Feb. 13, 2008

2007 year in review
Though Virginia did not experience any major hurricanes in 2007, Gov. Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency three times:

• A February ice storm hit the Commonwealth, bringing a quarter-inch of ice to parts of the state and causing power outages for more than 60,000 residents.
  
• A gunman opened fire on the Virginia Tech campus in April, killing 32 students and teachers and wounding dozens before killing himself, making it the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
  
• In June, a lightning strike to the town of Goshen's water pumps led to a water outage and boil water advisory for nearly 400 residents that lasted for three weeks.

EM Training: The Office of Training and Exercises conducted 366 courses and trained more than 8,400 students. Outside the classroom, Virginia residents completed 118,602 Independent Study courses. EM Training also developed and conducted 20 discussion- and operations-based Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program events with more than 2,200 participants. The 2007 Virginia Emergency Response Team Exercise was a four-day training event and included more than 40 public and private departments, agencies and organizations.

VDEM reorganized the Preparedness, Training and Exercise Division to create the Office of Training and Exercises to focus on the Commonwealth's training needs and the Preparedness Division to focus on state and local planning efforts.

Search and Rescue: The VDEM SAR program responded to 104 aircraft-related incidents and non-distress emergency beacons and 82 lost or missing person incidents. The SAR program trained 735 first responders in 2007. Virginia SAR provided Alzheimer's Intervention Training to public safety personnel in South Carolina and Florida. (Numbers will be finalized in March.)

Technological Hazards: VDEM Hazmat officers received 2,072 notifications of chemical releases in 2007. Hazardous Materials Officers responded to 106 of these incidents, of which 35 were significant enough to call in Regional Hazardous Materials Response Teams. Chemical spills or petroleum releases made up the majority of the calls, with a small percentage consisting of clandestine drug labs. In addition, staff conducted 97 classes throughout the Commonwealth and trained more than 3,775 first responders.

Virginia Emergency Operations Center: The VEOC handled 1,407 emergency notifications to local government and 634 medical evacuation missions for 2007, including requests for Virginia State Police Medflight and requests for private helicopter corporations. The VEOC hosted several major exercises for hurricane and radiological emergency events. The VEOC has had more than 8,300 visitors since moving into its new state-of-the-art facility in 2006.

State of emergency
Gov. Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency on Feb. 10 in response to wildfires spread by high winds. The fires burned more than 10,000 acres in 61 localities. The governor authorized the activation of Virginia National Guard personnel and equipment to assist with fighting the wildfires. The Virginia Department of Forestry coordinated firefighting response efforts. In addition to spreading fires, high winds knocked down trees and power lines, causing widespread power outages. The State Corporation Commission reported more than 100,000 power outages during the period of highest winds. VDEM coordinated the response to local requests for assistance. Current news releases and situation reports are available at http://www.vaemergency.com.

New FEMA program supports regional exercises
FEMA's National Exercise Division and the FEMA Regional Offices have started the Regional Exercise Support Program, formerly the NED Direct Support Exercise Program. The new program is a shift from a state-focused approach to a regional approach, organized by the FEMA Regions, meaning that Virginia will participate in more exercises at the regional level. The primary goals of the Regional Exercise Support Program are to support regionally coordinated exercises that address national security priorities.

State Administrative Agencies will determine their exercise support priorities and submit one application for each desired exercise (local jurisdictions and Urban Areas Security Initiative areas are required to submit applications to their respective SAA). FEMA will give priority to those exercise initiatives that fulfill National Exercise Program requirements.

Approved initiatives will have access to RESP funding and exercise support teams, through all phases of design, development, conduct and evaluation of preparedness exercises. At this time, the Regional Exercise Support Program will provide support for one discussion-based exercise (i.e., seminar, workshop or tabletop) and five operations-based (i.e. drills, functional exercises, full scale exercises) exercises within each of the 10 FEMA Regions

A Regional Exercise Support Program guide is available online at https://hseep.dhs.gov/pages/1001_HSEEP7.aspx.

Severe repetitive loss guidance and training
FEMA is offering $80 million through the FY08 Severe Repetitive Loss Pilot Program. The SRL program provides funding to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk of flood damage to severe repetitive loss residential structures insured under the National Flood Insurance Program. This program is available to fewer than 100 properties in 30 Virginia localities on FEMA's SRL list. Eligible projects include:

• Acquisition and relocation of at-risk structures and conversion of the property to open space
  
• Elevation of existing structures to at least the Base Flood Elevation or an Advisory Base Flood Elevation or higher. For the SRL program only, mitigation reconstruction is permitted only when traditional elevation cannot be implemented
  
• Minor physical localized flood reduction projects
  
• Dry floodproofing (historic properties only)

Grant guidance and application deadlines are available at http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=3121.

VDEM will host a class about the program taught by FEMA on Feb. 20 at the Trade Court Facility. For additional information or to register, contact Hazard Mitigation Project Specialist Matthew Wall at (804) 897-6500, ext. 6541 or at Matthew.Wall@vdem.virginia.gov.

Homeland Security Grant Program guidance
The Department of Homeland Security has released FY08 guidance for 14 programs that comprise the Homeland Security Grant Program. DHS will distribute more than $3 billion through these programs to help territories, urban areas and transportation authorities bolster national preparedness capabilities and protect critical infrastructure.

