Gleason Fulbright Report on EU Civil Protection

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The Culture of Civil Protection - Lessons Learned during 2008 European Fulbright ExchangeGary Gleason, Fulbright Scholar Civil Protection [email protected] 001.970.948.7680

The Culture of Civil ProtectionLessons Learned during 2008 European Fulbright Exchange

Gary Gleason, Fulbright Scholar Civil Protection

Fostering leadership, learning, and empathy between cultures was, and

remains, the purpose of the international scholarship program It is a

modest program with an immodest aim - the achievement in international

affairs of a regime more civilized, rational and humane

- Senator J. William Fulbright


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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 4

Background 6

Preparedness 8

Prevention 12

Response 15

Recovery 17

Key Insights 19


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Acknowledgements

Through the fall of 2008 I was afforded the opportunity to make official visits to

emergency management officials across Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, andthe Netherlands in search of wisdom. Or, if not wisdom, at least insights into why things

can go so right or so wrong during response to emergency incidents and disasters.

During these three months I depended upon the kindness of strangers who gave freely oftheir time and talent. At the risk of leaving someone out, I would like to acknowledge

those who have helped me along the way:

Organizational Supporto The J. William Fulbright Program and the Council for the International Exchange

of Scholars

o The Luso-American Councilo Otilia Macedo Reis, Executive Director, Fulbright Portugalo Paula Lemos, Program Coordinator, Fulbright Portugal

Belgiumo Eric J. van der Horst, Seconded National Expert, DG Environment Civil

Protection Unit, European Commission Monitoring and Information Center

(MIC)o Peter Billing, Head of the MIC-Sector, DG Environment Civil Protection Unit,

European Commission Monitoring and Information Center (MIC)

Franceo Commandant Claire Kowalewski, International Relations, Directorate of Civil

Protection Ministry of the Interior

Germanyo Peter Bytomski, Foreign Operations, Federal Agency for Technical Relief,

(THW)o Alexandra Kolle-Artz, EU Exchange Of Experts in Civil Protection, Federal

Agency for Technical Relief (THW)

o Heike Enderes, EU Exchange Of Experts in Civil Protection, Federal Agency forTechnical Relief (THW)

o Sabine Lackner, Head of Division, Development of Competencies, FederalAgency for Technical Relief (THW)

o Marie-Luise Beck, Office Manager for Gerold Reichenback Member of theGerman Bundestag


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Netherlandso Doctor Andre de Rond, Division Chief - Fire and Crisis Management, The Haago Martin Madern, Bureau Chief - Risk and Projects Agency, The Haago Ronald Christiaans, Senior education, training and exercise coordinator, National

Operations Centre, Ministry of the Interior

Portugalo Ana Patricia Dias, Project Office Directorate of Planning and Strategic

Development Services, Instituto Politcnico de Leiria

o Doctor Silvia Monteiro, Coordinator of the Civil Protection degree, School ofTechnology and Management, Instituto Politcnico de Leiria

o Doctor Roberto Gamboa, Coordinating Professor, School of Tourism andMaritime Technology, Instituto Politcnico de Leiria

o Pedro Gonalves, Professor Civil Protection, Instituto Politcnico de Leiriao Gorete Marques, Professor Civil Protection, Instituto Politcnico de Leiriao Jose Manuel Moura, Operations Commander, National Authority of Civil

Protection District of Leiriao Carlos Trinidade, Office of Forestry, Mafrao Miguel Cruz, National Authority of Civil Protection, Lisbono Antonio Jose M. N. Calinas, Assistant to the President, ASProCivil Lisboao Doctor Manuel Joao Ribeiro, Director Department of Civil Protection, Cascaiso Paulo Gaspar, Department of Civil Protection, Cascaiso Isabel Silva, Office of Forestry, Cascaiso Doctor Armando Ferreira, Director Department of Civil Protection, Pombalo Pedro Conceio Agostinho, Municipal Police of Coimbrao Major Lopes, National Republican Guard (GNR)

Spaino Fulbright Scholar Liana Ardiles Lopez, Directora Tecnica, Ministerio de Medio

Ambiente, Confederacion Hidrografica Del Duero

o Ariane Alvarez Seco, Tecnico Superior en Riescos Climaticos y Meteorologicoso Gregorio Pascual Santamaria, Jefe de Area de Actuacion Operativa/Subdireccion

General de Planes y Operaciones

Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the insights of my students at InstitutoPolitecnico de Leiria; the many firefighters with whom I visited during the PRO-CIV IV

in Lisbon; and the many people I spoke with at The European Congress on DisasterManagement in Bonn, Germany, the Civil Protection Congress in Cascais, and the

Congress on Civil Protection and the Environment in Leiria.

