FEMA Bulletin Week of January 23, 2017

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FEMA BULLETIN

Week of January 23, 2017

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In this Edition:

Important Dates & Deadlines

feb 10

Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attacks (CCTA Program) Application

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SAFER Grant Program Application

February 15: Integrated Emergency Management Course Application Deadline

Integrated Emergency Management Course Application Deadline

2017 Transition Update

Upon the Inauguration of the 45th President of the United States, several leadership changes took effect in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). To ensure there is no interruption in the delivery of FEMA’s critical mission, the career successors assumed acting positions immediately following the Presidential Inauguration ceremony on Friday January 20, 2017.  Mr. Robert Fenton is serving as the Acting FEMA Administrator and Mr. David Grant is serving as the Acting FEMA Deputy Administrator.

 

Since joining FEMA in 1996, Mr. Fenton had a significant role in numerous large-scale response and recovery operations in the United States, and has responded to almost a 100 Federal disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, the four Florida Hurricanes of 2004, the Southern California Wildfires of 2003 and 2007, the Super Typhoon Pongsona in Guam, and the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks. He has worked both in the regions and at Headquarters. Mr. Fenton served as the Deputy Associate Administrator in FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, prior to his appointment as Regional Administrator for Region 9 in 2015.

 

Mr. Grant has served as FEMA Associate Administrator for Mission Support since 2015, after workings FEMA’s Chief Procurement Officer. He is an experienced leader, having acted as Chief of Agency-Wide Shared Services for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) where he provided oversight and direction to key operational and administrative divisions in support of IRS tax administration, oversaw a staff of approximately 3,000 employees, and managed a budget exceeding $3 billion in support of more than 100,000 IRS employees.

 

FEMA’s Acting Leadership looks forward to working with all of you in the weeks ahead.  We are committed to ensuring that the Agency remains focused on the mission and the work that we do. We are incredibly proud of the many successes we’ve accomplished together – and those that we will achieve in the future.

 

For a full list of new acting leadership. Please go to FEMA.gov.

 


Navajo Becomes Second Tribal Nation to receive alerting authority to FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)

The Navajo Nation is the second Tribal Nation to become an alerting authority, authorized to use FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). The nation’s public alert and warning infrastructure, IPAWS, provides resources for public safety officials to deliver a single alert simultaneously through multiple communication devices, saving time when it matters most and reaching as many people as possible to save lives and protect property. 

 

The Navajo Nation comprises 27,000 square miles over three FEMA regions and states:  New Mexico (Region 6), Utah (Region 8), and Arizona (Region 9).  Now, Navajo Nation officials can use the free, internet-based tool to issue severe weather alerts, abducted children (or AMBER) alerts, and other public alerts and warnings.

 

 

In the aftermath of a recent child abduction investigation, a multiagency task force that included the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety reached out to FEMA for IPAWS assistance. After an IPAWS demonstration by FEMA officials in December 2016, the Navajo Nation this month became only the second Tribe to be an IPAWS alerting authority, the first being the Cocopah Nation in Arizona.

 

More information on how Tribal governments can sign up for IPAWS can be found here.


FEMA Finalizes the Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning Guide for State Governments

At the end of 2016, FEMA finalized the Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning Guide for State Governments. This Guide is the first in a series of three that will be released in the next year that will include a guide for local governments and a guide for tribal governments.

 

FEMA designed these planning guides to help states and territories prepare for recovery by developing pre-disaster recovery plans that follow a process to engage members of the whole community, develop recovery capabilities across State government and nongovernmental partners, and ultimately create an organizational framework for comprehensive state recovery efforts.

 

A pre-disaster recovery plan, and the inclusive process used to develop it, establishes resilience through state-level leadership and structure, forms communication channels, and builds whole-community partnerships to support recovery efforts.

 

The Guide provides useful information that will support the preparation of state agencies to more easily adapt to new post-disaster roles needed to manage new or modified sources of state and Federal recovery resources. 

 

You can view the Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning Guide for State Governments by clicking here. For any questions regarding this guide, please reach out to cpcb-rsf@fema.dhs.gov.

