Regional Response to All-Hazards Events: A Commonwealth Perspective

EVENTS OF THE PAST FIVE YEARS HAVE ILLUSTRATED the need to develop mutual-aid partnerships beyond one’s contiguous borders. Although state and federal resources will ultimately respond, the reality is that there will be a substantial gap between the time when those resources are requested and when they will become operationally engaged. The challenge for all communities is how to fill that void until the cavalry arrives.

This article provides an overview of the South Central Task Force (SCTF) and its role in developing and implementing a regional-based organization within a commonwealth form of state government to meet the “all-hazards” needs posed by today’s emergency preparedness challenges.

BACKGROUND

SCTF is one of nine regional counterterrorism task forces originally formed in 1997 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to coordinate local and regional efforts in response to acts of terrorism. In 2002, further authorities were granted under Pennsylvania’s Counterterrorism Planning, Preparedness and Response Act 227-2002.

SCTF encompasses eight counties, covers an area of approximately 5,200 square miles, and has a population of more than 1.8 million. The region includes the state capital of Pennsylvania; three metropolitan areas with populations exceeding 250,000; and the center of the Commonwealth’s agriculture industry. Perry County, the smallest and most rural county, was the site where the 1993 World Trade Center bombers tested their explosive devices before the actual attack. Although it is not a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) region, regional threats, risks, and response requirements are also influenced by its proximity to the Philadelphia and Baltimore metropolitan areas.

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Members of the South Central (PA) Task Force Type 4 Incident Management Team provide support as part of an eight-county exercise in October 2006. (Photos courtesy of South Central Task Force.)

A commonwealth form of government is comprised of a myriad of local, town, city, and township governmental jurisdictions. There are 312 municipalities within the South Central Region. More than 90 percent of fire/rescue organizations are volunteer based, including the hazardous materials and US&R/technical rescue units. In contrast, the emergency medical services community is in the midst of shifting from a volunteer-based system to a career-based system. Finally, more than 75 percent of the police departments have fewer than five officers. The following summarizes the SCTF regional response community:

• Fire/rescue departments: 326.
• Police departments: 143.
• Emergency medical services (basic life support) agencies: 104.
• Emergency medical services (advanced life support) agencies: 31.
• Hospitals: 16.
• Special operations units (6 tactical teams, 6 hazmat response units, and 6 US&R/technical rescue companies): 18.

THE REGIONAL TASK FORCE CONCEPT

Within Pennsylvania, the nine regional task forces serve as the regional point of contact for the distribution of all DHS Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) and Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP) grant funds. The Pennsylvania State Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) functions as the State Administrative Authority (SAA) and allocates the grant funds to the nine regional task forces. Each respective task force is then responsible for the development of a regional homeland security strategy and response plan consistent with federal and state guidance.

The mission of SCTF is (1) to foster and advance the capabilities of public safety providers, elected officials, and other stakeholders throughout the region to protect lives and social/economic infrastructure from terrorist threats or incidents; and (2) to take a leadership role in the development of a comprehensive regional counterterrorism program that addresses planning, prevention, response, and recovery issues.

Although the legislative basis for SCTF is primarily based on terrorism-related risks, the task force has followed an “all-hazards” planning strategy since its inception. SCTF strategic priorities and objectives are consistent with HSPD-8-National Preparedness Goal (March 2005) and the 2003 Pennsylvania Homeland Security Strategy. SCTF conducted formal homeland security threat assessments in 1999 and 2003; the next threat assessment is tentatively scheduled for 2008.

From a strategic perspective, SCTF exists to coordinate and facilitate the development of regional solutions to regional problems and response scenarios that may exceed the capability of local government agencies. It does not have any command and control authority, and there is no mandate for any agency or organization to participate in the regional process. As a result, SCTF must continuously “market and sell” the benefits of participating in the regional concept.

THE PLAYERS

SCTF membership can be broken into three categories: the Executive Committee; Liaison members; and SCTF participating agencies, organizations, and individuals. A contract program manager is responsible for the day-to-day management and administration of task force activities; another contractor serves as the exercise coordinator.

Executive Committee. The committee consists of the emergency management coordinator (EMC) from each county within the task force. The chairperson and vice-chairperson must be state-certified EMCs; they are elected by the Executive Committee. All decisions are based on a majority vote process.

Liaison Members. These representatives are from state or federal agencies that support or are involved in task force activities. Primary government agencies with a liaison to the task force are listed in Table 1.

Participating Agencies. They accomplish the actual “work” and include public, private, and volunteer agencies, organizations, and individuals who fall into one of the following categories.

