**September 18, 2007 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project
Report**

\(1\) COMMUNICATING AND DECISION MAKING IN HURRICANE EMERGENCIES:

Lindell, Michael K., Carla S. Prater, Walter Gillis Peacock.
\"Organizational Communication and Decision Making for Hurricane
Emergencies.\" Pomona, California: Hurricane Forecast Socioeconomic
Workshop, February 16-18, 2005, 18 pages. Accessed at:

<http://www.sip.ucar.edu/pdf/02_Communications_and_Organizational_Decision_Making_for_Hurricane_Emergencies.pdf>

\[Abstract: \"This paper reviews research and theory on the processes by
which emergency relevant organizations communicate with each other and
with the population at risk from a hurricane strike. The technology for
hurricane forecast, warning, and protective action has made significant
advances in the past 20 years, but there is a disturbing potential for
hurricane strikes that cause a large number of casualties in addition to
the predictably large economic cost from property destruction.
Consequently, social science research is needed to expand the existing
knowledge base on the response of households, businesses, and special
facilities to hurricane warnings. Available research suggests local
officials need better information about evacuation time estimates,
evacuation costs, and the potential loss of life in a late evacuation.
They also need improved decision support systems that will facilitate
the choice of appropriate protective actions when hurricanes threaten
their jurisdictions.\"\]

\(2\) CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON \"IS DHS MEASURING UP?\"

House Committee on Homeland Security. The Grades are IN! - Is the
Department of Homeland Security Measuring Up? Washington, DC: Full
Committee Hearing, September 18, 2007. Accessed at:
[[http://homeland.house.gov/hearings/index.asp?ID=86]{.underline}](http://homeland.house.gov/hearings/index.asp?ID=86)

Government Accountability Office. Department of Homeland Security:
Progress Report on Implementation of Mission and Management Functions
(Statement of David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States,
Before the House Committee on Homeland Security). Washington, DC:
GAO-07-1240T, September 18, 2007.

Accessed at:
[[http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d071240t.pdf]{.underline}](http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d071240t.pdf)

\[Excerpt: \"Key underlying themes have affected DHS\'s implementation
efforts. These include strategies to achieve agency transformation,
strategic planning and results management, risk management, information
sharing, and partnerships and coordination. For example, we have
designated DHS\'s implementation and transformation as high-risk. While
DHS has made progress in transforming its component agencies into a
fully functioning department, it has not yet addressed key elements of
the transformation process, such as developing a comprehensive
transformation strategy. In addition, transparency plays an important
role in transformation efforts, but DHS\'s decision making has not
always been transparent and we have encountered access issues in our
engagements. DHS also has not yet fully adopted and applied a risk
management approach in implementing its mission and management
functions. Some DHS component agencies have taken steps to do so, but
this approach is not yet used department wide. In addition, DHS has
taken steps to share information and coordinate with homeland security
partners, but has faced difficulties in these partnership efforts.\"
(p.3)\]

\(3\) DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY:

Chertoff, Micheal. \"Brazenly Prepared.\" Leadership Journal, September
14, 2007. Accessed at:
[[http://www.dhs.gov/journal/leadership/]{.underline}](http://www.dhs.gov/journal/leadership/)

\[In Full: \"Maybe the New York Times is miffed because I\'ve criticized
their article about the 9/11 anniversary (\"As 9/11 Nears, a Debate
Rises: How Much Tribute Is Enough?\" Sept. 2, 2007). But Thursday\'s
editorial page (Sep 13} featured a broadside against our Department of
Homeland Security that was a perfect storm of misrepresentation and
misunderstanding. Titled, \"Department of Brazen Bureaucracy,\" the
Times charged that we had \"flouted\" Congressional lawmakers by
\"claiming\" that the Secretary (whether me or my successors) has the
responsibility to coordinate national emergencies. The Times also
editorialized that our proposed national response framework worsens
bureaucratic inertia by creating 15 regional disaster areas with 15
separate plans.

I wish the writers had done their homework. They\'ve misread the law and
the new national response framework. Worse yet, they are arguing against
the very type of detailed planning that is required if we are to
successfully confront the wide range of emerging catastrophic threats
that can surface in our new century. And this is where the danger of
pre-9/11 thinking arises.

