Rothstein Associates Inc. Business Survival ™ Weblog

Results of an annual survey of governors homeland security advisors, released during the National Governors Association (NGA) Winter Meeting this week, showed similar homeland security governance structures across states, evolving priorities as a result of current events like the H1N1 pandemic and concerns about sustaining security capabilities under current funding mechanisms.

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Haiti’s earthquake is creating “a generation of amputees,” something that will pose a challenge for Haitian society for years to come, experts say.

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We learn from others by reading case studies, after-action reports, results of audits and investigations, and from personal experience. In the personal experience category, the author favors learning by participating in disaster exercises. Though successful exercises are good, it’s many times the failures that provide the real learning opportunities.

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There is growing interest in the subject of resilience on the part of President Obama’s Administration, as well as lively discussion regarding this issue in academic, business, and governmental circles. This article offers an operational framework that can prove useful to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and stakeholders at all levels, both public and private, as a basis for incorporating resilience into our infrastructure and society in order to make the nation safer.

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Given the intent of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) mandate to alter local and state disaster operating procedures and nationally standardize response across disasters of all types and scales throughout a wide array of agencies and organizations, it was important to study the degree to which its implementation has been successful.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled a new website, “Critical Infrastructure Protection,” as part of the agency’s attempt to raise public awareness of the importance of critical infrastructure and key assets (CIKR). The page contains links to critical infrastructure protection programs and plans, as well as resources.

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Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced the launch of DisasterRecoveryWorkingGroup.gov—a new interagency website that will allow federal disaster recovery officials to solicit public comments from state, local and tribal partners and the public.

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Emergency management degree programs are becoming more available in universities and schools across the United States.

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This site offers the Incident Command System (ICS) Forms in PDF format as modified to meet U.S. Health & Human Services (HHS) requirements.

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It is common that evacuations are required at many types of incidents. The need for the incident command (IC) to require an evacuation can occur at any time. Conducting an evacuation needs to be part of every IC’s skill set. The IC must be able to determine the size and scope of each incident, and determine if an evacuation is needed. Read the rest of this entry »

Wildfires. Earthquakes. Mudslides. These are not scenes from the latest Hollywood disaster movie, but the realities of living and working in San Diego and throughout the Golden State. And as wildfire season continues to be an ever present threat in San Diego and Southern California, AT&T* has announced it will hold a Network Disaster Recovery Exercise (NDR) in San Diego at PETCO Park from October 13 to 23, 2009.

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