Community Capability Building for Post 9/11 Terrorism Preparedness

Frances Edwards-Winslow, Ph.D., CEM

Director, City of San Jose OES/MMTF

This paper is dedicated to Deputy Chief Ray Downey and Battalion Chief
Jack Fanning, FDNY, lost at the World Trade Center on 9/11

# Emergency Management Before 9/11

The United States has a fifty-year history of active civil defense and
emergency management organizations at the local, state and federal
government levels. These agencies engaged in threat analysis and risk
assessment, emergency public education on threat and risk mitigation,
organizational and community planning and preparedness for the threats
they identified, and continuity planning to ensure that the community
could support the population during the disaster and recover from it.
Within the continuity planning piece was, ideally, an integration of the
assets and resources of the organization to mount an effective emergency
response to the threat events.

Based on these required actions, emergency managers evolved over time as
the scope and complexity of their work evolved. Originally civil defense
directors were likely to be retired military men. In the 1970's as the
paradigm shifted away from defense and toward all hazards emergency
management, women entered the field with backgrounds in nursing,
teaching, and social sciences, as well as military, police or fire
related experience. Most training was on-the-job, learning from other
local and state level emergency managers.

In the 1980's the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) created
extensive educational opportunities through on-site training at the
Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland and through
independent study courses. They also sponsored a formalized series of
courses called the Professional Development Series that led to a
capstone course and certificate. Building on the success of the federal
programs many states began to offer courses to prepare emergency
managers to be more effective leaders and facilitators of
intergovernmental cooperation.

During this era several centers for the academic study of emergencies
developed. Among the best known founders of the field were Dr. Henry
Quarantelli of the University of Delaware and Dr. William Petak of
University of Southern California. Dr. Gilbert White's Natural Hazards
Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder published foundational
works in the field and sponsored a summer conference that brought
together academics, researchers and practitioners for an exchange of
ideas and the development of joint studies. The National Science
Foundation Quick Response Grants enabled researchers to go to the sites
of disasters to study the human, organizational and societal impacts of
typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes and technological disasters.

A series of spectacular natural hazards in the 1980's signaled the start
of academic offerings in emergency management. The Mexico City
Earthquake and the Armenian Earthquake were widely covered by the
emerging 24-hour television news services. Hurricane Hugo and the Loma
Prieta Earthquake challenged the ability of local government emergency
managers to facilitate emergency response and recovery. Researchers
studied not only the sociology of the disasters, but also the physical
sciences, engineering factors and epidemiology of these events to help
emergency managers better understand the actual ramifications.

At the same time FEMA funded the National Coordinating Committee on
Emergency Management, now the International Association of Emergency
Managers, to investigate standards for professional certification in
emergency management. Following a multi-year effort involving academics,
researchers and practitioners the Certified Emergency Manager (CEM)
designation was codified, and specific standards of knowledge, education
and practice were established to define an emergency manager.

In California the academic community and the practitioner community
recognized the need for a formal educational process to assist existing
emergency managers to develop the knowledge, skills and competencies
that were suddenly being required to perform successfully in the new
multi-hazards emergency management arena. People who had become
emergency managers in the civil defense era lacked the required
knowledge of seismic forces, engineering, and public relations demanded
by "America's disaster theme park."[^1] Few incumbents were trained in
threat evaluation and risk analysis, and many lacked adequate skills in
all hazards emergency plan writing. The University of California
Extension System partnered with leaders of the California Emergency
Services Association to create Certificate in Emergency Management
programs. Bill Bethel, emergency manager for San Bernardino County and a
retired military officer, encouraged University of California, Riverside
Extension to model the program on "war college" style in-service
training as used successfully by the military for many years. Rodger
Kelley, MD and Frances Edwards-Winslow, Ph.D. partnered with Janice
Pratt of UC Irvine Extension to create a program based on the
professional continuing education model. This model was replicated at UC
Berkeley Extension by John Laye, and later at UC Santa Cruz by a
consortium of emergency managers, including Edwards-Winslow.

The decade of the 1990's exercised the abilities of the new profession
in ways never before anticipated. The decade opened with the Oakland
Hills Firestorm, the most expensive urban wildland interface fire in
American history.[^2] This was followed by Hurricane Andrew, still
history's most expensive hurricane.[^3] Small earthquakes in various
areas of the West culminated in the Northridge Earthquake, reputed to be
the most costly disaster in history. Multi-state flooding, multi-state
drought, additional damaging hurricanes and active tornado seasons
challenged emergency managers throughout the United States.

