| CONTENTS:
1. Cog
Manager's Corner
2. Disaster Management Interoperability
Services (DMIS) Outreach
3. DisasterHelp.gov Enhancements
4. Upcoming Events
5. Upcoming EIIP Virtual Forum
6. About the Disaster Management E-gov
Initiative
7. About the Interoperations
Newsletter
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| 1.
Cog Manager's Corner |
The entire DMIS Staff wishes to express our deep concern and
support for the victims and first responders along the Gulf Coast at
this critical time. We have received numerous inquiries from responders
and others all across the country wanting to lend assistance in one
way or another. In response to that large influx of questions and requests,
we are providing the following FAQs derived from information put together
by DisasterHelp.gov:
Q: Where
can I get help?
A:
FEMA offers resources for evacuees and disaster victims
along with disaster assistance and recovery information: http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/resources_katrina.shtm
Q: Where can I apply for assistance?
A: FEMA
offers online and phone registration 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:
Q: Where
can I get information about my family and loved ones?
A:
The FirstGov.gov portal has a long list of Government and non-Government
sources to locate family and friends missing after the hurricane: http://www.firstgov.gov/
Q: How can
I help?
A:
USA Freedom Corps lists various opportunities for the public to offer
assistance: http://www.freedomcorps.gov/
Donate Funding:
Donate Goods
and Services:
- If you or your
organization, agency, or corporation has resources to offer, such
as housing, services, construction equipment, transportation,
food and / or personal items, please register
with the National Emergency Resource Center: https://www.swern.gov/
Volunteer:
- A list of donation
and volunteer opportunities are available at the National
Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster: http://www.nvoad.org/
- If you are a
Healthcare Professional or relief personnel with medical or
health-related expertise, please go to https://volunteer.ccrf.hhs.gov/
Additional
Mobilization:
If you have any
questions related to DMIS COG development, DMIS Tools use, the status
of a DMIS registration request, or information on other registered DMIS
COGs in your area, please call or email Rick
Hauschildt, DMIS COG Manager, at (540) 288-5671.
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| 2.
Disaster Management Interoperability Services (DMIS) Outreach |
DMIS Responder Liaison Deployed with NC-1 DMAT to Katrina Response
Walt Kaplan of the DMIS Responder Liaison Team deployed to
the Hurricane Katrina disaster area with the 1st North Carolina Disaster
Medical Response Team on August 28. Walt is a long-term veteran of medical
support to emergency operations. Walt describes the situation as “devastation
in Hiroshima proportion” with all elements of infrastructure inoperable
over a vast area. As of this writing, satellite communications are starting
to become available at the tactical level. Walt and the NC-1 DMAT are
looking for opportunities to begin employing DMIS to aid coordination
of recovery operations.
National
Preparedness Month Activity
As one of many special activities planned to recognize September as
National Preparedness Month, there will be a demonstration of the Common
Alerting Protocol (CAP) standard as it is implemented in real world
scenarios using deployed systems. The demonstration will be held in
Washington, DC, on Wednesday September 28. While the focus will be on
the CAP standard, there will be presentations and discussions about
EDXL standards currently in the review process.
In addition, Disaster
Management is hoping to arrange a demonstration during the DHS/DOJ Technologies
for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference & Expo in late October.
For those of you attending the conference, this would be an excellent
opportunity to witness the implementation of information sharing standards
without traveling to Washington for the demonstration in September.
Other Outreach
Activities:
- DM continued
a “call campaign” to local and state COGs to update contact
information and encourage upgrade to DMIS v2.2.
- DM team members
attended the Association for Public Communications Officials (APCO)
Conference in Denver.
- Staff provided
Live Meeting DMIS demonstration on “DMIS for Daily Situation
Reporting” to public health officials in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin
area.
- DM developed
training materials for use prior to the HazCollect Operational Acceptance
Test in October.
- Staff met with
Navy Mid-Atlantic Region DMIS rollout planners and civilian emergency
managers; also gave a DMIS presentation and demonstration at the Navy
Bureau of Medicine (BUMED) planning conference for Medical Capabilities
Assessment & Status Tool (M-CAST). BUMED plans to develop an interface
from M-CAST to DMIS.
- DM participated
in the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Conference in Atlanta,
Georgia.
- DM confirmed
three jurisdictions in Connecticut, Iowa and Tennessee respectively
for the upcoming DMIS / Citizen Corp pilot. (Look for more details
next month.)
- DM staff assisted
several Federal Agencies with DMIS installation, COG creation and
utilization (Department of the Interior, US Department of Agriculture,
Department of Treasury/Bureau of Public Debt; National Aeronautics
and Space Administration).
