Vital Systems Security

DemfromCT — a blogger on DailyKos — has another interesting post on school closure and pandemic preparedness. It is about many things, among more information on exercises that show that in the US school closure may not be in time to help much, and an interesting comparison with a recent minor outbreak in Hong Kong, where, apparently, parents held students home from school in a “precautionary” fashion before a decision was taken to close schools. Also interesting is the mention of the role that blogs and the internet more generally would play in a pandemic.

The special issue of Interfaces journal from 2006 was entitled: Homeland Security: Operations Research Initiatives and Applications. You might find some of the papers interesting, since they touch on broad range of topics discussed on this blog. Some of the topics are bio-security/terrorism, emergency response and critical infrastructures. The article number 6 is especially interesting, since the author starts by drawing a direct link between homeland security and the genealogy of operations research expertise that we have been tracing in OEP research.

In our work on the genealogy of vital systems security, Stephen and I have noted the importance of “imaginative enactment” as a form of VSS knowledge-production. Among other things, imaginative enactment is a method for determining infrastructural vulnerabilities in the absence of archival data on the historical incidence of what are termed “low probability, high consequence” events – such as a virulent influenza pandemic, a dirty bomb attack on a major city, a catastrophic earthquake, etc. One form of imaginative enactment that I’ve been looking at is the scenario-based exercise. These are role-playing games in which decision makers are faced with an urgent crisis sparked by an event (a terrorist attack, an outbreak of an infectious disease, etc), take action to intervene, and watch the results of their interventions unfold. In this post, I want to begin to explore the structure and history of this type of imaginative enactment – which was originally developed in the 1950s at RAND (along with everything else), and called the “political exercise.”

Read the rest of this entry »

An interesting article in Time magazine on response to floods in Tabasco reports that the Mexican Government did an admirable job when compared to the response to Katrina in the United States. Among other things, it seems that the military was out in force two days before the worst of the flooding, and was constantly running rescue operations during the entire event — a stark contrast to New Orleans, where, as we know, getting military and national guard rescue into gear was problematic and slow.

Props to Elaine Grossman over at GSN for a fascinating story on Congressional concerns with the recently unveiled (Draft) National Response Framework. You might have to scroll down a bit to find it. We had a bit of chatter about the NRF on this blog, and perhaps this story will spark further discussion. The gist of the concerns about the plan — oops, sorry, “framework” — is that, well, it is not a plan but rather it is only a framework(!) And a not-so-clear one at that. Familiar critiques include: lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities — even duplication and overlap; the use of ambiguous terminology and concepts; and a conspicuous absence of operational details which could provide useful guidance about implementation… DHS is also facing criticism for the lack of transparency in drafting/writing process for the document, which it vociferously denies, claiming that expertise and personnel across disciplines and agencies were brought to the table in crafting the NRF. Unless I’m misreading things, I do believe the general sense is that DHS has messed something up!

This might be a good time, by the bye, to refer the, um, five of us to an informative report put out by NYU which highlights some of the legal and organizational incongruities cropping up as a result of recent legislation and an orientation towards the catastrophic. I bring it up here because it is an interesting piece to this changing puzzle we’re dealing with, and for me anyway helps to clarify how it is that FEMA is really getting pushed and shoved all over the place in terms of its responsibilities, and equally: its capabilities.

One of the interesting stories coming out of these events relates to information management, and in particular to how information is communicated to victims (or potential victims) of disasters, and among various actors dealing with complex and rapidly changing situations. We have had posts in the past about risk communication, such as the new FEMA interactive flood maps that can be overlaid on Google Earth. The basic idea was that if people have a better understanding of the risks they face in moving to a certain neighborhood in a vulnerable area they will think twice. Two specific technical systems for communicating during a disaster have been mentioned repeatedly during the SoCal fires. One is so-called “Reverse 911″ in which, apparently,  a central call center makes calls to home phones in certain geographic areas to warn them about location specific hazards or evacuation and rescue information. The service is provided by a private company whose system became operational in San Diego only a month ago.

