch and sometimes breakfast too. Some parents are using schools like day-care. The education thing is not the primary purpose of the school function and there is little parent involvement in the educational process at home. Broken families, child abuse, homelessness all end up impacting school. One sad story I heard was a little boy who did not want to go out to recess because his feet hurt. He was wearing his fathers shoes and he had sores on his feet. They were homeless and living in a car. The principal of that school took the child and bought him his first pair of new shoes that he had ever worn. It is hard to do a "hazards hunt" at home when you don't live in one.
My son and his wife are both elementary school teachers in primary grades. They have been teaching for about 15 years, so they are not wet behind the ears when it comes to what schools deal with. Testing and scores are what matters from the top down approach being taken nationally and in states. When it comes to the "nice to do" or things we might be interested in sharing they are not on the priority lists. We keep pushing on a string and there is no one pulling on it from the other end.
Education is supposed to be a priority for government here in the USA. Unfortunately the recession has put it along with many other programs on the back burner or off the stove completely. It is short sighted and we are doing it to honor the cry for "no new taxes." It sounds like California is at the breaking point and maybe voters there will see the need to look beyond their annual tax statements toward the future education of the next generation that is in school now.
Emergency managers are not going to fix the issues described above. However, as individual citizens we have a responsibility to speak up and make our voices heard. If you have children you have responsibilities to them. Until the basics are being taken care of we can't expect any significant change in what we might want to accomplish.
Phyllis Deroian shared the link to the FEMA site above.
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Former Chief Dennis Evers sent me a copy of his book, How to Handle a Crisis which isn't a bad read in particular, "Because the vast majority of Americans aren't trained to handle emergencies." A statement that is in the introduction to the book and with which I wholeheartedly agree with.
Interestingly, I read in another FEMA publication this past weekend about the need to engage the American Public in more training and getting it into the schools at an early age to indoctrinate our children on hazards and what they can do to avoid them and also respond when required as individuals.
I suppose there are many other books like the one above. As I thumbed through it I checked out segments that I know something about and those for which I could use a bit more information. I read the submerged car section for instance since I really had not studied that particular hazard before. My first and foremost goal is to not become submerged, but then you never know.
This might be a good publication to have on a home bookshelf or at the office if you have responsibilities there for the care for people. Nothing like having a book to read out of to settle an argument about what it is you should be doing in an emergency. There are of course segments there that you need to commit to memory (submerged car) and those for which you will have some reaction time to first read up on the scenario/hazard.
I was told you can do bulk orders and get a better deal when buying in quantity.
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Just the other day I blogged on an upcoming National Academies' Workshop on Social Media Evidently a precursor to that particular event was one done in 2010 Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices: Current Knowledge and Research Needs and is now a published book.
The quick summary of what it covers is: "This book presents a summary of the Workshop on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices: Current Knowledge and Research Gaps, held April 13 and 14, 2010, in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the National Research Council's Committee on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices: Current Knowledge and Research Needs.
The workshop was structured to gather inputs and insights from social science researchers, technologists, emergency management professionals, and other experts knowledgeable about how the public responds to alerts and warnings, focusing specifically on how the public responds to mobile alerting."
The above information was shared by Virginia Bacon Talati, the Program Officer coordinating the upcoming event in February.
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2011 was a heck of a year for severe weather. Heat, flooding, snow, rain, tornadoes, wind all contributed to a record year for disasters. The National Weather Service has compiled the list of 14 Billion Dollar Disasters for 2011 that totaled $55B.
The National Weather Service also has a chart comparing the years 1980-2011 and you can see that 2011 is the one to beat in the future.
Here in the Pacific Northwest we started out January with a significant snow storm event that turned into an ice storm that today still has thousands of people without electrical power. Today is the first day we expect to have some relief with temperatures rising and some melting expected.
At my home the power has flickered on and off, but we are hanging in there. My trees are a mess, but none hit the house--yet!
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