After about ten years of successful programs, the UC Extension System
began to experience significant declines in enrollment in certificate
programs. The last program to close was at UC Santa Cruz Extension.
Students surveyed noted that most public employers set pay based on the
name of an employee's degree, but not on certificates. Most preferred to
go a bit longer and receive a master degree in public administration.
The problem was that few public administration programs offered
emergency management courses. FEMA's higher education project was
created to respond to the need to create academic courses at the
undergraduate and graduate levels in emergency management. University of
North Texas and Thomas Edison University in New Jersey were among the
first to offer degree programs in emergency management. With the
development of supporting course materials more higher education
institutions began including emergency management coursework in the
curriculum.[^4]

The result of all these efforts was building capability for emergency
response. These efforts led to the development of a nationwide cadre of
trained professional emergency managers who ultimately formed the
foundation of response to the terrorism of 9/11.

# It Wasn't "If" But "When"

In 1993 a foreign terrorist group placed a truck bomb laced with cyanide
in the World Trade Center in New York City. While relatively
unsuccessful it killed 6 people and injured about 1,000, and caused
"tremendous economic disruption."[^5] In 1995 the Tokyo subway was
attacked by a cult using Sarin, a deadly nerve agent. While there were
few deaths, over 200 people were seriously affected and about 5,000
sought medical care. Just weeks later an American terrorist used a truck
bomb to destroy the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Congress acted rapidly. In December of 1996 Senators Nunn, Lugar and
Domenici sponsored an amendment to the Department of Defense
Appropriation Act to create the Domestic Preparedness Program. Six
federal partner agencies - Department of Defense, Department of Health
and Human Services, Department of Justice, FEMA, Environmental
Protection Agency and Department of Energy - formed a partnership to use
federal funds to train and equip the 25 largest cities plus Honolulu and
Anchorage to respond to the victims of a "Weapon of Mass
Destruction/Nuclear, Biological or Chemical" event.[^6] Cities got an
average of \$600,000 from the combined federal partners and a week of
train-the-trainer courses, followed by a chemical full-scale exercise
and a biological tabletop exercise. This program ultimately will cover
the 122 largest American cities, and will be completed at the end of FFY
2003.[^7]

The initial program envisioned the development of a Metropolitan Medical
Task Force (MMTF) comprised of police, fire, emergency management and
emergency medical resources to respond to the scene of an attack.[^8] As
the reality of biological warfare dawned, the program was refocused to
the Metropolitan Medical Response System that brought a more active role
for public health and hospitals, clinics and physicians.[^9] The MMTF
remained the emergency first responder in the field while the MMRS
accepted the patients and provided emergency and definitive care, as
well as developing a plan for the administration of vaccines and
prophylactic antibiotics.

Federally-provided training for the city personnel was eclectic. Command
structures were taught based on the Incident Command System. Emergency
medical care techniques were adapted to an attack, and later to an
epidemic. Equipment caches and pharmaceutical stockpiles were created at
the city level for the first time. The "deltas" between industrial
accidents and chemical attacks, and between a disease outbreak and a
biological attack, were emphasized. Training was aimed at first
responders in police, fire and medical professions, emergency managers,
EOC personnel, and ultimately all public employees.[^10]

Domestic terrorism became a more pressing issue as the millennium
approached. The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified militia
groups, Christian identity organizations, and environmental groups like
PETA and ELF as domestic terrorists.[^11]

Foreign terrorism remained a possibility as well. Ahmed Ressam,
allegedly a graduate of Osama bin Laden's training, plotted to bomb
Seattle and other U.S. cities under the cover of millennium
celebrations.[^12] He was stopped at a border crossing from Canada,
where he was found with maps with landmarks circled that he was alleged
to be planning to blow up: San Francisco's Transamerica Tower, three Los
Angeles airports and Seattle's Space Needle.[^13] While implementation
of any plot was stopped by an alert border guard, this event
demonstrated the clear possibility of terrorist attacks against the
United States.

# The Watershed

On September 11 the world changed. Civilian aircraft on domestic routes
were used as bombs. 3,200 people died in New York City, Arlington and
rural Pennsylvania. In those first moments emergency managers around the
country activated their EOCs, coordinated with police and fire to take
protective actions in their communities, and began public education and
outreach to the chemical industry, hazardous materials users, schools
and medical facilities.

