The following contains this author's final thoughts about the emergency  management and it's place in the National Information Infrastructure.   Emergency management, as was examined in this document, involves these major  steps:

1)   Develop an educational program to teach the public about emergency  issues;

2)   Have procedures established for informing the public when a disaster  is about to occur and for relaying important disaster related announcements;

3)   Have emergency action plans prepared in advance in case of the  event of an emergency;

4)   Have clearly established definitions of what equates an appropriate  response to emergency conditions;

5)   Have clearly defined recovery activities and standardized recording  procedures for events after emergency conditions have occurred.

The implementation of  a National Information Infrastructure (NII) in an  emergency management system could not help but result in dramatic enhancements  and better accuracy in the information systems which are used to create  disaster simulations.  But to be truly effective, the NII technology must be  made accessible to the public as an educational, not just entertainment oriented network.  It must be user-friendly and meet the needs of the public  and emergency management community.  It must be easy to use by many different  kinds of people and by various age groups.  Emergency management,  including  the Emergency Broadcasting System and other public alerting systems, should  be broadbased enough to service both an English speaking as well as a  non-English speaking public.   It should also be able to reach persons with  a wide range of disabilities.  Emergency management would need to be  characterized by being both "multicultural and  multilingual."  Ease of use  is especially critical because during a disaster there normally is little  or no time to learn.  In fact, most people over-react by being hyper-excited,  worried or confused.

A National Information Infrastructure emergency management system needs to  also include self protection in its planning.  The system needs to be  available in times of emergency when other infrastructure elements may be  damaged or even destroyed.  For instance, some sections of the infrastructure  may survive a disaster better than others.  High frequency radios such as  those used by amateur radio operators, or owners of citizen band radios, are  still usually operational after a storm.  Twisted pair copper wire  telecommunications systems may be decimated during a strong hurricane, yet  buried fiber optic lines may survive even a grade 4 hurricane as in the case  of Hurricane Andrew.  On the other hand, in the case of earthquakes, that same fiber optic system might be badly damaged while cellular systems are  still in exellent condition.  This is another reason why it is important for  a NII emergency management system to have many different communications  options available to it as backup.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1.  Have annual or semi-annual training of emergency management staff and  critical "helper" agencies.  Such educational sessions would enhance the  review process to keep agents "fresh" and notify staff of new developments.

2.  Identify all qualified persons with emergency management capabilities,  at all local, state and federal levels.  Have one main database maintained  available to emergency management managers with all qualified personnel data  included such as name, address, phone numbers and 24 hour contact points.

3.  Standardize all emergency management forms at all levels of local,  state and federal.  Make accessment requirements consistent by use of these  standardized forms.  Have all data stored in standardized and or ascii format.   Have all agencies and local, state and federal, emergency management related  offices use the same standardized software.

4.  Make better,  more efficient use of geographical information systems  (GIS).  Have these systems available to all emergency management personnel.   Have systems available to the public through telnet and or the World Wide Web.   Use GIS to determine possible key difficult evacuation locations and traffic  bottlenecks.  Have emergency shelter locations and emergency management  offices clearly marked on GIS maps made available to the public.

5.  Have computer systems as well as other key resources (such as  telecommunications networks, energy, and water)  re-evaluated at all three  levels of local, state and federal, as to their true current working status.   Determine whether systems will be capable of handling an incrementally  increasing load (such as increased data storage needs).  Determine whether  systems are capable of handling emergency level information needs.  Determine  whether the software packages can handle all the requirements needed in  emergency situations.  Determine whether or not key systems are vulnerable to  physical damage, or loss, and from what direction the threats may originate.   Determine whether backup systems  are adequate for emergency needs if primary systems break down.  Have a prescribed time schedual for periodic system  re-evaluations, such as semi-annual, annual and biannual.  Determine  deficiencies.  Develop new models and software as needed.  Use corrective  measures when feasible or available.

6.  At all three levels (local, state, federal) re-evaluate current models  of emergency plans if available. Develop better models to aid in prediction  of both environmental and man-made disasters.  Develop situational models and  plans for population relocation and determine when evacuation is truly  necessary.  Develop best/worst case scenario planning for disasters at all  three levels (local, state, federal).

7.  Public education about emergency procedures needs to be agressively  promoted.  Preventative and preparative mentality should be encouraged  throughout the public sector.  Ways to do this might be as follows:  During Emergency Broadcasting tests on both radio and television, make sure  to also include a 1-800 number that the public may call to obtain more  information about publications, information meetings, and important locations  such as the local emergency management office.  Regularly scheduled free  emergency preparation classes could be held at easily accessible central locations such as public libraries, schools or town halls.  Cable stations  could be utilized such that public access channels and PBS stations could  broadcast emergency management information and/or classes.

8.  There needs to be aggressive promotion of emergency management related  published materials.  Make sure that publications and all other emergency  management materials are disseminated to the public in both English and  Spanish versions.  Have published materials available also in electronic  format, such as on ftp sites, telnet, and World Wide Web locations. Have  published materials available at kiosks located in public centers such as  shopping malls, libraries, and government buildings (ie: postal offices).   Have electronic bulletin boards placed in strategic locations to help  announce key emergency management related materials.  Have clips, with  emergency preparation skills demonstrated, shown in the first couple minutes  of promos at movie theaters.  Have ticker-tape style EBS materials shown at  the bottom of TV screens during sports events (etc.)

9.  Media should be encouraged to take an active part in emergency  planning and public notification.  Emergency management training programs for  media personnel should be made available on an annual or semi-annual basis.

10. Emergency management staff and related agencies should be trained  more intensely in how to efficiently and effectively use appropriate  prediction and helper software, as well as all other available emergency  management developed materials.

Emergency managers also have unique requirements for information accessibility  and dissemination.  The capabilities of the NII to move, display and analyze  data should enhance an emergency manager's ability to give assistence at many  levels.  It is encouraging that the NII should also significantly increase  functions available to local emergency managers, allowing them to have direct  access to modeling, multimedia training simulations, accessment data, data repositories, as well as many other functions.

Yet access issues still exist.  Therefore, if the program is to reach an  acceptable level of success, there should be computers with access to the NII  residing in every local emergency management facility as well as in other  publicly available places, such as schools and libraries.  Once such systems  are established,  public notification and education issues will be greatly  aided, hopefully lessening future preventable disaster casualties and loss.   This is really what should be remembered most by emergency managers, that no  matter how distracting other issues may seem, prevention of human injury and  advanced well rehearsed preparation is the major goal of any emergency  management system.  It is this preparation and the lessons from previous  disasters, that will help emergency managment officers more efficiently  facilitate the accessment and deployment of emergency related activities when  the next major disaster occurs.

(Updated 9/02/03 D.J. Russell)