Homeland Defense Journal - January 2009 - 22

Sponsored By Booz Allen Hamilton By Joan Bishop Mass Care Requirements During an All Hazards Event Are We as Prepared as We Think? AVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED the magnitude and impact of a Hurricane Katrina type event occurring in your own community? Would you be adequately prepared? ? Would your family and friends be prepared? What about your neighbors and local community? Regardless of where we live, we are all subject to any number of hazardous events that could be extremely disruptive to our economy, our daily routines or our very lives. With a signiﬁcant number of Americans living along each coast, combined with the fact that half of all Americans live in urban centers, we are all at some type of “All Hazards” risk. Planning and preparing to mitigate the risks associated with an all hazards event of catastrophic proportions (like Katrina) that affect large populations is a large undertaking. Booz Allen Hamilton provides thought leadership with its clients, partners and industry leaders utilizing interactive environments where leaders from Federal, State, and local levels of government, private industry, academia and the civil society come together to form a “Megacommunity” designed to collectively and thoughtfully consider solutions to exceptionally large and challenging problems facing our communities, our country, and the world. When Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 (HSPD-8) initiated the development of the National Preparedness Goal, the purpose was to establish a uniﬁed, risk-based, national approach to prepare for major events. The vision of the Goal is “to engage Federal, State, local, and tribal entities, their private and non-governmental partners, and the general public to achieve and sustain risk-based target levels of capability to prevent, protect against, respond to, and H recover from major events to minimize the impact on lives, property, and the economy.” In order to achieve this Goal, many organizations must address tough emergency management and preparedness issues, analyzing case studies, and develop innovative solutions to provocative questions such as; • Are you and your organization prepared to address the dynamic challenges resulting from an incident that causes mass casualties in the hundreds or even thousands? • Are you are aware of all the stakeholder organizations (business, government and civil society) in your community who would be involved in responding to a mass casualty event? • What are the best practices for responding to a mass casualty crisis when stakes are high and negative consequences could jeopardize trust and credibility in your organization's capabilities? There are key concepts of mission integration that are relevant for any level of emergency management: enhancing interagency collaboration; ensuring the exchange of information; sharing responsibility for delivering mission results; and, the formation of Megacommunities—communities of organizations that serve as vehicles for large-scale change. A Megacommunity is a public sphere in which organizations from three sectors -- business, government, and civil society - deliberately join together around compelling issues of mutual importance, following a set of practices and principles that makes it easier for them to achieve results without sacriﬁcing their individual goals. Megacommunities recognize the necessity and power of business, government, and civil society working together on global 20 | Homeland Defense Journal Visit www.homelanddefensejournal.com
Homeland Defense Journal - January 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Homeland Defense Journal - January 2009