The other technology for real-time information sharing being employed is called WebEOC, made by a company in Georgia called ESi. It is described as a web 2.0 type of system that allows real time information sharing — that is spatially arranged — between many disperse points. ESi’s description of the software can be found here. This is clearly aiming at the kind of “situational awareness” that emergency managers (and war fighters) in all times and places have wanted to have. The genealogical lines must, of course, go back to the military.

Reporting from LA…. The southern CA firestorm is perhaps FEMA’s first major test since Hurricane Katrina. A big task is the evacuation. There are multiple fires and they are traveling fast and in unpredictable ways. People sometimes want to stay to protect their houses in the absence of firefighters. One criticism likely to emerge is that the SD fire dept lacked resources, despite the known fire danger. Another - which is always noted after fires, but does not seem to affect development - is that people should not be allowed to build houses in these zones. So far it seems that the evacuation has been handled in a very different way than New Orleans. According to reports, the 20,000 people in Qualcomm stadium are well-fed, the national guard is there with automatic weapons in case of social disorder. On the other hand it is not clear that there are sufficient resources available for people showing up in evacuation centers, such as the race track in Del Mar. This is a very different situation than Katrina, of course. First, the city is not totally engulfed: most of its infrastructure (communications, electricity, transportation) is operational. Second, the race and class dynamic is different: many of the burned and threatened areas are wealthy suburbs, and residents have resources and networks to find adequate accommodations after evacuating. Third, state and federal leaders know they are under scrutiny and must demonstrate quick response (not to mention that the CA governor is from the same party as the president). FEMA has set up a Joint Field Office in Pasadena; USNORTHCOM, the Red Cross, etc are in action. A lot now depends on how much longer the heat and Santa Ana winds continue….

Oct 22, 2007 (CIDRAP News) The White House recently issued a lengthy homeland security directive aimed at bolstering the response of federal, state, and local public health systems to national emergencies such as bioterrorist attacks, influenza pandemics, and natural disasters. Read the rest of this entry »

Curbed, a New York urbanism and real-estate blog (there is a curbed LA as well), has a post today on a design competition in New York for innovative designs for emergency housing. Interestingly, the design competition is scenario based. Here is the description from the competition announcement:

The competition scenario focuses on a fictional neighborhood called Prospect Shore that has just been hit by a Category 3 hurricane, leaving 38,000 families without housing. Entrants are asked to design a provisional housing plan for the community that could be used by emergency planners in real life. The judging criteria recognize that traditional post-disaster housing, such as mobile homes, is not suitable for New York City’s high population density and concentrated infrastructure. The competition is being sponsored by OEM, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Architecture for Humanity – New York.

Among many things that are curious here is the suggestion that New York has needs that are different from the rest of the country (mobile homes need not apply — indeed, where would they go?) and that, therefore, specific local solutions are required.

The University of California Police Department, in cooperation with 

the City of Berkeley Police Department, is participating in Alameda 

County’s “Urban Shield” exercise from Friday, September 28 to Monday, 

October 1, 2007.  

Urban Shield, a multi-agency regional training event, will test and 

enhance the emergency preparedness and response abilities of local law 

enforcement in a wide variety of situations.  Tactical teams from 

approximately 25 departments across the country, including our own 

Negotiations and Entry Team, will be deployed around the clock to 

handle a variety of simulations and scenarios ranging from natural 

disasters to incidents of terrorism.  If you would like to learn more 

about this event, please see http://www.urbanshield.org/about.html for 

details.

Warren Hall will be the site of an “active shooter” simulation.  

Especially in light of the tragic events at Virginia Tech and other 

past incidents of campus violence, the University is committed to the 

highest level of preparation and prevention possible, and is proud to 

participate in this opportunity to provide realistic and valuable 

training to so many law enforcement agencies.  

Police personnel will begin staging equipment and preparing the 

building on the evening of Friday, September 28.  At 5:00 am on 

September 29 (Saturday) the exercise will begin.  Activity will 

include role-player movements on the first and ground floor of Warren 

Hall, the arrival and departure of personnel and vehicles in Mulford 

Hall parking lot, and some loud noises.  The scenario will repeat once 

every other hour for the entire weekend, day and night, ending before 

9:00 am on Monday, October 1.  

Thank you for your assistance with this important initiative.

Nathan Brostrom

Vice Chancellor–Administration