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This past week, FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI) held its “Integrated Emergency Management Course (IEMC)” for Calhoun County, Alabama. This four and a half day exercise-based
training simulates realistic crisis situations that Emergency Operation Center
personnel may encounter during weather-related
disasters. IEMC
courses help increase the skills of participating officials and provide a forum
to evaluate the effectiveness of their specific emergency policies, plans, and
procedures that are designed to protect life and property in the event of a
disaster.
The course
is attended by state, local,
tribal, and territorial government personnel; elected and appointed officials;
supervisory, operations, and emergency support personnel; nonprofit
organizations; the private sector; law enforcement personnel; firefighters;
attorneys; public information officers; planners; and more. Each participant is
assigned a role similar to their real-life position in an emergency operations
center. Each IEMC
course addresses leadership and policy based decision making as well as the
functional aspects of an Emergency Operations Center. In addition to the Core Capabilities, each IEMC uses one or
more of the 15 National Planning Scenarios which were developed by the
Department of Homeland Security to highlight a plausible range of major events
that pose the greatest risk to the nation.
A new addition
to the course activities offers participants the opportunity to practice
disseminating wireless
emergency alert messages.
This allows for one of the ways public safety officials can
quickly and effectively alert and warn the public during serious emergencies.
Classes
are either delivered in the field or held at EMI at the Emmitsburg, Maryland, campus. The next training will be held
in Emmitsburg on February 22-25, 2016. Questions should be directed to FEMA-EMI-IEMB@fema.dhs.gov. Students may sign
up to receive email notifications.
FEMA’s Individual and Community Preparedness Division will present a webinar titled "Preparing Individuals Disproportionately Impacted by Disasters" on November 23 from 2 - 3 p.m. ET. The webinar will discuss disaster preparedness efforts to serve populations that are disproportionately impacted during an emergency due to risk factors related to limited English proficiency, culture, socio-economics, and national identity.
Participants are asked to register in advance for the online webinar. Closed captioning will be provided.
Applicants and subapplicants looking to learn which Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) projects submitted were selected for Fiscal Year 2015 federal funding can check the status of each one online.
PDM projects: www.fema.gov/pre-disaster-mitigation-program-fy-2015-subapplication-status
FMA projects: www.fema.gov/flood-mitigation-assistance-fy-2015-subapplication-status
Grant applicants can contact their FEMA Regional Office for
additional information or visit www.fema.gov/hazard-mitigation-assistance.
FEMA seeks comments from state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency management practitioners on the draft FEMA Damage Assessment Operating Manual. The manual establishes national damage assessment standards developed from historic lessons learned and best-practices already in use by federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial, emergency management agencies.
The FEMA Damage Assessment Operating Manual is built using a framework that encourages local information collection, state, tribal or territorial verification, and federal validation. This document better highlights and provides guidance to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments on their role in the assessment. This version of the PDA manual also clarifies the types of damage that will qualify under the descriptors of destroyed, major damage, minor damage, or affected.
The draft manual and comment matrix is posted in the FEMA library. Comments should be added into the comment matrix and submitted to Mr. Ryan Buras, Senior Program Advisor, Public Assistance, Recovery Directorate, by 11:59 p.m. EST on November 14, 2015. FEMA asks that comments on the manual be sent either by email to PDAmanual@fema.dhs.gov or by mail with a November 14 postmark to Mr. Ryan Buras, Senior Program Advisor, Public Assistance, Recovery Directorate, FEMA, 500 C Street, SW, Mail Stop 3163, Washington, DC 20472.
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