National Dialogue on Preparedness Preparedness Policy and Guidance

I'd suggest that voluntary participation is not sufficient. The response is limited not only by those who have legitimate deficits in financing or expertise, but also by those who believe it's too much effort since "something like that has never happened here before". Argh! Somewhere along the way I picked up a saying that people don’t want the burden of rules and regulations until something bad happens. Only then do... more »

Forget trying to save refugees of the bombed out cities. The people on the rural farms and ranches don't have the resources to take them in and care for them.

I suggest you...redefine the NIMS requirements for higher education. The current NIMS training is a field level focus on how ICS operates. Many institutions, especially those that do not have their own public safety, need training on ICS that focuses on the relationship between an institution's emergency operations center and the field responders. Promote NIMS training that targets the ICS/EOC interface and establishing... more »

Forget trying to save refugees of the bombed out cities. The people on the rural farms and ranches don't have the resources to take them in and care for them.

We have spent the almost a decade trying to decide how to spend billions of dollars on how to mitigate (prevent) terrorism. We need DHS and FEMA to clearly outline the future of how we can become a truly sustainable country from both natural and human-caused threats. Take programs like the UASI or Regional Catastrophic and make these all hazard regional resources. What are we vulnerable too...

The following is input submitted to a recent ASTHO Survey on H1N1 Policy Barriers. It may be useful to submit the same input to this DHS/FEMA venue. Thank you.

The nation could benefit from something akin to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), but for medical countermeasures. Such a group (an advisory committee on medical countermeasures or “ACMC”) would follow the ACIP model in structure and methods.... more »

We need to consider these mandates for any large building;these buildings are like large cities, with many of the same security concerns. DHS-FEMA need to mandate by laws or codes mandatory training for a large building's chief engineer and maintenance staff; and make these chief engineer's requests mandatory policy for the building's General Manager and owner(s) regardless of the bottom line. The 9/11 Commission saw... more »

A lot of grant money is being directed to radio interoperability, which is good but many jurisdictions do not have and cannot afford sufficient radio operability. Jurisdictions must ensure that their first responder's radios work inside all large commercial and high rise buildings within their response area. Future building and fire codes must mandate in-building antennas.

Require all governmental agencies and other critical infrastructure to develop and implement EMP protection and recovery plans in the event of an EMP event, man made or natural. That can include mitigation by using purchases of replacement parts that are sensitive to EMP and placing in appropriate harden locations, mandating future purchases include EMP protection be standard and other steps.

what about teaching people in the event of a earthquake, bombing or buiding collapse, instead of duck and cover, I read recently that there is a TRIANGLE of safe space created next to any object where a person can lie flat - prior to reading that article or watching that video (I can't remember the source) I did not realize that it was even a possibility. the information came from a man who studied collapsing buildings... more »

The key to saving lives is information

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 »

Require that all LEOs, EMS and FD personnel undergo tactical 1st aid/medical care training. The idea being that after an active shooter scenario, there will be more qualified personnel to treat the wounded. Another benefit is that the EMS/FD will have better training and skills to deal with such scenarios or other involving active attacks and the training that all of the personnel recieves will be shared. Furthermore,... more »

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.