Volpe Center Staff Continue to Support Emergency Preparedness for Hurricane Season

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking a proactive role to ensure that different regions of the country are better prepared to deal with hurricanes or other disasters. In preparation for the hurricane season that started in June 2006, the Department planned five regional hurricane preparedness exercises to test improvements made since last year's hurricane season and to identify areas that require additional coordination.

Mr. Terry Sheehan of the Volpe Center's Service and Operations Assessment Division was actively involved in the combined Regions I and II exercises held in Monmouth, New Jersey, and New London, Connecticut, as well as the Caribbean exercise in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mr. Sheehan is the Region I & II Regional Emergency Transportation Representative, and is responsible for all Emergency Support Function 1 (ESF-1) Transportation, as defined in the National Response Plan. Mr. Sheehan participated in the initial planning sessions with DHS staff and other ESF functions to ensure that the exercises are credible and plausible for exercise participants. Mr. Sheehan helped to coordinate commodity movements and evacuation activities during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and was able to provide valuable lessons learned that were incorporated into the actual exercises.

The tabletop exercises focused on several key preparedness and disaster response functions, including citizen protection; evacuation and/or in-place protection; communications; critical response logistics and distribution; emergency public information and warning; mass care; National Response Plan implementation; and National Incident Management System activation. The exercises are designed to engage officials from states and territories in the likely hurricane impact zone. They bring together all levels of government, as well as tribal entities, non-governmental organizations, and private industry. In addition to refining the overall response and decision-making processes, the exercises are intended to enhance the integration and coordination among responding public health, emergency management, and public safety agencies, as well as private industry enterprises, in the event of an actual Incident of National Significance, such as a major hurricane.

The exercises leveraged lessons learned and best practices determined through an analysis of 2005 hurricane-related after-action reports. Given the regional construct of the exercises, they can serve as forums for top officials to address the communication and coordination challenges that could arise if a catastrophic storm were to strike.

"Hurricane preparation is a shared responsibility among local, state, and federal agencies and our non-governmental partners," said George Foresman, Undersecretary for Preparedness at the DHS. "By training together now, we better integrate planning and response capabilities and make certain that roles and responsibilities are understood at all levels of government."