INTERAGENCY COORDINATING COUNCIL ON EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES
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Monthly Updates - November 2007

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ICC Monthly Highlights

California Wildfires Updates

On November 8, 2007, the Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC) on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals with Disabilities convened via teleconference. The meeting was led by Claudia Gordon, Senior Policy Advisor in the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Participants included ICC member agencies/departments Points of Contact. The agenda included briefing from colleagues who were actively involved with response and recovery efforts in areas affected by the recent California wildfires. Ms. June Kailes, Associate Director for the Center for Disability Issues and the Health Professions at the Western University of Health Science; Mr. Andrew Mudryk, Director of Litigation for the Southern California Protection & Advocacy, Inc. (P & A, Inc.); and Ms. Cindy Daniel, FEMA, National Disability Coordinator shared their on-the-ground experiences during the wildfires response and the recovery process presently underway. Some highlighted improvements Ms. Kailes reported were the incorporation of individuals with special needs within the general population shelters rather than having a separate shelter designed for individuals with special needs; and the availability of communication resources throughout all the shelters - cellular phones, TTY and text devices along with sign language interpreters for both English and Spanish, and captioning.

Mr. Mudryk along with other P & A colleagues, visited shelters and met with disability service providers and local leaders to gather and exchange information about the wildfires. He mentioned that P & A, Inc. is drafting a template for a process that would be implemented immediately after a disaster to assure that effective communication occurs during and following the disaster. Both Ms. Kailes and Mr. Mudryk stressed the importance of disability service providers and representatives becoming directly integrated in the emergency planning and response process.

Ms. Daniel reported on the positive collaboration between Federal, State, Local, Tribal and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Approximately 3000 NGOs are working with FEMA to provide assistance for populations that include individuals with limited English proficiency (LEPs), tribal communities, and other special needs populations affected by the wildfires.

All three colleagues expressed that the response and recovery efforts have significantly improved in comparison to previous incident responses similar to the recent California wildfires. FEMA and other Federal government agencies will continue to collaborate with colleagues such as Ms. Kailes and Mr. Mudryk to improve emergency preparedness efforts for future disasters.

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ICC Monthly Updates

US Department of Homeland Security

DHS Participation in TOPOFF 4 Continues

Top Officials 4 (TOPOFF 4), the Nation’s premier terrorism preparedness exercise, involving top officials at every level of government, as well as representatives from the international community and private sector, continues with a two-day Long Term Recovery (LTR) Tabletop Exercise (TTX). The full scale exercise took place in October in Arizona, Oregon and the U.S. territory of Guam. The TOPOFF 4 LTR TTX is a mock summit, scheduled for December 4 and 5, that will bring together leaders from government, private sector, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to discuss key technical, operational, and policy challenges surrounding recovery from the detonation of a Radiological Dispersion Device (RDD). The leaders anticipate developing coordinated recommendations to senior federal officials on long-term recovery issues from 50 days after detonation (D+50). The exercise will focus on recovery issues related to environment, health and medical, infrastructure, economic, and strategic communications at D+50 and beyond. For this exercise, the phrase "long-term" is utilized to frame discussion along a continuum of time measured in years rather than identifying specific situations at discreet moments of time.

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) staff and Cindy Daniel, FEMA Disability Coordinator, have been at the planning table from the beginning of this exercise providing recommendations to ensure that the impact on individuals with disabilities, individuals requiring medical support, the elderly, and other special needs populations are appropriately included in the scenario and discussion. This LTR TTX will employ a blend of briefings, panel discussions, issues-based breakout groups, and integrated plenary feedback sessions. CRCL staff will represent special needs issues in a panel discussion on Individual and Public Assistance and Social Services in addition to providing subject matter expertise during multiple breakout group discussions, This format will offer an opportunity to clarify the key decision points and interactions of federal, state, tribal, and local governments, the private sector, and NGOs in dealing with long-term recovery issues. Discussions will culminate in policy-level recommendations regarding those challenges, and validate or suggest improvements to existing plans and national priorities that address long-term recovery.

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U.S. Department of Labor

ICC Workplace Subcommittee Examine Emergency Preparedness & Continuity of Operations Protocols

This past month, the ICC Workplace Subcommittee examined the connection between Emergency Preparedness and the Continuity of Operations (COOP) protocols. The Committee visited the Department of Labor Emergency Management Center (EMC) in order to understand what procedures and practices take place in an instance where COOP procedures are initialized, and how emergency preparedness protocols may be designed to help or augment COOP work. Some of the discussion used the context of the recent California Wildfires as a basis for understanding the separate responsibilities of the EMC as it relates to COOP and the ICC. Presentations were offered by Greg Rize, Director of the Emergency Management Center, and Traci Smith, who not only supports the COOP work of the Emergency Management Center, but is also active in the Workplace Subcommittee.

