<DOC>
[110 Senate Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:43091.wais]
S. Hrg. 110-658
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS
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HEARING
before the
AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE ON STATE, LOCAL,
AND PRIVATE SECTOR PREPAREDNESS
AND INTEGRATION
of the
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JUNE 5, 2008
__________
Available via http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html
Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
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43-091 PDF WASHINGTON : 2008
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TED STEVENS, Alaska
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
BARACK OBAMA, Illinois PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri JOHN WARNER, Virginia
JON TESTER, Montana JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Brandon L. Milhorn, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE ON STATE, LOCAL, AND PRIVATE SECTOR PREPAREDNESS
AND INTEGRATION
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas, Chairman
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
BARACK OBAMA, Illinois NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico
JON TESTER, Montana JOHN WARNER, Virginia
Kristin Sharp, Staff Director
Michael McBride, Minority Staff Director
Kelsey Stroud, Chief Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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Opening statement:
Page
Senator Pryor................................................ 1
Prepared statement:
Senator Voinovich............................................ 21
WITNESSES
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Dennis Schrader, Deputy Administrator, National Preparedness
Directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S.
Department of Homeland Security................................ 3
Russell Decker, Director, Office of Homeland Security and
Emergency Management, and First Vice President, International
Association of Emergency Managers.............................. 4
Suzy DeFrancis, Chief Public Affairs Officer, American Red Cross. 6
Alphabetical List of Witnesses
Decker, Russell:
Testimony.................................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 42
DeFrancis, Suzy:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 48
Schrader, Dennis:
Testimony.................................................... 3
Prepared statement........................................... 22
APPENDIX
Questions and responses submitted for the Record from:
Mr. Schrader................................................. 55
Mr. Decker................................................... 73
Ms. DeFrancis................................................ 75
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS
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THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2008
U.S. Senate,
Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local, and
Private Sector Preparedness and Integration,
of the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:43 a.m., in
room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Mark L.
Pryor, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senator Pryor.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PRYOR
Senator Pryor. I am going to go ahead and convene the
meeting and call this Subcommittee hearing to order.
Before I get started, I would like to welcome all of our
witnesses and tell you how much I appreciate you being here
today at this Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector
Preparedness. We are going to look at community and individual
preparedness programs and we look forward to hearing from all
of you on this topic.
This week marks the beginning of both hurricane season and
the Red Cross CPR Awareness Week, so it is a particularly good
time to examine our preparedness programs. At heart, the goal
of individual preparedness is to mitigate the impact of a
natural disaster or terrorist incident. It involves three main
elements: Knowledge, communication, and motivation. People need
to know what the dangers are, they need to know how they can
protect themselves, and they need to want to be proactive.
Unfortunately, recent surveys have shown that the majority
of people in our country have not taken steps to prepare for
disasters, even in the wake of September 11, 2001, and
Hurricane Katrina. Fewer than 30 percent of the people surveyed
mentioned that they have a preparedness plan. Only 7 percent
have taken all the steps recommended by DHS. Creative outreach
strategies are crucial to improving these low numbers.
It is obvious that government, our first responders, and
our private sector partners need to be prepared, but individual
citizens are also an important part of this effort. Every
citizen who has a plan for connecting with his or her family
and has a supply of food and water is one less citizen that is
in need of and waiting for government assistance and resources.
Of course, the types of events that get the most attention
are terrorist attacks and large natural disasters like
hurricanes, and even the Chinese earthquake that killed nearly
10,000 people, but as any State Emergency Manager will tell
you, the most frequent events are much smaller, things like
tornadoes, floods, and fires. These events may not destroy huge
regions of the country, but they are no less devastating for
the individuals affected. These smaller events are also the
events for which preparedness measures can have a big impact.
People can get the most bang for their buck, so to speak.
So I want to take just a quick moment to brag on some
outstanding grassroots efforts. Dayna Hilton, who is a fire
fighter from Clarksville, Arkansas, who has taken on the task
of educating young children about the dangers of fire and
methods for safety evacuation. She has written a children's
book and created a mascot, Sparkles, the Fire Safety Dog, which
is right here on the poster. Dana and Sparkles travel around
the State visiting school children to promote fire safety. As
the parent of two Arkansas school children myself, I want to
thank her for her work.
I also want to recognize the special work of the young
people visiting Washington, DC. They are the winners of the
Home Safety Council Kids Prepare America Contest. These
students are actively contributing to community preparedness by
creating plans for their families and neighborhoods. We
appreciate the efforts of first prize winner Katharine Henson,
who is in the audience today, and the other kids. Could you all
please stand up if you are here?
[Applause.]
Senator Pryor. Thank you. Because so many of these programs
are bubbling up at the ground level, we want to make sure that
we are providing the appropriate Federal support to integrate
the efforts into our broader homeland security efforts.
Again, I appreciate everyone being here today and look
forward to hearing from you about your community preparedness
efforts. What I will do now is I will quickly introduce our
witnesses and we will let them testify. I am not sure how many
Senators we will have join us today, but if you could possibly
keep your opening statements to 5 minutes, that would be great,
and then I will have questions. And again, I may be joined by
colleagues.
First, Dennis Schrader. Mr. Schrader is responsible for the
National Preparedness Directorate at FEMA, which builds
prevention, protection, response, and recovery capabilities.
Before joining FEMA, he was Director of Homeland Security for
the State of Maryland.
Second, Russ Decker. Mr. Decker is the Emergency Manager
for Allen County, Ohio, the Vice President of the Association
of Emergency Managers and the author of two books on
preparedness.
And third, Suzy DeFrancis. Ms. DeFrancis is in charge of
all communications and public outreach programs at the Red
Cross. She has also served in a variety of communications
positions at the Department of Health and Human Services and at
the White House.
Mr. Schrader.
TESTIMONY OF DENNIS SCHRADER,\1\ DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL
PREPAREDNESS DIRECTORATE, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Mr. Schrader. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Dennis
Schrader. I serve as the Deputy Administrator for DHS, FEMA's
National Preparedness Directorate, and I am honored to appear
before you today to discuss the Department's individual and
community preparedness efforts.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Schrader appears in the Appendix
on page 22.