- Staff continued
to work toward the final version of updated DMIS v2.2 online training
materials.
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3.
DisasterHelp.gov Enhancements |
The DisasterHelp.Gov portal was developed for first responders and others
involved in disaster management. To register, go to https://disasterhelp.gov/portal/jhtml/index.jhtml
.
What’s
New at DisasterHelp.gov?
The Disaster Management e-Gov Initiative (DM) provided the following
updates, support and / or outreach related to the growth and use of
DisasterHelp.Gov:
- Social Security
Administration (SSA): Helped users with online documents and assisted
with transition of the SSA administrators onto the site.
- Famine Early
Warning System: Created the Famine Early Warning System presence on
the Food page.
- FEMA Risk Reduction
Branch of Mitigation Division: Configured Collaboration Center with
appropriate community set-up and conducted on-site training session.
- USFA: Worked
with USFA IT contacts to resolve local configuration errors that created
problems in viewing notifications.
- National Wildfire
Coordinating Group (NCWG): Assisted NWCG Program Administrators in
granting users access.
- Updated hurricane
channel on homepage with relevant links as needed.
- Updated Welcome
Messages.
- Addressed user
feedback.
- Created new accounts
and verified new users.
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| 4.
Upcoming Events |
October 20-22, 2005: National Disaster Mental Health
Conference. Estes Park, Colorado. See http://www.rmrinstitute.org/fall2005.html
. October
18, 2005: Disasters Roundtable Workshop: Law, Science,
and Disaster. Washington, DC. Contact William Anderson, The National
Academies, email wanderson@nas.edu;
http://dels.nas.edu/dr/.
October
19-22, 2005: National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) Fall
Meeting; Galveston, Texas. See http://www.nvfc.org/2005-fall-meeting.html
.
October
27-29, 2005: 2005 Annual ASCE Civil Engineering Conference.
Los Angeles, California. Email dtaylor@asce.org;
http://216.15.146.200/MS/MS38/page.php?p=613.
November
3-6, 2005: International Technical Rescue Symposium.
Fort Collins, Colorado. Email: scox@pmirope.com
; http://www.mra.org/ITRS_Brochure2005.pdf
.
November
9-10, 2005: 6th Annual International Disaster and Emergency
Resilience (IDER) Conference & Exhibit. Fire Services College,
Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, UK. See http://www.iderweb.org/
.in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, UK
November 9-13, 2005: FireRescue Conference and
Expo 2005. Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information, call (800)
363-3631 or see http://www.firerescueexpo.com
.
November
11-16, 2005: International Association of Emergency Managers
(IAEM) 2005 Annual Conference & EMEX Exhibit. Phoeniz, Arizona.
http://www.iaem.com
.
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5.
Upcoming EIIP Virtual Forum |
Welcome to the EIIP!
The EIIP Virtual Forum provides 'live chat' presentations and interactive
Q&A with subject matter experts on timely topics on two Wednesdays
each month, 12:00 Noon Eastern.
September
28, 12:00 Noon EDT: We plan to host a session on the HazCollect
Operational Acceptance Test with Herb White, Dissemination Services
Manager, National Weather Service, Office of Climate, Water, and Weather
Services.
About the
EIIP: The EIIP is an educational non-profit association
of individuals and organizations seeking to enhance their effectiveness
in coping with disasters and emergency situations by exploring the opportunity
for sharing information and ideas made possible by electronic technology.
The EIIP also shares its vision and educational opportunities through
the EIIP Community on the DisasterHelp.gov Web site http://www.disasterhelp.gov
.
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6.
About the Disaster Mangement E-gov Initiative (DisasterHelp.gov and
DMIS) |
The Disaster Management E-Gov Initiative is part of the President's
Management Agenda for making government more focused on people and results.
Its goal is to provide an easy-to-use, unified point of access to disaster
management knowledge, services and toolsets to achieve an accelerated
and improved quality of disaster mitigation and response. There are
two major parts of the initiative: Disaster Management Interoperability
Services (DMIS) and the DisasterHelp.Gov portal. DMIS is focused on
the responder/emergency management profession, while the portal provides
information and services to citizens, business, federal, state, and
local government and non-profit organizations relating to disaster and
emergency response.
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7.
About the Interoperations Newsletter |
The Interoperations
Newsletter reports on the developments of interest for the disaster
management community. Reader comments, questions, and notifications
to cancel this newsletter can be forwarded directly to the Editor, Avagene
Moore at (931) 762-4768, or the Responder Liaison, Scott
Eyestone, at (540) 288-5622; or provided via the DMI-Services Web
site at http://www.cmi-services.org/.
Your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
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