Sincere regrets to anyone whose name may have inadvertently escaped this list, andsincere thanks for taking the time to read this work. I hope you find it useful.


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Background

Fueled by disasters notably the World Trade Center Attacks of 2001, the Indian OceanTsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 civil protection (or emergency

management as it is called in America) is a rapidly growing field of study, and a rapidly

changing industry. A key trend in recent years has been increased standardization inequipment, training and operational strategies to boost response capabilities acrossjurisdictions, smoothing interagency coordination challenges when calamity strikes.

In the United States this standardization has been marked by introduction of the National

Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS). Thesetraining curricula are the new baseline for any U.S. agency that might respond to a major

incident. The diversity of cultural and historical differences make such standardization amore difficult proposition in Europe, though there are efforts to build a more common

approach to how government agencies prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover fromemergency events.

It is in this environment that the Instituto Politecnico de Leiria (IPL) applied for a grantthrough the Luso-American Educational Commission for a guest lecturer in their

burgeoning civil protection degree program. A three-month lecture and research grantwas awarded to the host university by the J. William Fulbright Programs Council for the

International Exchange of Scholars (CEIS), bringing an American civil protection expertto their staff for the fall 2008 semester.

Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the flagship international exchange

initiative of the United States government. The aim of the program is to buildinternational trust and cooperation through exchange of ideas, technology and culture.

Funded by the U.S. Department of State and managed by the Bureau of Educational andCultural Affairs, the Fulbright program operates in 155 countries across the globe. With

its bi-national partners the Fulbright program awards grants to some 6000 students,researchers and professors each year.

The bi-national Luso-American Commissions selected me for the three-month exchange

to Portugal, where I taught courses at two of the universitys three campuses along thecountrys north-central coast, and studied organizational structures and lessons learned

during disaster events across Portugal and beyond. The three courses were 1)Communication Techniques In Civil Protection (freshman students); Psycho-Sociology

of Disasters (second-year students); and Study Of Disasters (seniors). Additionally, I had

the opportunity to interview dozens of civil protection experts in Western Europeexploring lessons learned and fundamental challenges for local, regional, national andinternational disaster preparedness, prevention, response and recovery.


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Based on my experience in emergency management I developed this report identifyingkey elements of effective civil protection, along with an assessment of which elements

may be universally applicable and which may be more regional/parochial in nature. Inorder to give some structure to the findings, this document has been organized following

the four phases of disaster: Preparedness (planning, training and exercises), Prevention

(mitigation, vigilance and risk communications), Response (leadership, operations,logistics, planning and administration) and Recovery (after action analysis and correctiveactions).

Key findings include:

Civil protection is one part science, one part art and two parts politics Cultural, political and historical realities make standardization and interoperability

more challenging in Europe than in America There is a difference between an incident and a disaster, though many people use

these words interchangeably in America Disaster impacts are typically thought to be regressive: hitting the poorest the hardest.

This may be true of natural disasters, but technological disasters are likely to beprogressive

The most significant underestimated risks in the world today are pandemic, climatechange, our dependence on power, and public apathy about self-protection

Emergency managers on both sides of the Atlantic are struggling to engage the publicin developing a culture of preparedness

The problem in Europe is heat. The further south you go the warmer the climate, thebetter the wine, and the more relaxed the culture. This relaxed attitude seeps into civil

protection, too.

These and other topics are explored in greater detail in the pages that follow. While theconcepts presented herein do reflect insights shared by the many experts interviewed

during this investigation, this report is ultimately a summation of the attitudes andopinions of the author himself.


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Preparedness

Living is, by its very definition, a risky proposition. At any moment any one of us can bestruck by a freak accident, an act of nature, a technological failure or some human-

triggered tragedy. The role of civil protection is to avert loss of life, property and the

environment; pretty simple on the face of it, but complex in its execution.

