Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Public Health's Role in Understanding Community Resilience

Raphael M. Barishansky et al. — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:41:02 PST

The relationship between public health and community resilience is one that has not seemed to be discussed in the current mainstream research of resilience. In public health, the term resilience or community resilience has not yet been widely explored, but as a sector focused on improving and sustaining the long-term health of communities (people and environment) as well as having a hand in preparedness and response to myriad public health emergencies, most would agree that community resilience is exactly what public health is focused on achieving. In addition, the concept of resilience in emergency management has been previously researched and discussed, and with the goals of public health preparedness and emergency management being dynamically intertwined, it is also reasonable to look at how those sectors interface and interact. This article defines what public health is and does, explores the reasons for why a resilient public will help communities become more resilient, and makes the argument that when studying resilience and what makes resilient communities, public health should certainly be on the list of participating planning partners and key response agencies.

Strategic Cyber Defense: Which Way Forward?

Kenneth Geers — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:40:58 PST

Cyber security has evolved from a technical discipline to a strategic, geopolitical concept. The question for national security thinkers today is not how to protect one or even a thousand computers, but millions, including the “cyberspace” around them. Strategic challenges require strategic solutions. This article considers four nation-state approaches to cyber attack mitigation: 1) Technology: Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6); 2) Doctrine: Sun Tzu’s Art of War; 3) Deterrence: can we prevent cyber attacks?; 4) Arms control: can we limit cyber weapons? These threat mitigation strategies fall into different categories. IPv6 is a technical solution. Art of War is military. The third and fourth strategies are hybrid: deterrence is a mix of military and political considerations, while arms control is a political/technical approach. Technology and doctrine are the most likely strategies to provide short-term improvement in a nation’s cyber defense posture. Deterrence and arms control, which are more subject to outside political influence and current events, may offer cyber attack mitigation but only in the longer-term.

Use of Small-Scale Test Data to Enhance Fire-Related Threat, Vulnerability, Consequence and Risk Assessment for Passenger Rail Vehicles

Brian J. Meacham et al. — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:47:12 PST

Fires in passenger rail vehicles pose threats to people and to critical transportation infrastructure. Although relevant guidelines and regulations exist, current approaches lack details needed for comprehensive fire-related threat, vulnerability, consequence and risk assessment (TVCRA), particularly with respect to identifying the size of initiation fire necessary to ignite the interior lining materials, assessing the potential for a fire to encompass the entire vehicle, and evaluating options for reducing the overall energy of a fully involved vehicle fire. However, these shortcomings can be addressed cost effectively by obtaining fire properties of materials used in passenger rail vehicles through small-scale tests, applying a simplified flame spread screening approach using the test data, and incorporating the output into an existing fire TVCRA framework. With these enhancements, operators will be better able to link vulnerabilities and consequences to a range of fire threats, and have more robust data for informing fire mitigation and operational response decisions.

Text Analysis of After Action Reports to Support Improved Emergency Response Planning

Kay Sullivan Faith et al. — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:52:13 PST

Common failures in emergency responses could be reduced if response organizations had a more systematic way to incorporate lessons learned from exercises and past events into their plans. Reliability and risk concepts from systems engineering provide one framework for improving emergency response planning, but it is unclear if sufficient data exists to apply these techniques. This study combines a text analysis of 70 after action reports (AARs) with a failure mode effects and consequences analysis (FMECA). This approach provides a mechanism to connect the AAR process with efforts to improve emergency response planning. The text analysis is able to identify the frequency of both common (e.g. lack of equipment or training, communication failures) and uncommon (e.g. medical or transportation infrastructure destroyed, units misunderstand or refuse orders) failures modes across a range of emergency response events, but is unable to obtain sufficiently detailed information on the consequences of those failures or their root causes to fully implement a FMECA. These findings suggest that future analyses of response failures could draw on AARs as a data source. However, AARs would be more useful as a source of information on emergency response performance if they were standardized to more explicitly include the causes and consequences of failures during emergency response operations.

