Governor Scott McCallum's Summary of Wisconsin Terrorism Preparedness Efforts for this Week

 
  Responding to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks:
Wisconsin's Terrorism Preparedness Efforts
December 14, 2001 Report


This week, America saw the true faces of evil as the Pentagon released the
videotape of Osama bin Laden and his followers boasting of his involvement
in the September 11 attacks.  I, like people around the world, was outraged
by what I saw on the videotape.  But as President Bush has pointed out, this
war on terrorism goes beyond bin Laden.  There are many potential threats,
that is why we must always be prepared for the unexpected.  

Below are some of the outreach efforts by various state and local agencies
in the past week.

Assistance for our First Responders

In October, Wisconsin became the 10th state to complete the Statewide
Domestic Preparedness Strategic Plan.  As a result of this effort, we will
soon be eligible to distribute nearly $3 million in equipment grants to
first responders for personal protective equipment. This week Wisconsin
Emergency Management submitted our equipment purchase plan to the U.S.
Office of Justice Programs  (OJP) for expending the $374,000 remaining in
the FY 1999 Domestic Preparedness Equipment Grant Award.  The majority of
this funding, $350,000 has been identified for equipment awards to
countywide hazardous materials response teams.  Upon OJP approval, WEM
anticipates being able to make these funds available to the counties in
early January.  WEM will soon be submitting the application and expenditure
plan for FY 00-01 Domestic Preparedness Equipment funding in the amount of
$2,781,000. I am pleased that 95% of to total funding available to the state
through this three-year program will be provided to local response agencies
to enhance terrorism response capabilities.

Review of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assessment Report 

State agency representatives from the Interagency Working Group on Terrorism
met this week to review an assessment of our state's readiness to a
terrorism event.  The assessment report was the findings from a joint
meeting with state and federal agencies held on October 31 in Madison. I
attended the federal/state meeting in October and pledged Wisconsin's
cooperation in conducting an honest assessment of our capabilities and
making sure we are able to overcome any shortfalls. Topics addressed were
adequacy of emergency operations plans, personnel, communications, mutual
aid plans, equipment, training, exercises, critical infrastructure
protective measures and appropriate legal authorities.  The assessment was
developed by FEMA and will be part of an overall national readiness picture
that was submitted to Governor Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security.
Members of the Interagency Working Group are now prioritizing and developing
a strategy to improve the state's readiness and response capabilities based
on the assessment. The group will meet again on December 20.

Training the Trainer in Incident Command
In response to a need for Incident Command System instructors identified in
the recently completed FEMA assessment, 26 students completed the Incident
Command System train-the-trainer course at Fort McCoy this week. The course
was presented by Wisconsin Emergency Management staff in response to a
request from the Division of Criminal Investigation, Arson Bureau.  DCI
trained 13 agents with the rest of the class composed of State Patrol, law
enforcement and fire service representatives.

State/Federal Emergency Notifications for Highways

Improving emergency notification with our federal counterparts was the focus
of a meeting between Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Wisconsin
Emergency Management and the Federal Highway Administration.  Currently, the
state has internal notification procedures through DOT and WEM in the event
of a major emergency on Wisconsin highways or bridges.  Federal officials
would like to be also notified during these events.  In addition, Federal
Highway Administration advised the state that they would be conducting an
assessment of the critical transportation infrastructure.  This is in
response to a national directive aimed at identifying the vulnerability of
our highway system to terrorism events and their potential impacts on the
traveling public. Wisconsin DOT will be working with Federal Highway
Administration on the assessment.

Wisconsin Counties Association Holding Seminar on Homeland Security

On December 17, Wisconsin Counties Association will be holding a seminar in
Eau Claire on state preparedness efforts. Wisconsin Emergency Management
Administrator Ed Gleason will address state's preparedness efforts and will
be joined by fellow Task Force member Fire Chief Ed Mishefske from Chippewa
Falls who will address local considerations. Presentations will also include
background on terrorism, public health efforts and a law enforcement
perspective from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Combating the Cyber Threat
Security Awareness Day, sponsored by the Department of Electronic Government
will be held January 10 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.  This will
be open to all government entities. This conference is an introduction to
information security and why it's important.  Discussion topics include
security risks, security vulnerabilities, and how to assess the value of
your information assets.

The Department of Electronic Government has just published disaster recovery
and business resumption planning templates for technology for use by state
and local agencies.  They are available at:
http://enterprise.state.wi.us/static/brp_drp.