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On January 29, 2002, the President announced the creation
of Citizen Corps as a White House initiative with operational
responsibility assigned to the Federal Emergency Management
Agency. The Citizen Corps strategy is based on the tenets that,
one, government has to collaborate with civic leaders; two,
that local implementation is essential; and three, that
national support has to include consistent policy and guidance,
tools and resources that are adaptable for local use and
building awareness through a national voice, such as the Ready
Campaign.
Citizen Corps is the Department's principal community
preparedness strategy and is administered nationally by FEMA's
Community Preparedness Division. Our work to support this
priority includes four fundamental principles. First, our
Nation's resilience must be built on a firm base from the
bottom up. It is every individual's responsibility for
preparing themselves, their family, and their community.
Citizen Corps Councils and programs, second, are designed
to be integrated with and build support for emergency
management programs and comprehensive emergency management
plans.
Third, Citizen Corps Councils are sponsored by local
government and must be supported by the local elected leader,
emergency manager, or homeland security officials.
And fourth, community preparedness is integrated into our
existing programs. For example, just recently, we announced the
2008 Competitive Training Grant Program and two of the focus
areas are going to be on citizen preparedness and participation
and citizen evacuation and shelter in place.
Citizen preparedness is an important but challenging
objective. Uniformed emergency responders make up less than one
percent of the total U.S. population and may be overwhelmed in
a crisis. Citizens must be better prepared and trained on how
to take care of themselves in those first crucial hours.
FEMA is working with the National Emergency Management
Association and the International Association of Emergency
Managers, many nonprofit organizations like the American Red
Cross, and national voluntary organizations active in disaster
and the private sector to strengthen this collaboration at the
local level. Citizen Corps has formal relationships with 25
national nonprofit organizations and other Federal agencies
through our National Citizen Corps affiliates, including the
Home Safety Council, the Meals on Wheels Association of
America, and agencies such as the Department of Education's
Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
The Department's efforts to promote community preparedness
culminate each September during National Preparedness Month. In
2007, 1,800 local, State, and national organizations,
businesses, and governments registered as National Preparedness
Month Coalition members and held events ranging from Youth Be
Ready Camps, public preparedness fairs, special needs
workshops, school preparedness events, Public Alert Systems
tests, and small business workshops. Already in 2008, over 900
organizations have registered to participate.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we have a long way to go, but
we must not become complacent or waver in our efforts. Thank
you for the opportunity to appear today and for your continued
support for this important work. I will be happy to respond to
any questions you or Members of the Subcommittee may have, and
I will stop there.
Senator Pryor. Thank you very much. Mr. Decker.
TESTIMONY OF RUSSELL DECKER,\1\ DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF HOMELAND
SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, AND FIRST VICE PRESIDENT,
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EMERGENCY MANAGERS
Mr. Decker. Chairman Pryor, thank you for allowing me this
opportunity to provide testimony today on this critically
important topic. I am Russ Decker, the Director of Emergency
Management and Homeland Security for Allen County, Ohio. Allen
County is a mid-sized rural county in northwest Ohio with a
population of just over 100,000. I have 18 years of experience
in emergency management, with the last 10 years as a local
director.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Decker appears in the Appendix on
page 42.
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I currently serve as President-Elect and First Vice
President for the International Association of Emergency
Managers (IAEM) and I am testifying on their behalf today. I am
a member of the FEMA National Advisory Council and have also
served as President of the Emergency Management Association of
Ohio. IAEM has more than 4,300 members, most of whom are
emergency management professionals at the Federal, state, and
local government levels, tribal natins, the military, colleges
and universities emergency managers, and since all disasters
begin and end at the local level, I believe our perspective is
a unique one.
The issue of preparedness is neither novel nor new. Civil
defense and emergency management officials have been involved
in this role for decades. Working with our partners from the
public and private sectors, including our key nongovernment
partners such as the American Red Cross, we have been tasked
with identifying the risks which threaten our communities,
reduce or eliminate those risks when possible, and help to
prepare our citizens for dealing with those threats that we
cannot control.
However, the preparedness of communities is based on the
preparedness of individuals. This is perhaps the weakest link
in our efforts. We believe that in most cases, the majority of
people can take care of themselves and their families for the
first 72 hours, or 3 days, after a disaster strikes if they
plan. That planning is what allows local emergency managers to
focus our efforts on those who are not able to provide for
themselves.
Because local emergency managers have the statutory
responsibility for coordination of all phases of comprehensive
emergency management, it is vitally important that community
and individual preparedness efforts be integrated and
coordinated through the local emergency management agency.
Failure to do so may lead to well-intentioned but off-target
and misdirected efforts based on incorrect or incomplete
information. This same line of reasoning applies to the State
and Federal Governments, as well, and that is why IAEM insists
that all Federal community preparedness efforts, in fact, all
preparedness efforts, need to be integrated and coordinated
through FEMA. This is consistent with the Post-Katrina
Emergency Management Reform Act.
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) concept for
providing basic emergency training to citizens originated in
1985 in Los Angeles. Since the program was made available
nationally by FEMA in 1993, communities in 28 States and Puerto
Rico have conducted CERT training. In my home State of Ohio,
more than 8,000 citizens have taken the basic CERT training.
In addition, as you can see from my prepared remarks, we
have a long-established history in my county of partnering with
local business and industry to provide a successful grassroots
community preparedness program. A number of Federal
preparedness programs exist, including Citizens Corps Councils.
And while these new programs show promise for improved
preparedness, we also find several issues that cause us
concern.
I believe it is important to realize that these new
programs do not seem to be attracting large numbers of new
volunteers. Instead, our experience is that many of the folks
participating in these programs are the same dedicated corps of
volunteers that we have already been counting on to step up
when disaster strikes. We may be creating a false sense of
increased volunteer assets that don't actually exist.