• SCTF Subcommittee or Working Group Members. They include the following:

  -Business, Industry, and Infrastructure Subcommittee;

  -Communications Subcommittee;

  -Criminal Justice Subcommittee, including the Tactical Team Working Group;

  -Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Subcommittee;

  -Equipment Subcommittee and Technology Working Group;

  -Fire, Rescue, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee, including the HazMat Chiefs Working Group;

  -Hospital Subcommittee; and

  -Training Subcommittee and Exercise Working Group.

• The agency or organization is provided with SCTF-acquired resources and agrees to be available for regional mutual-aid responses.
• Individuals serving on SCTF discipline-specific units, strike teams, or task forces.

CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS

SCTF activities are based on the following strategic planning assumptions:

1. Any regional response must build on the elements of mutual aid used on a daily basis.
2. Although the primary focus of SCTF is directed toward terrorism planning and response, all equipment acquired through DHS grant funds shall have a “dual use” or “all-hazards” capability where possible.
3. Local response agencies will likely be “on their own” for the initial 24 hours before substantial state resources arrive and up to 96 hours before substantial federal resources arrive.
4. SCTF planning, procurement, and response policies and decisions are based on regional needs and perspectives vs. local perspectives.
5. Emphasis shall be placed on implementing policy changes that can be institutionalized or will have long-term benefits should current funding streams be terminated.

The SCTF regional concept of operations is based on providing regional-based mutual aid for large-scale events that exceed the capabilities of local resources prior to the arrival of state and federal response assets. This concept of operations is primarily based on the deployment of specialized regional response teams.

Under Pennsylvania Act 227, the Counter-Terrorism Regional Task Forces are required to establish “… specialized regional counter-terrorism response teams” that can be deployed in a major event. Deployment of these teams builds on the basic concepts of mutual aid and provides a logical framework by which regional-based resources can provide assistance to local jurisdictions when an event exceeds their capabilities.

SCTF specialized response teams include the following:

• Type 4 incident management team (IMT)
• law enforcement strike teams (LEST)
• decontamination (decon) strike teams
• hospital decon strike teams
• EMS task forces
• special operations units, including five hazardous materials response teams certified to Pennsylvania Act 165 requirements; six tactical teams; technical rescue companies; and Pennsylvania Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Company 1, an in-state component of the Pennsylvania Task Force 1 federal urban search and rescue team.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The drive to establish a regional planning and response organization has been a significant challenge. Some of our accomplishments include the following:

1. The Business, Industry and Infrastructure (BI&I) Subcommittee. It has been recognized by its peers as the first Pennsylvania Regional Task Force that has successfully addressed coordination with the private sector on a regional basis. Since its inception in 2003, the subcommittee has doubled in size and includes representation from eight critical infrastructure/key resource (CI/KR) sectors. During the 2005-2006 legislative session, the BI&I Subcommittee worked with State House legislators to introduce the Critical Infrastructure Tax Credit Bill, to provide tax credit incentives for private-sector investment for security enhancements by critical infrastructure industries.
2. The Decon Strike Team concept. Thirty-seven fire department engine companies have been trained and are capable of initiating mass-decontamination operations. These units can be deployed individually as a Decon Company to an incident or a hospital to provide decon support or as a decon strike team (five decon companies operating under the direction of a strike team leader trained to the hazardous materials technician level).
3. The concept of the SCTF Incident Management Team (IMT), typed as a Type 4 IMT under the NIMS resource typing standard. During the past year, the IMT has been deployed to provide support for the Northeastern Pennsylvania June floods; to a major hazardous materials train derailment in Hershey, Pennsylvania; and to the Nickel Mines Amish school shooting in October. In January, it worked with the Pennsylvania Type 3 IMT to provide support for the Pennsylvania Farm Show Exposition.
4. A major field exercise (Wide Vigilance). It tested and validated the regional concept of operations and included response operations at three major field locations approximately 20 miles apart from each other (Letterkenny Army Depot, New Cumberland Army Depot, and Fort Indiantown Gap), medical activities at all 16 regional hospitals, the activation of eight county emergency operations centers (EOC), the establishment of a regional multiagency coordination center (MACC), and the processing of approximately 500 victims.
5. Hospital programs. The 16 hospitals in the South Central Region have implemented an aggressive program to enhance their individual and collective capabilities. Key accomplishments include the following:
   • Establishment of a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among the 16 hospitals.
   • Development of a Regional Hospital Response Plan.
   • Development and implementation of a uniform hazmat training curriculum for the 16 hospitals.
   • Use of DHS and U.S. Health and Human Services-Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant funding streams to increase the surge capacity of regional hospitals.
   • Establishment of a pharmaceutical cache for emergency response personnel.
   • Implementation of more than 20 tabletop exercises conducted so that each hospital could exercise its plans, policies, and procedures for responding to a terrorist incident that becomes a mass-casualty event. These exercises were conducted in preparation for the October field exercise previously noted.
6. In 2006, approximately 3,800 students attended training courses coordinated and funded by SCTF and delivered by SCTF-related agencies.
7. A series of nine Local Elected Officials Workshops were conducted to familiarize local and county elected officials with the regional concept, the role of SCTF, the process by which DHS grants management and procurement decisions are made, and methods for responding to their questions.
8. A Homeland Security Conference, designed to bring all of the response disciplines together and facilitate their networking in an educational setting, is held annually. More than 300 attend.

