Tuesday
May062008
Promoting resilience in the event of an attack or disaster
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 1:19PM
The Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on “The Resilient Homeland – Broadening the Homeland Security Strategy,” where Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) defined resilience as “the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” Thompson said that “since 9/11 this Administration has focused solely on preventing the next attack as opposed to how best to recover should an incident occur.”
Hon. Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, said “we must make every effort to prevent an attack, but we must do more.” He said when faced with disaster, citizens, businesses, and other institutions will help rescue themselves and others. He said the government also plays a crucial role to create “conditions that allow the creativity and ingenuity of individuals and businesses to flourish.” He said information is important for citizens to respond to events and make informed decisions, and referred to the example of Reverse 911, a program that sends evacuation messages to communities at risk.
Dr. Yossi Sheffi, professor of engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said “the first and most important step in dealing with disruptions is working to avoid them.” He said the next steps in building resilience are implementing a detection system, and focusing on redundancy and flexibility. Mary Arnold, vice president of government relations for SAP, said to ensure resiliency and recovery, “we must develop public-private partnerships that utilize the resources of both sectors and play to their strengths.”
Sheffi said there is a wide variety of preparedness and resilience among companies, but that the good news is most large corporations take resiliency seriously. He said he was struck by how uncoordinated volunteer efforts are, and that the government needs a mechanism to capture and coordinate volunteers.
Baker said the Department of Homeland Security works closely with states in emergency situations, since state and local authorities are the first to respond to disasters. He said the federal government needs to allow creativity for local planning. He said that practicing for such events is the most important thing the news administration can do in terms of planning and exercising for emergency situations.
Hon. Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, said “we must make every effort to prevent an attack, but we must do more.” He said when faced with disaster, citizens, businesses, and other institutions will help rescue themselves and others. He said the government also plays a crucial role to create “conditions that allow the creativity and ingenuity of individuals and businesses to flourish.” He said information is important for citizens to respond to events and make informed decisions, and referred to the example of Reverse 911, a program that sends evacuation messages to communities at risk.
Dr. Yossi Sheffi, professor of engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said “the first and most important step in dealing with disruptions is working to avoid them.” He said the next steps in building resilience are implementing a detection system, and focusing on redundancy and flexibility. Mary Arnold, vice president of government relations for SAP, said to ensure resiliency and recovery, “we must develop public-private partnerships that utilize the resources of both sectors and play to their strengths.”
Sheffi said there is a wide variety of preparedness and resilience among companies, but that the good news is most large corporations take resiliency seriously. He said he was struck by how uncoordinated volunteer efforts are, and that the government needs a mechanism to capture and coordinate volunteers.
Baker said the Department of Homeland Security works closely with states in emergency situations, since state and local authorities are the first to respond to disasters. He said the federal government needs to allow creativity for local planning. He said that practicing for such events is the most important thing the news administration can do in terms of planning and exercising for emergency situations.
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