On The Front Lines of Preparedness 
 

Ask those on the front lines.

Ask FEMA CIO Tony Cira about preparedness. Ask Fairfax County, Virginia CIO Wanda Gibson for her thoughts. Ask FCC Chief of Staff of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Tim Peterson for his assessment of whether we are ready.

They may view preparedness from different perpectives, but they all agree on one thing: there is no end state of preparedness; it’s the journey towards preparedness that matters.

And when the topic of preparedness is discussed today in the USA no agency is being more closely scrutinized and assessed every step of the way than FEMA.

“There is no doubt,” said CIO Tony Cira during the November Federal Executive Forum, “FEMA is now trying to be totally supportive of state jurisdictions; so instead of the Feds just rolling in to the environment, it’s more of ‘OK, state do you have that?’; and working with them on a daily basis.”

Working together means give and take on all sides. “The other piece of this that I’ve got to say is that the individuals have really got to let down their jurisdictional issues. You will never get to working together on a catastrophic incident unless the jurisdictional boundaries go away.”

When it comes to interoperability, FEMA has to think about all the players that are responding and may have to interoperate -- federal, state, and local.

“I think that the nation has done a lot in the last seven, eight months and I’m familiar with what has done especially in the National Capital Region where there are 142 federal agencies in the confines of a 10 mile square area.”

But this is just a beginning. The rest of the nation needs to step up its efforts to match or exceed the capabilities of the National Capital Region. Read More

FEMA’s Tony Cira made his comments during the October Federal Executive Forum on Emergency Preparedness moderated by Jim Flyzik of The Flyzik Group, produced by the Trezza Media Group and broadcast on Federal News Radio. Joining Cira at the Forum were:  

• Wanda Gibson, CIO/CTO, Fairfax County, Virginia 
• Tim Peterson, Chief of Staff, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, FCC
• Robert Dix, Vice President, Government Affairs, Juniper Networks
• Dr. Doug Himberger, Partner, Booz Allen Hamilton

In just about every review of the Katrina disaster, the conclusion said it wasn’t technology and technology matters; it wasn’t individuals not wanting to help; we had just an enormous outpouring of people trying to help. But where things broke down was in governance and who’s in charge and who’s allowed to help and who’s not allowed to help. And how do you work across levels of government?

The comment period for the National Response Framework, which is supposed to be the game plan for the future, was just completed. However, from CIO Tony Cira’s perspective, what FEMA will do is clear. Read More

COOP and Planning Essentials

During the Forum, FEMA CIO Tony Cira said there is unevenness in the planning efforts by officials from state to state, from locality to locality. 
 

“We sent out teams to nine southeast states. And the level of planning that was in one state versus another varied tremendously,” reports Cira. “So it comes down to the planning of do you have an evacuation plan? And the communications requirements that go with that plan. Which ambulances are going to go to that location, where are the ambulances coming from?” Read More

Crossing The Great Divide

Fairfax County Virginia is in the heart of the National Capital Region (NCR). Located just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, Fairfax would play a leading role in any emergency preparedness and response scenario affecting the NCR. Wanda Gibson is the CIO/CTO for Fairfax County.

"Obviously we  recognize that we can’t just start turning on technology and have a free for all. And so part of the governance process included establishing a framework in terms of who pulls the triggers and everybody’s under an agreement in terms of protocol and in terms of using the technology, who owns the data, who has secure rights to basically make a decision and that’s within the technology framework. But also, in terms of getting to know each other, we spend a tremendous amount of time down and the Council of Governments." Read More

The purpose of the National Response Framework is to establish a comprehensive, national, all-hazards approach to domestic incident response. The Framework presents an overview of key response principles, roles and structures that guide the national response.

It describes how communities, States, the Federal Government and private-sector and nongovernmental partners apply these principles for a coordinated, effective national response. And, it describes special circumstances where the Federal Government exercises a larger role, including incidents where Federal interests are involved and catastrophic incidents where a State would require significant support. Its real value, however, is in how these elements come together and are implemented by first responders, decision-makers and supporting entities to provide a unified national response. 
 

What Is TOPOFF 4? 

Top Officials 4 (TOPOFF 4) is the Nation’s premier terrorism preparedness exercise, involving top officials at every level of government, as well as representatives from the international community and private sector. The exercise took place October 15-19, 2007, the TOPOFF 4 Full-Scale Exercise (T4 FSE) and featured thousands of federal, state, territorial, and local officials. These officials engaged in various activities as part of a robust, full-scale simulated response to a multi-faceted threat.

The exercise addressed policy and strategic issues that mobilize prevention and response systems, require participants to make difficult decisions, carry out essential functions, and challenge their ability to maintain a common operating picture during an incident of national significance. Source: DHS

Panelists agreed that while much work need to be done, much has already been done.

Tim Peterson, FCC

I think that we are making progress and we are getting better and better prepared. We are concerned about interdependencies a good bit. I look at interdependencies from a traditional and nontraditional standpoint. Read More

Bob Dix, Juniper

We are better today than we were yesterday; we have a long way to go. This is the first time in the history of the TopOff 4 series that the private sector has a seat in the master control cell trying to give real time information about the impacts in the venues and nationally as a result of this exercise and the scenario around that. Read More

Dr. Doug Himberger, Booz Allen Hamilton

Are we better prepared? Sure, I think we are because what this is about is that plans aren’t important; it’s planning that’s important. So planning makes us think about the right things and ask the right questions. So we are thinking about the right things and we are asking the right questions. Read More