Centralization and Decentralization of Policy: The National Interest of Homeland Security

Sharon L. Caudle — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:52:10 PST

The September 2001 terrorist attacks created a high demand for national homeland security policy and action, exactly the result when there have been other major disasters. There are many reasons for the centralization of policy and state and local acceptance of the centralization. However, there is also room for a rebalancing of interests, with a constant push and pull upwards and downwards between the homeland security role and authority of the federal government and that of state and local governments. This article examines the contemporary homeland security federalism and intergovernmental experience. It starts with presenting the underlying basics of federalism and intergovernmental relations for any main policy arena. It then turns to the importance of the national interest in policy centralization and the significant role of focusing events in homeland security’s intergovernmental relations. It next discusses opportunistic federalism and homeland security. The article concludes with factors that buffer federal control—state and local direct interests, implementation of federal policies, and the influence of growing public fiscal austerity.

Review of Comparative Emergency Management: Examining Global and Regional Responses to Disasters

Christopher J. Kearns — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:26:22 PST

Importance of Uniformity in Local Emergency Management Agency Web Sites

Hans D. Schmalzried et al. — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 08:56:19 PST

This study focused on the uniformity of Web sites operated by local emergency management agencies (EMAs) as they pertain to the availability of relevant emergency preparedness and response information. Of the 3,128 counties (or county equivalents) in the United States, we found Internet homepages for 1,612 local EMAs (51.5%). We reviewed each homepage to document the presence (or absence) of nine elements deemed to be essential for effective communications during emergency or disaster situations. Local EMA Web site homepages had a mean of 4.5
(± 1.5) elements. Among the findings, this review revealed that about four out of five (82.3%) of the local EMAs included the agency phone number, more than half (52.0%) provided links to other agencies with emergency preparedness information, and about two in five (38.3%) listed an agency email address. A few more than one in five (21.1%) of the local EMA homepages reviewed allowed visitors to sign up for automatic alerts or notifications. The nine communication elements identified in our study provide a minimal standard for content. We suggest that these results be used as a starting point in developing a uniform template containing the nine homepage elements. Such a template compliments National Incident Management System (NIMS) protocols and can provide a recognizable source of consistent and reliable information for people during emergency or disaster incidents.

Accidental Releases of Hazardous Materials and Relevance to Terrorist Threats at Industrial Facilities

Nicholas Santella et al. — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:06:04 PDT

Hazardous material releases, some with serious consequences, are a common occurrence in the U.S. Of late, the hazards posed by releases caused by terrorist attacks or natural disasters have been of particular concern. Although terrorism directed at hazardous material handling industries within the U.S. has not yet resulted in a significant incident, there is much recent experience with serious accidental releases resulting from natural disasters. Case studies are developed from a number of recent natural disasters and severe weather events that resulted in large releases of hazardous materials. These case studies are used to illustrate parallels between the risks posed by hazardous material releases resulting from terrorism and natural disasters; examples include the presence of a dominant mechanism for physical damage, difficult-to-control and unforeseen scenarios of releases, limited specific regulation of the risks, and a complex and difficult response environment. Hence, lessons learned from previous experience with releases during natural disasters can be used to increase the resilience of industrial facilities and to improve the planning for hazardous material response in the face of terror threats. Routes to improve hazardous material industry preparedness for terror attack and natural disasters include physical hardening of facilities and equipment, utilization of passive safety devices, greater consideration of facility layout and siting, application of inherently safer design principles, and additional legislation at local, state or federal levels.

Crossing Paths: Trend Analysis and Policy Review of Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety

Charles T. Schartung et al. — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:14:23 PDT

This national-level study of highway-rail crossings and grade-crossing accidents finds significant changes over the last 15 years. Findings include a sizable increase in the number of open highway-rail crossings; a continued decrease in the number of accidents, deaths and injuries at grade crossings since 1996, but an increase in injury and fatality rates; higher number of accidents at gated crossings, though the accident-to-crossing ratio at gated crossings remain low; an overall increase in the rate of accidents involving HAZMAT-carrying vehicles, and a continued high percentage of Amtrak passenger trains involved in accidents and an increase in Amtrak injury and fatality rates. Also, while the federal government continues to take on considerably more regulation and costs, it does so in a difficult policy environment with varying state-level regulation and no clear consensus on the best technology to use given cost considerations. We put forward a two-prong approach: the vertical integration of highway-rail oversight with the Federal government playing a coordinative role and “hotspot” remediation of high-risk crossings.

