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.
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The 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virginia in August, as well as earthquakes in southern Texas and Ohio last year, put earthquake preparedness more at the forefront for areas of the country that aren’t usually known for earthquake activity. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently produced the QuakeSmart Toolkit through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). The Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) found the Toolkit to be business-centric and designed to give owners actionable guidance on things they can do to help mitigate the damage an earthquake can do to their personnel, property, and to help lessen any financial losses that might be incurred.
QuakeSmart has three-steps:
The more prepared businesses and industries are for earthquakes, the better prepared a community is as a whole. In addition, ensuring the business and industry in your area are still operating helps keep the supply chain for emergency supplies and services open and running when it is most needed. “If businesses are unable to continue operations after an earthquake event, this could impact effective flow of critical products and services (i.e. food, medicine, utilities, financial, etc.), limit individual and community livelihood, and significantly delay disaster recovery.”
Bulk Cash Smuggling (BCS) is a result of criminal activity, with sources of illicit income including human and contraband smuggling, bribery, extortion, fraud, and illegal gambling. BCS occurs as the money from criminal activities travel from location to location for collection by higher levels of management in a criminal organization. The National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center (BCSC), operated by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is a single, central source of information and support to help law enforcement agencies in identifying, investigating, and disrupting bulk cash smuggling activities in the United States and around the world.
BCS has evolved in response to increasingly rigorous efforts to limit the laundering of dirty money. In order to avoid the scrutiny of law enforcement, criminal organizations increasingly utilize non-traditional methods when moving dirty money. To aid these smuggling schemes, criminal organizations often transport their illicit funds via the roadways to destinations throughout the U.S. and abroad.
Working closely with other law enforcement agencies, the BCSC identifies, disrupts, and dismantles criminal organizations utilizing BCS to move their illicit funds. The BCSC reinforces law enforcement efforts by disseminating real-time tactical information, as well as providing outreach, education, and training in this specialized aspect of financial crimes investigation. It is a single point of contact for federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement to question bulk cash smuggling investigations.
The BCSC is co-located with the Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC). The Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) learned that the BCSC is a 24/7 operation, and the services are for law enforcement agencies only.
Hybrid electric buses are becoming more commonplace in jurisdictions trying to cut fuel budgets and go “green” by reducing emissions and pollutants. The EMR-ISAC found that some localities, such as Reading, PA, and San Francisco, CA, are either replacing older buses or entire fleets of buses with various types of hybrid electric models.
The problem is that while the makes and models of the few hybrid electric cars available are fairly well known, it can be much more difficult to identify a hybrid bus on sight. In addition, the systems powering the bus can work slightly differently, are bigger and heavier, and the batteries can be located in various places on the bus making them difficult to find or reach.
This article in Fire Engineering discusses one particular make and model of hybrid electric bus and details the types of systems it includes. The author recommends meeting with public transit officials and bus travel companies in your area to determine what kinds of hybrid electric buses may be operating in your area and getting the training necessary to respond to incidents involving them.
A strong partnership exists between the National Fire Academy (NFA) and State and local Fire Training Systems to advance professional development in the fire service. This partnership has resulted in the ongoing development and delivery of NFA’s 2-, 6-, and 10-day courses at a regional level.
Many volunteer and career fire service personnel cannot take time off to attend resident programs on the NFA campus in Emmitsburg, MD. 2-day courses delivered regionally provide training opportunities within the State and local communities. The EMR-ISAC notes that courses are selected and co-sponsored jointly by NFA and State and local fire training systems.
The 6- and 10-day regionally-offered courses mirror courses normally taught at NFA's resident facility. They provide the fire service and allied professionals the opportunity to attend NFA on-campus courses within their geographical region. NFA provides two instructors per course, paralleling on-campus delivery, plus all training materials. Examples of these courses include “Fire Cause Determination for Company Officers” and “Command and Control of Incident Operations.”
The regional contact person is listed with each course. More information about courses available at the campus in Emmitsburg or online can be found on the NFA webpage.
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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Last Reviewed: April 4, 2012
Happy New Year! Add this resolution to the top of your list: test all home smoke alarms each month - starting today! January 1, 2013 @ 10:04 AM ET
U.S. Fire Administration, 16825 S. Seton Ave., Emmitsburg, MD 21727 | USNG: 18SUJ00529652
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April 4, 2012 InfoGram