It is also vital that at all levels of government, we
provide information to our citizens allowing them to gain a
realistic understanding of the response they should expect in
times of disaster from government at all levels. In the absence
of realistic information, unreasonable expectations are formed
and post-disaster frustrations rise.
One area where FEMA could assist local and State officials
would be by returning to the policy of providing adequate
quantities of educational materials. Local emergency managers
have the audience and the opportunity to reach our citizens,
but oftentimes lack the resources for needed materials. In
addition, we would urge FEMA to develop radio and TV Public
Service Announcements that could be used for government at all
levels to promote community preparedness. In other words, we
are urging FEMA to help provide some tools for our toolbox.
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss this topic with
you today. I welcome any questions.
Senator Pryor. Thank you. Ms. DeFrancis.
TESTIMONY OF SUZY DeFRANCIS,\1\ CHIEF PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER,
AMERICAN RED CROSS
Ms. DeFrancis. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. The American Red
Cross is very pleased to be here today and we salute you for
bringing to the fore this important topic of community
preparedness. We also are in wholehearted agreement with your
points on preparedness--knowledge, communications, and
motivation.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. DeFrancis appears in the Appendix
on page 48.
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The mission of the American Red Cross is to help people
prevent, prepare for, and respond to disasters and other
emergencies. We shelter, feed, and counsel people affected by
disasters at home and abroad. We collect and distribute nearly
half of the Nation's blood. We teach life-saving skills, and we
support our military and their families through emergency
communications. So whether it is a hurricane or a heart attack,
a call for blood or a call for help, the Red Cross is there
around the corner, around the country, and around the world.
We have more than 700 chapters nationwide and we respond to
an average of 74,000 disasters each year. Now, as you
mentioned, these are typically floods, tornadoes, and fires.
This spring saw a recordbreaking number of tornadoes, including
in your own State. We are currently responding to 18 large
disaster relief operations.
But what most people don't know about us is that every
night in America, Red Cross volunteers show up on the lawn of
someone who may have lost their home to a house fire. We give
them a cup of coffee, a blanket around their shoulders, and a
place to stay for the night, and we participate in fire safety
awareness, such as your poster indicates.
But because we deal with so many disasters, the Red Cross
knows the importance of being prepared before a disaster
strikes. Preparedness can help an individual respond
effectively until help arrives and it can save lives. Despite
the importance of preparedness for ourselves and our families,
the vast majority of Americans are not prepared, and as you
mentioned, our polling shows only 7 percent of Americans have
taken all the steps necessary to prepare. Yet the majority of
Americans say they would get prepared if it were easier and
more convenient to do.
So at the Red Cross, we are making preparedness as easy as
one, two, three. Get a kit, make a plan, and be informed. We
call it Red Cross Ready, and we aligned our steps with the
Department of Homeland Security's Ready Campaign because we
think it is critically important that there be simple, easy-to-
follow instructions and that they be consistent with what all
the other authorities are saying. So a national preparedness
message that emergency managers throughout the country can use
and localize helps us cut through the clutter and avoids
confusion. We ask you and your colleagues as we go into a new
Administration to encourage continuity of this three-step plan
across the Department of Homeland Security.
Just as important as having a simple, easy message to
follow, it is also important to have multiple messengers. If
people hear the same message from different sources they trust,
they are more likely to believe it and act on it. So we partner
at the Red Cross with businesses, schools, community
organizations and government to reach people where they live,
work, and play.
Here are a few examples. We know many people will listen to
information that comes from their employer, so our Red Cross
chapter in Chicago is working with W.W. Grainger to create a
corporate volunteer program called Ready When the Time Comes.
This program trains volunteers from businesses and
organizations. We have trained more than 4,000 volunteers from
over 100 corporate partners. Recently, some of those volunteers
worked to assist people during the tornadoes in Kansas.
Our research has also found that young people, such as
Katherine, are very effective messengers when it comes to
telling their parents to get prepared and we need to engage the
next generation. So the Red Cross developed a program called
Masters of Disaster and we teach it in schools. We train about
a million kids a year. And because we know that poorer
communities are often at higher risk of disasters, our chapter
in Columbus, Ohio, works with the local Public Health
Department to teach Masters of Disaster in after-school and
summer programs in impoverished neighborhoods.
But perhaps one of the best examples of effective
partnerships on the local level is in your home State, Mr.
Chairman, of Arkansas. It is the Arkansas Seniors are Prepared
Program (ASAP). This is a cooperative effort among the Red
Cross, FEMA, and State Government to help senior citizens get
better prepared. We have provided 2,200 seniors with this life-
saving information in Arkansas.
So we need one simple, easy-to-follow message. We need
multiple trusted messengers. But there is one more thing we can
do. We can lead by example. We can all make sure we are
prepared in our own homes and businesses. Many of us, as you
said, got prepared for the first time following September 11,
2001. It is time now to restock those supplies and replace
those batteries that probably ended up in a kid's toy over the
holidays. Summer is a great time to get prepared and get kids
involved. They have some time on their hands and they know how
to use the Internet. So I encourage families to go to
redcross.org and click on, ``Preparing for a Disaster.'' There
is also a Mother's Guide to Preparedness. And by the way,
research shows that the most trusted and effective messenger on
preparedness, even among older people, are their mothers.
Redcross.org will give you a whole list of items you need for a
kit, or you can buy assembled kits from our Red Cross store.
And, it is relatively inexpensive to get a kit and it doesn't
cost anything to make a plan and be informed.
Mr. Chairman, we thank you and the Members of the
Subcommittee for making preparedness a priority. As leaders in
your communities, you can help us build a culture of
preparedness, and in doing so, save lives. Thank you.
Senator Pryor. Thank you. Again, I want to thank all the
panelists for your testimony. Now I have a few questions.
I may just start with you, Ms. DeFrancis, if I can, and
that is I know that in many States, the States do not provide
any sort of protection like legal liability protection for
volunteers, and I assume that is true for volunteering
organizations, as well. Is there a difference in what you have
seen, is there a difference in participation State by State
depending on whether these States have what a lot of people
call ``good samaritan'' laws?
