Domestic Preparedness Cycle Analysis

The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for “consolidating existing federal government response plans into a single, coordinated national response plan.” (GAO Reports. 2007.) The Homeland Security Act of 2002 allows them to handle all sorts of disasters from natural disasters to terrorist attacks. DHS also “Operates the Federal

Preparedness Efforts is preparedness activities prepare the community to respond when a disaster does occur. Typical preparedness measures include medical personnel for the emergency services and for community volunteer groups. The medical facility will need to have the proper medical vehicles, equipment, supplies, and communications systems, and regularly training

Planning ties with one of the National Preparedness Goal’s mission area, that is prevention. The 9/11 events made DHS to aggressively change its focus to an “all hazards” approach. Prevention is a core component to accomplish this objective. However, for an effective prevention requires thorough planning. The private sector provides this type of service and DHS may hire a private sector entity to develop a prevention plan for them. In planning, all levels of government and private sector entities must coordinate with one another in developing and executing courses of action to prevent or reduce the impact of natural disasters or terrorist attack (Homeland Security, 2011). According to the National Preparedness Goal, planning is one of the mission are capabilities and preliminary targets of prevention (Homeland Security, 2011, p. 5). The private sector’s impact in planning with the DHS is essential for an effective prevention in support of the National Preparedness

By understanding the steps to prepare for countering and responding to a terrorist, the well-being of US national security interests can be promoted and the exposure to risk and susceptibility to experiencing harm can be efficiently managed for communities, families and individuals in the event of a terrorist incident. The welfare of US national security, citizens and property can be effectively safeguarded through the understanding of protection strategies administered collectively by local communities, families and individuals. Local emergency operations planning, family disaster planning, as well as self-protection planning each represent important protective measures, which serve to educate the nation and its citizens how to

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would become the central point-of-contact within the national government in responding to incidents. Since formation in 1979, FEMA’s core missions were to enhance the government’s ability to survive a foreign attack, and to assist state and local authorities in disaster response (Carafano, 2005). And while the two core missions seem heterogenous in scope at times from an outside perspective, the biggest difference between the two tasks is duration. A man-made disaster may be over in a matter of minutes as compared to a hurricane lasting several days, but in both instances the road to recovery is long. In order to streamline response and recovery in either scenario, FEMA was reorganized with new directives to support comprehensive emergency management practices (CRS, 2006). Today, FEMA provides the standard approach and guidance that many local communities may not have due to funding, training, and

This program is the Department of Homeland Security’s final priority to “plan, train, and equip police, fire, and paramedics to react successfully to terrorism; and promotes recovery with the assistance of disaster specialists.” (Homeland Security, 2015) One of the examples of disaster specialists that help assist in disasters like Hurricane Katrina is the Federal Emergency Management Agency also known as FEMA. FEMA helps communities with reducing their risk, helps its different agency officials prepare for all types of hazards, and also helps people in communities get back on their

In regards to local and national emergency response, first responders have explicit roles and responsibilities. The National Response Framework (NRF) is an excellent tool designed to outline the precise roles and responsibilities, as they relate to the different echelons. Local governments play a major role in the overall response frame work within their community. Typically chief elected or appointed officials are responsible for the safety and welfare for those within their respective jurisdiction. Also, officials have a role in how laws and policies are formed, in order to to aid preparedness efforts and improve emergency management and response capabilities (DHS, 2006).

In the aftermath of a terrorist attack, local law enforcement is often the first responders on the scene. First responders have the most dangerous job of all since they can not always be sure that the threat is over when they enter a scene. These law enforcement officers, as first responders, have the responsibility of coordinating emergency services within the area and restoring the site. They do this by establishing an emergency command center in which they coordinate their efforts with local emergency personal such as paramedics and firefighters. They are responsible for anything that happens at the scene, including damage, until they have secured the scene (Maras, 2013).

The Homeland Security Bill meets these four categories by ensuring that the four divisions that were created and combined with existing agencies ensured that they coordinated with and implemented state and local agencies into the domestic preparedness cycle. This bill charged the divisions with “planning, training, and exercising to increase awareness, performance, and overall capabilities in all four phases of the preparedness cycle” (Cordner, 2016, p. 428). This bill also meets the four categories by providing national standards and guidelines for state and local agencies to abide by so that the domestic preparedness cycle does not get interrupted. In order to ensure the cycle does not get interrupted and that all assets are used during

The National Response Framework is a guide designed to assist local, State, and Federal governments in developing functional capabilities and identifying resources based on hazard identification and risk assessment. It outlines the operating structure and identifies key roles and responsibilities. It established a framework to identify capabilities based on resources and the current situation no matter the size or scale. It integrates organizational structures and standardizes how the Nation at all levels plans to react to incidents. The suspected terrorist attack will have health, economic, social, environment and political long-term effects for my community. This is why it is essential that local government’s

The domestic preparedness cycle has four categories which are prevention, protection, response, and recovery. The first category of the preparedness cycle is prevention which applies to terrorism and transnational crime, whereas, terrorism and crime are intentional acts committed by people, it is well within reason to hope to prevent some of those acts from occurring (Cordner, 2016). In the USA PATRIOT Act, was written and designed to prevent and/or deter terror acts from occurring, additionally, in part one, this section gives investigators the tools and abilities to better combat terrorism (USA PATRIOT Act, 2001). As for protection, it is related to prevention but focuses on more specific facilities, locations, and system with the intent

According the Gus Martin, 2015, The National Preparedness Goal, approved on September 11, seeks to achieve “a secure and resilient nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk.” These five items are known as mission areas of the National Preparedness Goal. These mission areas are noted as required components to ensure the success when dealing with national incidents that affect our Nation’s homeland security. According to Gus Martin, 2015, a summary of the five mission areas and each goal are as follows:

Specific measures taken before disasters strike, to ensure effective response constitute preparation. This phase may include specific contingency planning, emergency exercises, training, installation and use of warning systems.

According to the text, disasters are more than common emergencies such as those of traffic accidents, personal injuries, or house fires general in communities (Disaster Recovery; 19). Other events can result in a disaster requiring this Disaster Recovery Plan to be activated:

Natural disasters are anything from floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, or anything else nature could develop that causes massive amounts of damage, or cause a large losses of life. Such events are not anything caused because of human beings, but only by the actions of atmospheric conditions, or due to the changes of continental drifts that these disasters occur. Technology has come a long way since the early days before the industrial revolution where predictions can be made and warnings can be issued. This helps reduce the amount of possible loss of lives that would occur in 21st century. However, that is not what happened during Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 Hurricane.