Congresswoman Ann Kuster Sends Letter To Citizens Congresswoman Ann Kuster sent a staffer to read the attached letter to the citizens of New Hampshire (and the U.S., for that matter) at the New England Long-Term Power Outage Summit on November 10, 2018. We have all heard politicians make promises, but I take Congresswoman Ann Kuster at…
Guest Post: By Preston Le Roy Schleinkofer Introduction to Civil Defense and Civil Defense Virginia Ever since the demise of the U.S. Civil Defense Administration in the 1990’s, the community has been largely excluded from the process of emergency management. But since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the increasingly serious threats to…
All Roads Lead to Civil Defense: Survival is a local Issue. Civil defense is the organizing and training of civilians to play key roles in a community’s survival. Another term for this, coined by Civil Defense Virginia, is “continuity of community.” The concept is simple: A community’s citizens, in partnership with their emergency management and…
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (Retired) InfraGard Electromagnetic Pulse Special Interest Group (EMP SIG) Dupont Summit December 1, 2017 Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, author of H. Res. 762
Bipartisan agreement about threats to the electric grid There has been little bipartisan agreement in Congress about anything in the last decade. Healthcare, taxes, the budget – you name it, they disagree on it. There is one glaring exception: The threats to the electric grid from a variety of man-made and natural threats. They all…
Civil Defense: Why We Need It Here are two undisputed facts: FACT: The electric grid is extremely vulnerable to a variety of natural and man-made threats. FACT: A long-term loss of the electric grid would be catastrophic for the U.S. Everything depends on the electric grid. Food, water, fuel, sanitation, medical services, the economy and…
Congress thinks we need a community preparedness “civil defense” plan for a long term electric grid outage. So why doesn’t your town have one? “Seven U.S. government departments and agencies have now concluded that if our national electric grid is not upgraded to ensure its continuity in the event of a massive solar event —…
Is Emergency Management in the U.S. – and in your community – prepared for a long-term loss of the electric grid? Here is FEMA’s definition of Emergency Management: it is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency Management protects communities by coordinating…
On October 30, 2013 Representative Trent Franks introduced a new bill: The Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (or “CIPA”) (H.R. 3410 – read it here). The bill was co-sponsored by Representative Pete Sessions. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Homeland Security. If the history of grid protection legislation is any indication, the bill may…
On May 22, 1998, President Bill Clinton issued Presidential Decision Directive/NSC-63. The subject of the directive was “Critical Infrastructure Protection.” The directive’s goals were: No later than the year 2000, the United States shall have achieved an initial operating capability and no later than five years from today the United States shall have achieved and…