Review of Changing Climate, Changing Economy

Alan H. Hall — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:52:26 PDT

Author Alan H. Hall reviews Changing Climate, Changing Economy.

Trust in Public Safety Answering Points: A Swedish National Survey in the Late Modern Network Society

Mats Eriksson — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:47:50 PDT

This study presents descriptive data from the 2009 Riks-SOM, a national Swedish public opinion survey (n=1501) on trust in the Swedish public safety answering point (PSAP), 112/SOS Alarm. Of special importance in the study is the trust in light of citizens’ perception of mobile phones as a “lifeline” in everyday life. The main conclusion is that vulnerable groups like citizens with foreign citizenship, citizens in the largest towns of Sweden (Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo), the elderly and people in poorer health have relatively the lowest levels of trust in 112/SOS Alarm. Another conclusion is that a rather large number of individuals, who believe that a mobile phone increases the security in everyday life to a very high degree, also seem to have very high levels of trust in 112/SOS Alarm. The study appears to be the first main public opinion survey on the issue of trust in PSAP in correlation to the view of the mobile phone as a lifeline.

Detection of Dangerous Materials and Illicit Objects in Cargoes and Baggage: Current Tools, Existing Problems and Possible Solutions

Yuri Melnikov et al. — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:35:18 PDT

The paper is devoted to reviewing the existing means of detecting the transportation of dangerous materials and illicit objects. We analyse the currently available systems, the physical background of the corresponding techniques, and their advantages and limitations. Our purpose is to provide a broad overview of the possibilities in this field and to present our vision of what is the most appropriate response to the challenges of the modern world with respect to the increasing threat of terrorist attacks and illicit transportation of explosives, weapons, Special Nuclear Materials, and illicit narcotic drugs. To meet this objective, we compare various techniques, discuss how they correspond to the current needs, and propose a possible solution to the existing serious problems.

Review of The Feeling of Risk: New Perspectives on Risk Perception

Nicholas V. Cagliuso Sr. — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:26:51 PDT

Author Nicholas V. Cagliuso Sr. reviews The Feeling of Risk: New Perspectives on Risk Perception.

Food for Thought Approaching the 10^th Anniversary of 9/11: A Conversation with John Odermatt

Marvine P. Hamner — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:32:09 PDT

John Odermatt has been the Commissioner of the New York City Office of Emergency Management and Executive Officer of the NYC Police Department’s Intelligence Division. He is currently the Global Director of Business Continuity for Citigroup, Inc. Since 9/11, large numbers of managers have been added to the field of emergency management; however there is still a dearth of leaders. Leadership is not a course to be taken. It is a quality of character. John Odermatt embodies both management and leadership. It was an honor and a pleasure to talk with Mr. Odermatt in his office in New York in mid-June 2011. This article is a summary of the salient points from that conversation.

Minimizing Safety and Health Impacts at Disaster Sites: the Need for Comprehensive Worker Safety and Health Training Based on an Analysis of National Disasters in the U.S.

Joy C. Lee Pearson et al. — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:47:32 PDT

Skilled support personnel responding to national disasters are at great risk to develop physical and mental health problems that can cause short- and long-term disability and prove to be fatal. Health issues endured by these workers can be attributed to a lack of pre-deployment training. Costs accrued for health care from hazardous exposures in disaster zones continues to increase as symptoms manifest years after the event. Illnesses could be prevented if workers received comprehensive training prior to deployment at the site. Pre-deployment occupational safety and health training is critical to protect the well-being of disaster site workers.

Use of an Emergency Notification System in a Multi-Agency Functional Emergency Exercise: Feedback from Participants

David A. Edwards et al. — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:41:33 PDT