Ms. DeFrancis. Mr. Chairman, I am not aware of any studies
that specifically show a difference. However, we are strong
supporters of that legislation. We believe it is critically
important to protect our volunteers when they come forward.
They are often the people who are going to a disaster scene
when others are leaving and we want to make sure that they have
that protection.
Senator Pryor. I know that back years ago when I was in the
Arkansas State Legislature, we passed some laws through the
legislature that basically protected doctors when they were
providing, again, good samaritan-type efforts. We just felt it
was unfair that they might get sued if they were out there just
on their own helping somebody. So anyway, I do think that is
good public policy and I think that--I just didn't know if you
were seeing any difference out in the field. So as far as you
know, you are not, but you just----
Ms. DeFrancis. As far as I know, but I will definitely
check and if we can find any research on that, get it to the
Committee.
Senator Pryor. That would be great.
Ms. DeFrancis. Thank you.
Senator Pryor. That would be helpful if there is anything
out there. Mr. Schrader, let me just ask you----
Mr. Schrader. Yes, sir.
Senator Pryor. One of the concerns that we find with DHS
that has been pretty consistent, unfortunately, since I have
been here in the Senate for the last 5 years is DHS does not
always do a great job of coordinating, not just coordinating
with other agencies, but sometimes even know what is going on
within the Department. I know DHS and FEMA, part of what you do
is you coordinate with other Federal agencies on this
particular thing, on community preparedness and individual
preparedness. Do you think that FEMA and DHS are doing what
they need to do to coordinate with other Federal agencies?
Mr. Schrader. Well, Mr. Chairman, I will start by saying,
as I said in my opening statement, we are not where we need to
be. We have a long way to go. But the good news is that the
Post-Katrina Act envisioned the establishment of the National
Integration Center and put this program inside the National
Preparedness Directorate. What we have been doing over the last
9 months has been spending a lot of time working to get the
organization to do exactly what you are talking about, reaching
out, working across boundaries. Brock Bierman, who is the
Director of the program, as well as Karen Marsh, have
relationships that cut across the Department and the agency.
Within DHS, our experience has been very positive. Of
course, we have the Ready Campaign, which is a public affairs
message nationally that has done a very nice job. So our whole
agenda is to do exactly what you are talking about. But I am
not going to sit here and tell you that we are anywhere near
where I would like it to be.
Senator Pryor. And do you have in your mind the steps
necessary to get it to where you want it to be?
Mr. Schrader. What we are doing--this gets back to the
whole big picture around transition philosophy--we are putting
quality-capable career people in key jobs. We are delegating to
them and we are allowing them to do the work we are supposed to
be doing, and we are having a lot of success with that. I know
the Deputy Secretary has held a number of sessions in the last
several months to do just that, is to get people within intra-
DHS talking to each other. So it is a very directed initiative,
and I think that is going to pay dividends.
As you know, Nancy Ward is the Senior Transition Official.
She is our Region IX Administrator. We just had a conference
here in Washington, DC, 2 weeks ago where Mr. Paulison brought
together all the regions around the country to make sure that
this whole transition message was--so the things we are doing
are going to carry on in the future.
Senator Pryor. A lot of that sounds good about you getting
people together and talking and communicating. That is
obviously a very important step. But you also mentioned a few
moments ago that you have been working on some of this for the
last 9 months. As you are working on this and as you are
talking, are you actually making changes?
Mr. Schrader. Yes.
Senator Pryor. I mean, are you changing structure?
Mr. Schrader. Yes, absolutely. The change is consistent,
deliberate, and I will give you an example. We are bringing in
a new system administrator who starts on Monday and his name is
John Bridges. He is actually from the U.S. Postal Service. So
we are reaching across other agencies to bring in talent that
FEMA might not have otherwise had, and you can't get much more
local than your local post office.
Senator Pryor. Right.
Mr. Schrader. So we are really thinking that way. We are
bringing a lot of people into the organization. If you look at
some of the things that need to be done, for example, we need
to be focused on making sure that the emergency operations
plans in all of our jurisdictions have the concept of NGO
participation and private sector participation in them. By
virtue--the other thing that we did, which is very important,
is we have created the--and this is not just talk, this is
action--in every region as of January, we now have realigned
the reasons to have a Federal Preparedness Coordinator. We have
hired those people, we have staffed them, and they are
responsible for overseeing their States and getting involved at
the State level.
So there is a lot of work going on in a very rapid fashion
and I am very optimistic. And we have to push this program into
the regions to get closer to the State and local folks where
the action really is.
Senator Pryor. Well, let me follow up on that and ask a
specific question about preparedness and communication. Do you
know if the Citizen Response Teams are incorporated into the
State or national exercises out in the field, like the TOPOFF
exercise? Do you get the Citizen Response Teams involved in
those?
Mr. Schrader. In some cases, they are. We held, for
example, for TOPOFF 4, we had a very specific part of the
exercise, because the way TOPOFF--and those are now going to be
called national exercises in the National Exercise Program, but
the way those work, we actually had one of the sessions during
the design process focused on the citizen participation. So
that is part of the process. And I would say getting this
embedded into the design and evaluation of exercises is
critical. One of the evaluation factors in our exercise program
now is citizen participation.
Senator Pryor. Good. Well, you said sometimes that they are
incorporated. To me, it seems like they should always be
incorporated.
Mr. Schrader. Did I say some?
Senator Pryor. Yes.
Mr. Schrader. I am sorry. If I say always, then I am sure
there will be times when it doesn't happen, so--it is the
intent that it would always happen----
Senator Pryor. It seems to me to make sense to always
include it----
Mr. Schrader. Yes, sir.
Senator Pryor [continuing]. Because they would be an
important piece of that.
Mr. Schrader. Mr. Chairman, you are absolutely correct.
