HM503 State’s Rights Discussion

HM503 State’s Rights Discussion

HM503

Unit2 DQ’s 1 and 2

Discussion topics support this unit’s objective and should be completed after reading all materials. Your responses ought to include original evaluation, synthesis, or analysis of the topic, and contribute to the weekly discussion in a meaningful way. You must complete all discussion topics and reply to your peers’ posts. Refer to the Discussion Board Rubric under Course Resources for additional requirements.

Topic 1: State’s Rights

The issue of state’s rights has been at the forefront of the political process for many years. Although states have the Constitutional right to act and plan independently of the federal government, be ready to discuss why it is useful to develop a communication network that emphasizes information sharing between local, state, and federal entities? Can you provide some examples of incidences that appear to display a lack of communication, and also give examples of other incidences that conversely appear to display a strong communication link between local, state, and federal entities? Are there events where state or federal agencies are justified in assuming command of the response?

Respond Kindly to Student #1

Roxanne Donaghy

The issue of state’s rights has been at the forefront of the political process for many years. Although states have the Constitutional right to act and plan independently of the federal government, be ready to discuss why it is useful to develop a communication network that emphasizes information sharing between local, state, and federal entities? Can you provide some examples of incidences that appear to display a lack of communication, and also give examples of other incidences that conversely appear to display a strong communication link between local, state, and federal entities? Are there events where state or federal agencies are justified in assuming command of the response?

Sharing the pertinent information with the correct individuals when it is needed is critical to our national security. In order to meet this mission, the government, business sector, tribal and territory governments, and foreign governments must work together in a mutually beneficial way. In recent years, we have effectively simplified regulations and procedures, removed cultural hurdles, and better combine information systems to facilitate information exchange.

Every second counts in today’s linked world, whether by avoiding an attack or reacting to one that threatens the nation’s critical infrastructure. To ensure the nation’s reliability and security, federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners must be able to communicate correct information rapidly. Sharing information and security are confounding factors that help Homeland Security accomplish its missions and goals quicker and with less risk and expense. Information sharing also develops strong and coherent guidelines (e.g., authority and restrictions) to let DHS missions share and protect information. Also, it makes data accessible to those who require it while also ensuring that it is safe from unintentional or intentional abuse. Fortifying, expanding, and broadening the dispersed homeland security architecture will allow the DHS to share relevant information with federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, international, public, and private sector partners (Homeland Security, 2013, Capstone section). For the sake of establishing and maintaining the confidence necessary for information sharing, we must collaborate to detect and decrease risk rather than prevent data loss by sharing nothing at all. Management rather than avoidance of risk will help create confidence in sharing and protecting information. Inconsistent, fragmented, or managed from a single-agency viewpoint, the risk to national security grows when information is shared in a manner that is inconsistent, fragmented, or managed from a single-agency perspective. Informed decision-making requires discovering, retrieving, and using accurate, relevant, timely, and actionable information. Likewise, our national security depends upon making information easily accessible to Federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, private sector, and foreign partners in a trusted manner, given the appropriate mission context. The objective is to increase the usefulness of the information in operations through the consistent application of policies, guidelines, exchange standards, and common frameworks while always respecting privacy and individual rights.

The significant need for communication in minimizing losses and organizing relief efforts has been proved by events such as the earthquake in Haiti and the tsunami in Japan and terrorist activities such as the September 11 terrorist assault in New York. Responder teams, including volunteers, firefighters, security officers, and health care workers, were rapidly sent to the affected area in the aftermath of a catastrophe. Thus, it is crucial to have open communications, particularly during the early stages of crisis response, since they are critical to saving lives. For example, on October 4, 2017, a mother contacted police to report that her two children, aged 9 and 5, were missing after school.

