As I mentioned in the previous post, the blog has been temporarily on hiatus since October when completely out of the blue I was diagnosed with leukemia. I am now in the midst of treatment but am feeling very well and hopefully am on the mend. (I very much appreciate the kind notes I have received over the past couple months.) I will be adding to the blog intermittently in the next few weeks around my treatment schedule.
As a new year and a new Administration begins, I wanted to post a list of suggestions on how I think we as a nation can increase citizen preparedness. These come in large part from discussions I have had with many folks involved in all aspects of public preparedness over the past several years as well as from the input I have received from readers since the inception of this blog.
If you have any feedback, please get in touch with me at jsolomon@incaseofemergencyblog.com. And again, thank you for your support of and contributions to this blog.
CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NEW YEAR/NEW ADMINISTRATION
* CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS TASK FORCE — CREATE A “CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS OUTREACH TASK FORCE” EARLY ON AT THE HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT OR THE WHITE HOUSE COMPRISED OF RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERS FROM VARIOUS AREAS OF THE PREPAREDNESS COMMUNITY. THE GROUP WOULD ASSESS THE CURRENT STATE OF CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS AND WORK ON DEVELOPING NEW APPROACHES, MESSAGING AND EDUCATION CAMPAIGNS FOR THE PUBLIC.
*COMMIT TO & EMPHASIZE CITIZEN ROLE — MAKE A STRONG EARLY COMMITMENT TO EDUCATING AND ENGAGING THE CITIZENRY ON PREPAREDNESS IN A STRAIGHT-FORWARD, OPEN AND ACCESSIBLE MANNER AND UNDERSCORE THAT THE CITIZEN ROLE IS CRUCIAL TO THE NATION’S HOMELAND SECURITY.
*PRO-AM PREPAREDNESS — EMBRACE A PRO-AM APPROACH TO EMERGENCY READINESS, WHICH INTEGRATES THE EFFORTS OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONDERS AND AMATEUR CITIZENS. FOLLOW A ‘DO TELL, DO ASK’ PHILOSOPHY ON CIVILIAN PREPAREDNESS – BOTH TELLING THE PUBLIC MORE & ASKING THEM TO DO MORE. REBRAND AND REPOSITION PREPAREDNESS FROM ‘DUCK AND COVER’ AND DUCT TAPE TO MAKE IT A PART OF 21st CENTURY CITIZENSHIP. IN ADDITION, THERE IS A NEED TO BETTER DEFINE FOR THE PUBLIC WHAT IT MEANS FOR THEM TO BE “PREPARED”.
* OFFER AN EXPANDED DEFINITION OF ‘ALL HAZARDS’ – DEVELOP AN UPDATED DEFINITION OF ‘ALL HAZARDS’ READINESS WHICH HIGHLIGHTS COMMONALITIES IN PREPARING FOR DISASTERS BUT ALSO PRO-ACTIVELY EDUCATES THE PUBLIC ON THE UNIQUE CHALLENGES OF NEW TERROR AND PUBLIC HEALTH THREATS. ALSO, THERE IS A NEED TO BETTER DEFINE FOR THE PUBLIC WHAT IT MEANS FOR THEM TO BE “PREPARED”.THE IDEA IS NOT TO OVERWHELM THE CITIZENRY WITH TOO MUCH NEW INFORMATION BUT MAKE SURE THEY ARE AT LEAST FAMILIAR WITH SOME BASICS (IE. THAT THE FIRST TIME CITIZENS HEAR ABOUT A ‘DIRTY BOMB’ FROM GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IS NOT IN THE MOMENTS AFTER ONE HAS BEEN EXPLODED).
* ENLIST PUBLIC’S HELP IN ANSWERING TOUGH QUESTIONS — ENGAGE THE PUBLIC IN A DIALOGUE ON CHALLENGING HOMELAND SECURITY QUESTIONS FACING GOVERNMENT (FOR EXAMPLE, THE PROPER BALANCE BETWEEN SECURITY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES; THE ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES AND RISK IN PROTECTING THE NATION; THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRIORITIES AND PUBLIC EXPECTATIONS FOR — AS WELL AS THE DEFINITION OF — HOMELAND SECURITY.) CREATING A NEW LEVEL OF COMMUNICATION, TRUST AND TEAMWORK BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNED IS CRUCIAL IF WE WILL BE ABLE TO PREPARE AND RESPOND TO TERRORISM AND OTHER MAJOR EMERGENCIES IN A BALANCED, SUSTAINED AND RESILIENT MANNER.