Senator Pryor. Let me ask you as well, Mr. Schrader, about
how again, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is organized
and how you have so many different offices and chain of
commands and what not within Homeland Security.
Mr. Schrader. Right.
Senator Pryor. You have two main programs here, I think,
when we are talking about community preparedness, Citizen Corps
and Ready.gov, but I don't think they are within the same
office at DHS, isn't that right? They are in separate offices?
Mr. Schrader. Yes, sir, or Mr. Chairman.
Senator Pryor. And then beyond those two, you have the
Private Sector Office, you have the Disabilities Office, State
and Local Outreach Office, Nonprofit Outreach Office, etc. What
are the advantages of being organized that way rather than
trying to bring everybody together and do it in a more unified
fashion?
Mr. Schrader. Quite frankly, it could work this way, and we
have very good relationships. Al Martinez-Fonts and I speak
frequently. Bob Stephan, who runs the Critical Infrastructure
Program and his people, Jim Caverly, we work very closely
together. If you look at how we organized, for example, Title
IX, we have a Private Sector Council now that oversees the
implementation of Title IX. The administrator chairs that. I am
his designee. But we are working very closely together on that
project.
What it really requires and what has happened since the
Post-Katrina Act and the establishment of my office is we have
to demand that people collaborate in process, and that is what
is happening. We are going to--Assistant Secretary Fonts has a
lot of information. His people, like Mr. Morris, participate
with us.
So my sense is that--and I will give you another example.
We do a lot of research, DHS and S&T are involved with us. I
think it is incumbent on us and our people to reach out and
work together, and we are seeing a lot more of that and I am
very encouraged by what I see.
Senator Pryor. Good. Let me ask another thing about Citizen
Corps. Citizen Corps does things like forming councils,
partnership development and coordination, training and
exercises, communication, outreach, and national policy
integration. Can you tell me what you mean by national policy
integration?
Mr. Schrader. What I mean by that is--and again, this gets
back to the creation of the National Preparedness Directorate
and pulling all these folks together--we want to make sure that
if there is a--and this gets back to your point, for example,
on exercises. We have an HC program which oversees exercises.
We need to make sure that as we develop policy around
exercises, that citizen participation is built into that as we
do the National Preparedness Guidelines. There is information
in there that requires, for example, in the eight national
priorities that came out of the guidelines, citizen
preparedness is one of the eight priorities.
And then that ties back to how we fund programs. As I
mentioned earlier, you tie that back to the Competitive
Training Grant Program, we made, based on input that we got
from the field, we made two of the five priorities this year
citizen participation. So we have to weave these together as a
matter of policy and that is what we are doing.
It is not where I would like it to be, quite frankly, but
every day, I come to work with that focus in mind and we have
to keep hammering on it and our folks are getting it. They
understand that is where we are heading. One of the reasons why
this transition strategy is so important is that we have to
have the career workforce driving this. It can't be at the
political level. It has to be at the career level, and it is
starting to work.
Senator Pryor. Good. Let me ask you, Mr. Decker, if I may,
here you are sitting next to Homeland Security and FEMA. From
your perspective, are Homeland Security and FEMA doing enough
to coordinate with State and local but also just with community
organizations?
Mr. Decker. Mr. Chairman, I welcome that question. Let me
say that I think DHS and particularly FEMA within DHS has made
major strides to get better at communicating with us and our
local counterparts----
Senator Pryor. Since when?
Mr. Decker. Over the last 18 to 24 months.
Senator Pryor. OK.
Mr. Decker. I would say it is part of Administrator
Paulison's vision of the new FEMA, the leaning forward. We are
seeing more communication and more effort coming out to the
regions and the regions are a little more convenient for us to
deal with at the local level than trying to contact folks at
headquarters and get answers. And I would also say through our
associations, through NEMA and IAEM, that certainly we are
partnering more. They are listening to us more.
And I would point to, as an example, the National Response
Framework. I think we all remember the first version came out,
not too happy of a version. They were willing to listen to the
locals and to the State directors and I think the final product
we have out is one that is actually being used at the local
level now and not just stuck on the shelf somewhere as one more
thing that Washington sent us.
So I do think we are making progress and I do think it is
at the FEMA level. We still feel, I will tell you, we still
feel disconnected from DHS as a whole. To us, that is a big
thing that we can't get our arms around. But we do feel that we
are making inroads with the FEMA folks.
Senator Pryor. Well, let me follow up on that, if I may. It
sounds good in terms of FEMA, and I do think that Dave Paulison
is really trying hard at FEMA and I think he has the right
approach. I know he still has some legacy issues he is trying
to clean up from previous directors. But nevertheless, I do
think he is trying very hard to do that and he has been very
responsive. I think he has FEMA focused again like it should
be. Personally, I think FEMA should be at a cabinet-level
position and I think that model worked well under the previous
Administration. I think it would work well right now.
But regardless of that, you mentioned that the coordination
with FEMA and the communication with FEMA is good, but not so
much with DHS. How does that hurt what you are trying to do
when you really can't communicate or you don't have that type
of relationship with DHS? How does that hurt you in what you
do?
Mr. Decker. I think where it really hurts us, and I would
mention, Mr. Chairman, that IAEM wholeheartedly agrees with
your assessment that we think FEMA should be a cabinet-level
agency and restored to their previous status, but having said
that, the biggest problem with the disconnect at DHS, I
believe, is that it adds to confusion in the public. They will
hear something from DHS, and is that DHS and FEMA or is that
just DHS, and I think if the public is confused, certainly my
counterparts across the country are confused, and I think that
is why the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act was so
critical because it forced DHS to put a lot of the programs
that we deal with--in fact, all of the programs we deal with
are now under FEMA. So we are back to dealing with the
organization that we are comfortable with, and that is FEMA, on
our grants and other programs.
Senator Pryor. OK. Ms. DeFrancis, same question for you in
terms of your perspective on whether FEMA is doing a good job
of helping you coordinate, being integrated in the communities
and the areas where you are going to need response, and also
for that matter how that works on DHS's level, as well.
