EMERGENCY PARTNER POSTINGS

Volume 4, No. 4

December 1999

EIIP Hosts Live Chat Portion of Virtual Fire and Rescue Expo (VFRE) and Invites You to Participate in WEBEX ii:

The Emergency Information Infrastructure Project (EIIP) is pleased to host the live chat portion of the Virtual Fire & Rescue Expo (VFRE) 1999. Sponsored by National Fire & Rescue magazine and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in its third year, VFRE is the only recognized major conference on the Internet for this community. In 1998, VFRE drew more than 34,000 user sessions, with attendance from 64 nations and territories. The best attended individual chat session by far was the WEBEX on-line exercise, conceived, designed, and executed by the EIIP, with the participation of many volunteers.

This year's WEBEX is scheduled for Friday, December 3, 1999, 8:00 - 10:30 PM Eastern Time, featuring the City of Pittsburgh. Relevant portions of Pittsburgh's Emergency Operations Plan and HazMat SOP, along with other information is posted in the Interactive Workshops area at http://www.vfre.com/vfre_frame2.asp?pres=26. Major roles are pre-assigned, but you are welcome to play along or observe. We may need some last minute subs as well!

In the meantime, please support the VFRE by dropping in on some of the sessions of particular interest to you , between now and the final day, December 6. See http://www.vfre.com/chatprogram.asp for the complete schedule, and each session has a background page accessible from the "Interactive Workshops" link. While several of the sessions are specialized to the fire services, many are of a more general nature and should be of interest to the broader emergency management community.

EIIP Reaches Goal!
We are thankful we reached our goal of 100 Friends of the EIIP during the Wednesday November 24 session - the day before Thanksgiving! If you have not pledged, you may still do so. See http://www.emforum.org/eiip/pledge.htm for further info and a list of Friends.

EIIP Road Trips:
Avagene Moore, CEM, EIIP Coordinator, attended the 47th Annual Conference of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) in Louisville, Kentucky, November 12-17. Amy Sebring, EIIP Technical Projects Coordinator, remotely presented WEBEX during a concurrent session with the help of Avagene. A tutorial on using the EIIP Virtual Forum for conduct of business meetings was done for Region IV state associations and the IAEM Government Information Committee.

RRBDIN Update:
The November 18 Online Workshop featured Mary Fran Myers, Co-Director, Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, University of Colorado, Boulder; Jacquelyn Monday, Program Manager, Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, University of Colorado, Boulder; and Emdad Haque, Professor of Geography, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba. The discussion was titled Impacts of Flood Recovery Assistance on Basin-wide Disaster Resilience. The RRBDIN was pleased to present one of the study's principal authors, Mary Fran Myers, to summarize the major findings and recommendations of the study, and to respond to questions and comments, assisted by Jacquelyn Monday and Emdad Haque.

Ideally, the recovery period after a major flood is a time to focus attention on enhancing flood resilience -- a community's ability to bounce back quickly after a flood without permanent, intolerable damage, or disruption, and without large amounts of outside assistance. The IJC's International Red River Basin Task Force commissioned a study to evaluate the extent to which the "window of opportunity" following the 1997 floods was used by government and private agencies to enhance one component of disaster resilience, that of structures.

The RRBDIN is sponsored by the International Joint Commission, the Global Disaster Information Network, and the Red River Basin Board with support by the EIIP. Workshop transcripts and related materials are available via the Web site. http://www.emforum.org/redriver/

(Due to the upcoming holidays, there will be no chat events during the last two weeks of December.)

The Round Tables are Partner-led discussions. We commend the following organizations for their participation in the Partnership. Please support their efforts each Tuesday at 12:00 Noon Eastern as well as our formal sessions each Wednesday at 12:00 Noon ET.

December 1999 Round Tables - Tuesdays - 12:00 Noon EDT:
December 7: HELPU Advocacy & Consulting Fire and Life Safety, Leslie Little, Director.

December 14: The Marasco Newton Group, Kim Fletcher, Emergency Management and Alternative Dispute Resolution.

December 1999 Formal Sessions - Wednesdays - 12:00 Noon EDT:
December 1: Virtual Classroom: A New Planning Tool from NOAA: Community Vulnerability Assessment Methodology with speaker, Sandy Eslinger, NOAA Coastal Services Center.

December 8: Virtual Library: Why (or why not) include the private sector in community planning and training? with John Laye, CMC and President, Contingency Management Consultants.