First, let\'s clear the legal underbrush. Contrary to the Times, the
Secretary of Homeland Security has the legal authority to coordinate
federal domestic emergency response. This is made clear in both the
Homeland Security Act of 2002 which established the Department and the
2006 Amendments to the Act mentioned in the Times editorial. The
amendments state that the Administrator of FEMA \"shall report to the
Secretary\" and \"is the principal advisor to the President, the
Homeland Security Council, and the Secretary for all matters relating to
emergency management in the United States.\"

All of these statutory elements are captured in - and consistent with -
the new national response framework.

Accusing us of flouting laws which they misread is, however, the tip of
iceberg of what\'s wrong with the Times editorial piece. There appears
to be something deeper going on as well.

It\'s revealed by a parting shot in the editorial, where it charges that
DHS will feed \"bureaucratic inertia\" by creating \"15 regional
disaster areas with separate operational and strategic plans.\" This
just misreads the new policy. The national response framework, in fact,
does not create 15 new geographic regions with separate plans. What we
are doing is creating 15 different nationwide plans to deal with 15 very
different types of disaster scenarios that are concrete threats to our
country. This planning effort includes not only upgrading plans for
traditional disasters, such as major earthquakes and major hurricanes.
It embraces planning to address newly emerging risks, such as multiple
attacks by improvised explosive devices; an attack by radiological
(\"dirty\") bombs; food contamination; cyber attack; and pandemic
influenza.

Developing, training to, and exercising plans for multiple threats and
very different threat scenarios isn\'t a recipe for \"bureaucratic
inertia\" as the Times asserts. It\'s simple common sense. The plan for
mass evacuation from an approaching major hurricane must be very
different from the plan to shelter in place and minimize human contact
during a biological attack. And both of these plans would be very
different from the plan to mitigate a cyber attack. It would be reckless
indeed to believe that one plan can fit all these varied threats.

Why are we broadening the nature of planning like this? Simply put,
before 9/11, the main focus of FEMA was natural disasters. But our
current 15 planning scenarios reflect the fact that we live now in a
post-9/11 world. Natural disasters remain at the forefront of
preparation. But so, too, must bomb attacks like those in Europe, Asia
and the Middle East. Biological threats also cannot be ignored.
Congress\' purpose in establishing a broad-gauged Department of Homeland
Security was precisely to integrate the ability to respond to all
hazards, including those posed by 21st century terrorism and the
existence of weapons of mass destruction. We owe the public a planning
process that takes account of these new hazards.

Perhaps this truth is inconvenient to the Times writers. But nostalgia
for a time when terrorist WMDs were not a real risk is not a reason to
return to pre-9/11 thinking.\"\]

\(4\) FEMA AND DISASTER AID FRAUD:

News-Press.com (FL). \"Investigate All Cases of FEMA Disaster Aid Fraud:

It\'s Our Taxpayer Money.\" September 18, 2007. Accessed at:

<http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/OPINION/709180342/1015>

\[Excerpt: \"We can\'t help but feel irritated when greedy people scam
the government for taxpayers\' dollars while others who follow the rules
get less than they need. At the same time we are shocked at the fraud
being uncovered from records of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency\'s distribution of \$1.2 billion in disaster aid after the 2004
hurricanes.

The News-Press and other newspapers had to sue to get these records, and
the research has been enlightening. FEMA claims it has recovered
thousands of dollars of overpayments, but there are cases not being
investigated. Two such cases were highlighted Monday in The News-Press
and news-press.com\.... These cases, and others like them, need to be
investigated, and our federal government needs to do a better job of
keeping tabs on how it spends our money.\"\]

\(5\) GLOBAL WARMING:

Climate Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of
East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. Accessed at
[[http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/]{.underline}](http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/)
\[Check out the \"Global Average Surface Temperatures\" chart near the
bottom of the homepage,\]

\(6\) MITIGATION:

FEMA. Mitigation Best Practices Portfolio. Washington, DC: FEMA.

Accessed at:
[[http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/bestpractices/index.shtm]{.underline}](http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/bestpractices/index.shtm)

\(7\) NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM:

FEMA. Watermark, Issue 2, 2007. Washington, DC: FEMA. Accessed at:

[[http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2604]{.underline}](http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2604)

Maurstad, David. \"Northeastern U.S. Is Vulnerable.\" Watermark, No. 1,
2007, pp. 6-8. Accessed at:
[[http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2426]{.underline}](http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2426)

\[Excerpt: \"There is no question: areas in the Northeast are at real
risk. Yet, residents remain ill-prepared for the risk of flooding. Even
in the highest-risk areas-the Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs)-where
coverage should be 100 percent, less than 30 percent of properties are
covered by flood insurance. According to a RAND Corporation study
released in early 2006, only 28 percent of homes in high-risk flood
areas in the Northeast are covered by federal flood insurance, compared
to 61 percent in the South. Outside high-risk areas, just 0.6 percent of
homes in the Northeast are covered by flood insurance.\"\]

