“Balance transportation security requirements with the safety, mobility and economic needs of the Nation and be prepared to respond to emergencies that affect the viability of the transportation sector”
We have defined our Security, Preparedness and Response Strategic Goal to address challenges that seem greater than any we have faced in our history – challenges from terrorism and challenges from nature.
We address Security against the background of 9/11. Modern weapons give terrorists a tremendous amount of leverage in wreaking damage and havoc throughout the transportation network. In the London attack on July 7, 2005, just a handful of individuals disrupted one of the world's great metropolitan transit systems. Our security strategies recognize that the transportation network must not only move millions of people and tons of cargo daily but also must remain a vital link for Department of Defense mobilization requirements. In this regard, we will continue to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to assess and reduce the vulnerabilities of transportation services and infrastructure to terrorist or criminal attacks while ensuring the mobility needs of the Nation for personal travel and commerce.
We address Preparedness and Response against the background of one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in American history – Hurricane Katrina. Transportation was critical in the Katrina evacuation considering the fact that well over a million people had to move out of the area rapidly. More people migrated after Katrina than in any other previous mass migration in American history except for the Dust Bowl, which took place over a period of decades and not over a period of a few days.
Against this backdrop, our Security, Preparedness and Response strategies address the challenges we anticipate in coming years. We recognize that the first element of facing a challenge is to prepare for it, and preparing involves many different activities – policy making, reviewing and validating intelligence, planning, building capacity, training, and exercising scenarios. Our strategies put those elements in place to prepare us to deal with both expected and unexpected emergencies.
Our emphasis on planning is well founded: experience tells us that if you do not have a proper plan, improvisation is not going to provide the answer that you need when you are in the middle of the catastrophe. From the same standpoint, our strategies integrate our authorities and capabilities across the Department. A mode by mode, or stovepipe response would produce far less than a totality of effort.
Having a good plan, however, is no guarantee that evacuations, for example, will be carried out smoothly, particularly mass evacuations that involve many different agencies at all levels of government. Our strategies call for joint exercises in which plans are tested against different scenarios to determine if cooperating agencies can become accustomed to working together and can assess how their plans address various contingencies. Our strategies address security, preparedness, and response in a comprehensive, coordinated, multi-modal approach.
The human resources, programs, capital assets, information technology and other resources described in DOT's Annual Performance Budgets are needed to achieve our outcomes for Security, Preparedness and Response and to execute the strategies presented below. The schedule for executing these strategies extends from fiscal year 2006 through fiscal year 2011.
22. Sponsor programs which ensure that local emergency responders have timely access to hazardous materials information carried by all modes, and provide training and tools to help responders react effectively. (Supports outcome 3)
Table 5 shows the relationship between our Security, Preparedness and Response outcomes and the milestones and performance measures that will measure our progress toward that goal.
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Outcomes |
Performance Measures |
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Target: DOT will develop quantitative performance measures for each of the three outcomes by October 1, 2008. DOT has set milestones for developing these measures as follows: - Develop multi-modal performance measures for each of the four outcomes by September 30, 2007 -Conduct a trial performance period to field test and calibrate the performance measures between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008 - Implement final performance measures for each of the four outcomes October 1, 2008 Hazmat Emergency Response Measures - Number of Emergency Response Guidebooks distributed. 2008 Quadrennial Target is 2.4M - Number of first responders trained - Annual target is 180,000. - Number of emergency response plans completed. Annual target is 5,000. - Number of hazmat employees trained. Annual target is 100,000. Defense Mobilization Measures Percentage of DoD required shipping capacity complete with crews available with mobilization timelines. Target: through 2011, maintain the timely availability of DoD required shipping capacity at 94 percent. Percentage of DoD designated commercial ports available for military use within DoD established readiness timelines. Target: through 2011, maintain the timely availability of DOD required commercial strategic port facilities at 93 percent. |
The most significant external factors that could affect our ability to achieve our security, preparedness and response strategic goal are an Asian Flu Pandemic or major disruptions to transportation caused by natural disasters, terrorists or criminals.
Globalization and the resulting highly integrated transportation networks make it possible for infectious diseases to spread rapidly from one region of the world to another. The outbreak of an infectious disease in one part of the world may have serious economic and financial consequences for transportation firms operating in the region. While the spread of any infectious disease would cause a serious disruption in world commerce and travel, concern is now focused on an Avian Flu Pandemic. The outbreak of a highly infectious disease such as the Avian Flu could strain all segments of our economy and all modes of transportation.
DOT has plans in place to sustain its critical business operations through a combination of teleworking (to promote social distancing) and working on-site for those functions that cannot be performed via telework. DOT will work with the Departments of State and Homeland Security as well as with State and local governments for prioritized delivery of critical system and services nationwide. Nevertheless, a flu pandemic is an external factor that could impact our ability to achieve our strategic goals.
Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes and floods demonstrate that the government needs to be ready to collaborate and cooperate in new and innovative ways to cope with such events effectively. Similarly, terrorist and criminal attacks on transportation systems can disrupt passenger transportation and the flow of cargo, particularly vital commodities such as food, medicines and petroleum products. Major transportation fuel supply disruptions could occur in pumping or transporting crude oil, in refining crude oil and in the distribution and delivery of fuels. Damage to large segments of roadway, tunnels, or bridges, as well as to waterway transport, rail freight movement, and transit services are all plausible risks. Electricity supply disruptions, such as major blackouts or brownouts, could sharply affect the operation of certain transport sectors, particularly aviation, rail, and transit. Reliance on information technology makes the Department itself, and thus its ability direct recovery efforts, more vulnerable when blackouts occur. The 2005 hurricane season dramatically revealed how enormous peak burdens were placed on the nation’s transportation system when millions of people attempted to vacate or relocate in a narrow window of time. Primarily the roadway system, but also mass transit, rail, air and other modes can be severely burdened by such events. Disruptions from natural disasters, terrorists and criminal attacks will challenge our ability to achieve our goals.