December 15: Virtual Forum: Group discussion, Planning: Theory vs. Reality.

The following submitted the agreement form to become formal Partners and are listed on the EIIP Virtual Forum web site, with links to Websites if available (see http://www.emforum.org/partners/partic.htm). Each Point of Contact (POC) has been welcomed to the EIIP and encouraged to become an active participant and worker in the Partnership:

CERT - Los Angeles: POC: Linda Underwood, cert-la@usa.net.

Docleaf, Ltd.: POC: Dr. David Perl, midas@docleaf.com.

eteam.com, Inc.: POC: Diana Mitchell, Director, Administration & Contracts, dmitchell@eteam.com.

HELPU Advocacy & Consulting Fire and Life Safety: POC: Leslie Little, Director,
helpu@visi.net.

National Fire Academy Alumni Association (NFAAA): POC:, Charles Werner, Communications Technical Advisor, cwerner@cstone.net.

Interested in joining the EIIP? New Partners are welcome; Partnership Criteria and Agreement Form may be found at the following URL: http://www.emforum.org/partners/criteria.htm

On Wednesday, November 17, 1999, at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Fall Meeting in New Orleans, NFPA 1600, the Standard On Disaster / Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs was approved by the NFPA membership.
"This standard establishes a common set of criteria for disaster management, emergency management, and business continuity programs herein after referred to as "the program". The purpose of this standard is to provide those with the responsibility for disaster/emergency management and business continuity the criteria to assess current programs or to develop, implement and maintain a program to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and emergencies." The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) and the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) are seriously considering endorsement of this standard and NFPA is awaiting their endorsement confirmation.

This standard will be formally issued by NFPA after the NFPA Standards Council meeting in January 2000. At that time, the standard will be printed and will be available for distribution in April 2000. As with other standards, NFPA 1600 will join the family of voluntary codes and standards (approximately 300) which are available for adoption by federal, state and local entities as well as the private sector. NFPA will continuously monitor the adoption and usage of the standard and the NFPA Disaster Management Committee will revisit its contents and usage over the next 3 - 5 years and address any appropriate changes, revisions or additions.

Specific subject matter addressed in NFPA 1600 includes the following:

• Laws and Authorities
• Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
• Hazard Mitigation
• Resource Management
• Planning
• Strategic Plan
• Emergency Operations Plan
• Mitigation Plan
• Business Impact Analysis
• Recovery / Business Continuity Plan
• Direction, Communication and Warning
• Operations and Procedures
• Logistics and Facilities
• Training
• Exercises, Evaluations and Corrective Actions
• Public Education and Information
• Finance and Administration

The NFPA Standards Council established the Disaster Management Committee in January 1991. The Committee was given the responsibility to develop documents relating to preparedness for, response to, and recovery from disasters resulting from natural, human, or technological events. The Committee, whose members are appointed by the Standards Council, consists of individuals from both the public and private sectors.

For more information on NFPA 1600, please contact NFPA 1600 Staff Liaison Martha Curtis at 617-984-7496 or the NFPA website: www.nfpa.org.

Deal Reached on Net Naming

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the government's designated heir as Internet overseer. The ICANN recently approved agreements between the Commerce Department and Network Solutions, Inc. (Herndon, VA) at its first meeting. The deal guarantees Network Solutions a continuing role in domain registration and encourages the company to split off its registry database operations or its registration business. Since 1993, Network Solutions has been the exclusive registrar for the .com, .org and net domain under an agreement with Commerce. Network Solutions will continue to operate the registry database of domain names for 4 years. (See last month's article, "New Domain Names in the Works.")

Fire Safe Holiday Season

Noting NFPA statistics that reveal 4 out of 7 home fires happen during the winter months, and that the holiday period has a high incidence of fires in the place where people feel safest (at home), the Red Cross is once again issuing Holiday Fire Safety recommendations to national media and its local chapters, as well as through a collaboration with Folgers Coffee. Home fires kill more people and damage more property than all other disasters combined --- it's important to keep fire safety uppermost in your mind during the holiday season. See http://www.redcross.org/news/inthnews/99/11-24-99.html for the full article and a list of safety tips.

December '99 EENet Schedule:
Dec. 1: 2:00 PM ET, Pennsylvania Y2K/P2K: Family & Community Preparedness
Dec. 8: 2:00 PM ET, Lake Havasu, AZ - Integrated Emergency Management Course
Dec. 15: 2:00 PM ET, National Alert Broadcast - FEMA's Video magazine
Dec. 22: 2:00 PM ET: A Case Study on Critical Incident Stress Management

For a description of each of these programs and broadcast information,
visit the EENet Web site: http://www.fema.gov/home/emi/eenet.htm .

