Disaster Preparedness | Emergency Response

DHS is planning to spend up to $50 million to hire as many as four contractors to provide “aerial remote sensing” services, that will include taking photos from airborne sensors of homeland security missions and emergency incidents, processing those images and disseminating them throughout the department.

The chosen vendors will be asked to collect aerial imagery using digital cameras in what are known as “vertical” or “oblique” renditions to support emergency and non-emergency incidents nationwide.

A study of the outbreak of E. coli that killed 50 people in Germany last summer and sickened thousands has yielded some clues about the emergence and spread of infectious diseases.

While protections for nuclear plants from possible terror attacks have improved dramatically since 9/11, a report by a group of nuclear scientists said there is plenty of room for more enhancement in new reactor and plant designs in the coming years.

Even though the survivability of buildings in disasters and terror incidents has improved dramatically since 9/11, more needs to be done, said reports by groups hoping to establish worldwide standards for more resilient structures.

FEMA has awarded a follow-on contract that could be worth almost half a billion dollars to American Medical Response Ambulance Service, Inc. (AMR) to provide ground and air ambulances, medical personnel and operational support in 11 Western states and 16 Central states.

The Transportation Security Administration is set to deal with tens of thousands more passengers travelling through Indianapolis International Airport before and after Super Bowl XLVI with additional screening lanes.

As their boss touted this year’s Super Bowl as one of the most secure in history, U.S. customs agents were busy extending protections beyond the physical venue and into intellectual property on the Web, seizing Websites selling fake National Football League gear and busting apparel and souvenir counterfeiters.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced on Feb. 1 a partnership with the NFL to expand the agency’s “If you see something, say something” public awareness campaign.

The agencies in charge of regulating the safety of nuclear power plants in the U.S. released a new study of seismic activity in the eastern and central U.S. aimed at updating a 20-year-old seismic model.