Monthly Archives: February 2015

DHS Shutdown Averted… For Now…

DHS Shutdown Averted… For Now…

So if you missed it last night, congress came through with a bill that was signed by the president that averted a partial shut down of DHS (it is partial because those employees which are listed as “essential” are still paid and have to work while others are furloughed). Before you start celebrating that we’re done with this issue and can move onto the next, the continuing resolution only goes for a week, then we’ll be in the same boat again. This is somewhat ok while congress figures out what it wants to do and the politics plays out (which I won’t be getting into), but lets play it straight. We can only do this for so long before we start seeing a reluctance of strategic level (federal and regional level) leadership within DHS agencies (mainly we’re concerned about FEMA here) to make any systematic changes or develop programs that might benefit the agency and the country in the form of disaster preparedness. Really the best thing that we can do in emergency management right now is to consider the 12-step program that we posted earlier this month (read the blog post and article here: http://emergencymanagementlaw.com/2015/02/12-step-program-emergency-managers/).

– Will

Read a full article from USA Today on this subject here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/27/congress-dhs-funding-votes/24112159/

FEMA Administrator’s Thoughts on Potential DHS Shutdown

FEMA Administrator’s Thoughts on Potential DHS Shutdown

This article is a definite must read. I don’t think I have seen a candid view from a  FEMA administrator yet on pending (or lack there of) legislation before. Granted, coming from the military, sometimes impacts are a little over exaggerated, but he definitely has a lot of substance to his thoughts. Ultimately, barring a large disaster, we should be ok in the short term because most of the state Emergency Management programs will continue to operate as normal. The issue will come in when we start running out of federal funds for the grant programs or the grant programs aren’t renewed towards the end of the year. I’m fairly confident there will be a resolution by then though.

-Will

Read the full article here: http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/24/politics/fema-director-dhs-shutdown-impacts/index.html

Outdated 911 Systems: Could this be the TJ Hooper all over again?

Could this be the TJ Hooper all over again?

In 1932 a case was decided by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals called the T.J. Hooper (60 F.2d 737).  In this case, the owner of two barges and a tug owner were held liable to the owner of the cargo they were towing when the barges were lost in a storm. Most interesting to this case is that the tugs were found to be unseaworthy because they did not carry radio receiving sets, which would have allowed the crew to receive weather updates and possibly avoid the storm. This is important because at the time, radio receiving sets were customary but not required on tug boats.

This is the second article in a series that I have came across that talk about the hazards of outdated 911 technology, though newer technology is available and customarily used across the country. Realistically, this is due in part to funding; however, this is strikingly similar to the T.J. Hooper case in 1932. Could our use of outdated 911 systems be a T.J. Hooper incident waiting to happen? It’s hard to tell with so many governmental immunities to tort claims, but it is something to consider and counsel should analyze with their emergency management team.

– Will

Read the full article here: http://www.emergencymgmt.com/next-gen-911/No-Data-911-Calls-Misrouted-Outdated-Tech.html

Gov. Abbott’s First State of the State Address

Governor Abbott’s First State of the State Address

Governor Abbot is delivering his first State of the State (Texas) address today and is expected to put roads, education and boarder security as some of his biggest issues. It doesn’t seem like emergency management is necessarily one of them. However, we saw big evacuations away from the gulf coast during several hurricanes. This caused massive use of Texas Highways. We’ll do a recap in the next few days and break down the issues that may effect emergency managers as Gov. Abbott fully takes the helm as governor in Texas.

-Will

Read the full article here: http://kxan.com/2015/02/17/gov-greg-abbott-delivering-state-of-the-state-address/

[Video] What does an Emergency Manager do?

[Video] What does an Emergency Manager do?

This short, and rather dated, video is pretty good snap shot for the non-emergency management readers who would like to get a better idea of what emergency managers do.

