In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

I wanted to post a report that came out while this blog was on hiatus last year. New Technologies In Emergencies And Conflicts, written by Diane Coyle and Patrick Meier. It was published by the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation.

The study looks at the opportunities and challenges that communications advances present for humanitarian organizations in helping communities throughout the globe affected by disasters and members of those communities to communicate with each other and with the outside world. It includes case studies in the areas of warnings, preparedness, response and recovery. The full report can be found here.

In last weekend’s Wall Street Journal, Judith Miller had an interview about terror prevention with New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. It offers some useful insight on the NYPD’s efforts anti-terrorism efforts. But I wanted to highlight one particular point right at the beginning of the piece:

What rankles Raymond W. Kelly? Two things, he tells me as we sip lukewarm coffee in his conference room on the 14th floor of One Police Plaza, the dilapidated police headquarters overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge.

The first, New York’s police commissioner tells me, is “incompetence,” an inescapable fact-of-life, or so it would seem, in any large bureaucracy (he has 50,000 employees).

A second is the media’s tendency to downplay New York’s hard-won victories against terrorism—the failure or foiling of some 11 serious plots against the city since 2001—by describing the would-be perpetrators as incompetent or stupid (my italics).

Faisal Shahzad, who was indicted on Thursday for trying to blow up his SUV in Times Square last month, was not a stupid bumbler, Mr. Kelly says. “The people who interviewed, interrogated him said he is very smart, and has a very keen memory.” Federal law enforcement officials say they are making good use of that memory, using information he’s been providing to help target terrorist recruiters, handlers and facilitators in Pakistan, where Mr. Shahzad went for training.

So why did Mr. Shahzad buy fertilizer that wouldn’t detonate? “He was forced to do . . . things . . . that reduced the potency of his device,” Mr. Kelly says, because “it’s hard to get explosive materials in this country.” That “led him to try to substitute materials.”

Earlier this month Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, were arrested at JFK International Airport. They were en route to Somalia with the stated intention of joining an Islamic extremist group to kill American troops there. Yet a profile in the New York Times quoted anonymous friends who described them as “hapless blowhards, more pathetic than perilous.”

Kelly’s complaint to Miller about the media portraying terrorists as the ‘gang that couldn’t shoot straight’ to the public is similar to one he made to the author Chris Dickey last year in the book Securing The City. At that time, I recommended that Kelly and other law enforcement officials needed to be more open and candid about the seriousness of the terror threat if they want the media and the public to take it equally seriously.

Officials like Kelly are understandably concerned about (or being accused of) ‘fearmongering’ by talking too much about terrorism. However, when the government won’t talk about the terror threat then it shouldn’t be surprised if there are misperceptions in the media and public. But I would argue that by developing an ongoing, honest and transparent (when possible) dialogue would help address Kelly’s concern about the media and the public laughing off terrorism.

One of the initial things citizens need to do in developing their emergency preparedness plans is to determine what they should be preparing for. As I have argued previously, I think officials at all levels should be more aggressive and frank in explaining all the risks facing the public, but there are resources available that citizens can begin researching for themselves.

Your local emergency management website (or office) is a place to start. There is also assistance at the “Determine Your Risk” page of  FEMA’s “Prepare for a Disaster” section. Among the steps it recommends taking: Identify possible hazards and emergencies (“Possible Hazards and Emergencies”); Review maps of your area FEMA Maps; Calculate your risk with assessment tools; Learn about FEMA’s mitigation activities; Identify possible hazards and emergencies. And, as we enter hurricane season, the National Weather Service’s “Storm Prediction Center” can also be helpful.

San Francisco’s 72Hours.org site

(I am reposting below a request I made earlier this month to fellow CERT members. I have already received a number of thoughtful responses but figured I would ask again before publishing them.)

Last month, I wrote a post, “As 25th Birthday Approaches, Is It Time To Reevaluate CERT’s Role, Management, Training, Resources, Etc.?”, discussing the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program (which I participate in here in New York City). I was prompted to write it by another post on the blogHomeland Security Watch in which Mark Chubb, a “senior civil servant in an emergency management agency,” recounted discovering the frustrations of the CERT members he met with in Virginia. He concluded the post with this caution to his fellow preparedness officials about the program:

The opportunity cost of ignoring volunteers in exchange for making investments in hardware and software rears its ugly head sooner or later. Eventually, disgruntled if not disorganized volunteers will, as ours did Monday night, remind you that the liveware — the people and relationships that make up a community — are assets to be invested in not just protected or neglected.