Ms. DeFrancis. Well, Mr. Chairman, we have very good
coordination with FEMA as well as the Department of Homeland
Security. The head of the Red Cross has traveled with them to
many disasters. We have been linked up all the way down the
chain. We recently held a meeting at the Red Cross just a few
weeks ago, convening the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA,
other agencies, and nongovernmental organizations to discuss
Preparedness Month and how we can get ready for that and send
messages and help communities prepare.
So I would say that we are very confident with our
relationships with both FEMA and the Department. I am not aware
of instances where it has been a disconnect between FEMA and
the Department, but I would say we work very closely with them
and consider them to be our partners, and of course under the
National Response Framework, we have responsibilities, as well,
with them in terms of convening other nongovernmental
organizations for mass care.
Senator Pryor. Right. Let me follow up on that, if I may,
just a little different piece of that same question, and that
is there is a study out that says that some of these programs
and some of these efforts that FEMA and DHS are doing are
attracting volunteers, your standard volunteers like fire
fighters, National Guard, Red Cross, those types of standard
volunteers in communities they volunteer, but they are not
attracting new volunteers. Do you think we need to be actively
trying to recruit more volunteers into preparedness and into
response?
Ms. DeFrancis. Well, absolutely, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Pryor. And then how do we do that?
Ms. DeFrancis. Well, certainly as you know, the Red Cross
depends on volunteers. They make up the bulk of our response
effort, and so we are always actively trying to recruit more
volunteers.
I think part of the answer to how you do that is you need
to educate communities about what we do, what the Red Cross
does in our instance, and help train people to do that. I
mentioned in my testimony that getting businesses who very
often come to us and say, we want to have our employees
trained, whether it be in preparedness or CPR or anything, and
working with them through programs like ``Ready When the Time
Comes.'' As I said, this is a program that was started in one
city. We have now piloted it in 16 other cities. I think it is
going to go nationwide, and basically it is getting businesses
to lend us their employees for one Saturday to train and to be
a disaster volunteer so they could go in a shelter and help
with that. I have attended these. They are wonderful. You will
see teams of employees who work together during the week at
work and they are training to be volunteers. And as I said, we
have already deployed them other places.
So obviously, I guess, the other is we really want to
connect with more young people, encourage them. We are very
active on the new media and websites to interest the next
generation of volunteers in the Red Cross. I think, as you
know, there is a tremendous desire to serve among the American
people. When we connect that with the work that we do, we will
get more volunteers.
Senator Pryor. Mr. Decker, are you seeing that same thing
in your experience? The research is saying that there are
volunteers out there, but not a lot of new volunteers.
Mr. Decker. That is exactly what we are seeing. We are
seeing that our Red Cross volunteers, for instance, that are
working on those DAT teams that show up at those house fires
are the same guys who are volunteering to be HAM radio
operators and help us storm spot during severe weather, and
they are the same guys who is helping out in local service
clubs and his church. So we have a lot of people who are out
there, are great volunteers and are offering their help almost
carte blanche and we are not seeing great numbers to replace
them or to augment them in the future. Our concern is that when
disaster strikes, we are forcing these volunteers to pick one.
Senator Pryor. Yes.
Mr. Decker. When this disaster strikes, are they going to
come out and be part of the CERT team? Are they going to be
part of the DAT team with the Red Cross? Are they going to go
over and help their church take care of the elderly that they
are helping?
Senator Pryor. Right.
Mr. Decker. So that is the concern that we see, and I think
you are right on target.
Senator Pryor. And the other problem is, for example, in
Arkansas, in about a 60-day period, we had two pretty severe
rounds of tornadoes and major flooding. A lot of times, those
same volunteers were going from event to event to event. There
is some wear and tear there. So do you have any ideas on how to
expand the recruiting base for volunteers?
Mr. Decker. No. There is no golden answer to that. I wish
there was. I think it is a matter of--it is going to take a lot
of effort. I think we have to attract this younger, this 30-ish
to 40-ish area is where I see the big struggle being, is to get
folks in that age range to want to volunteer. We have younger
folks who want to volunteer and we have older folks that have
been volunteering for generations. And I think part of it is
that is the age group where they are raising families and they
are probably both working and it is just when they get 10 hours
of spare time, they want to keep it for themselves and not
donate it and we are just going to have to work on trying to
educate them and showing them that just makes good sense, to
help your neighbors.
Senator Pryor. Mr. Schrader, did you want to add something
to the volunteer question?
Mr. Schrader. Yes, Mr. Chairman. What I would suggest is we
do regular research in the directorate and one of the things we
want to do is to begin to get more focused on these issues and
convert the research to action recommendations because one of
the things that we don't want to do, particularly within
Citizen Corps, we don't want to replicate or duplicate effort,
and it may be that as we drill into this through our research
efforts, we may find that people are affiliated with all sorts
of groups.
For example, I used to coach my daughter's teams when she
was growing up. It may be that we have to get some of this
first aid and CPR training, the basic training, into some of
those organizations as part of that milieu rather than trying
to get them to do something else, but to still get it. And so
we may have to think about ways. But I think part of where we
can add value is to direct some of our research to answering
some of these questions and that is what I would like to be
able to do.
Senator Pryor. Well, you have got two good resources here.
Mr. Schrader. Absolutely. I am taking copious notes.
Senator Pryor. Good. Maybe you can talk to them about that
because that sounds reasonable to me.
Mr. Schrader. Yes, sir.
Senator Pryor. Mr. Schrader, let me also ask about--let me
the preface the question by saying, in my State, if I can speak
for the people of Arkansas, I think most people feel
comfortable in preparing and sort of thinking about preparing
for tornadoes and floods and ice storms, things like that. They
don't feel as comfortable when it comes to terrorist attacks or
pandemic flu or something of that nature. Do you try to
encourage people to prepare for every type of potential
disaster or do you try to focus your message--like, for
example, we live in a part of the country that has a lot of
tornadoes and we are prone to ice storms in the wintertime. Do
you try to tailor the message, or is it just more of a one-
size-fits-all for everything?