The city quickly initiated an investigation into the disappearance of the youngsters. It did it using CodeRed, a targeted phone and text alert system that residents may opt into. Additionally, they communicated through the GovDelivery Communications Cloud, Facebook, Twitter, and NextDoor. They had been gone for five hours until they were discovered safe at a park around 9:30 p.m. The cops finally claimed they did not need any volunteers after receiving so many offers of assistance. More than 20,000 people received an email notice from GovDelivery, and roughly 5,300 people shared it on Facebook. A successful example of user communications. Despite improving resilience and protection of these methods against catastrophes, the chance of communication failure is rising as severe occurrences become more frequent. Chaos and uncertainty are amplified in an extreme event setting with highly degraded communications. Poor communication among responders may stymie evaluation and relief operations and impede impacted people from contacting rescuers and family. As we all know, a prime example of a lack of communication was during Hurricane Katrina. Communication tools were severely disrupted in Hurricane Katrina, posing substantial obstacles for victims and first responders. Furthermore, shortly after a fireworks warehouse exploded in the Netherlands in 2000, destroying a large city area, the communications network became overwhelmed and fell out of service. We can even go further back in time to see the result of the communications breakdown. During the Titanic, a distress signal Titanic was sent out. Calls for aid were taking longer and longer as the Titanic began to take on water. Ships from other ports continued requesting updates and confirmation of the tragedy. There were so many incoming and outgoing communications that the SOS signals from the Titanic were being lost. The ability to prioritize essential messages in real-time and the capacity to handle several communications at once without drowning out the others are critical features of a digital workplace system.

On October 4, 2017, a mother contacted police to report that her two children, aged 9 and 5, were missing after school. The city quickly initiated an investigation into the disappearance of the youngsters. It did it using CodeRed, a targeted phone and text alert system that residents may opt into. Additionally, they communicated through the GovDelivery Communications Cloud, Facebook, Twitter, and NextDoor. They had been gone for five hours until they were discovered safe at a park around 9:30 p.m. The cops finally claimed they did not need any volunteers after receiving so many offers of assistance. More than 20,000 people received an email notice from GovDelivery, and roughly 5,300 people shared it on Facebook. A successful example of the use of communications.

When catastrophes occur, local governments are first on the scene and are tasked with responding to and recovering from them. In municipal governance, elected authorities have the primary duty of defending residents. When local resources are exhausted, the community may need to go beyond its borders for extra help if necessary. Such a situation would necessitate the local administration requesting aid from the state. If the state has exhausted all of its resources, then the federal government should intercede.

References

DHS. (n.d.). National strategy for information sharing and safeguarding. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/15_1026_NSI_National-Strategy-Information-Sharing-Safeguarding.pdf

Homeland Security. (2013, January). DHS information sharing and safeguarding strategy. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/12-4466-dhs-information-sharing-and-safeguarding-strategy-01-30-13–fina%20%20%20_0.pdf

Respond Kindly to Student #2

Diego Salgado

Effective Risk Communication

The key to success in any organization is determined by how well they can communicate. As a result, communication is a critical tool at the local, state, and federal governments. Effective risk communication is the foundation of any state mitigation plan. It allows decision-makers to identify gaps in the mitigation planning process and create contingencies to minimize the impact of such threats. Broader and Tucker (2012) further explained the importance of communication the National Incident Management System (NIMS) must have with the state, local, tribal governments, and private sector to provide resources adequately during incidents of national significance.

The overall purpose of a risk communication network is to provide individuals, stakeholders, or communities with the most up-to-date information during disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires and allow them to make the best possible decision about their well-being within nearly impossible time constraints. Ultimately, provide people with possible outcomes and prepare them by providing honest and accurate information about the current situation (Reynolds et al., 2002).

Having unrealistic expectations about what can be accomplished by risk communication. In some cases, risk communication does not reduce conflict and smooth risk management. Additionally, many people and mainly decision-makers, seem to believe a detailed message or communication campaign can eliminate or reduce conflicts in risk issues (National Research Council, 1989).

The most significant incident that displayed a lack of communication was the response of emergency services during Hurricane Katrina. The Government printing officer (2005) further explained that lack of communication and situational awareness paralyzed command and control. In addition, the collapse of local law enforcement and the lack of adequate public communication led to civil unrest and further delayed relief. On the contrary, the incident that best displayed a vital communication link between local, state, and federal entities was witnessed during the Boston Marathon Bombing. Overall, incidents such as Hurricane Katrina are events where state or federal agencies are well justified in assuming command of the response.

References

Broader, J. F. & Tucker, G. (2012). Risk analysis and the security survey. Fourth edition.

