May 24, 2007 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project Report
(1) 10th ANNUAL FEMA ALL-HAZARDS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERENCE, JUNE 4-7:
Added Dr. Barbara Klingensmith from the University of Florida to the agenda as the Moderator for the "Two Reports: On EDEN and on Disaster Relief - Lessons From Hurricane Katrina," breakout session, scheduled from 1:00-2:30, Thursday, June 7th.
(2) EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HIGHER EDUCATION PROJECT:
Gave an approximately 30-minute presentation on the FEMA EM HiEd Project to participants of the Annual State Emergency Management Training and Exercise Officers Conference.
(3) FEMA:
Doolittle, Amy. "FEMA Director Outlines Improved Disaster Response Capabilities." Federal Times, may 23, 2007. Accessed at:
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2779480
[Excerpt: "'Local governments will always, always be the first to respond,' FEMA Director David Paulison told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. 'But FEMA still has an important role to play. We don't have to wait for state and local governments to become overwhelmed before providing federal assistance.' A key change in FEMA response is acting as soon as a disaster happens or is imminent and not waiting for emergencies to be declared or presidential declarations to be signed, Paulison said. 'It's a different philosophy,' he said. 'We're not going to wait for a state to start asking for assistance, ...but [we will be] recognizing what the disaster is and be on the ground and help determine what the needs are going to be. ... Why sit back and wait for the declaration and the process and to get those papers signed before we start moving?'"]
[BWB Note: At the annual State Emergency Management Training and Exercise Officers Conference here at EMI this week, Admiral Johnson made similar points during a plenary presentation on Tuesday. One of the State EM Office participants stood up during the Q&A session following the Admiral's presentation and stated that States are sovereign and that many States not only do not want FEMA coming into their State in a "taking the lead" position, or without fully coordinating their entry with the State, but that many States do not even want FEMA to come into their State as a "Partner." Rather, the role this speaker envisioned for FEMA was one of "Assistance" to the State, not a partner, but subordinate to the State and locals -- who will be running the disaster response operation.]
Strohm, Chris. "Key Senators Reject Proposal for Stand-Alone FEMA."
Congress Daily, May 23, 2007, May 23, 2007. At:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=37004&dcn=e_gvet
[See third comment appended to the article.]
(4) FEMA & DHS APPROPRIATIONS REQUEST FOR FISCAL YEAR 200G CRS
ANALYSIS:
Congressional Research Service. Homeland Security Department: FY 2008 Request for Appropriations (RL34004). Washington, DC: CRS Report for Congress, May 17, 2007, 75 pages. Accessed at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL34004.pdf
[The FEMA section is at pages 41-49.]
(5) LAKE OKEECHOBEE LEVEE FAILURE REPORT:
Lloyd's. The Herbert Hoover Dike: A Discussion of the Vulnerability of Lake Okeechobee to Levee Failure; Cause, Effect and the Future. Lloyd's, Emergency Risks Team Report, 23March2007. At:
http://www.lloyds.com/News_Centre/Features_from_Lloyds/Focus_on_Lake_Okeechobee.htm and http://www.lloyds.com/NR/rdonlyres/46992404-EDCE-40B3-9AEC-920967DE4FE0/0/Lake_Okeechobee_Report.pdf
[Press Release Excerpt: "Lake Okeechobee came second in a list of 'top ten' US danger areas compiled by the International Hurricane Research Center. Known locally as 'The Lake', it is the fourth largest lake in the United States, covering approximately 730 square miles and is particularly relevant to scientific research because it has a long history of hurricane activity. In 1926, the Great Miami Hurricane killed around 300 people while the 1928 hurricane is the second most deadly natural disaster recorded in the United States. Mainly due to the flooding of Lake Okeechobee, 2,500 were killed."]
(6) NATIONAL GUARD:
Baker, Fred W. III. "Guard's Lack of Equipment Puts U.S. at Risk, Chief Says." American Forces Press Service, May 24, 2007. At:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=46168
Oxnard, K. W. "We Need the National Guard to Have Our Backs at Home." Savannah Morning News (GA), May 24, 2007. Accessed at:
http://www.savannahnow.com/node/291225
(7) NATIONAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:
Detweiler, Steve. "The National Response Plan/NIMS Review - The Local Stakeholder Perspective." EIIP Virtual Forum Presentation, May 23, 2007, 7 pages. Accessed at: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/lc070523.htm
(8) NURSING HOME EVACUATION:
Lauck, Dan. "Nursing Home Evacuations Still a Challenge." KHOU-TV (Houston), May 23, 2007. At:
http://www.khou.com/news/local/fortbend/stories/khou070523_tj_evacuations.303f93c.html
[Excerpts: "A large number of elderly patients and nursing home residents died in the rush to escape Hurricane Rita and dozens more were left to die in New Orleans as floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina literally swept them out of their beds. Almost two years later the challenge is much the same.... 'It's probably the most difficult problem to deal with,' said Bill King, who chaired the county's evaluation of what went wrong during the Rita evacuation. He said every nursing home the review commission knew of lost at least one patient. 'With these fragile populations, the mere calling of an evacuation is probably going to cause the loss of life,' he said. Experts generally want to evacuate any nursing homes in the cone of uncertainty. But at 72 hours before a possible landfall, that area could extend from Louisiana to Brownsville. 'You call for an evacuation, you lose patients,' said King. 'If you don't call it, you could have a disaster'."]
B.Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM
Higher Education Project Manager
Emergency Management Institute
National Emergency Training Center
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Department of Homeland Security
16825 S. Seton, K-011
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
(301) 447-1262, voice
(301) 447-1598, fax
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu
* To subscribe to the Hi Ed Activity Reports go to the Higher Education Project homepage at http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/. Scroll to the fourth paragraph and click on the link to send a blank e-mail to our list server. You do not need to enter any information on the Subject line or in the Message area. If you want to remove yourself from this mailing list, you can send a blank email to or visit: http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/
If you are unsubscribing from a different email address than the one you originally subscribed with, send your email to and include the next line of text in the subject line of your message:
Unsubscribe emi-hi-ed-reports
.
“Please note: Some of the Web sites linked to in this document are not federal government Web sites, and may not necessarily operate under the same laws, regulations, and policies as federal Web sites.”
* NOTE: Users can be dropped from the Hi Ed Activity Report list for a few reasons. Make sure your mail box will accept our email. Sometimes inboxes are too full to accept an attachment. If the email “bounces” too many times you will be dropped from the email listing. Make sure the activity reports are not rejected as SPAM. This will also cause the email to bounce and again you may be dropped from the listing. You can have your Help Desk check your computer settings to ensure DHS emails are acceptable to your system. Hi Ed Activity Reports are distributed dailyMonday through Friday; if for any reason delivery of the Hi Ed Activity Reports stops let us know immediately via email at . Missed Activity Reports can be accessed on the Hi Ed website at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/activityRA.asp.