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This Webinar will include: An overview of potential critical incidents and impact affecting public agencies An orientation to the four elements of emergency management A series of recommendations regarding crises

Blind Preparation

Oct 1, 2007, By Andy Opsahl

If a family enters an emergency room with inflamed lesions covering their bodies, accompanied by fevers and debilitating weakness - symptoms of a chemical or biological attack - the admitting hospital should know who to call and how to treat each family member.

That wouldn't always happen, however. Almost six years after 9/11 - after spending billions of tax dollars on disaster preparedness - many cities remain unprepared to respond to a biological or chemical attack, according to several leaders in the public health community.

A lack of coherent national policy on biological and chemical weapons preparedness has produced a hodgepodge of ineffective initiatives at the local level, according to critics. Yet others say national standards frequently are ineffective at dictating local issues.

Homeland Security Standards Panel Overview

Upcoming Workshop on Credentialing
working agenda

“Under the incident command system, if the Virginia State Police gets told to block the road, me showing my Pentagon badge did not afford me access” — and he’s the head of antiterrorism for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, the police department for the defense complex. On 9-11, he had to cross as many as 12 jurisdictions besides Arlington to do his job.

Today, the county is piloting a new federal identification card it says could “revolutionize emergency management.” Arlington is the first county in the nation to use a new high-tech ID card called a First Responder Authentication Credential, FRAC for short.

In partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Virginia Department of Transportation, the county this month issued more than 1,400 FRAC cards to enable first responders quick, easy access to government buildings in the event of a terrorist attack or other disaster. (read the rest of the article here.)

Washington State Department of Licensing will issue an

Enhanced Driver License and Identification Card
(click on the link above to see the description and other information)
Recent federal legislation requires people traveling into the U.S., by air, to present a valid passport. For land and sea border crossing, the passport requirement will start in early 2008. To preserve travel, trade and cultural ties with British Columbia and increase security at the border, the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) will offer an Enhanced Driver License and Identification card (EDL/ID). The EDL/ID meets federal requirements, and the best practices for border crossing documents and is an approved alternative document, to a U.S. passport, for re-entry into the U.S. at land and sea borders between the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.