**May 12, 2006 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project
Activity Report**

\(1\) ANDREWS UNIVERSITY, BERRIEN SPRINGS, MI:

Talked with Derri Hanson, who noted that the investigation into the
development of an Emergency Management track within the Andrews Univ.
Behavioral Sciences bachelor program, has led to the creation recently
of an \"Emergency Preparedness\" Focus Area at the Bachelor level. Dr.
Hanson notes that 30 students are signed up for this EP Focus Area, and
that she still hopes to get an application in for the June 6-8 EM & HS/D
HiEd Conference. Dr. Hanson noted that she has now developed an
intern-placement program for her students, mostly within local emergency
management offices, and that one of these internships eventually led to
the hiring of one of her students by DHS. For additional information,
Derri Hanson can be reached at: <hansond@andrews.edu>

\(2\) DISASTERS WAITING TO HAPPEN:

Roesgen, Susan. \"New Orleans Evacuation Plan Has Holes.\" CNN Online,
May 12, 2006. Accessed at:
[[http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/11/new.orleans.evacuation/]{.underline}](http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/11/new.orleans.evacuation/)

\[Excerpt: Mayor Ray Nagin and Terry Ebbert, director of the city\'s
Homeland Security Department, released a plan that uses trains, planes
and buses to get people out of town \-- a plan Nagin told CNN is good to
go\.... CNN took a closer look\...and found some of them lacking,
evoking a scenario reminiscent of the chaos when Hurricane Katrina hit
the city last September and the finger-pointing afterward\....For one,
the plan to use Amtrak trains to evacuate the sick and elderly has not
been completed with the rail operator. However, Amtrak officials said
they

are working on a memorandum of understanding with the city. The
Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said the plan has another
problem \-- not enough doctors to put on board those trains. Department
officials said the state would not be able to spare any doctors for the
evacuation trains. The plan calls for airlines to hold their planes in
New Orleans long enough to evacuate tourists \-- a plan the
Transportation Security Administration said is under discussion but not
completed. No airlines have agreed to it. The city plans to use buses to
pick up residents with no means of transportation from designated points
and deliver them to the Convention Center. From there, according to the
plan, the state is to get them to shelters outside the city.

But the city has no more than 100 buses available for the job of moving
an estimated 10,000 people, and the bus drivers have not agreed to stay.
Furthermore, the state transportation department said it considers it
the city\'s responsibility to get people out of town. However, it did
say it was preparing a plan to help New Orleans get its people out.
Finally, less than three weeks before the start of hurricane season, not
a single shelter has been lined up.

Ebbert said he wasn\'t particularly worried about the apparent holes in
the plan, saying the city\'s position is that the state and federal
government have to make the plan work.\"\]

Vega, Cecilia M. and Charlie Goodyear. \"Gaps Seen in S.F.\'s Disaster
Readiness.\" San Francisco Chronicle, May 12, 2006. Accessed at:

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/12/MNG0AIQRQ11.DTL>

\[Excerpt: \"Auditors examining management of San Francisco\'s Office of
Emergency Services are looking into how prepared the city is for a
disaster, the experience of the agency\'s director, and how well
officials charged with leading responses to emergencies like earthquakes
and terrorist attacks are managing tens of millions of dollars in grant
funds\.... This is not the first time a city investigation examined
problems at the Office of Emergency Services. In 2003, a civil grand
jury report, \"It\'s a Catastrophe: The State of Emergency Planning in
San Francisco,\" concluded that the city was unprepared for a disaster
because of a lack of training for key emergency personnel, faulty
communications and insufficient provisions for shelter, blankets, cots
and food for people who may need them in an emergency.\"\]

\(3\) EMER.MGMT & HOMELAND SECURITY/DEFENSE HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERENCE,
JUNE 6-8, 2006:

Communicated with Dr. Joanne Nigg, Disaster Research Center, University
of Delaware, who has volunteered to moderate the 3:10-5:00 June 6th
\"Reports\" Breakout Session with:

Dr. Michael O\'Connor on EM Curriculum Academic Goals and Aims Carol
Cwiak on Emergency Management Body of Knowledge survey results Dr. James
Smith on Innovative Local Funding for Disaster Michael Scheuer on Core
Terrorism Readings.

\(4\) FEMA:

Marino, Jonathan. \"Bipartisan Bill Would Boost Rank of FEMA Chief.\"

Government Executive - Daily Briefing, May 11, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34061&dcn=e_gvet]{.underline}](http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34061&dcn=e_gvet)

O\'Hanlon, Michael and Jeremy Shapiro, \"Keep FEMA Where It Is.\"

Washington Times, May 12, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20060511-082815-8010r.htm]{.underline}](http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20060511-082815-8010r.htm)

\[Excerpt: \"What FEMA most needs are sufficient resources, a voice at
the DHS table, a clear line of communication to the secretary of
homeland security and the president, and the support and authority of
the latter as it interacts with other federal, state, local and
private-sector players.\"\]

Schanzer, David H. \"FEMA\'s Home.\" The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC),
May 12, 2006. Accessed at:
[[http://www.newsobserver.com/559/story/438516.html]{.underline}](http://www.newsobserver.com/559/story/438516.html)

\[Excerpt: \"Ripping FEMA out of Homeland Security would represent an
abandonment of the concept that our government must be organized to
handle the threats of the 21st century. The decades to come may well
bring more frequent and stronger hurricanes, pandemic outbreaks of
disease and, potentially, attacks involving weapons of mass destruction.