\(8\) NATURAL HAZARDS PREPAREDNESS AND RESILIENCE NEW ZEALAND RESEARCH
FORUM:

University of Canterbury (NZ). 3rd Societal Planning for Natural Hazards
Research Forum. Christchurch, NZ: University of Canterbury, February 20,
2007, 17 pages. Accessed at:
[http://resorgs.org.nz/3rd%20SP%20Forum/3rd%20SP%20Forum%20-%20Proceedings.pdf](http://resorgs.org.nz/3rd SP Forum/3rd SP Forum - Proceedings.pdf)

\[Includes summaries of presentations on:

Resilient Organisations Programme

Business Resilience

Modelling Resilience: Community, Family and Institutional Perspectives
Measuring Community Resilience Case Study Research: Lessons for Building
Sustainable, Hazard-Resilient Coastal Communities based on experiences
in the USA Gulf Coast, Indonesia, The Maldives and New Zealand Joint
Centre for Disaster Research - Massey University and GNS Science GNS
Hazards Programme- Society\'s readiness and response to hazards
Geological Hazards & Society Programme - Obj 1: Policy and land use
planning for natural hazard reduction Pacific Island Disaster Reduction
WSSI Methods to Mitigate Loss in the Third World SEATTLE FAULT
SCENARIO - A Decision-Making Tool for Earthquake Risk Social and
Economic Recovery from Natural Disasters through Community Resilience\]

\(9\) PREPAREDNESS:

Bolen, Andy. \"Homeland Security Urges Utah To Prepare For Future
Disasters. BYU NewsNet, September 17, 2007. Accessed at:
[[http://nn.byu.edu/story.cfm/65293]{.underline}](http://nn.byu.edu/story.cfm/65293)

\[Excerpts: \"The United States Department of Homeland Security spoke to
Utah\'s Private Sector of Homeland Security Coordinating Council on
Friday about being prepared. Assistant Secretaries Robert Stephan and Al
Martinez-Fonts represented the U.S. department. \"We are trying to
create a culture of preparedness for the whole country,\" Fonts
said\.... It is important that businesses across the state and the
nation work together in preparing against terrorist attacks and natural
disasters, Stephan said. \'International terrorism is not going away in
our lifetime, and Mother Nature is not going away in anyone\'s life
time,\' he said. \'It is only a matter of time before Mother Nature
opens up and swallows a whole city\'.\"\]

Chertoff, Michael. \"Americans Must Be Ready in Event of Disaster.\"
Government Technology, September 17, 2007. Accessed at:

[[http://www.govtech.com/gt/144265?topic=117693]{.underline}](http://www.govtech.com/gt/144265?topic=117693)

\[Excerpt: \"Clearly, when it comes to disaster preparedness and
response, millions of Americans remain in a state of denial \--
precisely when risks appear to be rising. Over the past year alone,
across America, people have lost lives or property in incidents ranging
from floods to tornadoes to wildfires. And that is apart from the threat
from terrorists who could attack without warning and inflict serious
damage and loss of life. By their nature, disasters can be
unpredictable. First responders can\'t always get to everyone
immediately. If your community is affected, it may take hours or days
before they reach you.

Residents who refuse to evacuate are not only risking their own lives
and the lives of family members but they are needlessly putting first
responders in harm\'s way if a rescue is ultimately needed.\"\]

\(10\) RECOVERY:

Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana. GulfGov Reports Outlines
State Progress in Spending Federal Aid (Press Release). Baton Rouge, LA:
PAR, September 17, 2007. Accessed at:
[[http://www.la-par.org/article.cfm?id=218&cateid=1]{.underline}](http://www.la-par.org/article.cfm?id=218&cateid=1)

\[From Press Release: \"The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana
and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government today released a
report on federal funding in response to the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and
Rita. Spending Federal Disaster Aid is an analysis of two major types of
aid being used for reconstruction and economic recovery. This analysis
of FEMA Public Assistance (PA) grants and Community Development Block
Grants (CDBG) demonstrates many of the intergovernmental challenges and
problems federal, state, and local officials face as they navigate
through the stops and starts of the two-year-old recovery effort toward
long-term stability for the region. Among the report\'s findings\... The
amount of federal aid provided to Mississippi and Louisiana is not
proportional to the amount of damage each state suffered.\"\]

Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana GulfGov Reports: Spending
Federal Disaster Aid: Comparing the Process and Priorities in Louisiana
and Mississippi in the Wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Baton Rouge,
LA: PAR and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, September
17, 2007, 30 pages.