Decon operations in support of an exercise testing the integration of tactical team and hazmat response team personnel.

Among the awards the task force has received for its efforts to establish a regional-based capability are the International Association of Emergency Management (IAEM) 2006 Interagency Disaster Preparedness Award, the U.S. EPA Region 3 Partnership Award, and the Mid-Atlantic Regional All-Hazards Forum 2006 Regional Readiness Achievement Award.

Hazmat personnel testing samples collected in a simulated clandestine laboratory.

SCTF has made substantial progress in developing a regional “all-hazards” planning, response, and recovery capability. However, many challenges remain, including the following:

1. Managing the day-to-day business of emergency management and response while trying to facilitate the development of a regional concept requires good people, hard work, and good balance. In reality, there is no separate SCTF. The task force consists of numerous local and county-based agencies and organizations that have agreed to work together for the benefit of the collective eight-county region. In simple terms, they simultaneously wear a “local hat” and a “regional hat.” In addition, most of the work performed at the “task level” is accomplished by individuals who already have a “full plate.”
2. The regional task force concept is a “work in progress” and continues to lack authority in some areas. Although significant improvements have been made, the past five years have demonstrated the need for additional state legislative action to address task force gaps in mutual-aid legal protections, workers’ compensation, and insurance protection. In addition, there currently is no state mechanism for funding emergency responses to large-scale regional incidents and events that exceed local capabilities.
3. SCTF is a “people-dependent” organization. If the regional concept is to grow and sustain itself, it must become a “system-dependent” organization. SCTF is fortunate to have a cadre of highly motivated stakeholders who collectively desire to make a difference in their organization and in the region. However, the long-term success of the regional concept of operations will depend on our ability to “institutionalize” the regional response concept so that it is ultimately viewed as a routine part of our business in the emergency management and response communities

4. Despite our successes, an objective assessment would show that numerous agencies and organizations have not yet been “sold” on the benefits of a regional approach. The SCTF Leadership Team continues to move forward with the large number of agencies and organizations willing to embrace the concept and the collective benefits it brings to the citizens of South Central Pennsylvania. Although we consistently market the advantages that regionalization can bring, we have also made a conscious decision not to allow our failures to stop the forward movement of regional partnerships. Our philosophy is simple-get on the train, get off the train, or get run over by the train.
5. The regional concept of operations must continually be marketed and validated to all of our stakeholders. Key elements in this process include (a) continued movement from the PA Act 227 and DHS Homeland Security grant program terrorism focus to an all-hazards perspective; (b) support for the continued growth and maturation of all SCTF subcommittees, strike teams, and related components; and (c) an aggressive and value-added county and regional training and exercise program.
6. Adoption of a common incident management framework is the foundation for any successful regional response. If SCTF-acquired equipment is the equivalent of “emergency response hardware,” then adoption, training, and implementation of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) is the “emergency response software package” that provides the foundation for an effective regional response. Although we have made significant strides in facilitating the regional adoption of NIMS, additional work remains.
7. Increased efforts are required to fully integrate volunteer agencies and organizations on a regional basis. Although there have been substantial efforts to integrate and coordinate with volunteer agencies at the county level, efforts to facilitate the collaboration of these agencies at the regional level have been “hit or miss.”

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Individuals who wish to network and exchange information on regional response concepts and experiences can contact me at ggnoll@earthlink.net.

GREGORY G. NOLL, CSP, CHMM, has 36 years of experience in the fire service and emergency response community and is a senior partner with Hildebrand and Noll Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in emergency planning, response, and incident management issues. He is the program manager for the South Central Regional Counter-Terrorism Task Force, one of nine regional task forces established throughout Pennsylvania. He is also the hazmat/WMD manager for PA-TF1, US&R. He is the coauthor of nine textbooks on hazmat emergency response and management topics and is the chairperson of NFPA 472, Standard for Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents. He is a certified safety professional and hazmat manager and a member of the Fire Engineering editorial advisory board and the FDIC Executive Advisory Board.