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Seven-Step Strategic Plan

The Health and Human Services Subcommittee of the Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities has completed a seven-step Strategic Plan. This Strategic Plan specifically supports the Secretary of Health and Human Services overall Strategic Goal #2: Public Health Promotion and Protection, Disease Prevention, and Emergency Preparedness. The overall goal of the Plan is to prepare for and respond to natural or man-made disasters by creating the mechanism to:

  1. Increase the number of trained Public Health Service Personnel in addressing the needs of persons with disabilities during emergency planning and response.
  2. Increase the number of HHS ASPR civil service personnel trained in addressing the needs of persons with disabilities during emergency planning and response.
  3. Increase the number of State and territory emergency managers that are trained in addressing the needs of persons with disabilities during emergency planning and response.
  4. Increase the number of IHS and Tribal emergency managers that are trained in addressing the needs of persons with disabilities during emergency planning and response.
  5. Promote the dissemination of emergency preparedness information to people with disabilities.
  6. Ensure that Federal Medical Stations/Shelters are accessible for persons with disabilities and make available accommodations, such as mobility devices, personal care support, and auxiliary aids and services.
  7. With the aid of the Centers for Disease Control, advance scientific knowledge of new strategies or approaches that will improve delivery of emergency preparedness services to people with disabilities.

In addition, during the recent California Wildfire events the Office on Disabilities was integrally involved with addressing needs of people with disabilities as well as working with the Medical Reserve Corps to increase the number of volunteers who are either persons with disabilities or have specific training in the area.

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Recently Released Resources

Public Health Emergency Response: A Guide for Leaders and Responders

This publication, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a guide for public officials and first responders that outlines effective public health response. The guide explains the functions of federal public health agencies during an emergency, the role of risk communication, legal and policy considerations during disaster, and much more.

For more information please visit: http://www.dhhs.gov/disasters/press/newsroom/mediaguide/guideleader.html.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Radio Audio Available on the Internet

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that audio from NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) channels is now available online, either as streaming audio or as MP3s and podcasts. Though National Weather Service (NWS) offices are not hosting live streaming audio, many third parties are. In addition, numerous NWS offices are uploading audio files of weather radio messages to their Web sites. The audio files available vary by site, but typically contain routine messages such as forecasts, hourly weather roundups, and climate summaries. Downloadable NWR channels is another accessible resource individuals with disabilities can use to keep updated not only with weather, but also warning and post-event information for all types of hazards – including natural (such as earthquakes or avalanches), environmental (chemical releases or oil spills), and public safety (such as AMBER alerts or 911 Telephone outages).

For the list of sites with downloadable audio, please visit: http://www.weather.gov/nwr/streamaudio-d.htm.

Call for Papers: Humanity & Society Special Issue

Humanity & Society invites submissions for a special issue dedicated to the study of the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina-related evacuation for both evacuees and service providers both in New Orleans and in the cities where many evacuees have remained.

This special issue, titled "Civil Society and the State: Katrina Evacuees and Services," will explore the ways in which Katrina evacuees interacted with service agencies, both public and non-governmental, and the nature and outcome of their experiences. Topics include but not limited to:

  • The process by which Katrina evacuees did and did not receive help at various points both at the time of the storm and after their evacuation
  • Governmental and non-governmental policies and the ramifications for a major disaster
  • Local responses to both short-term and long-term needs of evacuees
  • The ways in which gender, race, and class interacted with evacuation and resettlement experiences and with residence in host communities
  • The experiences of evacuees with public agencies including schools, health departments, and the criminal justice system
  • The ways in which the Katrina experiences compare with other disasters, both domestic and international

Manuscripts should not exceed 30 double-spaced pages of text, plus notes and references, and should follow the "Notice to Contributors" guidelines supplied at http://www.humanistsociology.org. Address queries to Laura Lein at lein@mail.utexas.edu.

Deadline for submission is January 2, 2008.