Planning

Emergency planning is the first step in the process. In theory, emergency plans should: Accurately assess hazards and threats Identify resources available to manage risks Establish roles and responsibilities for emergency response and recovery Determine an appropriate regime for training and exercises based on the plan Establish systems for activating the emergency plan Establish systems for periodic review and improvement to the planThis is the theory. In reality the emergency planning process is one part science, one partart, and two parts politics. In Spain as in America, for example, scientists conducthydrological studies that illustrate flood risks along waterways. This scientific data is

then interpreted by graphic artists, GIS specialists and wordsmiths to make itunderstandable, but ultimately the decision about how much and what sort of

development to allow in a flood plain is made by elected officials, and therefore subjectto all the vagaries of politics.

The priority placed on disaster risks is likewise determined partly through science, and

partly through politics. For example, in the United States counties are required to have aplan annex on pandemic, but not on climate change. By contrast, The Netherlands is

already preparing disaster exercises for projected sea level changes driven by thechanging climate. In Germany, the specter of extended power cut is a prime concern, yet

this concern does not even register in Portugal. I attribute it to politics, or rather thecultural norms that underlie political decisions.

Such cultural differences are readily apparent in the degree of standardization and

centralization in emergency management systems. In France emergency planning ishighly centralized, with an overarching national plan and corresponding regional plans -

all developed by the federal Ministry of the Interior (with input from local authorities).The French system goes so far as to prescribe resource requests for different sorts of

incidents, and has a well-established system for typing1 a wide array of equipment so

that incident managers get the resource they need. This concept of typing seems to begaining traction in America and in Europe.

1One example of typing would be to name a large articulated bus as a Type 1 Transport Vehicle capable of

moving as many as 100 people at a time; to name a conventional 44-passenger bus as a Type 2 Transport

Vehicle, and a body-on-chassis 20-passenger vehicle with a wheelchair lift as a Type 3 Transport Vehicle.


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Yet just across the Pyrenees Mountains from France lies the Iberian Peninsula, whereSpain and Portugal seem to take up the polar opposite for centralization vs.

decentralization of emergency planning. In both of these deeply Latin cultures,emergency plans are created locally with limited federal guidance. The Portuguese

emergency planning guidance document, for example, is just two pages in length. The

counterpart of this document in America is more than 170 pages. One official joked thatperhaps this is because Portugal is a very small country.

And while local emergency plans in Portugal are reviewed at a federal level to ensure thatthey meet baseline expectations, there is not a requirement for articulation/coordination

from one jurisdiction to the next. This may well have roots in feudal times whencoordination between fiefdoms depended largely upon personal affinity or antipathy

between adjoining rulers. And importantly, whether you are talking about the 18 districtsof Portugal or 27 nations of the European Union, each has developed their own systems

since the beginning of time.

In sum, while there have been a number of successful efforts to bring greaterstandardization to emergency planning in Europe, cultural and political histories typically

preclude mandated planning continuity.

Training

During crisis people can often rise to the challenge. But what we actually want is for

them to fall back on their training. This is why providing a common foundation throughtraining is such an important part of preparedness. It is through training that we give

people the tools they need to perform, even under the worst of circumstances. And it isthrough training that we can help people to understand how their particular role fits into

the big picture an important factor in personal motivation.

As with emergency planning, the European approach to training varies from one region tothe next. France, for example, has a national fire academy in Aix en Provence that is

attended by all French firemen. By contrast, in Germany training is handled at regionalacademies using materials developed at the national level. Such fire or emergency

management academies do not exist in Portugal, except to the extent that someuniversities now offer degree programs in civil protection.

A critical element of training is training certification. By this I do not mean a nice

certificate of participation one can hang on the wall of their office. Rather I am talkingabout training curricula and documentation of experience that affirms ones knowledge

and skill. This helps incident managers to request the human resource capabilities thatthey feel are needed to manage the situation.

The concept of training certification has been applied robustly in the American fire

service, but does not appear to be extensively utilized in Europe. One exception is inGermany under the Technische Hilfswerke (THW), or "German Federal Organization for

Technical Relief" as they call themselves. Under this program, some 700,000


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participating citizen responders receive technical training in emergency response andrecovery, and can then be called up to serve on national or international incidents. When

THW workers are called up, the federal government reimburses their employer for theirsalary and benefits during the time of their deployment. The closest model to this in the

United States may be the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Disaster

Assistance Employee program, where individuals work for FEMA during times of crisisand are furloughed between crises. The German program, however, seems more robust inthat the contract for service engages both the individual and the employer, and like the

U.S. National Guard program includes regular training and exercises.

