Engineer presents professional information designed to keep U.S. military and civilian engineers informed of current and emerging developments within their areas of expertise for the purpose of enhancing their professional development.
Issue link: https://engineer.epubxp.com/i/145930
By Lieutenant Colonel David A. Foster O n 29 October 2012, Hurricane Sandy paralyzed much of New York and New Jersey. Many people along the East Coast were left wet and lacking power, shelter, and basic resources. Local, state, and federal resources, including the Department of Defense (DOD), were employed to save lives, mitigate suffering, and begin the recovery process. Key to the response efforts were interagency collaboration, coordination, and cooperation, strengthened by standard processes of sharing and visualizing information of the operating environment. Although DOD is vital to major response efforts, it is not the lead federal agency for most operations that occur in the United States, but operates in support of them. Therefore, military organizations must rapidly adapt to the cultures of federal, regional, state, and local government agencies that they are assigned to support after natural disasters. Embracing this fact signifcantly reduces the challenges of transitioning into a support, rather than a lead, role. Military personnel understand that they should prepare, or prepare to fail. For those responding to natural disasters within the Homeland or conducting humanitarian 18 Engineer assistance and disaster relief abroad, some of the life-anddeath questions they may face include— ■ Where are signifcant events occurring? ■ Where are friendly forces and/or mission partners? ■ Where are those in need? ■ How do we get resources to the people affected? The Department of Homeland Security has published the Federal Interagency Geospatial Concept of Operations that outlines authoritative data sources by emergency support function.1 It also consolidates key infrastructure data in the Homeland Security Infrastructure Program database, which is available to authorized users. Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) consolidates sources of information focused on response efforts. During crises, these documents are published and provided for use by federal and state response communities. U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and its service component commands receive these daily summaries of resources and push them to subordinate units. Federal agencies share this necessary information, since those who do not share become ineffective partners. May–August 2013