* BOTTOM/UP & TOP/DOWN — EMPLOY BOTH BOTTOM/UP AND TOP/DOWN APPROACHES TO DISASTER PREPAREDNESS COMBINING COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP WITH FEDERAL COMMITMENT. BETTER HIGHLIGHT AND SPREAD PREPAREDNESS MODELS FROM AROUND U.S. AND DRAW, WHERE APPLICABLE, FROM BRITISH AND ISRAELI EXPERIENCES IN PREPARING AMERICANS.
* SUPPORT & REPORT ON LOCAL PREPAREDNESS EFFORTS — PROVIDE ADEQUATE SEED MONEY FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TO BOLSTER CIVILIAN PREPAREDNESS PROGRAMS AND LINK THE GRANTS TO PERFORMANCE. ENCOURAGE AUTHORITIES TO REPORT PUBLICLY ON THEIR LEVEL OF CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS AND CREATE METRICS FOR BETTER MEASURE CIVILIAN READINESS. IN ADDITION, DO A BETTER JOB OF ALLEVIATING EXISTING OBSTACLES TO PERSONAL PREPAREDNESS (IE. WORK WITH HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY TO ALLOW FOR EXTRA PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE IN ADVANCE OF A DISASTER).
* OFFER A CARROT – CREATE TAX-FREE PERIODS FOR CONSUMERS TO PURCHASE PREPAREDNESS SUPPLIES. PROVIDE A TAX WRITEOFF TO CITIZENS TO PURCHASE PREPAREDNESS-RELATED PRODUCTS AS A WAY TO ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION AND TO SIGNAL GOVERNMENTAL COMMITMENT. ALSO CONSIDER TARGETING ASSISTANCE TO CITIZENS WHO CANNOT AFFORD TO PREPARE.
* BRING IN BUSINESS TO HELP SELL PREPAREDNESS – DESIGN AND ROLL OUT A FULL SERVICE PUBLIC PREPAREDNESS MARKETING CAMPAIGN WITH HELP FROM PRIVATE SECTOR. GALVANIZE BUSINESS TO TAKE ON DISASTER PREPAREDNESS IN THE SAME WAY THEY HAVE WITH DISASTER RESPONSE, MOST NOTABLY IN AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE KATRINA.
* COMMUNITY AND PERSONAL SELF-SUFFICIENCY & RESPONSIBILITY — ENSURE THAT GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES CAN COMPETENTLY RESPOND TO DISASTERS BUT ALSO MORE STRONGLY EMPHASIZE THE NEED FOR THE PUBLIC AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES TO BE PREPARED AND SELF-RELIANT, PARTICULARLY IN THE FIRST 72 HOURS AFTERWARDS. UNDERSCORE POINT, PROVEN OVER AND OVER BY HISTORY, THAT WHEN IT COMES TO DISASTERS, ‘WE ARE ALL FIRST RESPONDERS’.
* WE CAN (& SHOULD) TELL THE CHILDREN — PUT MORE EMPHASIS ON EDUCATING KIDS ON PREPAREDNESS IN PART BY PIGGYBACKING ON OTHER RELATED (AND MORE POPULAR) SCHOOL-BASED SOCIAL EDUCATION EFFORTS SUCH AS FIRE SAFETY AND GLOBAL WARMING.
* SPREAD PREPAREDNESS 2.0 — BETTER INFORM THE PUBLIC ON THE POTENTIAL OF 21ST CENTURY PERSONAL TECH TO PREPARE FOR AND RESPOND TO 21ST CENTURY EMERGENCIES. WE NEED TO MAKE AMERICANS MORE AWARE OF THE CAPABILITIES OF THE TECHNOLOGY AT THEIR FINGERTIPS (IE. WIRELESS DEVICES, SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES) AND INTEGRATE IT BETTER INTO DISASTER PLANNING. AS A START, EVERY GOVERNMENTAL AND NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION PREPAREDNESS WEB SITE SHOULD ADD A CELLPHONE AND EXTRA BATTERY (OR OTHER POWER SOURCE) TO THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF THEIR RECOMMENDED DISASTER SUPPLY KIT.
* MEDIA ATTENTION — FIND WAYS TO GET THE PRESS & HOLLYWOOD MORE INTERESTED IN THE SUBJECT OF PREPAREDNESS WHICH HAS BEEN SUCH A KEY FACTOR IN THE GLOBAL WARMING PUBLIC EDUCATION EFFORT.