ExercisesThe third critical component of emergency preparedness is practice: increasingly

challenging drills and exercises that help staff to achieve and maintain competencies. Thegoal is to test capabilities in decision-making, operations, interagency coordination, and

time management.

Effective exercises should be: Realistic Relevant Replicable Transparent Flexible FlashyI say realistic and relevant, because thats how we get people to take is seriously andperform as if it were the real deal. By just going through the motions one tends to

reinforce, or even invent, bad habits. Exercise realism is what gives people theconfidence to truly perform when lives hang in the balance. Exercises should also be

replicable and transparent, both in execution and evaluation. Replicability enables you totrack progress over time, while transparency ensures that you can truly identify problem

areas (rather than glossing over them to make sure everyone looks good). Exercisesshould be flexible in design to allow players to realize the consequences of the decisions

they make during the exercise. And, yes, exercises should be flashy. Not flash in lieu ofsubstance this has been a common criticism of exercises in the past but rather that

flashy exercises capture the attention of the media, the public and elected officialsproviding a wonderful platform from which to educate people about emergency

preparedness and begin to overcome some of the apathy that exists in society today.

Most exercises in Europe, as in the United States, are local in nature. This makes sensesince most emergency incidents, and virtually ALL response resources, are local. But in

order to test coordination across jurisdictions it is also important to hold regional drillsand exercises from time to time. And though regional exercises can be costly and

challenging, there does seem to be a trend in that direction. France, Spain and Germanyconduct annual national exercises in connection with their nuclear power program.

Portugal held their first national exercise in 2009. And the European Commission has


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supported international exercises such as EU Floodex in 2009 in the Netherlands, andOrion 2010 in the United Kingdom.

Given the importance of preparedness, NATO has even created advisory support teams

that can help develop coordinated emergency plans, training and exercises for any of the

26 allied nations or 24 partner countries that request such assistance. Preparednessassistance provided through NATO is done in accordance with the U.S. Department ofHomeland Security doctrine known as the Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation

Program (HSEEP). This doctrine can be summarized as follows:

Discussion-based activities:1. Seminars utilizing lecture, multi-media presentations, case studies, and expert

testimony to orient participants to response resources, strategies, policies, andprocedures. Seminars are recommended for organizations and jurisdictions that are

developing or making major changes to their emergency response plans.2. Workshops to develop specific incident response products, typically using break-out

sessions followed by plenary review and discussion. Workshops are frequently usedto establish exercise objectives, develop exercise scenarios, and identify elements of

standard performance.3. Tabletop Exercises involving key personnel in scenario-based discussions about

prescribed response to realistic disaster risks. Tabletop exercises are used to assessand enhance preparedness, prevention, response and recovery plans, policies and

procedures. Basic tabletop exercises introduce a complete disaster scenario forparticipants to discuss and resolve. Advanced tabletop exercises introduce scenario

components incrementally forcing participants to adapt their response strategies tochanging disaster conditions.

4. Gamesprovide scenario analysis and discussion in a competitive, time-restrictedenvironment holding participants to the consequences of previous decisions. Games

are used primarily to evaluate decision-making processes, and do not involvedeployment of operational resources.

Operational-based activities:

5. Drills that develop and maintain procedural skills such as evacuation of a building.Drills are designed to measure performance of operational activities against

established response standards with immediate player feedback.6. Functional Exercises test deployment and delivery capacities of a particular

emergency response function development and delivery of emergency publicinformation, for example using realistic disaster scenarios and time constraints.

7. Full-Scale Exercises are interdisciplinary events that test the ability of multipleresponse functions to deploy simultaneously, and articulate activities with other

functional areas. Although pre-scripted events may be used to trigger the exercise,full-scale exercises are primarily driven by player actions and decisions

While nations use different words to describe their training and exercise programs, these

HSEEP concepts seem to be rather universally accepted.


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Prevention

A gram of prevention is worth a kilo of cure. This metric superimposition of the idiom,an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is not precisely what they say, of

course, but they do have a like expression in cultures across Western Europe. The

concept is that it costs far less to keep bad things happening than it does to recover fromthem. In Europe, as in America, civil protection officials recognize this precept and dotake steps to reduce the likelihood of incidents, and/or to reduce their impact if and when

they do occur. The cornerstones of disaster prevention are:

Risk analysis Risk communications Constructive measures VigilanceRisk Analysis

Risk analysis is the process of identifying possible safety hazards and security threats,

then evaluating each one in turn to assess 1) the likelihood of occurrence, and 2) probableimpact on critical assets. By considering past experience, emerging trends and plausible

scenarios one can utilize quadrant analysis of likelihood and impact. Those things that aremost plausible and most severe obviously warrant the greatest attention. While such risk

assessment is ultimately subjective, it does provide a basis by which to prioritize onesemergency management efforts.

