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TRAINING
Em Pergencergency Prreparednes Traiininning
"…the only thing more diffi cult than preparing for an emergency is explaining why you didn't." - Peter LaPorte
Vince Pellegrin D
isasters and emergencies can hap- pen anywhere, at any time. Over the past two years alone, more than 130 presidential disaster dec-
larations have been issued covering 45 states and territories. No public or pri- vate entity is immune to disasters, and no single segment of society can meet the complex needs of a major emergency or disaster on its own. When disaster strikes, the community is clearly divided into only two entities: those who need help and those who can provide help. In early 2007 the National Transit
Institute (NTI), with funding provided by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Department of Home- land Security (DHS), began off ering a two-day emergency preparedness workshop called "Connecting Commu- nities." Since that time, the workshop has been delivered in more than 30 cities nationwide, including Washing- ton, D.C., Boston, Providence, Newark, Richmond, Atlanta, Raleigh, Orlando, Tampa, Columbus, Cleveland, Chi- cago, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
28 MARCH 2012 T e workshop features a unique
blend of participants and facilitators. T e participants include representa- tives of local law enforcement, fi re ser- vice, local emergency management, emergency medical services and pub- lic and private transit agencies. In many instances, private entities such as Walt Disney World participate as well. T e facilitators possess professional back- grounds in law enforcement, fi re service and public transportation. Class sizes usually range from 30 to 40 participants. T e primary goal of the workshop
is to illustrate how professionals in the emergency services of police, fi re, emergency management and public transportation can partner, collaborate and share resources and operational plans to minimize the loss of life and damage to property and ultimately to stabilize the incident. T e workshop focuses on teaching
emergency services and public transit each other's respective capabilities, expertise and contributions during emergency incidents. Also key are the types of resources and services each agency can bring to the table, resulting in an eff ective multi-disci-
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pline response. Connecting the com- munities of emergency services and public transit is the key concept of the workshop; each agency contributes in its unique way. Emergency situations requiring a multi-agency response have happened before and will hap- pen again. We must recognize the reality that such events happen and how a coordinated multi-agency re- sponse can mean the diff erence be- tween success and failure.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Participants in the workshop are in-
troduced to the fundamental principles of emergency management. Emergen- cy management is a comprehensive, integrated program of preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation for emergencies and disasters of any kind. Emergency management establishes order and supplies resources to inci- dents exceeding the capability of single jurisdictions. No matter the scale of the incident, the local incident commander or unifi ed command is in charge of the emergency impacting its area. Local re- sponding agencies may request addi- tional resources through the next layer
eparedness
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