FEMA responded by opening the Federal Response Plan and activating the
Emergency Support Functions. Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, Search
Dogs, Urban Search and Rescue Teams were deployed to the World Trade
Center site to support the efforts of New York City's public safety
staff. The Department of Health and Human Services had the National
Pharmaceutical Stockpile component delivered within twelve hours.[^14]

Events at the World Trade Center clearly demonstrated the new world in
which public safety first responders found themselves. The World Trade
Center moved public safety personnel permanently out of their
stovepipes. Fire personnel had to learn to respect the site as a crime
scene and try to preserve evidence when possible. Law enforcement
personnel had to understand the dynamics of a multiple casualty incident
scene, and accept that crime scene contamination due to rescue efforts
was inevitable. Clear definitions of "work" blurred as rescue, search
and rescue and evidence collection occurred sorrowfully and
simultaneously. Critical incident stress management and personnel
protective equipment were employed by some public safety personnel for
the first time. The smoldering "pile" created a new paradigm for
emergency response.

Emergency managers who could not get a call back from the local media a
week before 9/11 were suddenly the media's focus. The public craved
accurate information on the potential threats and clear direction
regarding protective actions. While hucksters and charlatans marketed
gas masks and hand held biological assay devices, emergency managers had
to evaluate the science behind the new gadgets and seek out experts to
advise the public and public agencies on their utility and cost/benefit.
Local officials sought briefings on threats, preparedness levels, and
methods for improving the local community's safety. Emergency managers,
the invisible members of the Public Safety Division, were suddenly
empowered to bring together their police, fire and medical colleagues
for rapid threat analysis and brainstorming, for creation of security
action plans, and to make public presentations to governing bodies at
the local, state and federal levels.[^15] Talk show hosts on radio and
television interviewed emergency managers.[^16] Critical incident stress
management became a very personal concern, as emergency managers worked
long hours under great stress and considerable scrutiny, often while
simultaneously learning of the deaths of friends.[^17]

Local governments all over the nation had to determine the proper local
balance between security and freedom. Emergency managers were called on
to evaluate customer friendly work environments against employee safety
issues. Identification badges were issued and external doors locked.
Uniformed security guards and x-ray machines appeared in city halls
across the United States. Elected officials were forced to allocate
scarce resources to security while they watched hotel tax, sales tax and
taxi franchise fees plummet. Airports, many of which are owned by
municipalities, lost revenues and incurred new security-related costs.
The economic cost may never be completely calculated.

# Capacity Building After 9/11

Emergency management is the most multi-faceted profession in modern
government. Good decisions and worthwhile plans require a high level of
scientific understanding. Emergency managers have to understand public
administration: the organization of government, how the agencies,
departments and levels of government relate to eachother, and how to
work within a hierarchical organization that is led by elected officials
with limited taxing and revenue raising authority. Budgeting, personnel
management and legal issues are also part of an emergency manager's job.

Emergency managers have to understand the community in which they work:
its ethnic diversity, language needs, cultural concerns, age and wealth
distributions, educational levels, and economic base. Emergency managers
have to be comfortable moving within the world of public safety, working
with police, fire, and emergency medical personnel; collaborating with
public works, transportation and planning personnel; and negotiating
with auditors, accountants and information technology professionals.

The abilities to write well, to research issues, and to develop logical
and defensible positions are critical. Intellectual curiosity is
required, as an emergency manager must be a life-long learner, with new
intellectual demands coming with every new project.

Emergency managers have to be able to move from being the authority
figure at a public meeting to the colleague at a public safety committee
meeting to the subordinate with the senior management of the
organization. They have to have several personal leadership styles, and
sensitivity to the feelings and needs of others. They have to be able to
relate to the media, to community leaders and to outside government
leaders. They have to know how to inspire, to inform, and to motivate.

These multi-faceted demands require an individual with a liberal arts
background, well grounded in grammar, logic and analytical skills. Few
elements of knowledge are unique to the emergency management profession,
and these are most easily acquired as the specific application of the
general knowledge of science, social science and government acquired in
a four-year degree program.

When I hire a new employee for the Office of Emergency Services I look
for the candidate with **enthusiasm, stamina and courage**. The
**knowledge** described above should come from a bachelor's or master's
degree program in public administration, political or social science, or
journalism, for example. The **skills** are developed over time, with
good mentoring and opportunities to practice existing talents. The
**abilities** may be part of the person's background, or be based on
previous opportunities, or personal commitment to the profession.
**Competencies** will develop based on the opportunities to use the
knowledge, skills and abilities that they bring to the job.