This process for risk assessment seems well entrenched in European civil protection,

though the conclusions are as different as the cultures themselves. Portugal, for example,is keenly focused on wildfires. Not surprising considering the tragic 2003 and 2005

wildfire seasons. Yet it was the 1755 Lisbon quake that may have most significantly

altered their national history2

. Germany, which also suffers significant wildfire risk,seems more focused on larger concerns such as transnational crime, power cut, andpandemic illness. The low-lying Netherlands is bracing for the impacts of climate change

on global sea levels.

Risk Communications

Having identified risk is an important step toward disaster prevention, but to make a

difference identified risks must be communicated with internal and external audiences.The alternative is akin to identifying strengths and weaknesses of an invading army but

2The Great Lisbon Quake and resulting tsunami killed as many as 100,000 people and put at bay

Portugals colonial ambitions. This disaster is considered by many to be the birth of modern

seismology, and the first example of a national government taking charge of disaster recovery.

The Marquuis of Pombal is famously quoted for his stark operational objective, Feed the living,

bury the dead. Ironically, the fire that swept the city after the quake saved the city from the

pestilence that might well have followed. Lisbon obviously did rebuild, but the country never

fully recovered from the impact of this disaster.


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not sharing that information with the leaders of the resistance. You want people to knowwhat to do in case of emergency.

Reknown risk-communications expert Michael Sheehan

says that the there three things we must tell the public

when it comes to emergencies: 1) What has happened, 2)What it means, and 3) What is/must be done about it.Brought to a more basic level What, So What, and Now

What makes this formula applicable to all phases ofdisaster, including preparedness. Civil protection officials

have an obligation to tell citizens honestly and realisticallywhat their risks are, and how to address them. The

challenge is communicating this is a way that engages thepublic in a culture of preparedness.

Yet risk communications can be a tricky business. Civic leadership, in America and

abroad, is often fearful of causing undue anxiety or even panic. I suspect this may be partof the reason that emergency managers in New Orleans did not explicitly tell Bucktown

residents that a dike breach would fully engulf their homes. Additionally, fullyacknowledging disaster risks can also force the hand of land-use decisions that might

stymie economic development. Such is the case in Sacramento, where in the weeks afterKatrina new housing projects were approved in the shadow of dikes built to protect flood-

prone farmlands.

Several Western European nations do have national programs to educate the public aboutthe risks they face, and how to address them. In 2009 the Netherlands launched a national

public education campaign that includes a get ready book with useful informationabout individual and family planning and a get ready box that conveniently packages

all the recommended supplies. This campaign will augment existing programs in Dutchschools, along with training for public-sector staff who may have a role in disaster. In

Portugal and Spain such campaigns exist, but as with emergency preparedness theseinitiatives are more regional than national in scope.

Constructive Measures - building for disaster resistance

In addition to an educated and engaged public, part of becoming more disaster resistant isbuilding with greater intelligence. This is not simply a matter of codes that dictate

construction quality, but rather placing the strongest protective measures on the mostcritical facilities such as hospitals, schools, and arterial roadways.

One of the earliest examples of constructive measures are the Pombaline buildings in

Lisbon. Following the Great Lisbon Quake of 1755, city fathers set new standards fordistances between buildings and a high limit of two stories so that buildings could never

again topple one upon another (a restriction that was loosened as memory of the disasterfaded). New construction methods were developed simulating seismic shaking with

hundreds of soldiers marching around model houses resulting in the first seismically


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fitted buildings in the world. This architectural style became known as Pombaline for thearchduke who headed Lisbons recovery from the great quake. The Pombaline buildings

remain as examples of how buildings can be both disaster-resistant and beautiful.

Vigilance

In Portugal today the majority of civil protection planning and mitigation efforts arefocused on wildfire. This is natural given the horrific 2003 and 2005 wildfire seasonswhen so many lives and homes were lost. These experiences forced Portugal to rethink its

approach to wildfire management. Recognizing that rapid response is a critical element inloss prevention, the country installed dozens of cameras for remote monitoring of forest

areas, and erected observation towers staffed 24 hours a day during peak fire season inkey locations across the country. The result has been a dramatic increase in the number of

reported fire starts, because civil protection authorities now catalog nearly every fire and a dramatic decrease in the number of acres burned. In this case, vigilance is paying

off.

