Disaster Preparedness | Emergency Response

Featured Videos

GSN 2012 Award Winners/Finalists/Sponsors: Dubhe Beinhorn, VP Public Sector, AtHoc, Inc

Dubhe Beinhorn describes AtHoc, Inc, winner of GSN’s 2012 award for “Best Mass Notification Solutions,” as a company that operates in one sector only: critical communications for crisis management....

GSN 2012 Award Winners/Finalists/Sponsors: Covia Labs, David Kahn, CEO

Covia Labs received the award for “Best Interoperable First Responder Communications” in the 2012 Awards Program for its “Alert & Respond” software platform and application that provides voice/...

GSN 2012 Award Winners/Finalists/Sponsors: Drew Morin, Chief Technology Officer, TeleCommunication Systems

TeleCommunication Systems (TCS), which entered its “Commercial Mobile Alerts System” in the 2012 Awards Program, was named a Finalist in the “Best Mass Notification Systems” category. Drew Morin, who...

GSN 2012 Award Winners/Finalists/Sponsors; Jim Montagnino, CEO/President, NC4

El Segundo, CA based NC4 specializes in situational awareness, emergency response and event planning, according to Jim Montagnino. Its crime fighting solution “Situational Awareness for Enforcement’s...

IACP Conference, 2012: Stephen Meer, Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Intrado, Inc,

Stephen Meer, one of the founders of Intrado, Inc of Denver, Colorado, indicates that his company provides services and products to the 9-1-1 infrastructure, which he says is a very complicated...

IACP Conference 2012: Mike Bostic, Director of Customer Advocacy, Security and Transportation Service, Raytheon

Mike Bostic of Raytheon points out that he spent 34 years as an Assistant Chief in the LAPD, where he worked about a third of that time in technology and communications. And one thing he...

IACP Conference 2012: Kevin P. Madden, Solutions Architect for Public Safety, Cisco Sytems

Kevin Madden discusses the nation’s first demonstrated multi-vendor interoperable Public Safety Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, which was deployed by a consortium of companies including Cisco and...

IACP Conference 2012: Dave Snyder, Spillman Technologies, Inc.

ASIS 2012: Paul Christin, Homeland Security Industy Manager, ESRI

ESRI is the innovator of GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, which Paul Christin describes as a way of managing information and understanding it geographically, or plotting information,...

GSN Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors: Tony Wilder, Incident Commander, Southern Agency Type 1 Red Team

The Bastrop County, TX Unified Command was named Winner of GSN’s 2011 Award for “Most Notable Emergency Response – Federal, State or Local.”. Trophies were awarded to the Incident Commanders of...

GSN 2011 Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors: Elizabeth Cavasso, Type 1 Planning Section Chief, US Forest Service, National Incident Management Organization (NIMO)

GSN 2011 Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors: Mike Fisher, Emergency Management Coordinator, Bastrop County, TX

GSN 2011 Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors: Dan Kleinman, Incident Commander, National Incident Management Organization (NIMO)

GSN 2011 Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors Interviews: Bill Eckerd, Director of Sales for Strategic Account Group, Verint Video Solutions

Verint Video Solutions was a 2011 Winner of “Best Intelligent Video Surveillance Solution” for its Nextiva Physical Security Information Management System (PSIM). According to Bill Eckerd, the PSIM...

News

Oklahoma tornado focuses renewed attention on storm shelters

Tue, 2013-05-21 09:20 AM

Stairway into
storm shelter

The devastating tornado that blasted Moore, OK, on May 20 -- and the dozens of other tornadoes that are likely to wallop the nation’s midsection in the coming weeks – turn everyone’s attention to the...

Retrieving human remains buried beneath 40 feet of ice in arctic Greenland

Thu, 2013-05-16 03:54 PM

A Grumman Duck aircraft

The U.S. Coast Guard wants to hear from companies that could mount an expedition to a frigid part of arctic Greenland, excavate a downed J2F-4 Grumman Duck aircraft which crashed at the site during...

