Public Safety Program
Colorado Emergency Preparedness Partnership
The Colorado Emergency Preparedness Partnership is a public-private enterprise created by the Denver InfraGard Members Alliance (IMA), the Denver Police Foundation, Business Executives for National Security and the Philanthropy Roundtable. It is a broad coalition to implement a voluntary, all-hazards partnership between business and government and, to date, has been the product of many Colorado partners including leaders of the philanthropic community, federal, state and local agencies, business, academia, and US Northern Command. It is a new organization aimed at bringing the private sector to the table in a streamlined fashion for emergency preparedness and homeland security planning and to help smooth lines of communication between and across the public, private and non-profit sectors. The mission of the partnership is to strengthen the region’s collective capacity to prevent, respond to, and recover from natural and human-caused disasters through effective public-private collaboration.
Businesses and governments alike understand the value of planning for continuity of operations. Too often, however, that planning is done in isolation – within a company, by industry sector, or by government alone. The very best business continuity planning is for naught if the community around that business cannot function. Likewise, government faces an impossible task in effectively providing all phases disaster management – given the private sector controls 85-90 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure. In recognition of this inter-dependency across organizations and between public and private sectors, the Colorado partnership’s work will reflect the importance of joint planning, practice, and ongoing collaboration to ensure continuity of community. The flagship project of this new partnership will be a robust, secure, resource-sharing tool: a voluntary registry of business resources (warehouses, office space, trucks, equipment, skilled personnel, etc.) that can be accessed during disasters by state and local emergency management. The secure web-based registry will be implemented under the leadership of the Denver IMA with support from FEMA.
Objectives of the partnership include:
Mobilizing a team of businesses representative of the regional economy that shares a commitment to strengthen the resiliency of the metro Denver community and the state.
Integrating private sector and government resources to build new capabilities for disaster response and mitigation, using a multi-hazard approach.
Validating new operational capabilities through regular joint exercises with public and private partners.
Establishing strong, trusting relationships with and between stakeholders and improving communication between public, private and non-profit sectors – before, during, and after a disaster.
While early focus will be on serving the metro Denver area in anticipation of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, both the resource-sharing tool and the broader regional partnership will have statewide application thereafter.
This partnership will organize the resources and expertise of the business community to improve security and response capability in Denver and throughout the state. By working together, public, private and non-profit leaders will strengthen Colorado’s ability to mitigate the impact of catastrophic events and will help ensure the safety of Colorado citizens and the resiliency of its economy.
To learn more, please contact Pamela Pfeifer at ppfeifer@bens.org or 303.607.4731.
Resource Sharing Tool
The Denver InfraGard Members Alliance, the Denver Police Foundation, Business Executives for National Security (BENS), and the Philanthropy Roundtable are leading a broad coalition to implement a voluntary, all-hazards partnership between business and government. A primary program element of the new partnership will be the development of a voluntary registry of private sector resources and capabilities which could be utilized during a crisis.
The Resource Registry, a secure web-based catalog of private-sector resources resident in the metro area, will deliver immediate value and new capability to Denver in advance of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The Denver InfraGard Members Alliance will take the lead and work closely with city and state emergency managers and the local FEMA Regional coordinator to catalogue physical assets identified by the private sector, such as refrigerated trucks, heavy equipment, warehouse space, temporary housing, etc. This database will also include information on local emergency response contacts. These identified resources can be incorporated into the response plans of both the state and the Denver metro area. This resource registry will also serve as a tool for enlisting support and commitment to the broader-based ongoing public-private partnership.
The Resource Registry will support a secure information network of private sector resources that businesses have voluntarily agreed to make available to emergency management officials in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. The database will be operated by state or local emergency management agencies. In an emergency, responding agencies must identify "surge" assets quickly and upwards of 85% of these needed assets are available only from the business community. In almost all cases, the resources they need are in short supply and their shortfall is compounded by the fact their location and how to obtain them is unknown. To address these issues, Colorado is taking this proactive approach by facilitating the development of an efficient IT system to provide quick identification of private-sector resources by emergency managers.
