President's March Message

ASCE's Disaster Resilience Program:  Get In on the Action!

You no doubt remember the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks vividly and probably recall exactly what you were doing when the attacks unfolded. You probably also recall where you were when you first heard about the hurricane disasters in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. Now ask yourself what you have done since these horrific events to help our nation protect itself from the devastation of future attacks or natural disasters.

Maybe you have already become active in ASCE’s hazard mitigation initiatives and are working to help ensure public security and safety.  If so, thank you, and keep at it.  If not, there is no time like the present to step forward and get involved!

ASCE has established the Committee on Critical Infrastructure (CCI), a national body charged with bringing vision, guidance, direction, and coordination to activities related to homeland security and with protecting vital aspects of infrastructure from a wide range of hazards. As such, the CCI sponsors disaster management training program throughout the year that are open to all ASCE members.  The next training session is scheduled for May 16 and will be held in Long Beach, California, in conjunction with the Structural Engineering Institute’s conference Structures 2007.  Additional information about the CCI and related training is available at http://ciasce.asce.org/.

As you may know, The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP), which was established in response to the tragic events of September 2001, is a national forum of more than 100 public- and private-sector organizations that seeks to foster the type of collaboration that will make our nation’s infrastructure more resilient (see www.tisp.org).  As the secretariat for TISP, ASCE promotes the work of the partnership to develop and implement measures in planning, design, construction, and operation that will help the country deal with the adverse effects of natural and man-made disasters.

ASCE recognizes that in many ways the response options to natural and man-made disasters are similar.  For example, it is of the utmost importance to consider the way in which different facets of infrastructure are linked.  If one subsystem within a larger system is directly affected by a disaster, most of the other subsystems will be affected as well.  Furthermore, we must look at the phases that follow disasters, phases during which businesses, schools, and agencies need to resume operations.  These phases present complex challenges that must be overcome after each disaster to bring the sectors in question back into operation.

The status of our nation’s levees is an example of vulnerable infrastructure.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined that 146 levees around the nation pose an unacceptable risk of failure during a major flood.  In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Congress directed the Corps and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers federal flood insurance, to determine which levees posed a risk.  The Corps inspects about 2,000 levees nationwide, mostly larger ones.  The deficiencies, which are mainly the result of poor maintenance, are forcing communities from Connecticut to California to consider investing millions of dollars in repairs.

As your president, I have a simple and urgent message:

• First, take a personal interest in improving the resilience of our nation’s infrastructure and make plans to attend an upcoming training workshop being offered by ASCE or its CCI.
• Second, contact your state’s homeland security director or emergency management agency and find out how to become involved at the local level. (Complete listings are available at www.dhs.gov/xgovt/editorial_0291.shtm or www.fema.gov/about/contact/statedr.shtm.)

Those who have made plans to attend the 6th Annual TISP Congress (“Achieving Resilience: From Readiness to Restoration”), which will be held in Arlington, Virginia, at the end of this month, will have an opportunity to hear firsthand from those involved in making critical facets of infrastructure more resilient.  They will also be able to participate in technical sessions, network with other professionals from organizations and agencies concerned with security matters, and see products demonstrated by public- and private-sector experts.

TISP has released the publication Regional Disaster Resilience:  TISP Guide for Developing an Action Plan.  More than 100 practitioners, policy makers, and technical and scientific experts around the nation helped to produce this work, which is designed to help communities prepare for disasters. (The publication may be downloaded free of charge, and hard copies are available for $10.  Visit www.tisp.org/publication/.)

Using a simple, how-to approach, the work draws on lessons from previous disasters in highlighting 12 areas that need to be addressed in formulating and effective strategy:

1)    Awareness and understanding of interdependencies;

2)    Appreciation of cyber threats and incidents;

3)    Resilient and interoperable communications and information systems;

4)    Risk assessment and mitigation;

5)    Roles and responsibilities;

6)    Response challenges;

7)    Recovery and restoration;

8)    Business continuity and continuity of operations;

9)    Logistics and supply chain management;

10)  Public information;

11)  Exercises, training, and education.

The guidelines recommend short-, medium-, and long-term activities to address these preparedness issues, the aim being to help users develop standardized approaches and take the fullest possible advantage of existing approaches, tools, and technologies.

Another ASCE initiative in this area is the Building Security Council (BSC), which is led by our Architectural Engineering Institute.  The BSC is dedicated to enhancing public safety by promoting efforts to make buildings safer and more resilient.  Supported by numerous building, design, management, and ownership organizations, it outlines a comprehensive, multidisciplinary training program that can help one become a building security certified professional (BSCP).

I urge you to learn about and take advantage of the grant opportunities available through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Infrastructure Protection Program (IPP).  In the current fiscal year roughly $445 million in grants is available for infrastructure protection initiatives at the state and local level.  The IPP comprises the Transit Security Grant Program, the Port Security Grant Program, the Intercity Bus Security Grant Program, the Trucking Security Program, and the Buffer Zone Protection Program.  These grant opportunities could pay rich dividends in making our infrastructure more resilient and in helping communities rapidly recover from disasters.

Now is the time to step up and take part in preparing for future disasters.  They are sure to happen.  The question is only where and when.  Please let me know if you have questions or comments to share about disaster planning and resilience.  Contact me at wmarcuson@asce.org or post your thoughts on my blog at http://live.asce.org/blog/1/president/.