Aug. 27, 2008
Henrico County is the seventh Virginia locality to develop a debris management plan that fulfills FEMA's Public Assistance Pilot Program. The program provides an additional 5 percent federal cost share to local governments that have FEMA-approved debris management plan and at least two pre-qualified debris removal contactors or an executed debris removal contract. The cities of Chesapeake, Fairfax, Newport News and Norfolk and the counties of Fairfax and Hanover also have approved plans.
All local governments are encouraged to participate in the voluntary program, available through Dec. 31, 2008. Before submitting their debris plans for consideration, localities should conduct an internal review using the FEMA checklist, available through VDEM's online Recovery Center, http://www.vaemergency.com/recover/pubassist/index.cfm. Upon request, VDEM and FEMA will conduct a one-day workshop to provide localities with the basic tools to develop a debris plan. The city of Chesapeake and the counties of Fairfax, Hanover and Henrico have offered their approved plans for review at http://www.vaemergency.com/recover/debris.
For more information, contact VDEM Public Assistance Officer Nealia Dabney at (804) 378-0471 or nealia.dabney@vdem.virginia.gov.
Tidewater port security grant and workshop
Private and public sector entities in Virginia's Tidewater area that are covered by an Area Maritime Security Plan can compete for $6.8 million dollars in port security grant funding. The grant supports increased security, training and exercises to prevent, detect, respond to and recover from attacks involving improvised explosive devices and other unconventional weapons.
VDEM will host two mandatory workshops aimed at assisting potential applicants Aug. 28 in Newport News and Aug. 29 in Chesapeake from 9:30 a.m. to noon.
E-mail Mary Sostaric at mary.sostaric@vdem.virginia.gov to reserve space.
NCR selects homeland security projects to fund
The National Capital Region has chosen projects to fund with the $59.8 million Urban Areas Security Initiative award to the NCR through the Homeland Security Grant Program. The projects seek to fulfill two main goals for FY08: to increase the ability of health and medical systems to treat large numbers of critically injured people following an attack, and to invest in technology to help police prevent homemade or radioactive bomb attacks. Some of the funded projects include:
- Hospital Surge Capacity and Tracking ($3.9 million): Additional hospital beds, equipment and medicines to treat 300 critically injured patients for three days without outside help. New software will track the real-time location of ambulances from every hospital in the region.
- Metropolitan Medical Response System ($4.4 million): the MMRS system expansion into the District of Columbia and Maryland.
- Radiation Detectors ($3.9 million): centrally monitored radiation detectors that help detect a "dirty" or nuclear bomb as far from its target as possible.
- License Plate Readers ($4.4 million): cameras at airports, highways and in police cruisers allow police to compare license plates against local, state and federal databases.
- Bomb Squad Upgrades ($5.6 million): additional training and equipment.
NOAA and FEMA distribute 183,000 weather radios
In August and September, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and FEMA will distribute public alert radios free of charge to 183,000 schools throughout the country and its territories. Recipients include:
- Public and private preschools and Head Start programs
- K-12 private schools
- K-12 public school district offices and K-12 private school central offices
- Postsecondary schools (public and private two- and four-year schools)
NOAA will send the radios directly to schools via FedEx with instruction for use and registration. Schools that have not received their radios by the end of September should go to http://public-alert-radio.nws.noaa.gov/proginfo.htm, find their jurisdiction and determine if their school is listed or not. Schools with post office box addresses will need a street address in order to receive the radios.
In 2005, K-12 public schools in Kentucky, Alaska and major cities around the country received radios as part of a pilot program. In 2006, NOAA completed its distribution to all 97,000 K-12 public schools in the U.S. and its territories, delivering 80,000 radios to those U.S. schools that did not receive the radios during the pilot program conducted in 2005.
For more information, contact the NOAA Weather Radio school radio administrator at NWR.School.Radio@noaa.gov or (301) 713-9480, ext. 118.
Preparedness radio PSAs available for download
The Ready Virginia campaign is airing two new public service announcements that encourage Virginians to prepare for hurricanes and flash floods. Available in English and Spanish, the professionally produced radio spots are airing in Hampton Roads, the Charlottesville region, the Roanoke region and southwest Virginia through mid-October. Scripts and audio files are available for download at http://www.ReadyVirginia.gov/press.cfm.
VEMA updates Certified Emergency Management Assistant requirements
The Virginia Emergency Management Association has approved the substitution of FEMA's new Independent Study course IS-775 EOC Management and Operations for the older IS-275 Role of the Emergency Operations Center course for award of the Certified Emergency Management Assistant. The newer IS-775 course addresses the same subject matter as the older IS-275 course, removed earlier this year from the EMI curriculum. Individuals seeking their CEMA designation who had previously completed the older IS-275 course can submit documentation of either course with their CEMA application.
For more information, visit the VEMA Web site at http://www.vemaweb.org.
New EMI courses online
FEMA's Emergency Management Institute has revised and added new interactive Web-based courses that should be considered for employee work profiles and individual training plans. A complete list of the new and revised classes is available at http://training.fema.gov/IS/.
Exercises...
Charlottesville/Albemarle Airport 2008 full-scale exercise
VDEM, Albemarle County, the city of Charlottesville, University of Virginia and the Charlottesville/Albemarle Airport Authority conducted an airplane crash full-scale exercise. Participants activated an emergency operations center and a family assistance center; conducted shelter operations; deployed a Community Emergency Response Team to evacuate an impacted neighborhood; and practiced the Civil Air Patrol notification process. The approximately 200 participants also included representatives from Madison County, Virginia State Police, Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Virginia Department of Health, American Red Cross, Medical Reserve Corps, Transportation Security Administration and Civil Air Patrol.
The exercise demonstrated policy, procedures and coordination with responders and community partners to fulfill the airport's Federal Aviation Administration exercise requirement.
Conferences...
Virginia Hazardous Materials Conference and Expo
The Virginia Association of Hazardous Materials Response Specialists and VDEM are sponsoring the 25th Annual Virginia Hazardous Materials Conference and Expo, Oct. 13-17 in Hampton. The conference offers more than 60 educational workshops and exhibits.
Conference information and online registration are available at http://www.vaemergency.com/newsroom/events/hazmat2008.cfm.
Virginia Public Safety Outreach Conference postponed
VDEM and Virginia Citizen Corps have postponed the 2008 Virginia Public Safety Outreach Conference due to budget constraints; they plan to have the event in November 2009.
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.
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