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On December 10-11, 2015, the Fifth Annual Building Resilience through Public-Private
Partnerships Conference was held in New Orleans, Louisiana. FEMA hosted this year and brought together innovators from the private sector, nonprofits, and
state and local governments to pursue strategies to build a more
resilient nation.
Each year, the conference attracts hundreds of participants who look to
promote innovation in furthering ongoing partnerships and resiliency. Key
topics of discussion at this year's conference included:
- Executive Perspectives on Investing in Business
Resilience;
- Harnessing Technology to Positively Disrupt the Status Quo;
- The
Smart City of 2025: Innovations for a Resilient Future;
- and action
planning sessions to include Addressing Cyber Threats Now and into the
Future and Disaster Collaboration Simulation Exercise.
Leaders from government, private sector, and non-profits discussed the
importance of strong partnerships across the whole community, and spoke about
how their relationships helped to get the right resources to people in need
more quickly. Exercises held during the week further identified opportunities
for conference participants to make new partnerships and better understand the
resources and expertise that different organizations can offer throughout
emergency management efforts. With this public-private partnership approach, conference partners committed
to taking action and promoting information sharing to facilitate greater
understanding of the whole community roles and better leverage existing
programs to promote meaningful outcomes to drive resiliency.
Conference participants took away concrete action plans and a collection of
shared resources that they can implement immediately to further their
organization’s resilience and nurture new partnerships. The development of a
public-private sector national framework for information sharing and a
public-private sector model to facilitate successful partnerships at all levels are examples of next steps. FEMA and its Private Sector Division
are committed to leading the charge on continued identification of solutions to
coordination gaps and strengthen the understanding of roles between the public
and private sectors to build national resilience and successful public-private
partnerships.
For additional information, visit the 2015
Building Resilience through Public-Private Partnerships Conference page and
follow the conversation at: #PPPWayForward.
The conference was held in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security through the National Protection and Programs Directorate and Private
Sector Office, and North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States
Northern Command and in collaboration with the American Logistics Aid Network,
the American Red Cross, Business Forward, Business Executives for National
Security, National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies at the
University of Louisiana-Lafayette, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and The U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center.
Local officials responsible for
administering their floodplain management ordinance will have the opportunity to participate in
a flood-damage reduction course Managing Floodplain Development through the National
Flood Insurance Program at FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI) on March 7-10, 2016. The
course focuses on the National Flood Insurance
Program, concepts of floodplain management, maps
and studies, ordinance administration, and the relationship between floodplain
management and flood insurance.
Participants will learn basic
floodplain management practices necessary to begin their career and to manage a
locally based floodplain management program. The practices will include providing outreach
to citizens and officials in helping them make decisions about flood hazards. Prerequisites include
Elevation
Certificate for Surveyors, an interactive web-based
course, and two online tutorials: Flood Insurance Rate Map and Federal Insurance
Studies.
Floodplain management
administrators, building inspectors, code enforcement/zoning officers,
planners, city/county managers, attorneys, engineers, and public works
officials with limited floodplain management experience are encouraged to apply
by completing a FEMA Form 119-25-1 no later than January 22, 2016. State, territory, and local applicants must
send their applications through their State Training Officer. Regional FEMA staff must send their applications
through their Regional Training Manager. Tribal applicants can apply directly. Mail applications to NETC Admissions Office
(Room I-216), National Emergency Training Center, 16825 South Seton Avenue,
Emmitsburg, MD 21727-8998, or fax to (301) 447-1658. Send specific
questions about the course to Robert Perry at robert.perry@fema.dhs.gov.
EMI will conduct the course again during the weeks of June 27
and September 12, 2016.
Winter holidays are a time for families and friends to get together, but holidays can also bring an increased risk for home fires. Following a few simple tips can make the holidays fire-safe.
- Choose holiday decorations that are flame resistant or flame retardant.
- Keep lit candles and flames away from decorations and flammable items.
- Make sure you are using the right lights. Some lights are only for indoor or outdoor use, but not both.
- Replace any string of lights with worn or broken cords or loose bulbs.
- Use clips, not nails, to hang lights so the cords do not get damaged.
- Make sure decorations do not block windows or doors.