– Will

Pennsylvania’s Outdated Law Impacts Funding for 911 Systems, Officials Say

This article is a perfect reason why law matters so much to emergency management. In this case, Pennsylvania’s Public Safety Emergency Telephone Act allows for a cost sharing method for financing local 911 systems. The act authorized $1.50 surcharge monthly for land line telephone subscribers and $1.00 surcharge monthly for cell phone. With the move of many telephone service subscribers from land lines to cell phones the fund began to lose money and is to the point that it needs to be reworked completely in order to keep up with the demand and costs associated with keeping 911 systems operational and up to date in the state.

-Will

Read the full article here: http://www.emergencymgmt.com/next-gen-911/Pennsylvanias-Outdated-Law-Impacts-Funding-911-Systems.html

Open Carry and Shelter Operations: Do they mix well?

I saw this article come across my news feed this morning and it begged the question. How will Open Carry and Shelter Operations mix in a disaster? Will you have to force people to leave their weapons in their car, lock them up in a safe at the shelter, or let them in? Obviously this has some security issues embedded into it, but more importantly are their possible constitutional issues with declaring a shelter to be a “gun free zone”?

What are your thoughts?

– Will

Read the full article here: http://www.fox4news.com/story/28091640/lawmakers-in-austin-to-discuss-open-carry

12 Step Program for Emergency Managers?

This post by Eric Holderman is rather funny, mainly because it does have some truth behind it. When Emergency Managers accept grant money to fund various activities, its the federal or state government’s way of getting everyone to play along with the priorities they are advancing.

This post got me thinking about how much wiggle room a grant program should allow for an emergency manager to shift priorities to what is important to their jurisdiction? For example, not until recently was earthquake preparedness really as important to the Dallas-Fort Worth area as opposed to those in Southern California. The question then becomes, what can you do and still keep your grant funding with? That’s where contract law comes in!

Will

Read the full post here: http://www.emergencymgmt.com/training/12-Step-Program-for-Emergency-Managers.html.

Should Background Checks Be Required for Emergency Volunteers?

Should Background Checks Be Required for Emergency Volunteers?

This is a great article asking the hard question whether disaster volunteers need to have background checks before being allowed to act on behalf of the disaster relief organization. Though the article specifically questions it’s applicability to CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams) this is something that all volunteer organizations should think about because of possible vicarious liability.

Basically, vicarious liability is when one person/organization is liable for the harm caused by someone else. Right now no states require volunteer organizations to do background checks, but many have passed statutes making the background checks more available.

Though government entities can be protected by something called “governmental immunity”, it won’t necessarily prevent a lawsuit every time. More importantly is that if the volunteer organization is sued, then it could very easily bankrupt that organization and detrimental to a community.

This issue gets even harder when considering organizations rarely have time to do background checks on spontaneous volunteers. Spontaneous Volunteers are those who appear during or immediately after a disaster or emergency to help and are not part of a regular trained or certified volunteer pool.

On one hand, if you do background checks on everyone, you have a “checked” volunteer pool, but since you spent a ton of money (about $20 or more each) on background checks, you can’t pay for CPR or First Aid Training and don’t have enough money to purchase equipment. On the other hand if you have all sorts of training and equipment, but someone who didn’t have a background check does something (like steal or intentionally hurt a disaster victim) the entire organization loses credibility.

This is a really hard issue to resolve with many legal as well as public policy factors to consider.

– Will

Read Brittany Shammas’ full article here: http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/Should-Background-Checks-Required-Emergency-Volunteers.html

Map it or Else?

Map it or Else?

Eric Holdeman’s post about the use of mapping in Emergency Management is spot on! Emergency Managers need to ensure that they use all the tools that they can at their disposal. I realize that we are all busy and having to do many different things all at the same time while riding a unicycle that’s on fire.

In the military, we live and die by our maps. While I was advising an Afghan Army Brigade Operations Staff, Maps were power. The afghans viewed it as “If you had maps, you had power”.

Let’s take a look at it from this from a legal perspective. If you get hauled into court after a disaster for some reason, you can bet that the lawyer on the other side of the isle is going to use every tool they have, including a map.

-Will

Read Eric’s Full Article Here: http://www.emergencymgmt.com/emergency-blogs/disaster-zone/ignorehazardmappingatyourownperil.html