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Upcoming Events

December 2 – 4, 2007
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Remembering When: Fire and Fall Prevention for Older Adults Conference
Boston, Massachusetts
National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Center for High-Risk Outreach is committed to helping communities reduce fire and fall injuries and deaths among the elderly. The Remembering When Program is centered around eight fire prevention and eight fall prevention safety messages developed by experts and practitioners from national and local safety organizations as well as through focus group testing in the high-fire-risk states of Alaska, Arkansas, Mississippi, Cleveland and Atlanta. To ensure that the program is reaching the most vulnerable of older adults, NFPA will select up to 40 communities to attend the first Remembering When Conference, emphasizing the reaching of the elderly through home visits. For this approach to be effective, NFPA requests local fire departments to partner with local agencies that work closely with the elderly population.

January 24, 2008
The Inland Empire: Towards a More Humane Metropolis
Riverside, California
Hosted by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, speakers and panelists from Southern California and elsewhere will examine some of the environmental and social challenges confronting the Riverside-San Bernardino region, one of the fastest growing and most hazardous metropolitan areas in the United States. This meeting is the second regional workshop based on The Humane Metropolis: People and Nature in the 21st Century City, a series that began in Pittsburgh in 2007 and tentatively will continue in Baltimore later in 2008. For more information please visit: www.humanemetropolis.org.

February 3 - 5, 2008
Second National Emergency Management Summit
Washington, D.C.
The National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) is holding its second Emergency Management Summit at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. NEMA’s Emergency Management Summit focuses on Medical preparedness and response to disasters, epidemics and terrorism. Forum topics include Planning Tools You Can Use To Meet The Needs Of Individuals With Disabilities In An Emergency: What To Do, What Not To Do, And What Difference Does It Make?; How Healthcare Providers and Plans Can Work with FEMA to Make Emergency Response Successful; and Special Populations: Preparing Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities For Public Health Emergencies. The keynote speaker will be David Nabarro, MD, Assistant Secretary-General and United Nations System Senior Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza. For more information please visit: www.emergencymanagementsummit.com.

March 11-14, 2008
VEMC Conference
Hampton, Virginia
The 2008 Virginia Emergency Management Conference (VEMC) “It Can Happen Here”, will be held at the Hampton Roads Convention Center on March 11th through the 14th. The tentative key note speaker for this year is current chairman of the World Meteorological Organization's Regional Association-IV and former director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield. Some provisional workshop topics are crisis management for schools, water system disruptions and rural/agricultural drought issues (tabletop exercise), and Minnesota bridge collapse debris management. For more information please visit: http://www.vdem.state.va.us/.

Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop
July 12-15, 2008
Broomfield, Colorado, USA
Omni Interlocken Resort
Boulder, Colorado.
The Natural Hazards Center invites proposals for session topics for the 2008 Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. The annual workshop is designed to bring members of the research and applications communities together for face-to-face networking and discussion of cutting-edge issues related to hazards and disasters and society's efforts to deal with them. To submit a session idea, go to http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/workshop/current.html. Session topics must be submitted by November 2, 2007, to be considered.

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Join the ICC Listserv!

The Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals with Disabilities (ICC) has created a listserv. Please join our listserv to receive the ICC's Monthly Updates and Quarterly Newsletter, Emergency Preparedness NOW, and access other information pertinent to emergency preparedness and individuals with disabilities.

To join please visit http://listserv.access.gpo.gov/archives/icc-dispreppubs-l.html or go to http://listserv.access.gpo.gov/ and click "Online Mailing List Archives," then select "ICC-DISPREPPUBS-L" and complete the subscription form. For more information about the ICC please visit www.disabilitypreparedness.gov.

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About the Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals with Disabilities

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties oversees the implementation of Executive Order 13347, Individuals with Disabilities in Emergency Preparedness, which was signed by President Bush in July 2004. This Executive Order is designed to ensure the safety and security of individuals with disabilities in all-hazard emergency and disaster situations. To this end, the Executive Order created an Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC) on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals with Disabilities. The ICC is comprised of senior leadership from more than 20 Federal departments and agencies. Its mission is to ensure that people with disabilities and their specific needs are fully integrated into all aspects of our nation's emergency management system; including mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The Secretary of Homeland Security is the Chair of the ICC, and he has delegated that role to Mr. Daniel Sutherland, the DHS Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. The Council has concentrated its work in eight major areas:

  1. Emergency Communications;
  2. Emergency Preparedness in the Workplace;
  3. Emergency Transportation;
  4. Health;
  5. Private Sector Coordination;
  6. Research;
  7. State, Local and Tribal Government Coordination; and
  8. Technical Assistance and Outreach.

For more information about the ICC please visit http://www.disabilitypreparedness.gov.

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