Shifting ‘vibration isolation’ technology from table tops to data centers

Thu, 2013-05-16 12:27 PM

Mike Reilly, of
WorkSafe Technologies

Talk about a specialized niche. WorkSafe Technologies, of St. Charles, MO, produces devices and contraptions that are intended to isolate natural vibrations in the Earth and protect equipment and...

During decontamination, first responders can use DQE’s new ‘Decon Stability Cane’

Mon, 2013-05-13 10:25 PM

Decon
Stability
Cane

Wearing a bulky HazMat suit during responder decontamination makes it difficult to maneuver, leading to slips and falls. After watching emergency responders resort to using walkers, traffic cones and...

ASIS NYC 2013: Gaffco Ballistics builds ultra-secure ‘safe rooms’

Thu, 2013-05-09 07:55 PM

Tom Gaffney

Tom Gaffney’s career in the security business has come a long way from the days, a few decades ago, when he was installing check-cashing booths, with bullet-proof glass, in retail storefronts in the...

TSA to hit 15 pipeline operators annually with 218 security questions

Wed, 2013-05-08 03:03 PM

In its continuing review of security measures undertaken by operators of pipelines that carry hazardous liquids and natural gas, TSA intends to conduct a detailed, eight-hour “Pipeline Corporate...

Interest grows in its BioCheck screening test since Ricin scares, says 20/20 BioResponse

Thu, 2013-05-02 08:50 AM

BioCheck screening test

Two weeks after the first mailings of powders confirmed to be bio-terrorism agents were sent to President Obama, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge, 20/20 BioResponse reports a substantial...

FEMA to assess its public outreach efforts among Hurricane Sandy survivors

Tue, 2013-04-30 10:10 AM

A FEMA neighborhood
task force following
Hurricane Sandy

FEMA is planning to conduct a telephone survey and a series of focus groups to gather what it calls “experiential information” from individuals and households that survived Hurricane Sandy about the...

Public-Private Partnerships Conference will take place at Rutgers Univ. in NJ July 23-25

Mon, 2013-04-29 11:24 AM

Last year's conference
in Colorado Springs, CO

DHS headquarters, in partnership with the FEMA, the U.S. Northern Command and Rutgers University’s department of supply chain management, will present the third annual Building Resilience through...

Connecticut teen guilty in mass shooting/bomb threat

Fri, 2013-04-26 08:38 AM

Gateway Community
College

A 19-year-old woman from East Haven, CT, pleaded guilty on April 25 to threatening a violent attack at a nearby community college that was possibly inspired by the mass shooting at Newtown Elementary...

President honors dead in West, Texas blast, damages could top $100 million

Fri, 2013-04-26 07:30 AM

West, Texas

As President Obama traveled to West, TX, on April 25 to eulogize those killed in the massive fertilizer plant explosion there, insurance providers estmated damages from the blast could total $100...

2013 Homeland Security Awards program opens for entries on May 1

Thu, 2013-04-25 04:59 PM

Following up on a record number of entries and a rousing awards dinner at the Washington, DC Convention Center in 2012, Government Security News has announced that its 2013 Homeland Security Awards...

Company News

Forest Service prepares NASA-developed imaging technology for wildfire season

The U.S. Forest Service is testing airborne imaging technology it got from NASA in 2012 that can be mounted to unmanned and manned aircraft to prepare for this year's wildfire season in the western U.S.

Inovio gets rapid vaccination technology grant

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will receive a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to advance the development of its next generation DNA vaccine delivery device capable of simultaneously administering multiple synthetic vaccines via skin surface electroporation.

Unmanned aircraft systems industry becomes job creation engine beyond 2015

Once unmanned aerial vehicles are integrated into U.S. airspace plans, the unmanned aircraft industry will generate 70,000 - 100,000 new jobs, according to a study released by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI)

Coroware signs on to NSF/UNC robotics research program

CoroWare Technologies has signed a membership agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Safety, Security, and Rescue Research Center (SSR-RC) along with the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte to participate in cooperative research on advanced robotics for homeland security, health care, and search and rescue.