**"Growing the Emergency Manager of the 21^st^ Century"**

Developing the next generation of emergency managers is a joint
obligation of the academics, practitioners and professional
organizations. Academics should not only provide knowledge, but also
guide students toward seeking **mentoring** from existing practitioners.
One of the best ways to make the connection between a student and a
practitioner is through professional organizations like the **American
Society for Public Administration's Section on Emergency and Crisis
Management, and the International Emergency Management Association.**

Current practitioners have the obligation to pass along their
accumulated knowledge through mentoring students and through accepting
**interns** into their offices. A few hours spent with a practitioner
writing a federal grant, researching a legislative position, or
attending a public hearing can help a student focus the knowledge they
have acquired and the skills they have. The importance of mentoring is
clear when emergency managers talk about their own training and interest
in emergency management. Most will describe the people who first helped
them find their way through the bureaucracy and acronyms, the teachers
and practitioners who mentored them in the first baffling months.

Teachers can be a conduit to mentoring opportunities for students by
adequately preparing students to perform acceptably in the government
office. Most successful interns or new employees in emergency management
have good basic communications skills, good writing skills, and good
critical thinking skills. Such students are valuable assets to an
emergency management organization. The time spent in mentoring by the
professional can be repaid through useful project work performed by the
student. Teachers can help students to evaluate their own level of
preparedness for the professional world and encourage improvement where
needed for success.

#    

# Key to Community Safety

The Office of Emergency Services is the key to community safety. It is
the only government agency that puts public safety education and
training as its first priority. Emergency Services staff members teach
people how to evaluate risk, mitigate threats where possible, and
prepare to remain safe when disaster strikes. There is no uniform or
badge for most emergency managers, and little community recognition. But
within the organization the emergency manager is the facilitator who
brings others together, who champions the cause of mitigation and
preparedness, and who opens the Emergency Operations Center and steers
the staff through unfamiliar operations during disaster response.

Education, training and mentoring bring a person to a level of
self-confidence that permits excellence in this demanding career.
Emergency managers will never be the heroes, but they are the lynchpins
that hold the community together through every disaster.

[^1]: Governor Pete Wilson, circa 1991, reflecting on his first year in
    office when there were twelve Federal disaster declarations that
    covered "all the Biblical plagues."

[^2]: William L. Waugh, Jr., *Living With Hazards, Dealing With
    Disasters*, Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 2000, p. 85.

[^3]: *Ibid.,* p. 78. Hurricane Andrew was the most expensive natural
    disaster until the Northridge Earthquake.

[^4]: A list of academic offerings and course support materials are
    available at [www.fema.gov](http://www.fema.gov/) higher education
    project page.

[^5]: Richard T. Sylves and William L. Waugh, Jr., *Disaster Management
    in the U.S. and Canada*, Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas,1996, p.
    285.

[^6]: The City of San Jose was one of the first 27 cities to participate
    in the Domestic Preparedness Program. The author is the Director of
    the San Jose Metropolitan Medical Task Force.

[^7]: Capt. John Walmsley, United States Public Health Service, Region
    IX MMRS project officer, report presented at the San Jose
    Metropolitan Medical Task Force Committee meeting, May 11, 2002.

[^8]: Contracts provided to the 1997 and 1999 cities by the Department
    of Health and Human Services.

[^9]: Contracts provided to the 2000 and after cities. The original
    cities received a contract extension and an average of \$200,000 in
    additional funding to develop the MMRS element and the biological
    warfare preparedness portion.

[^10]: This was the model of the Department of Defense training programs
    delivered to the 1997 and 1999 cities. When Department of Justice
    became responsible for training after 2000 the models became more
    diverse, as classes were delivered under contracts with
    universities, consultants and other entities.

[^11]: Bay Area Terrorism Working Group website, fall 1999.

[^12]: Linda Deutsch, "Jury selection exposes feelings about terrorism,"
    Associated Press, March 13, 2001.

[^13]: Cheryl Devall, "Differing portraits emerge of terrorism
    defendant," Mercury News, March 14, 2001.

[^14]: Capt. Chris Jones, Public Health Service, Region IX project
    officer, speaker, Six Month Anniversary Commemoration, NASA/Ames,
    March 11, 2002.

[^15]: For example, the City of San Jose created a Virtual Security
    Department from its Public Safety Community Service Area, made up of
    Police, Fire, Independent Police Auditor and the Office of Emergency
    Services. OES was made the lead agency and brought in additional
    departments in support roles: City Manager's Office, Information
    Technology, General Services, Public Works, Department of
    Transportation, and Human Resources.

[^16]: Before year's end the City of San Jose was featured on MSNBC and
    The History Channel, as well as on many local television interview
    programs and radio programs. National media such as the Wall Street
    Journal, AP wire service, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and
    Christian Science Monitor conducted interviews with the San Jose OES
    Director and published articles about the city's emergency
    management programming.

[^17]: Jim Alexander, New York City Office of Emergency Management,
    lunch speaker, Hospital Conference, National Institute for
    Government Innovation, Las Vegas, February 25, 2002.