By contrast, the countrys 800 kilometers of coastline are not guarded by naval lawenforcement. This makes Portugal a popular drop point for drugs bound for Western

Europe. When asked if they thought the country would be made less vulnerable tosecurity risks by tighter control along their coastline civil protection officials responded

seemingly based in their long maritime history3

that, The coast is not a border. It is abridge to the rest of the world. This is a vivid example of how Homeland Security is a

culturally defined concept.

3Portugal was the first European nation to open trade routes to Africa and India, and Henry the

Navigator opened the worlds first maritime navigation school in Sagres in the early 1400s. Many

in Portugal seem to look to this time as their epoch of greatness, crushed in part by the affects of

the Great Lisboa Quake.


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Response

An emergency is needing to find a restroom. A disaster is not making it.

In discussing emergency response it is important to distinguish between emergencies and

disasters. While these terms are often used interchangeably, particularly in America, thereis a distinct difference. In brief, an emergency is an incident that can be handled using

local resources. A disaster, by contrast, requires resources from other jurisdictions andcontinues more than two or three hours in duration. As one emergency manager quipped,

an emergency is needing to find a restroom. A disaster is not making it.

In Germany, the Netherlands and Spain this difference is a matter of law, and drives avariety of funding and response actions. This is true in the United States, also

4, though we

tend not to be as specific with our verbiage interchangeably using emergency, incidentand disaster to describe the same event.

So what happens when a disaster is declared? It depends largely upon the degree ofcentralization. In France there are prescribed response packages personnel andequipment that are sent to support a prefecture experiencing a disaster. The package

depends upon the size and nature of the incident. In Portugal the afflicted district issupposed to coordinate aid requests through the national coordinating center (ANPC), as

they do in France, though in reality aid is usually requested directly from the adjoiningjurisdictions cousin-to-cousin as it were. In Spain the system is designed for resource

requests to be made directly from one jurisdiction to the next, as it is done in practice inPortugal, though resource requests are seldom made as provincial governors do not want

to appear weak.

Such asymmetry presents little concern in emergencies, but can be more problematicduring a disaster when resource limitations are more significant. This was evidenced in

Portugal during the firestorms of 2003 and 2005.

Emergency Notification

Enabling the public to alert authorities to emergency situations is essential to saving lives

during an emergency or a disaster. In Europe, as in America, there are initiativesunderway to build consistency, continuity and interoperability in alert notificationsystems.

In 1937 Britain became the first nation to implement a national emergency call number

999 following a five-fatality fire in London. Over time other countries followed suit,including the United States beginning in 1967/1968. Interestingly it is believed that the

4In America, for example, a state disaster proclamation must be issued for a governor to mobilizethe Army National Guard to assist with response. Likewise, federal disaster funding is only

available following a presidential disaster proclamation.


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numbers 9-1-1 utilized in America were selected following the lead of Brittains 999code, but using 1s due to the fact that 1 is faster and easier to dial on a rotary phone. In

Europe each nation selecting their own three-digit emergency call codes, frequently usinga different code for police, fire and EMS calls (e.g. 121, 122, and 123). This has

sometimes created challenges for the reporting of emergencies, particularly for travelers

and people living in border regions. In 1991 the European Commission thereforerecommended development of a single emergency number 112 for all EU nations. Inmost countries this number operates alongside the already existent national numbers,

though Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and most recentlyRomania have opted for 112 as the main national emergency number.

In recent years technology has also allowed for alert notification systems that call

telephones in specific geographic areas to warn or specific hazards and threats. Oftenreferred to by the brand name, reverse 911, such alert-notification systems can even

target cell phones. Such was the case in Italy when John Paul II died, and thousandsreceived a text message warning them to stay away from Vatican City. These systems are

prevalent throughout the United States and Western Europe today.

Interagency Coordination

Once notified of an emergency, response time is essential to protection of lives and

property. Emergency managers/civil protection professionals have developed standardsfor mobilization, response and demobilization, so this tends to go well during

emergencies on both sides of the Atlantic. It is on disasters, requiring extensiveinteragency communication and coordination that things can unravel. This is particularly

true in Europe, as each of the 27 member states have their own distinct histories,linguistic and cultural norms, and strategies for disaster management.