SAIC gets FEMA preparedness prime contract

McLean, VA-based Science Applications International Corporation was awarded a prime contract by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide exercise design and control support services to the FEMA National Exercise Division (NED) to enrich the National Exercise Program (NEP).

The company said on Nov. 15 that the single-award, cost-plus fixed-fee contract has a one-year base period of performance, four one-year options, and a total contract value of approximately $39 million, if all options are exercised.

Inovio expands licensing for synthetic biodefense vaccines

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. expanded its existing license agreement on Nov. 14 with the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), adding worldwide rights to technology and intellectual property for novel synthetic vaccines against potential biodefense pathogens, cancer, and infectious diseases.

The technologies were developed by UPenn Professor David Weiner and collaborators. Dr. Weiner is a pioneer in the field of DNA vaccines, and chairman of Inovio's scientific advisory board. All newly licensed products are in preclinical development, said the company.

Israeli university team participating in DARPA robotics challenge

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel has sent the only foreign team to DARPA’s Robotics Challenge aimed at developing a disaster response robot.

SAIC wins FEMA domestic preparedness contract

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) was awarded a prime contract by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Oct. 8 to provide training delivery services in support of the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP).

The single-award, cost-plus award-fee and fixed price contract has a one-year base period of performance, four one-year options, and a total contract value of approximately $52 million, if all options are exercised. Work will be performed primarily in Anniston, AL, said SAIC.

Commentary and Opinions

Preventing the Boston Bombings with a ‘predictive security system’

The disastrous results of the Boston Marathon bombings are testimony to the ineffectiveness of current security systems to predict and help avert devastating attacks. Although Boston’s security infrastructure was quite effective at post-disaster forensics, enabling the identification and neutralization of two suspects only days after the bombings, the community still had to suffer hundreds of injuries, loss of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars in collateral damage.

National security begins with you!

The Boston Marathon incident is an unfortunate, tragic reminder that, as citizens, we must always remain aware, alert and diligent! Individuals must hone a “sixth sense” that helps them detect, anticipate and plan for danger in advance of it happening. People innately know when something is wrong, dangerous, or just “off,” and in those situations it is imperative to take action rather than just brushing it off.

A patient identity solution that addresses a multi-billion dollar problem in healthcare

The cost of healthcare in the U.S. continues to soar year after year. The problem is not a result of idleness or the lack of technology, but of not addressing the core problem of patient identity.

Dialogue between public, private and nonprofit sectors can ensure swift deployment of disaster recovery resources

When a disaster strikes, the pre-existing relationships between government and the private sector must be leveraged to launch an effective response and recovery effort. The objective for community crisis response is to support and bolster the capabilities that function effectively in the normal state to function with the same level of success in the emergency state.

Innovative emergency communication systems can maximize disaster recovery

Whenever a crisis requires a large evacuation, effective communication becomes vital to the success of any response operation. All too often, emergency situations create obstacles to communication -- power may be cut off, access routes may be blocked, isolated response teams may be operating with inaccurate information, or teams may have difficulty getting instructions to large groups of frightened civilians.

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Market Sectors

Essential Guides

Recent Disaster Preparedness Videos

IACP Conference, 2012: Stephen Meer, Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Intrado, Inc,

Stephen Meer, one of the founders of Intrado, Inc of Denver, Colorado, indicates that his company provides services and products to the 9-1-1 infrastructure, which he says is a very complicated ecosystem with lots of different constituent groups. The 9-1-1 infrastructure is like an iceberg, he says, with a little piece that delivers services to the public that is above the water line, and a massive infrastructure under the water line that supports it in operating seamlessly, continuously, dealing with all the regulations and issues in the world of public safety communications.

IACP Conference 2012: Mike Bostic, Director of Customer Advocacy, Security and Transportation Service, Raytheon

Mike Bostic of Raytheon points out that he spent 34 years as an Assistant Chief in the LAPD, where he worked about a third of that time in technology and communications. And one thing he learned from his LAPD experience is that everything the military needs, so does public safety. But Raytheon is in the business of solving operational problems rather than selling boxes and devices, he says, and as a systems integrator the company sells solutions to specific sets of problems.

