Emergency Management - Fall 2008 - (Page 38)

FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison answers a question at a press conference where DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff announced $1.8 billion in preparedness grants. The department will award approximately $3 billion in fiscal 2008. PHOTO BY BILL KOPLITZ /FEMA toward the intangible. Previous UASI funding tended to emphasize equipment purchases and upgrades, but today’s spending puts a growing focus on cooperation — regional programs that bring municipalities together and encourage them to work from the same page. In fiscal 2007, for example, Missouri applied for $13.5 million in UASI funds. Topping the list of a dozen priorities was “enhancing regional collaboration,” followed by other items such as “information sharing to support the Additional Infrastructure Security Programs Funding Distribution – Fiscal 2008 and Fiscal 2009 only that states and urban areas “should begin by implementing programs such as enhancing public- and private-sector IED awareness and reducing critical infrastructure/key resource and soft-target, explosive attack vulnerabilities.” That covers much ground, giving UASI grantees wide latitude to put grant money toward their highest priorities. In Pierce County, Wash., the UASI program’s flexibility has allowed the region to buy much-needed aircraft, according to Department of Emergency Management Director Steve C. Bailey. “This area, which is more than 3 million people, has no cohesive regional aviation assets,” Bailey said. Thanks to UASI grants, the area has purchased one helicopter, upgraded another and purchased a fixed-wing aircraft — all of which the county sorely needed with or without UASI support. “While the focus was always on terrorism, we saw an opportunity there to make the region more resilient for whatever disaster might come our PROGRAM FISCAL 2008 FISCAL 2009 Transit Security Grant Program • Freight Rail Security Grant Program • Intercity Passenger Rail (Amtrak) Port Security Grant Program Intercity Bus Security Grant Program Trucking Security Program Buffer Zone Protection Program TOTAL SOURCE: US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY $388,600,000 $15,000,000 $25,000,000 $388,600,000 $11,172,250 $15,544,000 $48,575,000 $852,491,250 $388,600,000 $15,000,000 $25,000,000 $388,600,000 $11,658,000 $7,772,000 $48,575,000 $845,205,000 ferent priorities, and really anything I want is going to fall into one of these priorities,” she said. Working with the state’s fiscal 2008 UASI grant of $13.7 million, Kayyem wants port security — something she wanted before UASI money became available. “We looked at our liabilities, and we saw a huge issue,” she said. “Forget terrorism. Just “While the focus was always on terrorism, we saw an opportunity there to make the region more resilient for whatever disaster might come our way.” — Steve C. Bailey, director, Pierce County, Wash., Department of Emergency Management way,” Bailey said. Without the need to assist the Seattle Urban Area under the UASI grant program, “I don’t think the region as a whole could have achieved the level of readiness that we have today.” Massachusetts Undersecretary of Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem also turned the program’s flexibility to the state’s advantage. “The UASI grants really give you so many options; I could utilize that money for 18 dif38 imagine that one of the bridges falls apart and you have to close a port. Do we have situational awareness? Do we have cameras? Do we have all the things we would need if something happened?” Emphasis on Planning Though some of the focus may be on IEDs and other tangible threats, there also is a trend region’s EOC operations and emergency planning/response.” “It’s happening on a national level,” said Robert Wolf, president and CEO of St. Louisbased eSponder, a maker of emergency management software. Changing FEMA requirements “are forcing a drive away from widgets and shiny objects, and more toward regionalization and tools that can be used on the regional side both in response and planning.” At FEMA, Ross Ashley, assistant administrator of the Grant Programs Directorate, confirms there’s been a shift. “With the preparedness grants in general, when they first came out, we saw up to 80 percent of the funding going to equipment, to building physical capabilities,” he said. “As time has gone by, we have seen a shift in those activities. Grantees, as well as DHS and FEMA, now are asking: How do we organize and train around all of this equipment? How do we plan to effectively use this equipment to its best benefit?”

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Emergency Management - Fall 2008

Emergency Management - Fall 2008 Contents Contributors Editor’s Letter In the Field Deep Freeze EM Bulletin Major Player In the News Uncharted Waters Bio-Sensing Bluegills Joint Accounts Education Directory Degress of Change Triage in 3-D Products Eric's Corner Last Word

Emergency Management - Fall 2008

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