Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Dynamic Partnerships

EKO Flood USA LLC and Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon Inc. working together to find the best solution for flood protection. Just finish 2 private founded projects in Nashville TN and working on numerous projects in New York . This System can be used for Street , Railroad , Tunnel closures to protect Cities and Communities on the Inland Ocean shore without disturbing the landscape. The website www.ekofloodusa.com will ...more »

When I was discussing Emergency Preparedness with the owner of a local gas station, I suggested that all gas stations should have backup generators, possibly subsidized by FEMA. But the gas station owner said that in a far-reaching power failure, gas stations probably would not even be receiving gasoline - due to non-working pumps at the gasoline distributors, non-functioning traffic signals on the trucks' routes, etc. ...more »

Given the pending new legislation that will allow tribal governments to request federal disaster declarations independently, FEMA needs to create a separate cadre for Tribal Affairs to provide the complex technical assistance required to go through the disaster recovery process. JFOs will most likely be located on tribal lands-- and policies, laws and cultural traditions will need to be adhered to. In addition, training ...more »

Communities can come together and create COADs (Community Organizations Active in Disasters). This is a replicable program that involves no federal support. What it takes is motivation and a little work. Since character limits restrict my ability to give a thorough understanding of my meaning I would direct you to these links for examples of COADs from all over the United States. http://www.continuityinsights.com/articles/2009/06/public-private-partnerships-coads-voads-and-more ...more »

Two counties in the Panhandle of Florida recently came together to promote business continuity initiatives to all the small businesses in a two county area. The brain child of the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, this initiative, which included public and private sector partners from Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, have entered a cooperative arrangement to the benefit of small businesses. It was proposed that ...more »

I suggest that Emergency Managers (EMs) provide their communities with regular preparedness reminders on specific topics of interest. Some of these preparedness hints might be made by joint sponsors; e.g. EMs & local law enforcement, public health, and so on. The idea is to get and keep people thinking about being prepared in all things. An example of a joint EM - Health Dept. preparedness announcement is as follows: ...more »

During the recent Colorado fires, hundreds of volunteers came to the fire lines wanting to do anything they could to help. These prospective volunteers were all turned away by Emergency Managers and professional firefighters. True, they had no experience in fighting fires but they desired to do whatever they were asked to do if it would help. Rather than simply turning away prospective volunteers, I suggest that ...more »

With all the hundreds of homes/ businesses being lost from recent fires, FEMA should work to encourage owners of these structures not to simply build the same way to facilitate burning again in the next fire. I suggest that FEMA ask the insurance companies to provide these property owners with plans for earth sheltered homes/ businesses that will resist destruction by fire, tornadoes, looting, and WMD (weapons of mass ...more »

Most police organizations will create maps of probable looting targets during major disasters; e.g. food stores, appliance outlets, pawn shops, jewelry stores, homes that evidence considerable wealth, etc. I suggest that Emergency Managers (EMs) obtain copies of the above said maps to help in planning shelter locations, aid stations, evacuation routes, and other "key" aspects of any disaster recovery. If local law enforcement ...more »

It has been said that the private security industry which includes both contract and proprietary forces is much larger than the total of public safety/police departments. Granted that there are a significant number of individuals in this group that would not pass muster but if selected volunteers could be recruited and trained there are many things they could do. ie. assist in traffic control, dispatch duties, couriers, ...more »

Many counties in the United States have community colleges; two-year institutions of higher education that offer Associate's degrees and Certificates. As the Education Coordinator for the Public Safety Education Department in my local community college, I know of no outreach program from FEMA which targets the potential development of EM-related materials for students and other community members attending classes at our ...more »

In the case of foreign exchange students, we know that they and their countries benefit from their studies in the U.S ... and the U.S. benefits from the ideas these foreign students bring to us. I suggest that FEMA sponsor foreign EMs for study under experienced EMs here in the U.S. As with the foreign exchange students, all participants should gain benefits ... and the U.S. would gain some good P.R.

Emergency Managers should present the current emergency plans for their communities for review & comment by other Emergency Managers. Ideally, exchanges of plans should be with similar, or somewhat similar communities. Thus, by moving plans around in such exchanges Emergency Managers can learn from each other.

Unintended consequences can be roughly grouped into three types: • A positive, unexpected benefit (usually referred to as luck, serendipity or a windfall). • A negative, unexpected detriment occurring in addition to the desired effect of the policy (e.g., while irrigation schemes provide people with water for agriculture, they can increase waterborne diseases that have devastating health effects, such as schistosomiasis). ...more »

Too often, FEMA looks at partnerships in a static sense: OK, I've got X as a partner, they're "always" going to be a partner. For EM's to secure effective partners in a Whole Community approach, two things must be recognized: • Most likely, a partner will only want to partner in certain areas (e.g., health care). • Most likely, an organization will be a partner only as long as the organization believes it is realizing ...more »

Some civilians have plans and initatives which fill preparedness and recovery gaps. Consider and support the trained civilain and then build the bridge for the success to flow between communities and local government.

We are ready to meet with any and all emergency management organizations big or small near or far to uncover, develop, and implement better methods and technologies that will carry us handsomely into the next 25 years and beyond.

We are excited for the future of emergency management at home and abroad.