Businesses participate by agreeing to register these resources for possible use during an emergency - subject to their availability - thereby reducing response time, saving lives and speeding economic recovery. The Registry will provide a needed asset surge capability that government leaders have identified as a serious gap in their response to catastrophic events, either natural or human caused. The Registry will allow for detailed pre-incident planning by bringing substantial, private-sector skills and assets to support local and state government emergency response efforts. The Registry will provide an efficient and effective use of total community resources in times of need. In most cases, businesses will be reimbursed for their resources and personnel used during recovery efforts.
Government alone cannot secure the Nation. The Resource Registry will allow businesses to help maintain "continuity of community" and insure a viable and secure future for our region.
Commentary: Task as Americans is to be ready for disasters
By Retired Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré
Special to CNN
As the Atlantic hurricane season begins, Honoré, who was commanding general First Army and leader of Joint Task Force Katrina before retiring, offers his views on why the United States needs to develop a culture of preparedness for natural disasters.
(CNN) -- The recent series of disasters in the United States and around the world have resulted in the forced evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and have again demonstrated with startling clarity that we are living in a new normal. In this new normal, international interdependencies and instantaneous communications combine to constantly remind us of disaster and terrorism, and disasters that once were considered exceptional now occur more frequently. The recent earthquakes in China and the Myanmar cyclone are but two reminders of such disasters.The reminders are beamed into our homes and workplaces as if to demonstrate that tragedy that can result if we fail to prepare. What people once viewed as the exception they now see on a routine basis, yet we still don't take the steps to be prepared for this new normal.We have to be better prepared, and the first steps start at home and at work.
In today's densely populated and technologically dependent communities, disasters have a far greater impact than ever before. It's time for America to wake up to this reality. In a world where natural and man-made disasters can and will happen with little or no warning, we need to be prepared. We face a host of potential disasters: from earthquakes, hurricanes and pandemics to industrial accidents, electrical blackouts, terrorism and the effects of possible attacks with weapons of mass destruction. Our task as Americans is to be ready.
At home, events after 9/11, Katrina, wildfires in California and Florida, numerous destructive tornadoes and other storms, and the threat of earthquakes accentuate the need to create a culture of preparedness in America. A preparedness that is ingrained and intertwined in every part of our daily life, but is mostly common sense, is based in the American spirit. While it is the duty of local, state and federal governments to prepare for and respond to disaster, true preparedness begins in our homes and our neighborhoods.To create this culture of preparedness, we need to focus "left of the disaster," which means we focus on preparations and responses before the disaster. How, or if, each of us survives a disaster is directly related to where we were before it hit.
To create this culture of preparedness, we must change the way that academia, private industry, community groups and individual households think about preparedness in their daily lives. Disaster readiness is the responsibility of every part of our society and every individual.In our free-market society, the private sector has far more response capability than our government. Governments need to work with private industries and make them part of the plan so we can quickly tap into all of our nation's best resources when we need them most.Our schools, from kindergarten to post-graduate institutions, need to develop a curriculum that will teach us how to prepare for and better respond to crises as communities and as individuals. Neighborhoods and community groups need to know about and keep track of those among us who are unable to self-evacuate or unable to care for themselves, particularly when the power fails or when they run out of medicine.And each of us has a personal responsibility to be ready. We need to prepare our families and our homes. In many cases, family and personal preparations can be fairly simple. All it takes is a shift in our thinking. For example, when Granny's birthday comes around, we have a tendency to get her one of those little silver picture frames with a photo of the kids. We need to stop giving Granny those picture frames and give her a weather radio. And on Father's Day, instead of giving Grandpa those funky colored ties, give him a weather radio, too.In times of disaster, information is power. Those radios will let them know if it's time to act because we can never predict when we'll be told to evacuate. An inexpensive plastic tote -- a "ready box" filled with food, water, clothes, a battery-operated radio, copies of important papers, cash and other family necessities, kept in the closet by the front door -- is a big step toward personal preparedness.
In this new normal, we have only two options: We can exist in a culture of fear and dependency, or we can do the responsible thing: Live comfortably in a culture of preparedness and readiness; a culture where individuals can save themselves and empower their local, regional and national governments to better respond to any disaster. It's time for America to adopt this culture of preparedness.