Accessed at:
[[http://www.la-par.org/Publications/PDF/GulfGovFederalDisasterAid.pdf]{.underline}](http://www.la-par.org/Publications/PDF/GulfGovFederalDisasterAid.pdf)

\(11\) RISK COMMUNICATION AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS:

Paton, Douglas. \"Preparing for Natural Hazards: The Role of Community
Trust.\" Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 16, No. 3, 2007,
pp.370-379. Ordering information and description accessible at:

<http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkhtml&contentId=1611149>

\[From abstract: \"Purpose - This paper seeks to examine how perception
of the relationship between people and sources of information influence
hazard preparedness and how trust in civic emergency planning agencies
responsible for risk communication influences preparedness decisions. It
aims to hypothesize that: familiarity with and information about hazards
predicts the relative importance of trust; and that levels of trust are
influenced by community characteristics\....

Practical implications - The relationship between people and civic
agencies and the information provided must be accommodated in planning
risk communication. The analysis provides an evidence-based framework
for the development of risk communication strategies based on community
engagement principles.\"\]

\(12\) SPECIAL NEEDS POPULATIONS:

Phillips, Brenda D. and Betty Hearn Morrow. \"Social Science Research
Needs: Focus on Vulnerable Populations, Forecasting, and Warnings.\"
Natural Hazards Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, August 2007, pp. 61-68.

\[Abstract: \"This paper assesses the state of social science specific
to populations at risk vis-avis weather forecasting and warnings.
At-risk populations are defined as groups historically disadvantaged by
socioeconomic status: patterns of discrimination and exclusion, or both;
a lack of political representation; or cultural distancing. These
contexts marginalize some groups, leaving them less likely to receive,
interpret, and respond appropriately to forecasts and warnings. We give
an overview of key concepts from vulnerability research and suggest
research topics emanating from the social science literature relevant to
forecasting and warning.\"\]

\(13\) TERRORISM:

Risk Analysis \-- An International Journal, Special Issue on Terrorism.
Vol. 27, No. 3, June 2007. Table of contents, article abstracts and
ordering information accessible at:
[[http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/risk/27/3]{.underline}](http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/risk/27/3)

Wall Street Journal. \"How Mecca Uprising Helped Give Birth to al Qaeda
\-- New Book Documents U.S. Participation in 1979 Mosque Siege.\"
September 18, 2007. Accessed at:

<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119007965327330717.html?mod=todays_us_page_one>

\[Excerpt: \"The wave of Islamist violence that culminated in the Sept.

11, 2001, attacks can be traced to a sunny November morning almost 28
years ago. Then, hundreds of Islamist radicals from several countries
seized at gunpoint Islam\'s holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque of Mecca,
with nearly 100,000 pilgrims inside. This first-ever operation of global
jihad \-- an inspiration to al Qaeda\'s future outrages \-- sought to
spark a world-wide clash of civilizations and restore the glory of
Islam\.... Osama bin Laden \-- whose family had constructed much of the
mosque \-- has cited the bloodbath as a major reason for turning against
the House of Saud. A new book by Wall Street Journal foreign
correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov tells the story of this drama, and of
the world-wide upheaval it presaged.\"\]

\(14\) WAR ON TERROR:

Hudson, Audrey. \"Clock to Tick Down U.S. Privacy.\" Washington Times,
September 18, 2007. Accessed at:

[[http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070918/NATION/109180049/1001]{.underline}](http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070918/NATION/109180049/1001)

\[Excerpt: \"A \'Surveillance Society Clock\' created by the American
Civil Liberties Union will symbolize the encroachment of government
spying on private citizens as part of the war against terrorism - and
the tick tock is fast approaching midnight\.... The online clock is
patterned after the \'Doomsday Clock,\' created by the Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists in 1947 to warn against a nuclear holocaust. Midnight
symbolized a total \'1984\'-style \'surveillance society\'.\"

The ACLU \"Surveillance Society Clock\" can be accessed at:

[[http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/surveillancesocietyclock.html]{.underline}](http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/surveillancesocietyclock.html)
\]

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

wayne.blanchard@dhs.gov

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

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