Improving emergency preparedness and crisis management capabilities in transportation : year 2.

PDFTech ReportHVDR20-6Disaster preparednessEmergency managementIncident managementCrisis managementDecision makingPlanningUnited StatesNew England University Transportation CenterHowitt, Arnold M.Harvard UniversityUnited States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionWhile disaster preparedness and emergency management have had a high publicprofile over the past decade, Hurricane Katrina revealed serious weaknesses in theUnited States\ue2\u20ac\u2122 emergency response capabilities. There is thus much left to dobefore full consolidation of agencies into the Department of Homeland Security andparallel efforts across various levels of government are achieved.This study examined how several functional areas that are not traditionallyconsidered part of the first responder community but still play important roles inemergency response are developing the capabilities necessary to integrate morefully into the country\ue2\u20ac\u2122s emergency management system. Following earlier work onterrorism preparedness and emergency evacuation, the research team focused onhow these so-called \ue2\u20ac\u153second circle\ue2\u20ac? response organizations (including those fromthe transportation sector) are implementing the National Incident ManagementSystem (NIMS), a Congressionally-mandated template for coordinated organization,operational command, and implementation of response. Researchers looked at thisissue from national, state, and local perspectives, with significant concentration onthe linkages between these levels of government