Government printing office. (2005, December). A failure of initiative (H. Rept. 109–377). U.S. Government Publishing Office.

https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CRPT-109hrpt377/CRPT-109hrpt377

National Research Council (US) Committee on Risk Perception and Communication. (1989). Common misconceptions about risk communication – improving risk communication – NCBI bookshelf. NCBI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK218592/

Reynolds, B., Galdo, J. H., Sokler, L., & Freimuth, V. S. (2002). Crisis and emergency risk communication. https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/6574/cdc_6574_DS1.pdf .

Topic 2: Mitigation

Although mitigation is not one of the core mission areas of an EOP, it is a very important component that addresses the protection of people and structures, and the minimization of costs to response and recovery actions. Compare mitigation and preparedness, especially in the emergency management and homeland security arenas, including the advantages and shortcomings of both.

Respond Kindly to Student #1

Diego Salgado

Mitigation and Preparedness

Mitigation is the action to reduce or eliminate risk to individuals and property from hazards created by natural or man-made hazards and their effects. In general, mitigation efforts for natural hazards tend to target consequence management. On the contrary, man-made hazards have a much more extensive range of opportunities to decrease potential incidents’ probability and consequences (Haddow et al., 2021). Mitigations can also be classified in many different ways. Most common is the distinction between structucal and nonstructural mitigation (FEMA, 2014).

Preparedness is the local, state, or federal emergency management state readiness to efficiently respond to any type of disaster, crisis, or any other emergency. Training and public education are considered the most common preparedness activities, which can help communities survive disasters when done correctly (Haddow et al., 2021). Preparedness also consist of preimpact actions that provide the adequate resources needed to effectivately support an active response at the time of disaster impact (FEMA, 2014).

Advantages and Shortcomings

Mitigation strategies have several advantages. For instance, structural mitigation often involves using engineered features such as; dams, levees, seawalls, and other measures to provide safety measures to local and state communities during natural disasters. But, on the other hand, these measures can be costly and not easily affordable (FEMA, 2014).

Preparedness is best accomplished when everyone is constantly involved. Emergency preparedness can save lives, property and get entire populations back to normal sooner than if they were not adequately prepared. The biggest shortcoming is having the necessary funds and adequate training for communities to prepare for disasters (Seymour, 2019).

Reference

Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2021). Introduction to emergency management (7th ed.). Butterworth- Heinemann publications.

FEMA. (2014). Hazard mitigation . In Fundamentals of Emergency Management (Chapter 7). Retrieved from http://www.training.fema.gov/hiedu/aemrc/booksdownload/fem/

Seymour, E. (2019, October 15). The importance of emergency preparedness. SeymourEMS. https://www.seymourems.org/the-importance-of-emergency-preparedness/

Respond Kindly to Student #2

Blake Carter

While mitigation and preparedness are sometimes used interchangeably, they serve different functions when it comes to emergency management. Mitigation can be defined as, “A sustained action to reduce or eliminate risk to people and property from hazards and their effects” (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2021, p. 505). Preparedness on the other hand is defined as, “A state of readiness to respond to a disaster, crisis, or any other type of emergency situation” (p. 506).

An example of mitigation can be infrastructure. Seawalls for instance, “…principal function of preventing or alleviating overtopping and flooding of the land and the structures behind due to storm surges and waves” (Penn State University, 2021). However, some disadvantages of mitigation are cost and usability. Generally, the upfront cost is higher, however if used it will pay off in the long run. Yet, there is no guarantee that it will be used, hence the usability. A city could invest in earthquake resilient structures and yet a large enough earthquake to cause damage never occurs.

When it comes to preparedness, training exercises are techniques that are widely used. An example of this was Hurricane Pam. Hurricane Pam was a fictitious storm that hit Louisiana in 2004. This exercise was important because it, “…combined two facets of emergency management: planning and exercises” (Beriwal, 2006, p. 2). Both planning and exercises are part of preparedness. While Hurricane Pam was seen as a success, it was later deemed a failure because the lessons learned from it were not employed during an actual hurricane, Hurricane Katrina. This defeats the whole propose of an exercise and it is a disadvantage when it comes to preparedness.

References

Beriwal, M. (2006, January 24). Preparing for a catastrophe: The Hurricane Pam exercise. Retrieved from IEM: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/012406Beriwal.pdf

Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2021). Introduction to emergency management. Cambridge: Elsevier.

Penn State University. (2021). Seawalls. Retrieved from Penn State University: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth107/node/1062

 

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