Adfero Group HSPI

Ever tried to get on Twitter only to find that frustrating white whale floating in a sea of blue with the message that the network is overcrowded and you should come back later? In the social media world, this is known as the Fail Whale. During yesterday’s mini emergency in Washington, when a 5.8 earthquake shook the city and sent scared and confused folks fleeing from buildings, we experienced a Fail Whale on the part of the Washington DC, government. Increasingly, citizens aren’t turning to government officials for disaster management but to one another. And they’re doing it through social media.

One of the best descriptions of what it is like to work in Washington, DC, can be summed up with the old canard, “After all is said and done, there will be a lot more said than done.” I have every confidence that will be the situation following the earthquake we experienced early Tuesday afternoon. Less than 24 hours from the event, it is presumptuous to draw final conclusions, but there are some things that need to be addressed immediately.

I’m back in my office building after the great DC Shake of 2011. The earthquake that struck Virginia and surrounding areas was a surreal experience, one I’ve never had and one I don’t care to repeat any time soon. I have to say I’m proud of the people in my building for knowing what to do and doing it without panic, as well as the surrounding buildings for replicating the same behavior.

Shortly before 2 PM a 5.8 earthquake hit Mineral, Virginia, affecting Washington, DC, Maryland and the Eastern seaboard.

America’s infrastructure could use a makeover. Many of the things that help this country “GO” – roads, bridges, utilities and more – are in poor shape and in many places, crumbling before our eyes. Yet, the country has seen little in the way of real change when it comes to building a stronger, more resilient America. Not enough of us are talking and thinking strategically about infrastructure investment priorities, how risk and resilience are considered, and how we are going to pay for these much-needed updates. Enter Adm. Thad Allen, former commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Yesterday, the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) released the recommendations of its Community Resilience Task Force (CRTF), which argue that it is impossible to build a resilient nation upon protected yet aged, overstressed, exploitable and consequence-amplifying infrastructure foundations.

It’s a basic lesson any semi-decent carpenter or weekend handyman knows. If you have the right tools, you can do your job a lot easier and a whole lot better. As basic as this premise might be, it is one that we have failed to follow in terms of dealing with fire and ice in this country. With a median age of several decades and enormous wear and tear, the reliability and safety our firefighting planes is in serious question.

By Keith Stefanelli
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has experience working through emergencies – on Wednesday, he was again guiding emergency response, this time to a fatal tornado outbreak in Central and Western Massachusetts. This made me wonder: What if Governor Patrick had lost the 2010 Gubernatorial Election, and Massachusetts had a new Governor, less experienced in emergency response? What if the next Black Swan event of statewide or national significance occurs on the Inauguration Day of a new Governor or President?

Black swans are another name for Secretary Rumsfeld’s famous category of “known” unknowns, things we know we don’t know – but maybe we should. The Japanese anticipated the double-shot of earthquakes and tsunamis, but not the triple whammy of earthquake-Tsunami-massive release of low-dose radiation from nuclear power plants. It is hard to believe that Washington would not screw up a nuclear incident just as badly as Toyko, particularly if the event happened in the midst of another catastrophe.

Regardless of circumstance or event, be it flood, fire, tornado or terror, the American Red Cross has always been there. With the release of the Ready Rating Program, the American Red Cross has once again shown their capacity to do just about anything they set their mind too. When you compare this effort to those of DHS in its Private Sector Preparedness (PS-Prep) Program, it’s not even a fair comparison.

The Homeland Security Policy Institute Preparedness, Response, and Resilience Task Force released its Interim Report on Resilience, a report urging policymakers to develop a shared – and actionable – vision of resilience. The report represents the first in a series of Task Force contributions this year that will offer recommendations for Federal policymakers on how to enhance national resilience.

In this final installment of my five-part interview with Virginia Task Force 1’s Capt. Joe Knerr and Lt. Rodney Vaughan, the two veteran rescuers reflect on the resiliency of the people of Japan, the lessons they’ve learned along the way and how their experiences in Japan compare with other disasters to which they have responded.

The leadership of the Financial Sector has met in Miami to discuss and learn how to improve their cyber security posture. The financial sector is frankly one of the most lucrative targets available to cyber criminals and other miscreants. For a nation like ours, which is built on democratic capitalism, what sector carries more symbolic value than the financial sector?

This is Part 4 of my interview with Capt. Joe Knerr and Lt. Rodney Vaughan of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department’s elite international search and rescue team, Virginia Task Force 1. In this part, we discuss the team’s decision to come home; their thoughts on not having any rescues; the difference their team makes; and what coming home feels like after being a world away.

It’s important to recognize when a company puts moral responsibility ahead of quarterly profits. Such is the case of Anheuser-Busch, which, following the aftermath of last month’s deadly tornadoes that killed more than 300 people in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, began filling beer cans with the world’s greatest substance: water.

Here’s Part 3 of my conversation with Virginia Task Force 1 where they talk about the conditions in which their team operated in Ofunato, Japan; what they knew about the leaking radiation coming from Fukushima nuclear power plant; what concerns they had about radiation exposure; and the survivability conditions of the area following the earthquake and tsunami.

I sat down with two senior members of Virginia Task Force 1 for an interview about their experiences during a mission to Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. It’s a five part interview that tells their story in their own words.

As dramatic scenes of destruction from tornados in the South flash across our televisions, many states across the Midwest and South were preparing for a similar calamity: an earthquake along the New Madrid fault line. At 10:15 this morning students in schools across eleven states were practicing their earthquake preparedness actions for “The Great Central U.S. Shakeout.”

A couple of weeks back, I sat down with two senior members of Virginia Task Force 1, Capt. Joseph Knerr and Lt. Rodney Vaughan of Fairfax County’s International Search and Rescue Team for an in-depth interview of what they experienced during a mission to Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. It’s a five part interview that tells their story in their own words.

The Department of Homeland Security today announced the launch of a new terror alert system. You can learn more at the DHS website, where a page dedicated to the new National Terrorism Advisory System outlines system. New alerts will also be posted to this same page.