House Passes Bill to Erect Civil Defense/Emergency Management Monument:
After years of discussion, the House recently passed legislation authorizing a monument to be built honoring civil defense/emergency management professionals. Plans are for the monument to be built on the grounds of EMI. The Senate has not taken up the legislation. For further information about plans for the monument, or if you wish to contribute to the monument fund, please contact John Bex, 8 Mayfield Rd., Mechanicsburg, PA 17055.

Command Center is Ready:
During a media tour of the Year 2000 Information Coordination Center last week, John A. Koskinen, Chairman of the President's Council on Y2K Conversion, said the creation of the center was a prudent step that should not cause anxiety. The ICC will formally open on December 28. It will begin 24-hour operations on December 30 and will continue nonstop until January 3 with a staff of about 200 people; a reduced schedule will be in place until February 29 as the ICC will on alert for the leap year.

Year 2000 Computing Challenge:
Noteworthy Improvements in Readiness But Vulnerabilities Remain. T-AIMD-00-37. 50 pp. November 4, 1999. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ai00037t.pdf

Want to Monitor Y2K?
There are several choices - too many to list here; a few we have listed before are worth your consideration if you want to spend the New Year Holiday checking out Y2K.

• The International Y2K Cooperation Center plans real-time map of the world http://www.iy2kcc.org
  
  
• The Y2K World Watch, http://www.davislogic.com/watch.htm
  
  
• ABC Plans 27-Hour Millennium Special - ABC's Peter Jennings will host a telethon to bring in the new millennium. The show will blend news and entertainment, with ABC correspondents stationed in different time zones to mark the historic entry into the New Year. A lot of the 27 hours will be celebratory.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Update:

Public Assistance Rule Update: FEMA Director James Lee Witt and a number of insurance industry executives have met regarding the public assistance insurance rule. OMB is reviewing the proposed rule and FEMA can't move until it's released although it appears the rule at OMB may not be FEMA's preferred approach. Language was included in FEMA's appropriations bill directing them to hold off on publishing any proposed rule until a GAO study has been completed. Language outlining criteria for study/review is also included in S1691 but according to committee staff, if it becomes controversial and holds up the bill the language will be stricken.

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National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) Update:

NEMA Project Impact Workshop: NEMA will sponsor a workshop on Sunday afternoon, December 12, prior to the Project Impact Summit in Washington, DC. The purpose is to expose Project Impact private sector companies and local government to the broader aspects of emergency management at the state and national level.

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International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Update:

IAEM Announces Scholarship Program: IAEM's new scholarship program is for undergraduate and graduate students studying emergency management. IAEM is currently soliciting contributions in order to establish a $100,000 endowment to fund the program. For more information, contact the IAEM Scholarship Program iaem@aol.com or http://www.iaem.com .

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American Red Cross (ARC) Update:

Y2K:

• By the end of November, the Red Cross distributed more than 24 million copies of "Y2K: What You Should Know" brochure. See the web site for brochure in five languages (http://www.redcross.org/disaster/safety/y2k.html).
• Local Red Cross representatives will be helping to staff local EOCs, prepared to offer Red Cross services for shelters or other services if Y2K causes local disruptions.
• The national level 24/7 Disaster Operations Center will be staffed with additional personnel to monitor and advise on response to Y2K issues from December 31 - January 1 or as long as necessary.
• Red Cross liaison will be in the Information Coordination Center in Washington, DC, established by the President's Council on Y2K throughout the Y2K period.

Community Disaster Education: The pilot testing phase of an innovative disaster safety curriculum, funded by the Allstate Foundation, is just about over. This curriculum, called "Masters of Disaster," is designed to help K-8 teachers integrate their regular math, science, social studies, and languages arts subjects with lesson on hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, lightning, and general preparedness. Pilot testing, organized by local Red Cross chapters, occurred in 48 locations from Guam to Puerto Rico and 23 states in between during the fall. Results of the pilot testing, done by teachers in K-8 classrooms nationwide, will be carefully reviewed and materials will be modified accordingly.