In the comment section of my original post (3rd one down), Paul Garth, a CERT member from Ojai, California and organizer of the OjaiOK drill, took exception to what he read about his Virginia colleagues. Garth’s overall point:

“If someone is frustrated and angry, then my question is, “what are you going to do about it?”. Success for any volunteer organization requires a bottom-up grass-roots approach with local membership providing continual positive energy and infinite new ideas being generated. FEMA and the Los Angeles FD can only create the concept of CERT and give moral support — the rest is up to us.”

From different perspectives, Chubb and Garth both describe both the promise of and the challenges facing the CERT program. I know it’s a topic of interest to readers of this blog. (And is timely as CERTs are being deployed to assist in the oil spill response effort).

So, as the program approaches its 25th Anniversary, I thought I would ask my fellow CERT members for their feedback on the program: How is it going? What’s working? What isn’t? How could it be improved? Is there a message about CERT program you’d like to communicate to other teams around the U.S., FEMA, elected officials or the general public?

I will post the responses on the blog and will ask FEMA leadership for their thoughts as well. Either email me at jsolomon@incaseofemergencyblog.com or write in the Comment section below. Thanks.

A CERT training session in Apple Valley, California

I recently received two letters from my landlord, which have reminded me that if you want to accomplish social goals there is nothing like having the law as an incentive.

The first letter was a “second notice” that I had “failed to return the Annual Window Guard Notice form previously sent you…failure to complete and return this form will result in your apartment being inspected by Management…” I usually return the form immediately but was in the hospital when I received it initially. I quickly sent the form back, in part because I’m responsible and in part because it’s the law. The other letter from my landlord was a copy of my apartment building floor’s Fire Safety Plan. The fact that these in the law offers an incentive for the landlord and in turn the tenant to follow them.

I mention these letters because they are just more examples of how government uses either sticks or carrots to accomplish social objectives. I am not in favor of making citizen preparedness part of the law, but as readers know I do favor using carrots. Without using either, it is not surprising that our public readiness numbers are so low.

There’s an opinion piece on the website of Homeland Security Today, “Who’s Learning Faster, Al Qaeda or Us?” by Erroll G. Southers. Southers, associate director of the National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, argues that citizens have a significant role in homeland security, focusing in particular on Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and the Nationwide SAR Initiative which:

…was created to establish formal standards for reporting suspicious activity and information sharing between law enforcement agencies. SARs contain information that might suggest terrorist or other criminal planning or intelligence gathering activity. Alert citizens who notice suspicious activity possess critical knowledge, and this information can be used to uncover potential threats, if shared with the proper authorities.

Appropriately, privacy and civil liberty protections are critical SAR requirements. We have a duty to ensure that our policies against alleged criminals do not harm or alienate innocent people. In furtherance of these protections, SARs inherently support objective analysis. They are centered on activity; behavior is the driver, not race, nationality or religion.

Enhancing the SAR effort, the Los Angeles Police Department recently launched “iWatch.” This community initiative educates the public about suspicious behaviors and how to report them. A simple phone call or report may lead to actions that disrupt a terrorist attack. The iWatch program, easily adaptable to other municipalities, is expected to spread nationwide.

I was struck to read that Southers feels that iWatch-type programs — which give the public more information about what kind of terrorist behavior they should be noticing — will be implemented across the U.S. I think that would be a terrific development for which this blog has been advocating over the past couple years. The question is whether that is going to happen on a national level through DHS and the FBI and/or through local/state authorities. I would argue that it requires both.

I think a first step would be to better explain to the public and the media what the SAR’s are, what the SAR initiative is and what is the role of citizens in homeland security. To get and maintain public buy-in, it is important that there is followup when possible. Southers gives an example of a successful citizen tip though it didn’t get all that much attention:

This month, two New Jersey men were arrested at JFK airport, planning to travel to Somalia to “wage violent jihad.” They also had expressed a willingness to commit violent acts in the United States. Both men were American citizens. The FBI received a tip regarding the men’s activities in October 2006. In the intelligence community, that tip is called a “SAR” – Suspicious Activity Report.

That is not a well known story. It should be. These examples of citizen tips helping authorities need to told (when possible) in a bigger way to the public and the media so Americans understand and don’t dismiss their role. The full article can be read here.