Mr. Schrader. Well, Mr. Chairman, you have asked a question
that is probably the center of a lot of controversy in the
country because that is where this debate lies around all
hazards. Let me start by saying that part of what we are doing
inside of FEMA to more directly integrate with the Department
is to make sure that FEMA is an all hazards agency. We benefit
by all the programs inside of DHS like the INA program, like
the IP program. What we are doing and our responsibility inside
FEMA is to reach out and connect so that we begin to organize
our efforts in an all hazards way. So that is one issue.
The second thing we are doing, we have been given resources
to do regional catastrophic planning. Dave Maxwell, for
example, is doing a terrific job as the Chairman of NEMA's
Preparedness Committee nationally. But there is a CUSEC group
in the middle of the country that looks at earthquakes. The
worst earthquake in that eight-state region is pretty
significant----
Senator Pryor. Right, with the New Madrid fault.
Mr. Schrader. The New Madrid fault, right. We are currently
working on a plan, bottoms-up plan, that will culminate in an
exercise in 2011.
Senator Pryor. Right. That would be a tabletop?
Mr. Schrader. Well, that would be a national level
exercise----
Senator Pryor. Right.
Mr. Schrader [continuing]. Because it would include all
eight States, yes, sir.
Senator Pryor. I think that is great. I think that is
important. Speaking of that, because, again, in our region of
the country, we live on or near a very dangerous fault line,
but we haven't had a major earthquake there in 200 years,
almost----
Mr. Schrader. Exactly.
Senator Pryor [continuing]. A major one. We have had little
tremors here and there. So I think a lot of people, even though
that threat is out there, it is not that real to them, so I
think an exercise like that would help inform the public.
Mr. Schrader. Right, and that to me is an example of how it
all streams together. The whole concept of the planning
scenarios came from working internally with DHS on the planning
guidance. The whole notion of having these regional
catastrophic--well, not only, but an all hazards for disaster
situations, earthquakes are low-probability events, but they
are very--they have high impact.
So the point I was making is that whether it is an
earthquake or a major HAZMAT or a chemical-biological event,
those are kinds of things that most people are not thinking
about. But the fact of the matter is that if we prepare the
public at that scale--it is really a matter of scale that we
are talking about here rather than the initiating of that, and
then that part of the country will focus on earthquakes.
Obviously, in the Southeast it will always be hurricanes. But
if we can get those base capabilities in place around
communications, citizen preparedness, how people work together,
around logistics, we will be able to deal with most situations.
Senator Pryor. Let me ask you, and it is really for both of
you here, yesterday here at the Capitol, we had severe weather
warnings and tornado warnings, etc. What most people did is
they went to their television set and turned on either the
Weather Channel or CNN or Fox News, whatever it may be, some
sort of local broadcast, or turn on the radio and try to figure
out what is going on, what is about to happen. On the national
level and then again on the State and local level, do you all
systematically try to work with the news media in terms of
making sure that you are coordinated with them, or is the news
media, do they have enough incentives just to do that on their
own and they are going to do what they do because they cover
local weather and local events?
Mr. Schrader. Well, let me start by saying, obviously, the
news media has a very positive effect on driving preparedness
because they are right on top of these things 24/7. So that is
a positive thing.
Last night, for example, the Office of National Capital
Region was monitoring this thing, Chris Geldart, who is the
Director, and then there was a conference call with the
Administrator and the National Operations Center and the NRCC
folks talking about where we are. Prior to that, the Director
of the National Capital Region talked to the Virginia Homeland
Security Advisor and also the Maryland Homeland Security
Advisor and Washinton, DC, and said, where are things? Is
everything OK? They said, we have got it under control, there
are some outages, and that information was all discussed last
night at 9 p.m. So we are on top of it, in a way, we have to
stay two steps ahead of the media, which is not easy to do, as
you can imagine.
Senator Pryor. Right. But are they out there on their own,
or do you actually--I know you are informing them and giving
them----
Mr. Schrader. Right.
Senator Pryor [continuing]. Messages for them to broadcast,
but are they working pretty much independently of you or are
you trying to coordinate with them?
Mr. Schrader. A lot of their information comes from
government agencies like the National Weather Service and NOAA.
We have partnerships with those folks, the Hurricane Center. So
my view is that those linkages are in place and work.
Obviously, things can always be better.
Senator Pryor. Did you have something to add to that?
Mr. Decker. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I would say that the
question that you raise is really what local emergency
management is all about and that is what I and my colleagues
across the country, that is what we are paid to do, is develop
those relationships with our local media so that we have ways
to communicate in those crisis times. And I can say that for a
large part, that is very successful. In most areas, the local
emergency manager and the news media have an excellent working
relationship.
We have multiple--and redundancy is a good thing in our
profession. So we have multiple ways that we can get hold of
reporters and news media during hours, after hours, and
likewise, we make it a two-way street, so that if they need to
access me during a disaster, they have some offline ways to be
able to do that because the lack of information is certainly
worse than, I believe, than being able to have too much
information.
So I think what you probably saw here, or what I saw last
night when I was here and what you would see in any community
across the country is the fact that I am sure the local
emergency managers and the media were working together, and had
shelters needed to be opened and things, those would have been
communicated quickly through the media so folks know what to
do.
Senator Pryor. Let me ask you, Mr. Decker, this is a little
bit of a follow-up to what you are saying but it is a different
subject. I just want to see if you have had this experience. In
another committee setting--I am on the Senate Commerce
Committee--we were talking about ownership of local media
outlets and whether you should continue to allow this
consolidation where radio stations, for example, are parts of
larger and larger chains or if you want to discourage that and
require more local ownership.
Well, anyway, one of the stories that was told in the other
committee was that there are examples of areas who have had
their local radio stations bought up by chains and what that
means in effect is that a local radio station loses its news
department. And so even though they are broadcasting, they may
be playing rock and roll or country music or whatever the case
may be, they are not getting any local coverage in that area.