- Test smoke alarms and tell guests about the home fire escape plan.
- Keep children and pets away from lit candles.
- Keep matches and lighters up high in a locked cabinet.
- Stay in the kitchen when cooking at high temperatures.
- Ask smokers to smoke outside and keep smoking materials with them so young children do not touch them.
- Provide large, deep ashtrays for smokers. Wet cigarette butts with water before discarding.
- Blow out lit candles and turn off all light strings and decorations when leaving the room or going to bed.
For more information about winter fire safety, visit www.usfa.fema.gov/winter.
EMI is offering a virtual tabletop exercise (VTTX)
on January 26-28, 2016, involving a chlorine contamination scenario. The VTTX is
public health focused and addresses contamination recognition response and recovery
efforts to assist affected communities. The exercise allows participating
communities to share public health details regarding protective zones,
protective actions, personal protective equipment, hospital triage, latent
effects, decontamination issues pertaining to patients, environmental concerns,
and re-entry.
EMI
conducts a monthly series of VTTXs using a teleconference platform to reach community based training audiences around the
country providing a virtual forum for disaster training. The design of the VTTX is for a group of ten or more
representatives from state and local Emergency Management Community of Practice.
Participants must have an appropriate site equipped with video teleconference
capability.
The goals of the VTTX are to test
the participants’ knowledge, skills, and abilities to conduct all-hazards
emergency response and recovery effectively. The VTTXs also enable coordination
response operations with counterparts from Federal agencies, state and local
governments, private sector organizations, non-governmental agencies, and other
whole community partners. The VTTX occurs 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. ET.
EMI will conduct the following VTTX programs in February and
March:
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February 9, 10, 11, 2016: Cyber scenario (course number V0015B)
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February 23, 24, 25, 2016: Tornado scenario (course numvber V0005A)
- March
8, 9, 10, 2016: Tornado scenario (course
number V0005B)
- March
22, 23, 24, 2016: Flood scenario (course
number V0007)
To participate in a
VTTX, submit an email request to Doug Kahn at douglas.kahn@fema.dhs.gov or
call 301-447-7645. Please send a courtesy copy email to the Integrated
Emergency Management Branch at FEMA-EMI-IEMB@fema.dhs.gov or
call 301-447-1381. The deadline
for applying to a VTTX is four weeks prior to the start date. Additional
information is available at https://training.fema.gov/programs/emivttx.aspx.
FEMA
is seeking public comment on proposed changes to regulation describing FEMA’s
Individual Assistance (IA) declarations criteria. FEMA published the proposed
rule in the Federal
Register, and is seeking comments by January 11, 2016.
The Sandy Recovery Improvement Act (SRIA) requires FEMA to review, update and revise,
through rulemaking, the factors it uses to measure the severity, magnitude, and
impact of a disaster. The proposed rule, which has a 60 day public
comment period, is intended to provide more objective and clear IA declaration factors and speed the declaration process,
including FEMA’s recommendation to the President on whether a major disaster
declaration authorizing IA is warranted.
The proposed rule largely expands and clarifies
current factors and aligns them with the data presently collected to support
the evaluation process and adds additional data sets easily accessible by states.
FEMA reviewed the current factors and the proposed rule intends to revise the
current factors by including: State Fiscal Capacity and Resource Availability,
Uninsured Home and Personal Property Losses, Disaster Impacted Population
Profile, Impact to Community Infrastructure, Casualties, and Disaster Related Unemployment.
Comments are due on January 11, 2016, and can be submitted
online.
The Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG) opened for applications on Monday, December 7, and will close on Friday, January 15,
2016, at 5 p.m. ET. Grant guidance for this program is available at www.grants.gov and www.fema.gov/welcome-assistance-firefighters-grant-program.
The “Get Ready Guide” may also be useful for potential applicants and is provided to answer
questions and to help prepare grant applications.
The Department of
Homeland Security Appropriations Act, (Pub. L. 113-76) provides
$306,000,000 in AFG Program funding to assist fire departments and
nonaffiliated ambulance and emergency medical service organizations meet their
firefighting and emergency response needs. The AFG Program enables these
organizations to obtain the tools and resources necessary to more effectively
protect the health and safety of the public and emergency response personnel.
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