To deal with these threats, we need to identify what went wrong during
Katrina and improve the performance of our post-9/11 governmental
structures. Trying to undo the reorganization from three years ago will
diminish, not improve, our capabilities\.... Mistakes were clearly made
when FEMA was moved. First, political appointees without emergency
management experience were put in charge of the agency. Second,
responsibility for preparing communities for disasters was separated
from responsibility for response and recovery. This organizational
divide ignored the reality that relationships developed while preparing
communities for disasters can determine the effectiveness of the
response when disaster strikes. Third, billions in grant funds issued to
states and localities emphasized terrorism preparedness and response,
instead of an \"all-hazards\" approach encompassing the planning,
procedures and training common to dealing with both natural disasters
and terrorist attacks. The Homeland Security department truly intended
to maintain the all-hazards approach, but the grant programs\' terrorism
focus skewed this principle and got the entire agency off track\....
These mistakes can all be remedied, but not by separating FEMA from
Homeland Security. Removing FEMA would distance it from the
department\'s resources and substantial budget, including assets
critical to its mission, such as the Coast Guard, the National
Communications System and Homeland Security\'s huge cadre of law
enforcement personnel\....\" (David H. Schanzer is director of the
Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University
and UNC-Chapel Hill.)\]

Tribune-Chronicle (OH) (Editorial). \"Return FEMA To Its Independent
Status.\" May 12, 2006. Accessed at:
[[http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/editorials/articles.asp?articleID=3769]{.underline}](http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/editorials/articles.asp?articleID=3769)

\[Excerpt: \"Back when the mammoth Department of Homeland Security was
created, many of us warned that internal bureaucratic chair-shuffling
would distract its component agencies from their jobs. Sadly, that came
to pass when Katrina hit and the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
which had a long record of superb response to natural disasters, found
itself buried in a perfect storm of bad management, low priority in a
terrorism-focused agency and lack of cooperation from state and local
officials in Louisiana\.... it\'s clear that FEMA is not a good fit
within Homeland Security. FEMA should be returned to its
quasi-independent agency status so that it gets the budgetary and
administrative attention it requires to perform well.\"\]

\(5\) HOMELAND SECURITY:

Associated Press. \"Report: Questionable Purchases Under Homeland
Security Guise.\" May 11, 2006. Accessed at:
[[http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4890327&nav=HMO6HMaW]{.underline}](http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4890327&nav=HMO6HMaW)

\[About Arizona.\]

\(6\) PREPAREDNESS:

Auf der Heide, Erik. \"The Importance of Evidence-Based Disaster
Planning.\" Annals of Emergency Medicine, Vol.. 47, No. 1, January 2006,
pp. 34-49. Accessed at:

[[http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/2p-emergency-response.html]{.underline}](http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/2p-emergency-response.html)

\[From Abstract: \"Disaster planning is only as good as the assumptions
on which it is based. However, some of these assumptions are derived
from a conventional wisdom that is at variance with empirical field
disaster research studies. Knowledge of disaster research findings might
help planners avoid common disaster management pitfalls, thereby
improving disaster response planning\...\"\]

Gleason, Brian. \"Scary Choice: Stay Or Go \-- Sociologist Recommends
Fear As An Evacuation Tool.\" Sun-Herald (FL), May 12, 2006. Accessed
at:

<http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/051206/tp2ch6.htm?date=051206&story=tp2ch6.htm>

{Excerpt (from presentation at Florida Hurricane Conference):

\"Mandatory hurricane evacuation orders prompt such a low percentage of
residents of vulnerable areas to leave, some are suggesting emergency
officials should try to scare people into leaving. \'One thing we can do
is to make them appreciate what storms can do to their homes,\" said Dr.

Jay Baker, a sociologist at Florida State University\... \'Telling
people specific results is better than simple evacuation orders. We need
to make them understand how horrible it will be to be in their house
with the water at a certain height. People need to be more afraid if
they live in these areas than they are now\'\.... He {Baker} suggested
that playing recordings of 9-1-1 calls to emergency operations centers
from panicked or stranded residents might convince more people to
evacuate.\"\]

Hall, Mimi. \"Chertoff: Disaster Readiness Is A Shared Duty.\" USA
Today, May 11, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-11-chertoff_x.htm]{.underline}](http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-11-chertoff_x.htm)

Hunt, Harald D. \"Masters Of Disaster: Helping Businesses Weather The
Storm.\" North Texas e-News, May 12, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_34104.shtml]{.underline}](http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_34104.shtml)

\[Excerpt: \"Two out of five companies that experience a catastrophic
event or prolonged business outage never resume operations, according to
the Gartner Group, a consulting firm providing research and analysis on
the global technology industry. One out of three firms that do manage to
come back go out of business within two years.\"\]

Merzer, Martin. \"Gov. Bush Urges Readiness For Hurricane Season.\"

Miami Herald, May 12, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14550515.htm]{.underline}](http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14550515.htm)

\[Excerpt: \"Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center,
expressed concern over thousands of roofs in Broward and Miami-Dade
damaged last October by Hurricane Wilma that still are not repaired.
\'Some people are in for a rude awakening when the rainy season begins
in a few weeks,\' Mayfield said. As tragic as last season was, it could
have been even more disastrous, Mayfield said. The core of Hurricane
Dennis narrowly missed Pensacola, Katrina\'s center barely missed New
Orleans, the worst of Hurricane Rita bypassed Galveston and Houston and
Wilma\'s strongest winds struck Florida\'s sparsely populated southwest
tip. \'It could have been much, much worse,\' Mayfield said.\"\]

\[Another Excerpt: \"Florida Gov. Jeb Bush: \'Floridians who have the
ability to prepare must prepare so we can focus our assistance on those
who really need it. It makes it a lot harder when people line up in
their Lexuses or Mercedes to get ice and water at a public distribution
site when the Publix is open a block away\'.\"\]

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, N-430

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

\(301\) 447-1262, voice

\(301\) 447-1598, fax

wayne.blanchard@dhs.gov

[[http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu]{.underline}](http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu)

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