So when there is a threat of a natural disaster, whatever it
may be, the traditional, normal local media outlet is not of
any help because they are just broadcasting whatever is being
syndicated or whatever they are picking up on satellite. Have
you had that happen to you, or----
Mr. Decker. Well, we haven't had it negatively impact us,
but I will tell you that is the real world out there. In my
county, we have 12 radio stations under two owners----
Senator Pryor. Right.
Mr. Decker [continuing]. And they are both large
corporations. We have the four major television networks under
two owners. And so there are really four media shops in town to
do all the radio and television. But what we have found, those
stations, you are right. Many of those stations are automated
now, so if something happens at 3 a.m. on Sunday, there is
nobody at that radio station. We can still----
Senator Pryor. There is nobody you can coordinate with?
Mr. Decker. We can still use the EAS to interrupt on our
own on the short-term, to get that immediate message out----
Senator Pryor. Right.
Mr. Decker [continuing]. And then what we have been doing
in our jurisdiction, and I am sure my colleagues around the
country, because you don't have the newsroom. So we are
partnering with the general managers and the chief engineers to
find out how we get a body into their radio station at 4 a.m.
in the morning that can put on some special programming. Most
of those companies, we have found to be receptive to do that.
It is just a new model. It is not the old days where you had to
know the news director. Now you need to know the chief engineer
and the general manager and the sales manager because those are
the guys who can get in and get something different on the air
than what is coming off a satellite someplace.
Senator Pryor. Right. Well, a similar circumstance is with
satellite television. There is a must-carry rule there where if
you are in a certain media market, then that satellite provider
must carry your local TV broadcast. But what happens is around
the country, I know in Arkansas, for example, if you go up to
the northern tier of counties that touch Missouri, they are not
in an Arkansas media market. They are in Missouri media markets
and so they are getting their news and weather and all that out
of Joplin or out of Springfield or out of somewhere like that,
and I am sure those are great people that run those stations,
but they are more focused on Missouri issues. So if you are in
rural Arkansas up in some of those counties, and there are
other regions of the State like that around the borders, pretty
much, where they are picking up other States' media markets,
they get zero Arkansas weather coverage or zero catastrophe
coverage like that in Arkansas because Arkansas is really just
an afterthought because they only have a couple of counties or
something.
That is a concern, too, and I don't know if you have a fix
for that. I mean, we are looking at something here that maybe
would fix that and allow the customer to decide which one they
pick up, but we can work on that. But I didn't know if you had
that experience, either.
Mr. Decker. We haven't had that exact experience in my
county but we had something similar. We had a lot of guys out
selling satellite service before they had to carry the locals
and we encouraged them, and they voluntarily agreed to go along
with this idea, and that is we were stressing the fact, and
maybe we embarrassed them into it because we would speak
publicly about the fact that you are not going to get these
local warnings if you are on satellite television. And so we
got the satellite providers to voluntarily provide NOAA all-
hazard weather radios to their subscribers when they bought the
satellite dish because at least we knew then that they had that
all-hazards radio in their household, and if they aren't going
to get it off the TV, that the radio would come on and should
alert them at that point.
Senator Pryor. Let me ask this, too, and this may be more
for FEMA than the local and other volunteer organizations. Of
course, today, a lot of people communicate through their
wireless telephone, their cell phone. Is there a system in
place where people can get emergency broadcasts through their
telephone? Is that option available, and is it available in all
media markets, do you know?
Mr. Schrader. I know that in the National Capital Region,
we were working--there are providers who provide alert
notifications----
Senator Pryor. Right.
Mr. Schrader [continuing]. Through those kinds--but those
are usually services----
Senator Pryor. You have to pay extra for that?
Mr. Schrader. Yes, exactly. But I know we had a program
where you could sign up free with the local AMA, like in
Montgomery County, but it is not universal around the country.
But the capability exists. It is not an organized effort.
Senator Pryor. Do you know anything about that?
Mr. Decker. No, other than I do know that FEMA is working
on the IPAWS project, which would sort of go to some of those
concerns down the road, but I don't know how far along they are
on the IPAWS, but----
Mr. Schrader. Yes, and I didn't come prepared to address
IPAWS.
Senator Pryor. Yes. I mean, the only point there really is
that a lot of times, we think in terms of traditional
communication----
Mr. Schrader. Right.
Senator Pryor [continuing]. And certainly cell phones and
the Internet, for that matter, and all this other stuff that
has come online, that is all sort of non-traditional but can be
a very effective, very immediate and cheap way to get the word
out to people.
Mr. Schrader. Yes.
Senator Pryor. So anyway, I have other questions and I
think what I will do in the interest of time is to maybe submit
some of those for the record. What we are going to do here is
we will keep the record open for 2 weeks. Some Senators may
want to submit other questions in writing.
But I do want to thank you all for being here. It has been
very helpful. The local preparedness, not just on the
organizational level and the government level but on the
individual level, on the citizen level, is very important to
making sure that we are doing all that we can to respond and
prepare for disasters.
What I will do then is I will adjourn the hearing, but with
the understanding that we will probably have a few questions in
writing and we would love for you all to get those responses
back in the next couple of weeks. So thank you for doing this.
We are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:44 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR VOINOVICH
Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Sununu, I commend you both for
convening today's hearing regarding community preparedness. In 95
percent of emergency situations, bystanders or victims themselves are
the first to provide assistance. Given this fact, I think today's
hearing is extremely important.
I believe it is every person's civic responsibility to be prepared
for natural and man-made disasters, and I appreciate our witnesses
appearing to discuss our level of readiness. I especially want to thank
Mr. Decker for testifying today. Mr. Decker and I have worked together
on a number of emergency issues facing Ohio, including winter storms,
floods, and tornadoes. I have always been impressed with his emergency
management expertise and believe he will share some useful information
and recommendations with the Subcommittee today.
Again, Chairman Pryor, thank you for calling today's hearing on
preparedness, an issue of critical importance to communities throughout
the United States.
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