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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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December
2003
Volume 5
- Number 3 |
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Related Sites:
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Greater
Washington Board of Trade by
Wyatt Ulrich As
a result of
the events of September 11, 2001, it was shown that recovery from a
disaster
requires many participants to include all levels of government, the
business
community, political leadership, community activists and individuals. But for recovery to be effective, the
planning and decision-making must be done at the local level to include
public-sector leadership and private and non-profit businesses. As
a result of
9/11, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the largest regional
network of
business and non-profit leaders, established an Emergency Preparedness
Task
Force to enhance regional preparedness and promote a coordinated
community plan
for prevention, response and recovery for possible emergencies and
crises in
the Greater Washington region. According
to the Greater Washington Board of Trade’s web site (http://www.bot.org/html/index.asp),
this task force meets monthly to link business and non-profit leaders
with
public-sector leadership and serves as a vehicle for private and
non-profit
businesses in the region to develop emergency preparedness plans that
complement government emergency planning. According
to a
Greater Washington Board of Trade press release, the Emergency
Preparedness
Task Force is addressing key concerns of the non-government sector,
such as
safety and security of the employee workforce and their families;
communications before, during and after a crisis; economic impact of a
crisis;
strategies to maintain key business functions; and vital services such
as
health care, telecommunications and food services in regional planning. Additionally,
members of the Greater Washington Board of Trade Emergency Preparedness
Task
Force serve as private sector representatives on the Metropolitan
Washington
Council of Government’s Ad Hoc Task Force on Homeland Security and
Emergency
Preparedness for the National Capital Region. In
September 2002, the Metropolitan Washington Council of
Governments
Task Force on Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness published a
Regional
Emergency Coordination Plan (RECP), which is an all hazards emergency
response
plan based on the Federal Response Plan (FRP) that facilitates
coordination and
communications for major emergencies and disasters affecting the
National
Capital Region. And this month at the
Greater Washington Board of Trade's 114th Annual Meeting, Secretary Tom
Ridge,
praised the region’s emergency preparedness plans, which should serve
as a
template for other major metro areas. Much
of the
planning and coordination that has occurred as a result of the events
of
September 11, 2001 has improved the emergency preparedness of the
greater
Washington area. Case in point, during
Hurricane Isabel, the public, private and non-profit sectors
demonstrated its
vital role to the community in response and recovery.
As a result, the community was better
prepared to respond to and recover from Isabel’s impact. Other
sources of
information include: http://www.bot.org/html/index.asp http://www.mwcog.org/security/faq.asp http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2003/09/29/editorial3.html |