National Dialogue on Preparedness Preparedness Policy and Guidance

The disarmament movement for decades has hyped that with nukes; all will die or it will be so bad you'll wish you had. Most have bought into it, now thinking it futile, bordering on lunacy, to try to learn how to survive a nuclear blast and radioactive fallout.

Unfortunately, most govt officials have, too, as they are focused on #1- Interdiction, and #2- COG (Continuity of Govt) for when #1 fails, and have largely ignored... more »

Provide funding, oversight and guidance for all levels of incident management teams. Develop a national system of training and certification for Types I, II, and III teams. Smaller Type III incidents may cross state boundaries, but because certifications are set up by each state, other states don't have to honor them, complicating the response. It could also make the transition from Type III to Type II more efficient.... more »

Develop and implement a professional career track for emergency planners. Ten years ago in North Carolina, we had one all-hazards plan and one hazard-specific one (hurricanes). Today we still have the one base plan and 15 hazard-specific ones. During this period, EM planning postions dropped from 14 to 9. Other state agencies have increased their preparedness planning, but we do not have a standard planning process.... more »

Require agencies that have access to interoperable radio systems to include their use in their written policies.

I work as a police/fire dispatcher for a local agency in Colorado. I'm a big fan of our radio system. The mutual aid channels are set up well and easy to understand. Working in the Denver metro area, I have the ability to communicate with any agency in the state.

The big problem is that we have the technology,... more »

As Co-Chairman of the DHS Mass Fatality Management Subcouncil of the Public Health Sector Coordinating Council, I strongly suggest that the federal government establish a mass fatality management plan for all man-made and natural disasters. The Plan would include all the appropriate resources of the federal, state, local, tribal and private sector and how and when those resources will be applied. The dignified recovery,... more »

I suggest you make sure all outreach is made accessible to people with disabilities such as availability in alt. formats, etc and that you work with disability organizations at the local and national levels in any educational outreach activities.

As our nation unilaterally disarms, and faces a terrorist nuclear threat, we should at least have an active nuclear civil defense program.

Consider what the Russians are doing:

http://rt.com/prime-time/2010-07-12/moscow-bomb-shelters-outskirts.html/print

Moscow arms against nuclear attack
12 July, 2010, 21:42

Nearly 5,000 new emergency bomb shelters will be built in Moscow by 2012 to save people in case of potential... more »

Include the hazards "Solar Storm" and "Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP)" in all-hazards planning and mitigation at all levels of government.

Solar storms and EMP's have the ability to knock the United States back 200 years in time by severely disabling electrical and electronic systems. The current population of the U.S. cannot be sustained and estimates that casualties may be up to 90%.

Critical infrastructure that relies... more »

I suggest you give attention to the importance of spatial interoperability to the conduct of emergency response operations. No attention is being paid to how spatial orientation should be maintained in responding to an incident, particularly if an injury or similar localized event occurs and rapid response/evacuation is necessary. Maps provide graphic pictures of incident areas but are completely useless for precisely... more »

As I reviewed the proposed membership of the Task Force, I have noted the glaring absence of representation from the emergency medical services (EMS) community and emergency physicians. EMS providers and emergency physicians are the members of the emergency care system who will play key primary roles in a disaster response, regardless of its etiology. Although I commend the inclusion of firefighters, the specific designation... more »

Please appreciate the fact that homeland security is still a new discipline and that it takes time understand and incorporate National preparedness doctrine into State and local planning and preparedness efforts. To that end, focus on updating the existing doctrine as opposed to recreating it. For example, there are some good National preparedness elements (e.g. Prevent/Protect/Respond/Recover mission areas), some things... more »

Require that all medical school students and nursing school students learn/practice disaster medicine and include them in exercises and other such events. We can also utilize the students for NDMS' DMAT teams. In disasters, they may not have all of what they are learning to use and need to have some idea of how to manage during a disaster.

Vulnerability is the combination of risk of an incident times the probability minus the mitigation efforts employed to reduce the impact of that incident. Regardless of the cause of a presidentially declared incident (Flood, storm, earthquake, or human incident, etc), under the Stafford act, all jurisdictions are vulnerable to the financial vulnerability of the non-federal share, or local match, of the FEMA Public Assistance... more »

Make sure that you incorporate community feedback or input when making policy decisions that will impact them. This can be done utilizing community engagement meetings.

California has aggressive laws requiring disclosure of known natural hazards, and I believe there should be similar laws across the country. If you don't know what the particular hazards are in your immediate area, how can you prepare for them? I live in Washington State, in the foothills of what is considered one of the most dangerous volcano's in the world. When I bought my house, there was no disclosure about the volcano... more »