 


Emergency Management Institute Offers Teaching with Cases Webinar Series

FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) will offer a webinar series that provides an overview of the use of cases in teaching emergency management higher education programs. The webinar will be held February 8, 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. EST

 

The third webinar in the Emergency Management Teaching with Cases series will focus on teaching considerations, and will examine preparing to teach a case; important instructor functions and techniques associated with case teaching; and, typical problems and “fixes.” This session will provide an appreciation for many of the fundamentals needed for effective use of case methods. The fourth webinar in this series will be held in March.

 

EMI is looking for several volunteers who would be interested in offering a case example to help illustrate these important aspects of preparation and “running” a case. Please contact Jane (jkushma@jsu.edu) or Jean (Jean.Slick@RoyalRoads.ca) prior to the webinar if you would like to volunteer.

 

To participate in this webinar, please register here.

 

For additional information: Contact Wendy Walsh at wendy.walsh@fema.dhs.gov


Reminder of Upcoming Deadlines

Emergency Management Institute Offers Hurricane Virtual Tabletop Exercise

FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) Virtual Tabletop Exercise (VTTX) program will offer six sessions of a hurricane scenario on March 21, 22, 23 and April 11, 12, 13. The VTTX helps communities prepare for the upcoming hurricane season using historical events and recovery actions.  The application deadlines are February 21 and March 14 respectively. Content is the same each day, and participants would attend only one session. The VTTX involves key personnel discussing simulated scenarios in an informal setting and can be used to assess plans, policies, training, and procedures.

 

The VTTX will occur 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. ET on each of the days listed above. To participate, send an email to Doug Kahn at douglas.kahn@fema.dhs.gov or call 301-447-7645. Also, send a courtesy copy email to the Integrated Emergency Management Branch at fema-emi-iemb@fema.dhs.gov or call 301-447-1381. Additional information is available at https://training.fema.gov/programs/emivttx.aspx.

 

 

SAFER Grant Program Application Period is Open

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2016 provides $345,000,000 for the SAFER Grant Program for the Department to assist fire departments and volunteer interest organizations to increase the number of trained, "front line" firefighters available in their communities. 

 

SAFER grants provide financial assistance to help fire departments increase frontline firefighters. SAFER offers grants to support activities in two categories- Hiring of Firefighters and Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters. The authority for SAFER is derived from the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974, as amended (15 U.S.C. §2229a et seq.).

 

The notice of funding opportunity document provides applicants with the details of the requirements, processing, and evaluation of an application for financial assistance for both of these activity areas.

 

The NOFO and technical assistance documents for this program are available at www.grants.gov, and at http://www.fema.gov/staffing-adequate-fire-emergency-response-grants

 

The application period will close on Friday, February 10, 2017 at 5 p.m, ET. 

 

Grant Program to Prepare Communities for Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attacks

The grant application period for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Program to Prepare Communities for Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attacks (CCTA Program) is currently open. The CCTA program provides $35.94 million to state, local, tribal, and territorial jurisdictions to improve their ability to prepare for, prevent, and respond to complex coordinated terrorist attacks in collaboration with the whole community.

 

The application period will remain open until February 10, 2017 at 11:59:59 p.m. ET.  The FY 2016 CCTA Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is located online at: http://www.fema.gov/grants as well as on http://www.grants.gov Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number 97.133.

 

If you have any questions, please contact FEMA’s Intergovernmental Affairs Division at (202) 646-3444 or at FEMA-IGA@fema.dhs.gov.

 

 

Applications Open for Integrated Emergency Management Courses

 

FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) conducts Integrated Emergency Management Courses (IEMC's) throughout the year and across the country. The four-and-a-half day training course is designed specifically for communities, providing both lecture and exercise-based training focused on response operations for a disaster or emergency that could happen in their area.

 

IEMC's courses simulate realistic crisis situations that emergency operations center personnel and community leadership/elected officials may encounter during disasters or other events. Also, the course enhances the skills of participating officials and provides a forum to evaluate the effectiveness of their specific emergency policies, plans, and procedures to protect life and property. The course’s target audience includes:  state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) government personnel; their SLTT 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.

 

IEMC classes are principally delivered at FEMA’s EMI at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland; however, delivery may also occur in the community. If your jurisdiction is interested in applying for the program and obtaining information on the application process and its timeline, please visit http://training.fema.gov/iemc/. The deadline for applications is February 15, 2017. Questions should be directed to FEMA-EMI-IEMB@fema.dhs.gov