InfoGram

May 12, 2005

NOTE: This InfoGram will be distributed weekly to provide members of the Emergency Services Sector with information concerning the protection of their critical infrastructures. For further information, contact the Emergency Management and Response - Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) at (301) 447-1325 or by email at emr-isac@fema.dhs.gov.

Critical Infrastructure Interdependencies

According to Homeland Security Presidential Directive-7, dated December 2003, the critical infrastructure sectors of the United States include the emergency services, food and agriculture, water, public health, defense industry, information technology, telecommunications, energy, transportation, banking and finance, chemical, and postal and shipping. The people, facilities, and functions that comprise these national critical infrastructures are highly sophisticated, inter-reliant, and complex. Furthermore, they include multi-disciplinary systems that work together in processes that are inescapable and substantially interdependent.

During four years of operation, the EMR-ISAC learned there is a tendency by some community leaders to prepare plans independently and not consider the real interdependent relationship among the emergency services and the other critical infrastructure sectors identified in the preceding paragraph. This is a potential problem because understanding and acting upon these interdependent connections are essential to protecting all critical infrastructures, particularly those of the emergency services. To solve this problem, municipal leaders should adopt behaviors that handle local critical infrastructures in a combined fashion as a "system of systems."

Operational planning for all hazards with deliberate consideration for the interdependent links among the critical infrastructure sectors will help reduce the cascading effect on all aspects of a community when a catastrophe occurs. As a small example, thorough planning for the next major power outage can likely prevent the extensive loss of emergency communications (including computer-aided dispatch and 9-1-1 systems), water distribution, fuel supply, transportation, refrigeration, etc. American society is so dependent on electrical systems that a long-term power loss can even degrade public health and safety. However, the EMR-ISAC agrees that the incapacitation of the emergency services in any incident and in any locality is not an option for first responders and the citizens they serve.

LNG: A Terrorism Target

Numerous terrorism experts throughout the country write that the risk of terrorism in the United States will continue into the foreseeable future. These specialists maintain that the nation's critical infrastructures are primary targets for a terrorist attack. They are particularly concerned about gas and oil facilities, but especially those of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry.

In a recent report prepared by counterterrorism expert, Richard Clark, he wrote that the consequences of an attack on an urban LNG facility or an LNG tanker "could include fires that would damage homes, hospitals, a chemical plant, and other infrastructure, depending upon where the attack occurred." His explanation supported a government study indicating that a terrorist attack on a LNG facility or tanker could unleash a spill and intense fire that might cause mass casualties and devastate the local economy. Another study by the Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) clarified that liquefied natural gas fires will immediately burn more intensely than crude oil or gasoline fires, but over a shorter period of time. This SNL report conveyed that extraordinary emergency response considerations and measures are necessary to operate in the excessive radiant heat caused by LNG fires.

The EMR-ISAC proposes that the possibility for horrific results from an LNG disaster should motivate communities within LNG proximity to understand the risks, ascertain what needs protection (i.e., critical infrastructures), and learn how to implement countermeasures in a time-efficient and resource-restrained manner. Making sound decisions about how critical infrastructures (e.g., emergency services) are secured through preventive measures rather than reactive consequence management is vital to survivability and continuity of operations.

Introduction to COOP: IS-547

IS-547 is a five hour web-based course designed for senior managers and all those directly involved in the continuity of operations (COOP) planning effort. The course provides a working knowledge of the COOP guidance found in Federal Preparedness Circular 65, "Federal Executive Branch Continuity of Operations." This online course also provides activities to enhance COOP programs. Topics contained in the course include an overview of what COOP is and is not and the elements of a viable COOP program:

• Essential Functions
• Delegations of Authority
• Succession Planning
• Alternate Facilities
• Interoperable Communications
• Vital Records and Databases
• Human Capital
• Test, Training, and Exercise Program
• Plans for Devolution and Reconstitution

Remembering that COOP is a desired outcome of critical infrastructure protection (CIP), the EMR-ISAC encourages participation in this new course posted on 9 May 2005. More information about IS-547 can be obtained at: http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is547.asp.

Basic Disaster Awareness

Man-made and natural disasters seem to follow no rules. Therefore, it is too difficult to predict the complexity, time, and location of the next catastrophe. Additionally, such events differ in the degree to which emergency medical and public health consequences occur and the extent to which they disrupt the emergency medical and public health infrastructures.

The Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Emergency Medical Services, and DelValle Institute for Emergency Preparedness collaborated on a manual to provide basic disaster awareness for the emergency medical and public health services. This valuable and understandable tool can be downloaded at: http://www.bphc.org/director/bda_intro.asp.

"The key principle of disaster care is to do the greatest good for the greatest number of patients, while the objective of conventional medical care is to do the greatest good for the individual patient."