* PREPAREDNESS ADVOCATE FOR PUBLIC — WORK WITH AMERICAN RED CROSS TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE ADVOCATE FOR GENERAL PUBLIC ON EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS IN SAME WAY DISABLED AND PET GROUPS HAVE DONE IN FOR THE DISASTER NEEDS OF THEIR COMMUNITIES OVER PAST SEVERAL YEARS.
* MORE PUBLIC DISASTER VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES — EXPAND COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAMS (CERT) & OTHER CITIZEN VOLUNTEER DISASTER PROGRAMS WHICH SERVE AS CATALYSTS FOR ORGANIZING LOCAL EFFORTS.
* SEEING AND SAYING SOME MORE – BUILD UPON THE INITIAL SUCCESS OF THE ‘SAY SOMETHING, SEE SOMETHING”-TYPE CITIZEN INFO CAMPAIGNS BY PROVIDING PUBLIC WITH MORE SPECIFIC GUIDANCE ON HOW TO ASSIST LAW ENFORCEMENT AND OFFERING MORE FEEDBACK ON THE INFORMATION THEY HAVE PROVIDED.
* EVERYONE SHOULD LEARN THE DRILL – INCREASE OPPORTUNITIES FOR CITIZENS TO PARTICIPATE IN DISASTER DRILLS WHICH WOULD HELP PEOPLE FOCUS ON THE ISSUE AND WORK THROUGH THE KEY QUESTIONS EVERYONE SHOULD ASK BEFORE A DISASTER (SUCH AS HOW WILL YOU GET INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR FAMILY? DO YOU KNOW THE EMERGENCY PLAN OF YOUR CHILDREN’S SCHOOL?).
* OFFICIAL PREPAREDNESS DAY — ESTABLISH A NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS DAY TO FOCUS PUBLIC ATTENTION BEFORE DISASTERS, INCLUDING BRIEFING CITIZENS, CONDUCTING DRILLS AND FILLING EMERGENCY KITS. A HELPFUL MODEL IS JAPAN’S DISASTER PREVENTION DAY, HELD ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE CATASTROPHIC 1923 TOKYO EARTHQUAKE.
* CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS OFFICE/SPOKESPERSON — ESTABLISH A NATIONAL CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS OFFICE WITH A HIGH PROFILE SPOKESPERSON IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY OR WHITE HOUSE TO HIGHLIGHT AND HELP COORDINATE EFFORTS AROUND THE U.S. AND ENSURE IT REMAINS A PRIORITY.
Clearly, there are many other policy priorities for the nation at this time, but I do feel there is a great opportunity and need to bolster citizen emergency preparedness. A new commitment to public readiness and engagement would offer the country a unique, non-partisan and substantive way of re-tapping the reservoir of post-9/11 good will and Americans’ desire to ‘pitch in’. Such an effort would have ancillary societal benefit of strengthening our communities (without a huge allotment of financial resources) even in the very unlikely event we never face another catastrophic emergency.
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And, second, Robin Parker,from the award-winning Cross Blog in Portland, Oregon suggests Andrew Bird’s “Fiery Crash”. (“To save all our lives you’ve got to envision the fiery crash before you get on the plane.”)
ANDREW BIRD, “FIERY CRASH”
Keep the suggestions coming to jsolomon@incaseofemergencyblog.com and I will continue to post them.
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The article, “Disaster Accountability Project Uses Volunteers to Monitor Official Response,” describes the history, current activities and future plans of DAP which was founded by Ben Smilovitz in August 2007. According to the piece (on Page 5 of this PDF):
The nonpartisan, non-profit organization works to improve U.S. disaster management systems through public accountability, citizen oversight and empowerment, whistle-blower management, and policy research using a team of citizen volunteers whom Smilowitz calls disaster accountability monitors.
“Our citizen volunteers provide a valuable and much-needed public role by verifying and reporting gaps
in disaster prevention, response, relief, and recovery services typically provided by government agencies
and nonprofit organizations,” said Smilowitz, who is executive director of the organization.
To this day the U.S. government and many aid organizations receive harsh criticism for the mismanagement and lack of leadership in relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. The storm was the costliest natural disaster ever to hit the United States.
