**March 1, 2008 FEMA Emergency Management Hi-Ed Program Report**

**(1) Bibliography of Emergency Management & Related References
On-Hand:**

Since the last post relating to the Bibliography on February 15th, a
revised version dated February 21, has been posted to the FEMA EM Hi-Ed
Program website -- EM References section \--
<http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/highref.asp> \-- and an update of
that version will soon be provided to the webmaster to upload to the
website sometime next week. While modifications are made virtually on a
daily basis, the "Bibliography" is replaced on the website about once a
week.

**(2) DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff Remarks at Christian Science
Monitor Roundtable:**

Department of Homeland Security. *Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff at a Christian Science Monitor Breakfast Roundtable*.
Washington, DC: DHS Release, February 27, 2008. Accessed at:
[http://www.dhs.gov:80/xnews/releases/pr_1204207090961.shtm](http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1204207090961.shtm)

Excerpt:

> The biggest obstacle my successor will face is, does the public and
> does Congress have the will to stick to the program?  Or, are we going
> to start to see people cannibalize Homeland Security because we
> haven't been attacked for six years; it doesn't seem like a burning
> issue anymore; there's a lot of other things we could spend money on;
> and so therefore we will start to allow the progress to be degraded. 

This was a long discussion on many aspects of what the DHS is concerned
with and one selected quote does not give a feel for the entire piece,
so we would recommend scanning through the entire document.

**(3) Guide to Emergency Management and Related Terms, Definitions,
Acronyms, etc.**

An update to the February 7, 2008 version of the Terms and Definitions
Guide has been uploaded to the website at:
<http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/termdef.asp> At 1,029 pages it
takes a few seconds to bring up. A newer modification will be provided
to the webmaster shortly for upload sometime next week. Copies are
available on a CD ROM -- via emailed requests to
<Barbara.L.Johnson@dhs.gov>

**(4) Hurricane Damages:**

Pielke, Roger A. Jr. et al. "Normalized Hurricane Damage in the United
States: 1900-2005." *Natural Hazards Review*, February 2008, 14 pages
(29-42). Accessed at:
<http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2476-2008.02.pdf?loc=interstitialskip>

Abstract:

> After more than two decades of relatively little Atlantic hurricane
> activity, the past decade saw heightened hurricane activity and more
> than \$150 billion in damage in 2004 and 2005. This paper normalizes
> mainland U.S. hurricane damage from 1900--2005 to 2005 values using
> two methodologies. A normalization provides an estimate of the damage
> that would occur if storms from the past made landfall under another
> year's societal conditions. Our methods use changes in inflation and
> wealth at the national level and changes in population and housing
> units at the coastal county level. Across both normalization methods,
> there is no remaining trend of increasing absolute damage in the data
> set, which follows the lack of trends in landfall frequency or
> intensity observed over the twentieth century. The 1970s and 1980s
> were notable because of the extremely low amounts of damage compared
> to other decades. The decade 1996--2005 has the second most damage
> among the past 11 decades, with only the decade 1926--1935 surpassing
> its costs. Over the 106 years of record, the average annual normalized
> damage in the continental United States is about \$10 billion under
> both methods. The most damaging single storm is the 1926 Great Miami
> storm, with \$140--157 billion of normalized damage: the most damaging
> years are 1926 and 2005. Of the total damage, about 85% is accounted
> for by the intense hurricanes (Saffir-Simpson Categories 3, 4, and 5),
> yet these have comprised only 24% of the U.S. landfalling tropical
> cyclones. Unless action is taken to address the growing concentration
> of people and properties in coastal areas where hurricanes strike,
> damage will increase, and by a great deal, as more and wealthier
> people increasingly inhabit these coastal locations. (p. 29)
>
> AIR's \[AIR Worldwide\] research \[ISO's catastrophe modeling
> subsidiary\] shows that, because of exposure growth, the one in
> one-hundred-year industry loss grew from \$60 billion in 1995 to \$110
> billion in 2005, and it will likely grow to over \$200 billion during
> the next 10 years."
>
> (p. 34)
>
>  
>
> Our analysis of normalized damage associated with U.S. mainland
> hurricane landfalls 1900--2005 underscores the results of previous
> research and highlights the tremendous importance of societal factors
> in shaping trends in damage related to hurricanes. As people continue
> to flock to the nation's coasts and bring with them ever more personal
> wealth, losses will continue to increase.
>
> A simple extrapolation of the current trend of doubling losses every
> 10 years suggests that a storm like the 1926 Great Miami hurricane
> could result in perhaps **\$500 billion in damage as soon as the
> 2020s. ** (p. 38; bolding added for emphasis)
>
>  

**(5) Montgomery County MD Set to Disband Office of Homeland Security:**

Ford, Benjamin. "Security Focus To Take On More Than Just Terrorism."
*Gazette.Net* (MD), February 22, 2008, At:
<http://www.gazette.net/stories/022208/polinew200637_32365.shtml>

Subtitle: "Montgomery County Council still needs to approve closure of
Department of Homeland Security." Excerpts:

> Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett's decision to abolish the
> county's Department of Homeland Security follows a nationwide trend of
> counties focusing on emergency preparedness beyond terrorist attacks,
> national experts said. Counties had formed homeland security
> departments to receive homeland security grants from the federal
> government and for administration and coordination purposes, said Mike
> Selves, former president of the International Association of Emergency
> Managers.
>
> ''The homeland security dollars are drying up so there should be some
> consolidating of services, and I'm not sure that's a bad thing,"
> Selves said. On Tuesday, Leggett (D) announced he would shift the
> duties of the county's Homeland Security Department to a new Office of
> Emergency Management and Homeland Security, which would be in the
> county executive's office.
>
> Selves oversaw the abolishment of the Johnson County, Kansas,
> Department of Homeland Security and the creation of the emergency
> management services department for the county. ''It really doesn't
> matter what the hazard is, whether a terrorist attack or a tornado, it
> requires a coordinated response," Selves said. ''The bottom line is if
> your house is destroyed, you don't care if it was destroyed by a
> terrorist or a tornado or an earthquake, you want someone there to
> help."
>
> Many counties, including Montgomery County, formed their own homeland
> security departments in the wake of the creation of the U.S.
> Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
> But the federal government's much-criticized response to Hurricane
> Katrina in 2005 caused many to rethink the way governments had
> organized their homeland security departments, said Rocky Lopes,
> project manager for homeland security at the National Association of
> Counties in Washington.
>
> ...Selves said, it is more efficient in terms of dollars and emergency
> training to move the emphasis from terror attacks to overall emergency
> preparedness

**(6) More on Megacommunities and Disaster:**

Delurey, Michael, David Sulek, and Lawrence Frascella. "Convenors of
Capability." *Strategy + Business*, Is. 50, Spring 2008, 10 pp.
<http://www.strategy-business.com/media/file/sb50_08109.pdf>

A community center founded in Hurricane Katrina's wake shows how
megacommunity efforts can bring people the help they need to rebuild.

(7) **NIMS Intelligence/Investigations Function Draft Guidance
    Documents,**

**Version 3**

Federal Emergency Management Agency. *Intelligence/Investigations
Function Guidance Document Version 3*. Washington, DC: FEMA, National
Integration Center, Incident Management Systems Integration Division.
February 2008, 44 pages. Accessed at: <http://www.iaem.com/> and at:
[http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nrf/mainindex.htm#](http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nrf/mainindex.htm)

Note: Al Fluman, Acting Director of the National Integration Center and
released this draft document for comment to NIMS Stakeholders, including
the International Association of Emergency Managers, where it can be
accessed and where instructions for providing comments are to be found.
The comment period is from February 25 to March 26, 2008. In the
Memorandum to NIMS Stakeholders, Mr. Fluman states that:

> As part of our Nation's efforts to expand the National Incident
> Management System (NIMS), the Incident Management Systems Integration
> Division has developed a Draft NIMS Intelligence/Investigations
> Function Guidance Document and Field Operations Guide (FOG) to assist
> emergency responders to efficiently and effectively prevent, protect
> against, respond to, recover from and mitigate the effects of
> incidents.

The Purpose section of the document states:

> The goal of sharing information and intelligence is to develop a
> common operating picture for all emergency management/response
> personnel. The Intelligence/ Investigations Function within the
> Incident Command System (ICS) provides a flexible and scalable
> framework that will allow for the integration of intelligence and
> investigations activities and information...
>
> This document will provide guidance on how to utilize and integrate
> this Function while adhering to the concepts and principles of the
> National Incident Management System (NIMS). It will present
> information intended for the ICS practitioner (including the Incident
> Commander/Unified Command) that will assist in the decision-making
> process regarding the placement of the Function within the command
> structure and will provide tools that may be used while implementing
> the Function. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to
> establishing this Function, the information contained in this document
> should provide helpful points of reference.
>
> This Guidance and the accompanying Intelligence/Investigations Field
> Operations Guide (IIFOG) are applicable in all situations involving
> intelligence/investigations information ranging from every-day
> operations which utilize conventional unclassified information (e.g.,
> criminal histories, medical records, educational records) up to
> terrorist incidents where the information is classified to the highest
> levels and requires the incorporation of National intelligence
> capabilities provided by the U.S. Intelligence Community assets.....
>
> The activities and information that are at the core of this Function
> are often viewed as primary responsibilities of "traditional" law
> enforcement. In many cases, intelligence/investigations duties are
> fulfilled by law enforcement department/agencies; but this Function
> has aspects that cross disciplines. "Non-traditional," non-law
> enforcement forms of investigation might include epidemiological
> investigations, regulatory investigations, medical examiner/coroner
> (ME/C) investigations as well as those conducted by the National
> Transportation Safety Board or other investigatory agencies. Moreover,
> this Function can be utilized for planned events, as well as
> incidents.

**The End.**

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\
<wayne.blanchard@dhs.gov>\
<http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu>

**"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."**

 

EMI, the nation's pre-eminent emergency management training
organization, offers training at no charge to emergency managers and
allied professions through its resident classes in Emmitsburg, MD, its
online courses <http://training.fema.gov/IS/> and through development of
hands-off training courses.  To access upcoming resident courses with
vacancies <http://training.fema.gov/EMICCourses/>. 

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