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(Source: Community & Regional Resilience Institute)
Recognizing that resilience building is an imperative for the nation’s local communities and their critical infrastructure sectors, the Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) examined the Community Resilience System Initiative (CRSI) (PDF, 375 Kb). CRSI was a collaborative process of the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) involving more than 150 practitioners and researchers charged with determining what American communities need in order to become more resilient to all hazards, and also to provide a concrete course of action to support communities in their resilience-building efforts.
Consequently, CARRI recently released a “roadmap” (PDF, 4 Mb) to provide America’s communities with a set of tools and processes that will help prepare for disasters and improve their resilience. The report, titled “Community Resilience System Initiative (CRSI) Steering Committee Final Report—a Roadmap to Increased Community Resilience,” builds on over three years of academic research, practical experience, broad collaboration with partner communities and other national stakeholders.
According to CARRI, the web-friendly process can help any community assess its capacity to withstand significant disturbances and help them create an approach to recovery. “By creating a vision for the future and establishing the necessary actions to improve overall resilience to disasters and other disturbances, this system will help people prepare for—and recover from—any challenge.”
(Source: DHS)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Infrastructure Protection announced the Active Shooter Awareness Virtual Roundtable for the benefit of private sector and government partners, to include critical infrastructure owners and operators, and officials with responsibility for risk, security, and emergency management functions.
The EMR-ISAC confirmed that the “Roundtable” is scheduled for 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, 27 September. Its purposes are to help attendees prepare for the possibility of an active shooter incident, raise awareness of common triggers and characteristics of active shooters, and promote an understanding of how to prepare for potential incidents.
This free, online interactive “Roundtable” will include video, commentary by behavioral and security experts, and a question-and-answer session. It is highly recommended by DHS to enhance local preparedness to deal with an active shooter situation and to recognize behavior before it turns deadly.
Register and log in for this event through Visual Webcaster. For more information, contact activeshooterawareness@dhs.gov.
(Source: American Chemistry Council)
A service of the American Chemistry Council, the Chemical Transportation Emergency Center (CHEMTREC) is a 24x7 public service hotline available to firefighters, law enforcement officials, and other personnel who are the first responders in emergency situations. With links to the largest on-call network of chemical and hazardous material experts in the world, including chemical and response specialists, public emergency services, private contractors, and more than four million accessible Materials Safety Data Sheets, CHEMTREC provides crucial assistance during incidents ranging from minor to critical.
The EMR-ISAC learned that CHEMTREC has grown and enhanced the services it provides beyond emergency incident response. It also has the capability to assist departments and agencies in their disaster recovery efforts and serve as the crisis communications service, providing crucial information to organization personnel and mass emergency broadcast services during a crisis. The CHEMTREC Operations Center staff can additionally offer technical services to participating companies regarding product use information.
According to the managing director, “CHEMTREC has been providing immediate assistance to emergency responders to ensure they can properly address any hazardous situation that they are facing.”
More information about this service relevant to first responders can be seen at this link.
(Source: National Wildfire Coordination Group)
The EMR-ISAC noted that the National Wildfire Coordination Group Risk Management Committee created the SAFENET Field Card. SAFENET is both a form and process designed to be used by personnel assigned to wildland fire incidents. (The field card can be accessed at the left bar of the SAFENET website.)
SAFENET is a method for the prompt reporting and timely resolution of safety and health concerns encountered on wildland fire assignments, all-hazard operations, or other related work environments. The information provided on the form will also help collect important, safety-related data at the National Interagency Fire Center to determine long-term trends and problem areas.
SAFENET was originally intended for wildland fire operations, but can be used to for training and all-hazard events. In summary, it is a forum for firefighters to voice their safety concerns, facilitate problem solving, and to aid in identifying trends as they relate to firefighter safety.
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September 15, 2011 InfoGram (PDF, 43 Kb)The U.S. Fire Administration/EMR-ISAC does not endorse the organizations sponsoring linked websites, and does not endorse the views they express or the products/services they offer.
This INFOGRAM may contain copyrighted material that was not specifically authorized by the copyright owner. EMR-ISAC personnel believe this constitutes "fair use" of copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material contained within this document for your own purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
DHS and the FBI encourage recipients of this document to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to DHS and/or the FBI. The DHS National Operation Center (NOC) can be reached by telephone at 202-282-9685 or by email at NOC.Fusion@dhs.gov.
The FBI regional phone numbers can be found online at www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm
For information affecting the private sector and critical infrastructure, contact the National Infrastructure Coordinating Center (NICC), a sub-element of the NOC. The NICC can be reached by telephone at 202-282-9201 or by email at NICC@dhs.gov.
When available, each report submitted should include the date, time, location, type of activity, number of people and type of equipment used for the activity, the name of the submitting company or organization, and a designated point of contact.
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