The 2016 Arizona Threat Identification Risk Assessment

Tempe is a suburban city within the major Phoenix metroplex in Arizona, with a population of over 180,000 people. As part of a major metroplex, the city of Tempe is tasked with not only assessing the hazards identified by the state or county, but also those unique to its own population, such as the flood plain surrounding Tempe Town Lake or the terrorist target of a large university which composes a large chunk of the northern part of the Tempe city limits. Tempe has split its emergencies between natural emergencies, technological emergencies and man-made emergencies such as terror attacks or civil unrest. Each hazard and threat has their own unique risks and mitigation strategies that the City of Tempe must assess and implement during a crisis.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 and its revised version S.3414 addressed several cyber security needs, which have been often overlooked or opposed. The nation stands vulnerable to cyber-attacks, as everyday technology is revamped and upgraded, while laws to protect the nation creep slowly through Congress. Many politicians have argued that these bills have imposed too much regulation on the cyber world and therefor oppose it (CITATION NEEDED). Congress needs to pass laws and regulations if they wish to help protect the nation from the growing threat of cyber-attacks, which can easily cripple the United States from across the globe. The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Report reveals that the threat of cybercrime is a growing concern.

A disaster which hit Arizona on September 2014 required the declaration of a major disaster by the American President Barack Obama (FEMA, 2014). This disaster killed many people in the Maricopa County, caused several damages to goods, homes, infrastructures, and so on. The recovery processes in the Maricopa County started simultaneously with the response and continued long time after the impact of the disaster. This paper addresses the strengths of the short- and the long-term recovery plans, the weaknesses and the challenges of the short- and long-term recovery plans, the remained long-term recovery work to be done, the political and legal issues that influenced the recovery, and recommendations that could promote effective recovery.

The Quadrennial Homeland Security review suggest six strategic challenges that will drive the overall risk to the nation over the next five years. These six risks include: the terrorist threat; growing cyber threats; biological concerns; nuclear terrorism; transnational criminal organizations; and natural hazards (DHS, 2014). The terrorists threat is, arguably, the most publicized and popular of the six risks the DHS lists. The particular risk is unique in the fact that although it can be planned for and mitigated against by state and local governments, it is primarily a federal responsibility, or at least perceived so by most entities. The DHS itself was established due to the events of September 11th 2001 and it has since been a consistent

The Cochise county hazard mitigation plan's purpose is to identify natural hazards and certain human caused hazards that impact the various jurisdictions located within Cochise county, and to assess the vulnerability and risk posed by those hazards to community wide human and structural assets, develop strategies for mitigation of those identified hazards, present future maintenance procedures for the plan, and document the planning process (“Cochise County”, 2013).The plan is comprised of the following sections: Planning process which summarizes the planning process used to update the plan, and describes the assembly of the planning team, and summarizes public involvement efforts. Community description which provides an overall description of the the jurisdictions and the county as a whole, and a risk assessment that summarizes the profiling of natural and human caused hazards that impact the county and the vulnerability assessment for each hazard that considers exposure estimations and development trend analysis. Mitigation strategy which presents a capability assessment for each participating jurisdiction and summarizes the plan mitigation goals, objectives, actions, and strategy for implementation(“Cochise County”, 2012). Plan maintenance strategy outlines the proposed strategy for evaluating and monitoring the

The unified training for all levels of law enforcement ensures a common focus and standard are obtained, and that the necessary information is being transmitted to those who need it. As technology continues to advance, the threat of cyber attacks continue to rise as well. The stability of a nation's physical and electronic infrastructure is vital to the success of a nation. The efforts of both of these sections of the Department of Homeland Security are essential to the overall mission of keeping the nation

As the need for a more uniformed response system that not only notified federal agencies but that would include state, local and civilians the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) became obsolete and was replaced with National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS). This instrument is not only beneficial in planning how to prepare for terrorist attack but also provides guidance to all whom may be involved on procedures and policies. First responders need to be aware of all risks they may be exposed to prior to, during, and after an event occurs. Lack of proper personal equipment (PPE), training and funding for their agency may be detrimental not only to them but those they are trying to assist. There are many risk that first responders are