“DAP was created to change the way disaster preparedness and emergency management are viewed, understood, and prioritized. Donating money and volunteering to help disaster survivors are the top ways Americans traditionally get involved when it comes to disaster preparedness and response,” Smilowitz said. “Unfortunately, this approach has provided the organizations and agencies responsible for disaster work with a blank check to maintain status quo in their activities.”
In this segment of “What Should We Tell The Public?”, Cifullo says each citizen has the ability to help improve their community’s readiness by asking questions and finding out what they can do to help prepare their families, their kids schools and their places of worship.
FRANK CILLUFFO, DIRECTOR, GWU HOMELAND SECURITY POLICY INSTITUTE
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It was as interesting a discussion on the topic of homeland security and the public that I remember attending. Many panels touch on the role of the public in homeland security, say how important the subject is, and then move on quickly to other concerns. But this discussion focused on the citizen angle for the entire 110 minutes. A video of the entire event can be found on the CAP website here.
Despite the bipartisan makeup of the panel, there was general agreement on a number of ways the next Administration should approach homeland security and the public, including:
*better inform and engage citizens on homeland security issues;
*begin a dialogue with public — nationally and in local communities — on difficult homeland security issues (Townsend suggested one topic should be ‘the balance between security and civil liberties’);
*discuss with and explain to the citizenry what is the terrorist threat and capability;
*engage the public in a conversation towards developing national priorities and expectations for homeland security as well as its definition. also, continue to knock down policy silos among the different aspects of homeland security;
*take politics, to the extent possible, out of homeland security policymaking, oversight and communications;
*streamline congressional oversight of the Homeland Security Department and limit homeland security porkbarreling — and bring both to public’s attention if change is not forthcoming; and
*ensure that government authorities competently respond to disasters but also strongly emphasize the need for public and communities to be prepared and self-reliant, particularly for the first 72 hours.
The bipartisan consensus at this panel would seem to underscore that there will be a new focus in the next Administration — no matter which candidate wins — on informing and engaging the public on homeland security issues.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has directed 72 major American cities to devise plans to distribute anthrax antibiotics to all their residents within 48 hours of receiving them. So far, few of these cities are able to meet that goal. The traditional approach to dispensing medical supplies to a large population is to place the medicines in schools and other public places and instruct people to pick them up. The main shortcoming of this “PODs” approach (for “points of dispensing”) is labor: there are not enough public health workers to distribute the antibiotics quickly, and cities would have to rely largely on volunteers to perform unfamiliar (albeit simple) tasks in unfamiliar settings.
A better way is to let residents stay home and have mail carriers, escorted by police officers, go door to door delivering antibiotics. This can be done within eight hours, trials in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia have shown. While the mail carriers (who have already taken antibiotics) distribute pills, public health workers can make bulk deliveries to special populations like universities, nursing homes, detention centers, homeless shelters and large hotels.
After the mail carriers have finished their routes, the next police shift can be assigned to PODs, opened up to serve anyone who may have fallen through the cracks and to supply additional antibiotics so that each citizen can ultimately be given enough for the full 60-day course of treatment.
Besides being faster, the postal approach can reach those people who, surveys suggest, might refuse to go to a dispensing point. It would also require fewer workers, and it would be much better executed - mail carriers cover their routes six days a week through rain, sleet and snow. And the elderly, the handicapped and those without cars could obtain their pills more easily.
The issue of preparing the public for a bioterrorism attack has been a focus on this blog. I am also interested as a CERT team member as we might be asked to help distribute medicine to citizenry after a bioterrorism incident. Whether or not mail carriers are the optimal method of distribution (I am also very interested in the use of in-home ‘Med Kits’ which is now being tested as well), I think it is important that the public knows more about this issue, and Wein’s article — and its prominent positioning on the Times Op-Ed Page — helps accomplish that.
In my interviews with policymakers and first responders, I have found that the public’s role in preparing and responding to bioterrorism is a major concern of them. Yet, it is something that most citizens have little idea about. So, I think it’s very important that the government start a dialogue on this topic which should include: a) asking and beginning to answer what we expect our government to be able to do to respond to the range of terror threats and b) a higher profile effort to familiarize Americans what they might need to do in such a situation. To me, the goal should not be that every citizen knows everything about every possible terror weapon, but that the first time every citizen hears about these weapons and what to do is not after an emergency occurs.
