| Department of Homeland Security releases TOPOFF 2 report
The following is the DHS statement concerning the report’s publication (unedited): "Our Nation must always be ready to face a serious attack, and we must have confidence in our response capabilities," said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. "In the Department's second month, we tested our incident management capabilities and pushed the response envelope at the federal, state, and local level like in no exercise before. I want to recognize the tremendous efforts of our new Department of Homeland Security team and other federal, state, and local authorities around our Nation who worked so hard to make TOPOFF 2 an unprecedented and successful training event." TOPOFF 2 was conducted from May 12 to May 16, 2003, and involved federal, state, local, and Canadian participants in a full-scale exercise that assessed how responders, leaders, and other authorities would react to the simulated release of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in two U. S. cities, Seattle, WA and Chicago, IL. The exercise scenario depicted a fictitious, foreign terrorist organization that detonated a simulated radiological dispersal device (RDD or dirty bomb) in Seattle and released the pneumonic plague in several Chicago metropolitan area locations. There was also significant pre-exercise intelligence play, a cyber-attack, and credible terrorism threats against other locations. Specific goals of Exercise TOPOFF 2 were to: * Identify vulnerabilities in the response
system; The Secretary of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Council, federal departments and agencies, and state and local responders are working diligently to address the findings identified during TOPOFF 2. DHS has led this effort on behalf of the federal government to revamp, centralize, and unify a range of pre-existing federal and other incident response contingency plans. This progress has been reflected in recent interagency concurrence and approval of the Initial National Response Plan (INRP) by the Secretary of Homeland Security in September 2003. The INRP marks the first major step towards use of a single response plan by all federal, state, and local responders and forms the basis for the National Response Plan, which is currently under development. The INRP established the Department of Homeland Security as the lead federal incident response manager and created a permanent DHS Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC) - which is now fully operational and continuously monitoring domestic incidents, law enforcement, and intelligence reports; the Principal Federal Official (PFO) to represent the Secretary on scene during domestic incidents; and the Interagency Incident Management Group (IIMG), a special team of experts from key departments and agencies convened by the Secretary during national domestic incidents to advise on courses of action and incident management. DHS, in concert with an interagency team and first responders, has also developed the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which is currently in the final stages of review by federal, state, and local partners. This document will support the National Response Plan and proscribe standardized emergency response organizational and procedural guidance across all federal, state, and local sectors. NIMS will integrate incident management best-practices into a comprehensive framework for use by all incident management organizations nationwide. It also sets in motion the process needed to leverage new communications technologies and approaches to continue refinement of the NIMS in the future. Analysis of the exercise focused on decision
and coordination processes, instead of examining specific participant
actions. This methodology provided a more objective and systematic
assessment of the many components that supported each of the analytical
categories listed below. Major conclusions for each of these categories
and post-exercise activity are summarized as follows: Post-TOPOFF 2: Since TOPOFF 2, DHS and the interagency team have responded to and managed complex natural or no-notice domestic incidents, including Hurricane Isabel and the Northeast U. S. blackout. The teamwork demonstrated by authorities during these difficult incidents gave other decision-makers the facts and information they needed to organize and deploy federal and other assistance. DHS continues to work with state and local partners and the private sector in developing standards for security measures as the Homeland Security Advisory System is raised and lowered. * Emergency Public Information. Dissemination
of a unified message during domestic incidents is a critical response
activity and TOPOFF 2 provided a superb opportunity to exercise
and test public information strategies. Consistency in message deployment
was a major challenge and spotlighted the need to improve communications
with field joint information centers (JICs), management of rumors,
and employment of pre-coordinated information packages. * Communications, Coordination, and Connectivity. These three issues present the greatest challenges when responding to a mass casualty incident, especially incidents involving WMD. Coordination and the need to use consistent terminology were cited. Data collection and coordination of medical information put a heavy burden on state and local authorities. However, the exercise demonstrated that wide-scale hospital employment can be conducted, with 64 hospitals in the Chicago area participating in one of the largest mass casualty exercises ever conducted. Post-TOPOFF 2: To enhance communications, coordination, and connectivity, DHS and state and local authorities are working on a range of improvements. The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and interoperability communications grants program administered by DHS's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has made a total of $81million available in FY 2002-2003 to improve state and local emergency preparedness by ensuring that EOCs have the support and telecommunications capabilities; which provide flexibility, sustainability, security, survivability and interoperability. Projects funded by these grants will encourage the acceptance of new technologies and operating methods to assist communities in achieving interoperability and connectivity. The INRP, NIMS, and the final NRP will all enhance coordination through their standardization and unification of the domestic response process. In the area of common response language, the draft NIMS document will include standardized terminology and key term descriptions for use by all responders at all levels. * Jurisdiction. Jurisdiction addresses conflicts or gaps in authorities, policies, and agreements under extremely challenging circumstances. Participants at all levels of government emphasized the value of exercises, such as TOPOFF 2, to explore and refine the operational implications of these authorities. The exercise fully validated the concept of the Department of Homeland Security PFO, supported by a team of DHS subject experts. The PFOs in both Seattle and Chicago facilitated integrated communications and coordinated planning among federal, state, and local authorities. Post-TOPOFF 2: This issue is being addressed
through the recent adoption of a National Exercise Program (NEP).
The NEP was developed by DHS's Office for Domestic Preparedness
(ODP) and an interagency team to ensure coordination for all of
the numerous exercises planned at the federal level. The NEP will
facilitate the development of homeland security exercises that test
and refine jurisdictional issues at the federal, state, and local
level and employ the new organizational guidelines of the INRP,
as our nation’s single response plan. Post-TOPOFF 2: The DHS Homeland Security Operations Center, in conjunction with FEMA's National Emergency Operations Center, tracks the deployment of federal resources across the government. To improve that process, FEMA is establishing a standardized, automated tracking system, which is the first step to electronically tracking the resources and making that status available to state and local governments. As part of NIMS, DHS is working collaboratively with state and local governments to categorize resources and establish a catalog of capabilities and availability. Read the final public report - click here.
•Date:
23rd December 2003 •Region: N.America •Type:
Article •Topic:
Terrorism |