One of the key findings of the recent Dutch national exercise, Waterproof, was the need

for a national operational staff to steer emergency response and facilitate greater inter-jurisdictional coordination. But unlike the Multi-Agency Coordination Centers in the

United States, where assistance requests are matched to capabilities then dispatched,European aid requests might be channeled through a variety of sources including regional

and national structures, the European Commission, and/or through NATO. Developingnations might also turn to the United Nations for aid. In this post-cold war period all of

these organizations are involved in the disaster business. In fact, this is one of thechallenges in international civil protection today: too many coordination bodies

coordinating many of the same resources. There is challenging work ahead to developstrategies that reduce duplication of efforts while still leveraging the full diversity of

resources these different bodies can bring to bear on disaster situations.


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Recovery

Recovery from emergencies, while sometimes painful, is a relatively short process.Recovery from disaster, by contrast, is interminable. Like the loss of a loved one, one

grows accustomed to the loss but never quite gets over it. Instead, it becomes part of the

social fabric.

One reason for this is the focus we place on repairing and rebuilding the disaster-

damaged infrastructure. Recovery would surely be improved if we also assessed theemotional cost of disaster and worked to resolve those issues first. And not just for those

with obvious, direct personal losses, but also those around them. Disaster5 affectseveryone. Even individuals thousands of miles away can bear the toll of disaster,

particularly in todays media age. These impacts can be real and lasting.

Lip service is sometimes paid to the importance of crisis counseling, but it is nottransformed into reality. In fact the culture of first responder organizations is too

frequently to discount the emotional impact of such events. This is a lesson born bysociety today, and one of the reasons disasters scars are so long lasting. If moreresources were devoted to healing people first and structures second, it is probable that

the long-term impact of disasters would be less.

Documenting Lessons LearnedEinstein is quoted as saying, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and

expecting a different result. This is why its important to evaluate our performanceduring exercises, emergencies and disasters, and to honestly assess how we can improve.

Such after action assessment is an integral process of emergency management/civilprotection on both sides of the Atlantic. But there does seem to be a dangerous tendency

to provide glowing accounts of where things went well and to state deficiencies ineuphemistic terms. The net result is that disaster lessons tend to become lessons

documented rather than lessons learned, or worse still lessons whitewashed.

Long Term Recovery

In America and abroad, people must rely on insurance, savings, and luck to rebuild

property damaged by emergencies. This is less true on disasters in the United Stateswhere FEMA can provide assistance to individuals (Individual Assistance) and

governments (Public Assistance) following Presidentially-declared disasters. Forindividuals this funding can cover basic emergency recovery costs such as temporary

alternate housing, minor repairs to make ones home habitable again, and other basics

such as clothing, transportation and disaster-related funeral costs. Costs to rebuildsubstantially damaged homes must be born by the disaster victim, though the governmentdoes subsidize low interest loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration. These

5The word disaster, in its Latin roots, means to come unstitched (des sastre). In this sense, the

true definition of disaster is when society becomes unhinged.


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programs are a safety net for people who are uninsured or underinsured. In America,governmental entities fair better than individuals with repairs to uninsured or

underinsured infrastructure being paid for at 75% federal/25% local cost share basis. Thenotion behind these federally funded disaster recovery programs is to limit losses to

national infrastructure and to stem regional economic downturns.

In Europe such a safety net does not exist, at least not in a formalized way. The Congressin Portugal allocated special funds for recovery following the 2005 wildfires, but that was

an unusual event in Europe. More often disaster recovery funds come from the UnitedNations, world philanthropic efforts, and the disaster victims themselves.


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Key Insights

Culture and Civil Protection

Attitudes toward civil protection are rooted in cultural norms. They are as inseparable as

siblings. The highly centralized approach of the French, for example, has its roots in the

nationalist movement of Napoleon. The provincial approach of Spain and Portugal, bycontrast, seems almost feudal with loyalties to the castle. Spanish in the European part ofthe world, in fact, is referred to as castillano, language from the land of castles. Germans

and Americans are so precise as to have different words for safety and security. This isnot true in many languages. With all this diversity, Europe faces a greater challenge than

the States in building standardization, or at least harmonization, for cross-jurisdictionaland cross border aid.