The Masters of Disaster Curriculum, that will include a teacher's guide, video, student activity sheets, CD-ROM disaster preparedness game, posters, stickers, evaluation materials, and certificates, will be available for use by classroom or home school teachers in three sets, in groupings by grade-level of K-2, 3-5, or 6-8. The curriculum is scheduled to be released in late Spring, 2000. For more information, please contact your local Red Cross chapter or curric@usa.redcross.org .

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Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM):

ASFPM Offers Graduate Fellowship: Through its Floodplain Management Graduate Fellowship, the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) offers up to $25,000 to support a full-time post-baccalaureate student for one academic year. The fellowship provides an opportunity for the graduate student to examine virtually any floodplain management or mitigation issue.

Research must be conducted at an accredited US college or university. The research can be conducted in such areas as land-use and comprehensive planning, engineering, design and construction, materials testing, public policy, public education, public administration, sociology, architecture, law, geography, or other relevant disciplines. The recipient is expected to submit a research project draft and final report to the ASFPM Graduate Fellowship Advisory Committee (GFAC), prepare an article for the ASFPM newsletter "News & Views," and make a presentation at the ASFPM national conference.

Applicants must hold U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status. The fellowship covers tuition, fees, research expenses, travel costs, and stipend. Applications must be received by March 1, 2000. Applicants should provide an academic transcript, statement of educational and career goals, professional resume, and letter of nomination from the faculty host at the cooperating educational institution. Information? diane@floods.org; http://www.floods.org

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The National Fire Academy Alumni Association (NFAAA) Update:

NFAAA is New Partner in EIIP: The NFAAA officially was established in March, 1998, and now has over 10,000 members. It is the fastest growing organization involving the fire and emergency services and has a potential membership in excess of one million. This projection is based on the number of students who have attended courses at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland, or at one of the many NFA courses taught at the state and local level as part of the NFA's outreach program. The only criteria for membership is to have attended NFA courses; the NFAAA requires no fee to join.

The NFAAA pursues both legislative and creative funding measures that will help firefighters meet the challenge. The NFAAA firefighter coalition brings together the 32,000 fire departments and 30 nationwide fire service organizations. The NFAAA looks forward to its new and exciting partnership with EIIP by providing a location for live chat sessions! Visit their Web site at http://www.nfaalumni.org/.

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HELPU Advocacy & Consulting Fire and Life Safety Update:

New EIIP Partner: HELPU originated in January 1999 as a small organization made up of disabled citizens. The nonprofit organization's motto is "Soaring Beyond Perceptions, We Work for You." Respective members are all involved in various disability boards and groups across the country. They are very involved in developing and adapting fire safety equipment for the deaf and hard of hearing, as well as promoting safety training for the handicapped and disabled. HELPU is highlighted in December by an international research journal for Muscular Dystrophy. All services are provided free. Contact Leslie Little, Director at helpu@visi.net ; Web site http://members.spree.com/sip/helpu .

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December 12-16, 1999: Project Impact Summit, Washington, DC, The Project Impact Summit deadline to pre-register has been extended until December 3. Register this week to confirm your choice for workshops and the tours of Washington. See FEMA Web site for details/online registration: http://www.fema.gov/impact/summit99/index.cfm

April 27-30, 2000: Disaster 2000: Taking Command, 21st Annual International Disaster Management Conference, Orlando, Florida. Sponsored by Florida Emergency Medical Foundation. Brochures will be available in January; email: info@fcep.org .

May 8-10, 2000: CPM 2000 Conference & Exhibit, Contingency Planning & Management, Baltimore, MD. See http://www.ContingencyPlanExpo.com .

Music/MP3 - SONICNET http://www.sonicnet.com
Sonicnet will make your modem sing. The smartly designed, massive site, largely focused on rock and pop music, is set up for use in two ways. If you want to know more about Santana, simply type Santana in the "Find Music" box on the front page. You get a page with links to recent stories, fan sites, and reviews of his albums. If you want to know what's new, Sonicnet offers the latest music videos and audio broadcasts from alternative rock to hip-hop.

"Emergency Partner Postings" is a monthly update on progress of the partnership, activities, and services available through Emergency Information Infrastructure Partnership (EIIP) Virtual Forum web site, other electronic sources of information, and articles of interest concerning awareness and use of information technology. The news will be posted on the web site the last week of each month.

We encourage readers to submit articles for this newsletter about use of the Internet for emergency management and other aspects of information technology. Deadline for contributions is the 20th of each month for that month's newsletter. Submit contributions to Lori Wieber, lwieber@emforum.org.

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