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Though I might have preferred a little more emphasis early on in the report about the public’s role in the nation’s homeland security mission going forward, the last two “Challenges” – Improve Risk Management and Risk Communications For Homeland Security and Sustainability Of Our Nation’s Homeland Security Efforts – directly involve the public. I thought I would excerpt the relevant recommendations:
Key Challenge 9 – Improve Risk Management and Risk Communications For Homeland Security
Dealing with risk involves two key concepts: risk management and risk communications. The new Secretary must support and expand efforts to improve the risk-based approach to homeland security, which is in its early stages. The evolution and decisions about risk, as applied to the Homeland, are paramount to building a risk-based foundation for security that lasts into the next decade. Ultimately, a good risk framework is only useful if political leaders (at all levels) are willing to make tough choices on security trade-offs. In addition, the new Secretary has the challenge of communicating to the American people and homeland security partners in an effort to prepare them for potential threats, as well as during unfolding crises.
Risk communications
Improving the approach to risk in the Department also requires improving risk communications systems. Risk communications starts with the fundamental need to explain the threats that America faces and involves creating a culture of preparedness through long-term education. An effective risk communications system can mitigate the long-term psychological effects of an incident on the American citizen, which will help safeguard our Democracy against overreaction to possible future attacks. It also involves improving crisis communications systems such as the color-coded homeland security advisory system (which should be revisited and revised to have meaning for the average American), as well as completing the improvements to the old emergency alert and warning systems that DHS controls.
I just received a photo of myself with Mayor Bloomberg from the 5th Anniversary NYC-CERT party held this summer. At the beginning of the event, hundreds of CERT members lined up to get a quick ‘grip and grin’ with the Mayor on the porch of his official residence, Gracie Mansion. I mention this photo not to show my close relationship with the Mayor (I literally had five seconds with him before the next person came in behind me), but instead to underscore the importance of these small rewards and recognition in keeping volunteers, like CERT members, engaged and involved — and feeling part of the City’s overall emergency effort.
Getting a photo with the Mayor like this can be very helpful in making citizen part-timers, such as CERT members, feel more part of a team. This photo is now in a frame on my office hanging along with my CERT graduation and Emergency Operations Center training certificates. My guess is that many of my fellow teammates are displaying the photo proudly. So, whether he enjoyed it or found it a chore, I think it was helpful to the CERT program for the Mayor to spend a better part of an hour shaking everyone’s hand, thanking us for our work and providing each CERT member with a personal photo with ‘the ‘boss’.
On Wednesday, I attended a U.S. Department of Homeland Security “Bloggers Roundtable” convened in Washington, D.C. by Secretary Michael Chertoff to address the issue of cyber security.
The Roundtable took place at the Secretary’s ’satellite’ office at the Ronald Reagan Office Building near the White House. It was pegged to October’s National Cyber Security Awareness Month which according to DHS is “designed to educate the public on the shared responsibility of protecting cyberspace.” A full transcript can be found here.
In his opening remarks, Chertoff called cyber security “perhaps an area of vulnerability we have that remains the greatest challenge in terms of addressing” and added:
“It’s not a secret that, you know, if you look at what happened in Estonia, looked at what happened in Georgia, if you look at that massive identity theft that occurred in California that I announced we had made some arrests this past August, we’re becoming more and more acutely aware of the vulnerability we have at all levels: denial of service, corruption of information, theft of identity, exfiltration of confidential information. All of these are critical issues.”
SECRETARY CHERTOFF SPEAKS TO WEDNESDAY’S “BLOGGERS ROUNDTABLE” ON CYBER SECURITY
Though much of DHS’ cyber security effort is focused on federal systems and critical infrastructure (and that was the subject of most of the discussion during the Roundtable as HLS Watch nicely covers in its post), Chertoff says that the public has a significant role in cyber security both in their workplaces and at home:
“There’s public in your own personal life and there’s the business community. The business community obviously, to the extent they operate critical infrastructure, they have a role to be responsible not only to themselves and their own businesses, but to the wider community that depend upon them. Because we are interdependent. If the power grid goes down because somebody hasn’t adequately protected their systems from an IT denial of service attack, that’s going to have implications for everybody who relies on that power.”
“So there’s an awful lot the private sector has to do. It reminds me of the Y2K period when the private sector was required to step up and make sure it was protecting its assets. So part of what we’ve been in the process of doing is we’ve set up a committee with the private sector built upon the model that we’ve been using successfully over the past several years to create a national infrastructure protection plan. And the idea is to have a — it’s a critical infrastructure coordinating committee that looks in particular at computers and spans all of the sectors, recognizing that each sector is going to have unique challenges and is going to want to look at different kinds of issues.”