This study examines feedback from automated reports and a participant survey concerning implementation of an emergency notification system (ENS) in a multi-agency functional flood exercise hosted by Maricopa County Department of Emergency Management. Representatives from nearly two dozen agencies were present. Emergency notifications through the ENS were reported after the exercise to have generally been useful in terms of keeping agencies appropriately informed in a timely manner. Most exercise users indicated that they were pleased overall with the results of using the ENS. One aspect of the experience that they noted having appreciated was the opportunity to replay messages if they wished to do so. However, technical problems with use of the ENS did exist. For example, text-to-speech (TTS) rendering in some instances produced messages with poor intelligibility, confirming the need for care in choosing well-functioning text-to-speech software and in crafting TTS messages appropriately for TTS rendering. Some messages going to voice mail during the exercise were clipped, such that recipients could not hear the entire message, a flaw. While nearly all exercise players received emergency notifications from the ENS via one or more communication devices, less than half of the total messages were listened to during the timeframe of the exercise. This confirmed the wisdom of keeping messages sent through different communication systems and channels consistent, because not all contacts listen to all messages on all receiving devices. Exercise players indicated a need for (i) notification messages to be crafted to be short, concise and easy to understand, (ii) the messages to have a date and time associated with them, and (iii) the messages to contain geographic locations, information on emergency impacts, and other intelligence needed to allow users to make appropriate responses.

Developing and Testing an Emergency Notification System for a County Emergency Management Agency

David A. Edwards et al. — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:46:14 PDT

This study briefly reviews literature, news and reports dealing with emergency notification and then discusses lessons learned by way of observation during development and testing of an emergency notification system (ENS) for Maricopa County, Arizona prior to and during a county-wide, multi-agency functional exercise. This exercise, dealing with flood response, took place under the auspices of the Maricopa County Department of Emergency Management (MCDEM). MCDEM assumed responsibility during this exercise to test the functionality of a newly purchased commercial automated ENS, Communicator! NXT, made by Dialogic Communications Corporation, now PlantCML, and test its associated implementation. The exercise was designed to involve many different local agencies and as many as several dozen contacts per notification message tested. The study focuses on what can be learned outside of existing published literature about the development and testing of the ENS for activating emergency management personnel and achieving a common operating picture for all stakeholders. The study discusses a number of problems identified during the pre-exercise preparation period and during the exercise, as well as the resolution of these problems.

Engineering the Incident Command and Multiagency Coordination Systems

Kimberly S. Stambler et al. — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:46:07 PDT

The initial development of the Incident Command System (ICS) and the Multiagency Coordination System (MACS) was conducted through an extensive research, development, and application program initiated by the United States Forest Service in the 1970s and 1980s. Known as FIRESCOPE (Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies), the complex development process produced these two major management systems that are now central to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Incident Management System (NIMS). Despite the prominence of NIMS, very little information is widely available regarding the original research and development of ICS and MACS. This paper explores the extensive product development and consensus process used to create ICS and MACS, plus the implementation process that propagated these landmark systems that continue to expand in prominence for incident management and coordination during emergencies and disasters. Through analysis of historical documents and interviews with professionals centrally involved in FIRESCOPE, this paper chronicles the evolution of ICS and MACS, including a summary of their varied courses following the end of the original 10-year FIRESCOPE Program initiative.

Ethical Questions Surrounding Health Care Resource Allocations for the Strategic National Stockpile

Ryan Meskimen et al. — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:23:16 PDT

The United States stands at constant risk of attack from naturally occurring, emerging or intentionally released biological or chemical agents. Our fragmented and underprepared health care system must rely on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) when a public health emergency occurs and surging patient populations overwhelm resources and reserves. While the SNS offers, a robust capability and logistical infrastructure, there are still concerns over the allocation of these resources when needed. As the health care system adjusts to economic and political influences, health care organizations are reexamining their investment in the market, and as facilities close and consolidate, health care resources become increasingly scarce. When needed, what ethical questions does the SNS force us to make? Can we make these decisions along a path of social justice and still turn away an emerging pandemic?

Active Shooter on Campus: Evaluating Text and E-mail Warning Message Effectiveness

David N. Sattler et al. — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:56:45 PDT

Recent events involving active shooters on campus underscore the importance of promptly notifying the campus community so students, faculty, and staff can take protective action as the incident develops. This study (a) developed warning messages informing the campus of an active shooter that can be delivered to cellular telephones and e-mail accounts, and (b) assessed their effectiveness. Participants were 264 (76 men, 188 women) undergraduate students at Western Washington University who indicated their understanding of and anticipated responses to text and e-mail messages. Participants indicated that they understood the instructions and would take the actions indicated in the messages. The results indicate text and e-mail messages are effective ways to notify and provide coherent instructions to the community during a life threatening emergency. This approach may be modified to create templates for other emergencies and disasters (e.g., earthquakes, tornadoes).