Emergencies v. Disasters

There is a distinct difference between an incident, which is a localized crisis; anemergency, which may be regional in nature; and a disaster, which is so significant as to

unhinge basic tenants of society. In Europe this distinction is more clear, both in law andin day-to-day usage, than in America. American emergency managers would benefit byfollowing Europes lead in use of these terms.

Progressive and Regressive Disasters

It is often said that disasters are regressive, meaning that they have the greatest impact onthe poor and downtrodden. This is largely true of natural disasters, because the poor and

indigent live where they can afford to live, which is often in the lowlands of the world.Middle and upper class society, however, may have the most to lose when it comes to

technological disasters such as power cut and societal disasters such as terrorism andeconomic collapse. In this sense, disasters of the future may be more progressive in their

impacts.

Essential Planning

In America and Europe today there is a great deal of excellent planning work being done.

But with changing hazards and threats come additional planning priorities. Two planningconcerns that I believe should be addressed sooner rather than later include:

Secondary resources First responder organizations have, in the past, tended todevelop emergency plans on their own. Integration of public works, transportation

resources, faith-based organizations, and other secondary resources will be essentialto overcome large-scale disasters in the future. This requires concerted dialogue and

outreach today.

Mega shelter planning Planning for mass evacuation, mega-shelter and open-airshelter environments, and management of mass casualties are critical planningcomponents. In planning for such large-scale events, one cannot simply do more of

what might be done for an ordinary disaster. The entire framework around howresponse is approached to a mega disaster must shift.


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New and underestimated risks

There is a natural human tendency to focus on what has happened rather than what will

happen. For this reason civil protection in Portugal has primarily focused on wildfiressince the 2005 firestorm. Italy is gripped with a newfound fear of earthquakes following

the deadly LAquila quake in April 2009. Emergency management in the United States

became hyper-focused on terrorism from 2001 until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now theprime focus seems to be on evacuation planning, particularly for elderly, disabled, andeconomically disadvantaged.

Such reactionism is natural, even healthy, as it helps us to avoid repeating our past

mistakes. But in our planning, training and exercises we also need to look to new andemerging risks including:

Terrorism Historically terrorism has been geocentric, meaning that terroristorganizations have recruited, trained and attacked targets in key regions. This may be

shifting as terrorist organizations align more closely with illegal drug commerce, asterrorist cells operate increasingly independent of one another, and as our global

population spike leaves more and more individuals feeling powerless anddisenfranchised. In short, the terrorist threat is changing. Climate Change According to many we are already well into the sixth extinction6

phase of our planet, precipitated by mans 10,000 year-old foray into agriculture andaccelerated by our use of fossil fuels. The result, experts say, will be increasingly

violent storms, rising sea levels, and shrinking resources. The world is changing, andhuman survival will require rapid adaptation.

Plague/pandemic Populations continue to climb, and resources that support thisgrowth are reaching the limit. Mother Earth has shown her ability to cull the herd

when things get out of balance. A rapid loss of world population will have a dramaticimpact on the web of socio-economic sustainability.

Power Cut The developed world is utterly dependent upon a steady source of powerto meet the food, water, shelter, communications, and economic production needs of

our society. When this fragile network of fuel and electricity snaps, the competitionfor survival will be different than any sort of crisis we have dealt in the past.

Individual Apathy The compounding factor for all the formerly named concerns isthat individuals do not generally take the steps to prepare for themselves. This is a

concern shared in every country, province and district visited during this Fulbrightexchange. Strategies for how to shake such personal apathy and create a culture of

personal responsibility may be the most important focus of study for our industry.

6According to researchers, including paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, the planet is currently

going through its sixth major extinction with the loss of thousands of plants and animals each

year. Previous mass extinctions are noted in fossil records at the end of the Cretaceous, Triassic,

Permian, Devonian, and Ordovician periods. The most famous of these occurred 65 million years

ago with the loss of the dinosaur, though the Permian-Triassic extinction is recorded as the most

devastating with the extinction of 57% of all life forms including the Nautilus. It is estimated that

98% of species that ever lived on earth are now extinct.


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Global Risks Require Global Approaches

Attacking these global issues will require a global approach. Unfortunately, the common

wisdom in the industry today is that disaster preparedness, prevention, response andrecovery starts and ends at the local level. For mankind to survive and flourish in the face

of our future hazards and threats, there will need to be a significantly greater efforts made

to bridge the asymmetry that exists between continents, nations, and peoples.

Documents

Gleason Fulbright Report on EU Civil Protection