I was not able to listen to or watch the webcast that was held on Friday. The good news is that Elaine Pittman with Emergency Management Magazine was watching and wrote an article on the event New National Preparedness Presidential Policy Focuses on Capabilities
I like what she wrote. More flexibility, fewer cookie cutter approaches, fewer directives that make the nation waste money because it is one person's pet project. I remember when the "terrorism only crowd" considered an "all-hazards approach" as meaning only natural hazards. They of course were a hazard themselves to having a balanced emergency management program in the nation. Thankfully those days are past us -- for now.
You can read a copy of the new PPD-8 at this link and make up your own mind. One new term there is "All-of-Nation" which will join "Whole of Community" as the watchwords for the Fugate tenure at FEMA. Mom, apple pie and cherry pie is all there for us to take in and gorge ourselves on.
One item in particular struck me. The formation of a National Preparedness System. Some would say that ICS is the National Response System (I don't agree with that). ICS is an incident management system--in the field, orchestrating resources on scene. It will be interesting to see how this is all rolled out. Once again the Feds are saying all this will be coordinated with the appropriate parties. In this case I believe them. The last administration lost all credibility for how they asked for opinions and then ignored the feedback they got. My hope springs eternal!
Interestingly, a well known emergency manager who is now a consultant, and I were talking a few months back. I told him that the HLS money was starting to dry up and consulting opportunities were starting to dwindle. He remarked that in his time in the emergency management business there is always something that comes along that re-energizes the system and creates new work opportunities. 9/11 and Katrina were examples of what he was talking about. I won't put PDD-8 up at that level, but is the start of something new that will need to trickle down to the states and local jurisdictions.
All you consultants out there should start thinking about how you will spin your "all-of-nation and whole community" experience qualifications into a bunch of new proposals to RFPs that are sure to come.
