Developing a Guide to Emergency Management at State Transportation Agencies (2020)

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9 CHAPTER 3 EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS Changing operational roles at state DOTs and other transportation organizations, along with significant advances in emergency response planning and management and new federal guidance issued since 2010 has resulted in a need to re-examine requirements for state transportation agency planning and response functions, roles, and responsibilities. The federal government requires state DOTs to incorporate principles and concepts of national initiatives that provide common approaches to incident management and response in emergency response plans and operations. Also, because other local, state, tribal, territorial, and federal agencies may be involved along with a transportation agency in emergency response, there is a need to review and understand the specific requirements, procedures, and protocols that have been established for managing emergencies and coordinating between different roles and responsibilities among different agencies, including the coordination role of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). As an example, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act encourages MPOs to consult with state agencies that plan for natural disaster risk reduction to produce plans that include strategies to reduce the vulnerability to natural events. The goal of Task 3 of the research project was to identify and analyze requirements for state transportation agency planning and response functions, roles, and responsibilities required over the continuum of emergencies (i.e., planned activities, minor incident, major incident, hazmat incident, natural disaster, and terrorist incident). Key findings are summarized below. Key Findings  State DOTs are responsible for creating all-hazards plans and ensuring that employees have the ability to implement them. These all-hazards plans must conform with and complement the planning activities of the rest of the state’s operations and agencies as well as those of regional authorities. DOTs may coordinate planning efforts with other state agencies, including the state's emergency management agency; county highway departments; with various agencies of the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT); and with DOTs from other states to ensure activities can be easily integrated when necessary.  DOTs also need to plan to receive and use resources provided by other states and the federal government during operations. In conducting these activities, DOTs should consider applicable standards and best practices for incorporating risk and resilience into functions and systems.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) provides for the development of local, state, tribal, territorial, and insular area emergency operations plans. The First Edition of CPG 201 presented the basic steps of a Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) that included a process for identifying community-specific threats and hazards. It addressed setting capability targets for each core capability identified in the National Preparedness Goal; the Second Edition of CPG 201 included an estimation of resources needed to meet those capability

10 targets. The Second Edition also included changes to the THIRA process, streamlining the number of steps to conduct a THIRA and providing additional examples.  THIRA is a foundation of the National Preparedness System. It is a four-step risk assessment process that provides an understanding of risks and helps estimate capability requirements. The THIRA process standardizes the risk analysis process that emergency managers and homeland security professionals use and builds on existing local, state, tribal, territorial Hazard Identification and Risk Assessments.  FEMA was in the process of reviewing and refreshing NIMS during 2016. The new draft NIMS document builds on the first 2004 NIMS document and the revised 2008 version. The 2016 refresh clarifies that NIMS is more than just the Incident Command System (ICS) and that it applies to all stakeholders with roles in incident management across all five mission areas (Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery). The new draft NIMS reduced the number of key components from five to three. Two components, Resource Management and Communications and Information Management, have been retained. The two previous 2008-version components, Command and Management and Ongoing Management and Maintenance, have been replaced by Management and Coordination.  The FAST ACT, enacted in 2015, expands MAP-21 to focus on the resiliency of the transportation system, as well as critical infrastructure. Specific FHWA elements and programs in the FAST Act allow funding for “protection” for bridges and tunnels to reduce the vulnerability of existing transportation infrastructure to natural disasters. The FAST Act continues all prior NHPP eligibilities and adds four new eligible categories, among them reconstruction, resurfacing, restoration, rehabilitation, or preservation of a bridge on a non-NHS federal-aid highway (if Interstate System and NHS Bridge Condition provision requirements are satisfied) [23 U.S.C. 119(i)]; and a project to reduce the risk of failure of critical NHS infrastructure (defined to mean a facility, the incapacity or failure of which would have a debilitating impact in certain specified areas). The FAST Act also expands the focus of the planning process on the resiliency of the transportation system as well as activities to reduce stormwater runoff from transportation infrastructure. In addition, it newly requires strategies to reduce the vulnerability of existing transportation infrastructure to natural disasters.