Disaster Preparedness Daily News

Posts Tagged ‘FEMA’

The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced December 3 that federal disaster aid has been made available for Arkansas to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area struck by severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding.

Federal funding is available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the natural disasters like severe storms and flooding in the counties of Boone, Bradley, Calhoun, Carroll, Cleburne, Cleveland, Columbia, Conway, Cross, Dallas, Franklin, Fulton, Grant, Izard, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lincoln, Logan, Marion, Monroe, Nevada, Newton, Ouachita, Poinsett, Prairie, Pulaski, Randolph, Saint Francis, Scott, Sharp, Stone, Union, Van Buren, White, and Woodruff that lie within the designated counties.

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures for all counties and tribes within the state.

W. Michael Moore has been named the federal coordinating officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area. Moore said additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.

Following is a summary of key federal disaster aid programs that can be made available as needed and warranted under President Obama’s major disaster declaration issued for Arkansas.

Assistance for the State and Affected Local Governments Can Include as Required:

• Payment of not less than 75 percent of the eligible costs for repairing or replacing damaged public facilities, such as roads, bridges, utilities, buildings, schools, recreational areas and similar publicly owned property, as well as certain private non-profit organizations engaged in community service activities. (Source: FEMA funded, state administered.)
• Payment of not less than 75 percent of the eligible costs for removing debris from public areas and for emergency measures taken to save lives and protect property and public health as a way of disaster preparedness plan.  (Source: FEMA funded, state administered.)
• Payment of not more than 75 percent of the approved costs for hazard mitigation projects undertaken by state and local governments to prevent or reduce long-term risk to life and property from natural or technological disasters. (Source: FEMA funded, state administered.)

How to Apply for Assistance:

• Application procedures for local governments will be explained at a series of federal/state applicant briefings with locations to be announced in the affected area by recovery officials. Approved public repair projects are paid through the state from funding provided by FEMA and other participating federal agencies.

FEMA’s mission is to support our first responders and ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

As part of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), the nation’s next generation of emergency alert and warning networks, the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today announced the adoption of the design specifications for the development of a gateway interface that will enable wireless carriers to provide its customers with timely and accurate emergency alerts and warnings via their cell phones and other mobile devices.

The Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) is one of many projects within IPAWS intended to provide emergency mangers and the President of the United States a means to send alerts and warnings to the public. Specifically, CMAS provides Federal, state, territorial, tribal and local government officials the ability to send 90 character geographically targeted text messages to the public regarding emergency alert and warning of imminent threats to life and property as a means of home disaster plan, Amber alerts, and Presidential emergency messages. The CMAS is a combined effort of the federal government and cellular providers to define a common standard for cellular alerts.

This announcement marks the beginning of the 28-month period, mandated by the FCC in August 2008, for commercial mobile service providers who have elected to participate in the design specifications known as CMAS to develop, test and deploy the system and deliver mobile alerts to the public by 2012.

“Working as a team with our partners in the public and private sectors, the adoption of the CMAS standard brings us even closer to making the nation’s next-generation of emergency alerts and warnings - Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) - a reality,” said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. “Our goal is simple, to give one message over more devices to more people for maximum safety.”

“Today’s announcement brings us one step closer to ensuring that Americans receive critical emergency alerts and warnings to protect themselves on the go, anywhere, anytime,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “I applaud FEMA for its leadership and look forward to working with both FEMA and the wireless industry to expedite the delivery of this important public safety service to consumers.”

Wireless carriers who choose to participate in the CMAS will relay authorized text-based alerts to their subscribers. To ensure that persons with disabilities who subscribe to wireless services receive these emergency alerts, the FCC adopted rules in 2008 that will require participating wireless carriers to transmit messages with both vibration cadence and audio attention signals.

The adoption of CMAS culminates the collaborative specification development work between FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T), the Alliance of Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and begins the next phase of CMAS collaboration with industry in which FEMA will build the Federal Alert Aggregator/Gateway. This collaboration with industry is a key component of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Programs’ ability to provide alerts and warnings to the public through as many means as possible, including commercial mobile services.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.