IACP Conference 2012: Kevin P. Madden, Solutions Architect for Public Safety, Cisco Sytems

IACP Conference 2012: Dave Snyder, Spillman Technologies, Inc.

Spillman Technologies is a vendor of public safety software used by law enforcement, fire and emergency management agencies, according to Dave Snyder. The company provides an integrated solution and specializes in multi-jurisdictional assignments involving agencies that want to collaborate with other agencies with information systems in large geographic areas. Snyder points out that the company has been in business for almost 30 years and has an extraordinary degree of stability, and its customers can count on major upgrades each year at no cost.

ASIS 2012: Paul Christin, Homeland Security Industy Manager, ESRI

ESRI is the innovator of GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, which Paul Christin describes as a way of managing information and understanding it geographically, or plotting information, visualizing the data, and analyzing the dots to make sense out of the data. The company sells to 40 verticals, one of which is homeland security. Christin describes how GIS technology is used for planning major events, such as political conventions or the recent NATO conference in Chicago.

Upcoming Events

Event Details	Dates of Event
SANS Austin 2013	May 19 - 24
DoD VA Healthcare Training Forum	May 20 - 23
Transport and Logistics of Hazardous Material	May 27 - 28
Southwest Microwave Seminar	May 28 - 28
Border Management Southwest Summit	May 29 - 31
Cyber Security Conference & Expo	May 30 - 30
Mobile Device Security Summit 2013	May 30 - Jun 6
Security Analytics Summit 2013	May 30 - Jun 6
Cyber Security Conference & Expo	May 30 - 30
Southwest Microwave Seminar	May 30 - 30
SANS Malaysia @ MCMC 2013	Jun 3 - 8
2013 SIA Government Summit	Jun 4 - 5
Southwest Microwave Seminar	Jun 4 - 4
NCT: CBRNe Israel, 4 - 6 June 2013, Tel Aviv	Jun 4 - 6
SEL Modern Solutions Power Systems Conference	Jun 5 - 7
Mission Command	Jun 10 - 12
Cyber Securty Brainstorm	Jun 11 - 11
EDGE Summit 2013	Jun 11 - 11
IPv6 Summit 2013	Jun 14 - 16
SANSFIRE 2013	Jun 15 - 22
Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 2nd Biosurveillance Symposium	Jun 17
Biodetection Technologies 2013	Jun 18 - 19
Southwest Microwave Seminar	Jun 18 - 18
Cyber Defense and Network Security Summit	Jun 24 - 26
Vanguard Security & Compliance 2013	Jun 24 - 27
SANS Canberra 2013	Jul 1 - 13
Border Management & Technologies Summit	Jul 2 - 5
SANS Rocky Mountain 2013	Jul 15 - 20
SANS Mumbai 2013	Jul 22 - 27
SANS San Francisco 2013	Jul 29 - Aug 3
SANS Boston 2013	Aug 5 - 10
Cyber Security for Government	Aug 12 - 14
SANS Thailand 2013	Aug 19 - 31
SANS Virginia Beach 2013	Aug 19 - 30
Maritime Security 2013 West	Aug 19 - 21
930gov: Strategic Buying at Year-End Showcase	Aug 21 - 21

New Products

IDenta says explosives ID kits identify underwear bomber’s PETN

Add Jerusalem-based Identa Corp. to the handful of companies that issued statements in the wake of the failed...

Introducing the ‘In Case of Emergency’ iPhone app

Legalzoom.com, an online legal service, and Donate Life America (DLA), a non-profit organization, have created and are offering ICE App, intended to help users input the compreh...

MetaCarta releases version 4.5 of geographic search software

Cambridge, MA-based MetaCarta, Inc., a provider of geographic search solutions, has announced the launch...

Magnasphere rolls out high-security sensor

Waukesha, WI-based Magnasphere reports that its new high-security sensor, HSS, has completed its UL inspections and is r...

ICx introduces ClearPoint bottled liquid screener

Arlington, VA-based ICx T...

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