• Homeland Security Grant Program: $1.69 billion
  • State Homeland Security Program: $862.9 million
  • Urban Areas Security Initiative: $781.6 million
  • Metropolitan Medical Response System: $39.8 million
  • Citizen Corps Program: $14.5 million
    
• Infrastructure Protection Program: $852.4 million
  
• Emergency Management Performance Grants: $291.4 million
  
• REAL ID Systems Integration and Data Verification Grant Program: $48.5 million
  
• Urban Areas Security Initiative Nonprofit Security Grant Program: $15 million

VDEM serves as the State Administrative Agency for these grants and will work with the Office of Commonwealth Preparedness to host grant stakeholder meetings with each of the seven Regional Preparedness Advisory Groups.

For more information about the grants, visit the Virginia Office of Commonwealth Preparedness Web site at http://www.commonwealthpreparedness.virginia.gov/initiatives/dhs_grants08.cfm.

WebEOC training for local governments
Due to large demand, VDEM has scheduled two additional training sessions for this class. WebEOC is a web-based crisis management information system used by the Commonwealth to provide real-time situational information and track requests for state assistance. The class offers an introduction to WebEOC, how to submit a local request for assistance and how to access situation reports, initial damages assessments and shelter information. VDEM continues to refine WebEOC functionality, and previous WebEOC training participants would benefit from attending this session. WebEOC will eventually replace Online EOC as the reporting channel between localities and the Virginia Emergency Operations Center. Training will be:

• March 4 in Roanoke
  Virginia Western Community College (Webber Hall, room 311)
  9 a.m. to noon
  
• March 5 in Lynchburg
  Central Virginia Criminal Justice Academy
  1 – 4 p.m.

There is also space available at the Feb. 28 and March 27 sessions scheduled at the VEOC in Chesterfield County. To register for one of these sessions, please e-mail Sue Ann Curran at SueAnn.Curran@vdem.virginia.gov specifying which session you would like to attend along with your name, title, locality, phone number and e-mail address.

Danville Campus CERT assists in real-world event
The Danville Community College Campus CERT assisted first responders during an incident on Oct. 11 that involved the report of an alleged gunman on campus. DCC CERT members made contact with the city of Danville's emergency operations center to ensure they were informed of the emergency; directed emergency responders onto campus; helped to lock down all seven campus buildings; performed a room-to-room search in each building; and spread the message about the lock down on campus. The team participated in an evaluation of their efforts and the college's response.

Ironically, just two days prior to this event, DCC CERT had designed and submitted a tabletop exercise that involved a gunman on campus. The first DCC Campus CERT class graduated in June 2007; the second graduated in January.

Lessons Learned: Fairfax Connector Bus Barricade
On Oct. 17, 2007, a gunman boarded a Fairfax Connector bus in the Hybla Valley area of Northern Virginia, which resulted in a more than three-hour standoff with law enforcement. Fairfax Connector, Fairfax County Police and the Fairfax Office of Emergency Management will review the training and interagency cooperation within the Incident Command System that led to the successful resolution for this event.

Speakers will include Fairfax County Police Captain JD Call, commander of the Special Operation Division, and Lieutenant Butch Gamble, assistant commander of the Traffic Division; and bus operator Feger Powell.

The free session will be Feb. 19, 1 – 4 p.m. at the Tuckahoe Area Library. Register by Feb. 15 at the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation's Web site training section at http://www.drpt.virginia.gov/events/otc. For more information contact Amy Ettinger at (804) 786-1056 or Amy.Ettinger@drpt.virginia.gov.

Emergency Management grant opportunity for schools
The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools discretionary grant program is offering $24 million to local education agencies to improve and strengthen their emergency management plans. School districts must commit to developing written plans that:

• Include the participation of law enforcement, public safety, public health, mental health and the head of the applicant's local government
  
• Coordinate with state Homeland Security plans
  
• Support the implementation of the National Incident Management System
  
• Prepare schools for a possible infectious disease outbreak, such as influenza pandemic
  
• Consider the communication, transportation and medical needs of individuals with disabilities within the school district.

Funds can be used to train school personnel and students in emergency management; communicate emergency management policies and reunification procedures to parents and guardians; coordinate with local emergency responders, including fire and police; purchase equipment; and coordinate with groups and organizations responsible for recovery issues, such as health and mental health agencies.

Last year, five Virginia public school districts shared more than $777,000 in grant awards through this program. All local education agencies are eligible to apply. Grant guidance and applications are available at http://www.grants.gov.

Long-Term Recovery Task Forces
The Department of Housing and Community Development organizes Long-Term Recovery Task Force volunteers to help communities recover from disasters, both large and small. These task forces work within their communities to develop creative ways to fulfill needs that insurance and federal aid do not cover. Emergency managers, local governments and volunteer organizations are encouraged to form an LTRTF before disaster strikes. Contact Local Disaster Recovery Task Forces State Coordinator Selby Jacobs at SelbyCJ@aol.com for more information.

EM Update is the best way to communicate best practices and to get a heads up on issues that might affect you. Articles include case studies, cost/resource-saving local programs, examples of partnerships and regional cooperation and recognition of emergency managers who receive awards and honors in the field.

Please don't hesitate to contact the editor whenever you have a project that might benefit localities or want to highlight an important issue concerning Virginia's emergency response community. Contact Jolie Shank at (804) 897-6510 or by e-mail at pio@vdem.virginia.gov.

Produced by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management
10501 Trade Court, Richmond, Virginia 23236