Leaders Met to Address Critical Emergency Preparedness Gaps

Enhancing military base and port resiliency in first 72 hours

WASHINGTON, March 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Yesterday leaders from key sectors met  to participate in a roundtable discussion and pilot planning session chaired by Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.), Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery, to address a critical gap in America's domestic response capability.

During the roundtable, port, U.S. Coast Guard, National Guard, NORAD-USNORTHCOM, private and community sector leaders identified best practices and recommendations based on lessons learned for community resiliency in a large-scale crisis.  Panel members included Gary LaGrange, (Port of New Orleans), and Initiative Co-chairs; Tanya Lin, (Sprint ), Sara K. Tays, (Exxon Mobil) and former Governor Jim Geringer, (ESRI).

"We are learning from ports across the country how to keep going during a local or regional emergency. But we know that national response capabilities during a disaster depend on the military bases and ports protecting essential local infrastructure and supply chains for the first 72 hours," said Sen. Landrieu.

Co-chaired by Hon. Asa Hutchinson, Advisory Board Chairman of the ReadyCommunities Partnership, the Military Base and Port Community Resiliency Initiative session's goal is to help America's military base/port city leadership develop a template to reinforce national resiliency during the first 72 hours of a large scale disaster by leveraging best practices, fortifying single source providers of local critical infrastructure and connecting to locally trained and credentialed Crisis Response Officers (CROs) from the private sector.

"The first response is a local response and during a large-scale or national crisis the federal, state and local governments will be concerned about their own responsibilities and continuity.  It's the local communities and infrastructure that will be the cavalry -- keeping military bases and ports operational and holding the line for America's defense by keeping us resilient," said former DHS Under Secretary Asa Hutchinson.

Hon. George Foresman, (former DHS Under Secretary and Vice Chairman of the Gilmore Commission), moderated the morning roundtable discussion, and Vice Admiral James D. Hull, (USCG ret., former Atlantic Area Commander), and Mr. Jeb Carney (Chairman, Community Institute for Preparedness, Response and Recovery) moderated the afternoon pilot planning session.

A white paper will be developed based on the March 24th transcript of best practices and recommendations and submitted to the Congressional record. 

SOURCE Corporate Crisis Response Officers Association