“Disaster in the Gulf: How You Can Help,” a Larry King Live two-hour telethon, starts at 8pm ET. It will go towards supporting the work being done by three groups in the Gulf:

*The Nature Conservancy has launched their Fund for Gulf Coast Restoration, expanding their efforts for long term recovery for the Gulf of Mexico and habitats along the coast, including salt marshes, oyster reefs, marshlands, beaches and estuaries. www.nature.org

*United Way is offering help to the families along the Gulf that are facing financial, educational and health-related challenges as a result from the economic disruption from this Oil Spill. The United Way Gulf Recovery fund will provide emergency assistance, such as help with food, rent and utilities, and support long-term recovery efforts to rebuild these lives and these communities. www.unitedway.org/gulfrecovery

*The National Wildlife Federation Gulf Oil Spill Restoration Fund supports efforts to find and save oiled wildlife, and help recover their delicate ecosystems that make up their nesting and breeding grounds. www.nwf.org.

Each of the websites offer information on how you can help further.

Giving recognition to volunteers in a disaster relief or any type of non-profit group. I liked this thank you video done by the Red Cross in Greater New York for several reasons: it shows the variety of tasks and backgrounds of Red Cross volunteers, it features a terrific song, “Simply The Best” by Tina Turner; and it has a literal and figurative shout out at the end from the full-time employees, including President Terri Bischoff, to their volunteers.

‘Thank you’ video by Red Cross in Greater New York

I don’t know if I should thank my friend Rich Cooper for informing us of yet another threat to be concerned about — space weather. But alas, more information the better is a watchword of this blog. In a post, “Painfully Unprepared For Space Weather” on the Security Debrief blog, Rich writes about attending the Space Weather Enterprise Forum in Washington last week.

If you can’t see a threat, or describe it in terms that the average person can understand or appreciate, is it really a threat? That was the challenge put before 200+ scientists, physicists, meteorologists and other very technical specialists at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum on June 8 at the National Press Club. This highly unique assembly gathered to discuss the emerging concerns regarding increasingly dramatic changes in our universe’s space weather.

Space weather you ask? First off, this is not about meteor showers, alien invasions or Texas-sized asteroids colliding with the Earth. Rather, it is about how our sun and planet interact with one another and impact upon our atmosphere and life here on Earth.

Skeptical? Rich notes that Space Weather is on the radar of the nation’s top preparedness official, FEMA head Craig Fugate, who believes there is a need to educate the country on the threat:

[Read more →]

Four hundred Haitian earthquake survivors are graduating today from a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training in disaster preparedness and response. They have been trained by a delegation of New York City  CERT instructors at a ‘displaced persons’ camp.

The team has been teaching the CERT program to classes of 40 to 50 people over a 10-day period. The lessons are based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s national CERT curriculum which has been been modified to meet the needs of Haiti’s population. Witt Associates has been working with the J/P Haitian Relief Organization and the UN Development Programme to bring the CERT training to Haiti.

The 12-member New York City team is comprised of: 4 Haitian-Creole speaking firefighters instructing CERT trainees in fire suppression and light search and rescue; 2 FDNY EMS personnel teaching first aid and triage;  2 Health Department employees running courses in public health; 3 OEM staff members assisting with course instruction and manage the team; and 1 senior CERT instructor serving as an adviser and helping manage the team. There will be a disaster simulation for the trainees along with the graduation. It is the first time CERT has been taught there.

Herman Schaffer, the NYC team leader, has been keeping an interesting journal of the experience and posting it on the City’s Office of Emergency Management’s Facebook page. An excerpt is below:

June 9th: Training is going better than expected, primarily because of high levels of organization at Camp Petionville. We have just under 100 trainees today, including 18 women. The trainees are organized into two companies, A and B, each with four sections. Each section is composed of 14 people, including one Rapid Responder. These Rapid Responders had previous leadership roles in the camp and manage all administrative duties in their sections, like taking attendance, selecting volunteers, moving groups from one place to another, taking questions, etc. Their assistance allows the fire and health trainers to focus purely on instruction.

The class portion is conducted with two instructions using a PA system to speak to all 100 students seated in bleachers. The practical sections are broken down by sections (14 people). Each day, every trainee gets an MRE for lunch. I had to bring my own sandwich today, because the MREs are too salty for me.

On June 8, we trained the volunteers in fire safety. The course was interrupted by an hour-and-a-half monsoon and we had to move into two large tents to finish the classroom portion. When the storm passed, we practiced putting out different types of fires: five charcoal fires, one wood fire, and one plastic fire. The plastic fire helped highlight the different health threats and firefighting techniques required by various fires. The trainees felt empowered by the lesson and decided to collect all the plastic trash in the camp to reduce the threat that it could add to fires.