InfoGram 47-12: November 29, 2012

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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Grants for Fire Departments Impacted by Sandy

The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) wants to encourage fire service leadership in the areas affected by Hurricane Sandy to be aware there may be additional financial assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist with the recovery efforts of fire departments. 

FEMA's Public Assistance (PA) Grant Program has been approved for most areas impacted by the storm.  The focus of the program is to assist with recovery efforts involving critical infrastructures.  Fire station damage, lost equipment and vehicles may be covered by this program.  

USFA encourages all fire service leaders in areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy to ensure local departmental damage and losses are brought to the attention of county and state emergency management officials, which starts the PA Grant Program eligibility review.

U.S. Electrical Grid Vulnerable to Attack

The National Academies Press released “Terrorism and the Electrical Power Delivery System” this month. The report discusses vulnerabilities in the U.S. electrical power grid and how they could be exploited, including both physical and cyber attacks.  It contains information that could be used for all-hazards planning even though a terrorist attack was the primary focus.

The report was originally written in 2007 but not released until August 2012. In the five years since, little has been changed to upgrade technology or the physical infrastructure to make the grid less vulnerable. Some issues of concern:

• 90% of the system is privately owned and is regulated by the states, not the federal government, making comprehensive changes difficult.
• The system spreads across thousands of miles, often in fairly unpopulated areas, and many key facilities are left unguarded and therefore vulnerable.
• A side effect of deregulation is that the system is overtaxed in populated areas, making cascading failure more of a possibility.

The Emergency Services Sector must prepare for an event such as a long-term disruption to the power grid. As seen in two major natural disasters this year as well as man-made events in India and similar events in the United States in the past few years, our reliance on energy as a society is now so encompassing as to be a liability.

Pre-Storm Checklist for Hospital Preparedness

The Center for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response (CEPDR) works to support hospital resiliency through training, publications, and resources.  The Preparedness Report Special Supplement released after Hurricane Sandy includes a helpful 17-page Pre-Storm Hospital Checklist (PDF, 298.82 Kb).

The guide lists tasks for completion from 72 to 12 hours before the storm and is broken down by department or area of responsibility. Some examples:

• Clinical Services – consider postponing elective surgeries; back up all digital patient records; monitor staff needs for shelter and supplies.
• Materials Management – inventory bulk medical or surgical supplies and reorder if necessary; relocate materials to departments that may need them; train in alternative patient transfer methods.
• Food and Nutrition – consider pre-cooking and freezing meals; evaluate the number of people requiring shelter and food, including staff; ensure adequate supply of water for drinking, sanitation and medical needs.
• Administrative – maintain regularly scheduled meetings with representatives from all departments; update floor plans and maps of facility; evaluate human resources policies with emergencies in mind.

Hospitals and other health facilities could customize the checklist to use as a guide or meet facility-specific needs. It provides an added benefit of allowing each department to be accountable for their own area while still enabling the administration a view of the facility’s overall preparedness.

The CEPDR is part of the Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) and publishes The Preparedness Report monthly.

Second Semester NFA Deadline December 15

The application period for second semester classes at the National Fire Academy (NFA) closes December 15th.  The second semester includes classes from April 1 through September 30, 2013. 

NFA offers classes on-campus in Emmitsburg, MD and off-campus around the country.  Classes are 2-, 6-, and 10-days long.  Please note that students must reapply for second semester courses if they were not accepted for the first semester; applications will not be carried over.

An important change in NFA’s application process requires students to use a Student Identification Number (SID) on all applications for classes beginning October 1, 2012 and after.  The SID replaces social security numbers on the application.  Applicants who have not yet gotten a SID need to apply.