The disaster which hit the Maricopa County in the State of Arizona in September 2014 was a major disaster that necessitated the community preparedness for leading successful response and a prompt recovery. Besides emergency managers, many officials and the private are involved in the processes. Some of these stakeholders are public health, public safety, and municipal officials. Collaboration is needed for getting all those involved in the processes to interact accordingly. This paper addresses the major collaboration strengths between emergency responders, public health, public safety, and municipal officials to deliver accurate response and recovery during the event, the main weaknesses of the collaboration among all those that were involved in the efforts, and recommendations for improving the collaboration between the stakeholders.

At 6pm on April 30th, 2014, a life-threatening disaster struck the Florida panhandle. At that time, Florida residents were not aware of the rain and flooding that was about engulf Pensacola and the surrounding areas. But as time began to pass, it became obvious this was not an ordinary storm. As the rain poured and the lightning struck, many people lost power and television connection, unable to see that what was thought to be a small storm would set national records and be the cause for severe-weather threats. This event taught me how to prevent a disastrous situation in dire conditions as well as the importance of being prepared.

A terrorist attack, cyber-attack, 6.8 earthquake, flooding, hazardous waste material, and a wildfire are identified by THIRA as the six plausible hazards and threat scenarios in the state of Colorado (Homeland Security Emergency Management, 2014, p.16). The goal of the THIRA process is to help communities identify possible hazards and prepare resources in case an unplanned risk presents itself (FEMA, 2013). Subsequently once I had finished reviewing the scenarios I came to believe that each six scenarios are both plausible and significant. Though terrorist attacks in Colorado are not common, they have happened in the last decade. The most recent act of terrorism against Colorado being the Aurora movie theater shooting. Though it have never

The unprecedented and horrific experience of these events profoundly changed the way Americans live their lives and their Government manages their society and protects their country. This event was the turning point, which triggered major U.S. initiatives regarding how to prevent, respond, and recover from incidents of national crisis, including acts of terror, as well as natural and man-made disasters. The purpose of this essay is to provide an overview of the Department of Homeland Security and its emergency management strategies for preventing, mitigating, responding, and recovering from threats and hazards.

Utah is known for a lot of natural disasters over the past decade. It has experienced numerous hazard events including

Arizona with its desert landscape and mountainous topography experiences rain and more importantly floods from time to time. Just because I live in Arizona doesn’t mean we Arizonians are exempt from witnessing such natural disasters. We have several rivers, such as the Colorado, Salt, Gila and Verde rivers, and many creeks that run though our state that are extremely susceptible to flooding that may cause significant property damage and loss of life (Arizona's geologic hazard center, 2015). Arizona experiences sudden and severe thunderstorms as well and is home to both regional and flash floods (Arizona's geologic hazard center, 2015).

Nearly every community has some sort of community risk, threat, and assessment plan that takes into account one of the six potential risks that are of concern to homeland security. Though each of these plans will likely differ from one another, many communities will have the same types of information in their plans. This essay will look at the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide (THIRA), the Community Risk Reduction Planning Guide, as well as FEMA’s National Preparedness plan. Any combination of these guides are a good starting point for every community in America. At top of every communities list as well as the nation is the protection of the critical infrastructure. Loss of infrastructure regardless of how big or small the community is could have very crippling effects on that community.

One of the best guidance documents for these communities is the Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 201 (CPG201). In this guide, communities will complete the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment. The THIRA has a detailed four-step process in developing a robust Risk Assessment to allow the community to develop its plans. The first step is to “identify the threats and hazards of concern” to the community. Some of the challenges described by the Department of Homeland Security may not be applicable to the community or may pose extremely limited threat. The second step in to “give the threats context” which states how