2 Welcome
Good evening Governor and staff members. My name is Carlin Burnside and I will be bringing you up to
date on various aspects of Homeland Security and Emergency management. I will cover a variety of
different topics and expound upon the more pertinent subjects as they apply to the state of South
Carolina.
3 Synopsis
As the liaison to the emergency management coordinator, the various aspects and understanding of
Homeland Security and Emergency Management is vital. Today’s briefing will cover the following topics:
Homeland Security, Emergency management, Pertinent Acts and Presidential directives, national
response framework, national incident management systems, incident command systems, role as
emergency manager, local, state, and federal roles and responsibilities, and an all hazards approach.
4 DHS
I believe the Homeland Security Act (HAS) of 2002 is one of the most quintessential acts put into place
concerning homeland security. The HAS provided a multitude of policies and procedures that set a firm
foundation for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Brook and King (2007) asserted that the new
legislation gave the DHS authority to initiate new approaches to personnel management outside the
normal rules of the federal service. Furthermore, the HAS was one of the most significant changes in civil
service law since 1978. It combined an assortment of agencies from various US departments to form
what is now known as the Department of Homeland Security. For example, agencies such as the United
States Coast Guard, United States Secret Service, Federal Protective Service, and the Federal Law
Enforcement Training Centers once belonged to separate entities, but now are controlled under the
umbrella of the DHS.
5 Emergency Management (intro)
Emergency management is an integral necessity of homeland security. There are a vast number
of federal, state, and local agencies that provide emergency management assistance during times of
crisis. Agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provide much needed
assistance when disasters strike. According to Nemeth (2016) FEMA “became an organization dedicated
not only to natural disaster but also to man-made events” (p.2.3.1). Emergency management will continue
to play a vital role in homeland security as long as there are threats against the homeland or natural
disasters within our nation.
6 Emergency Management (cont)
Each phase of emergency management plays a crucial role in combating terrorism. A collaboration
among a myriad of federal, state, and local agencies work together to mitigate terrorist attacks against the
United States. Kreimer and Arnold (2000) combine the importance of mitigation and prevention stating
that “prevention and mitigation focuses on the hazard that causes disaster and tries to eliminate or
drastically reduce its direct effects” (p.143).
According to Sylves (2015) “preparedness involves developing a response plan and training first
responders to save lives and reduce disaster damage, identifying critical resources, and developing
necessary agreements among responding agencies, both within the jurisdiction and with other
jurisdictions” (p22).
Response and recovery go hand in hand. The response phase incorporates providing emergency
aid and assistance immediately following an attack (Sylves, 2015). Depending on the size and
devastation of the attack, multiple agencies may respond in order to provide assistance, such as FEMA or
the Red Cross.
The identification and prioritization of essential functions is a prerequisite for continuity planning
(Federal Continuity Directive 1, 2012). Essential functions establish the priorities and planning
parameters that drive an organization’s efforts in all other planning, preparedness, response and
recovery. In the event that the agency’s facility is no longer viable for a period of time due to a disaster
and personnel are displaced, plans for succession, delegation of authority, and an alternate site shall be
utilized until the facility is restored. It is imperative that the roles and responsibilities of personnel
designated as emergency responders are established and recognized. These members and their
alternates will become familiar with the agency’s response and recovery policies and procedures.
7 Important Laws and Acts
Next I will address several important laws and acts that pertain to homeland security and
emergency management. It is important to know how these acts relate to South Carolina because of its
nexus to sea, air, and land travel. More notably, South Carolina is home to the Federal Law Enforcement
Training Center in Charleston. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center houses several federal
agencies and academies that may provide assistance during a disaster. Among them are the United
States Coast Guard, the Customs and Border Protection, and the Transportation Security Agency.
8 General DHS Acts
9 Emergency Management Acts
10 Immigration and Border Security
In recent news we’ve seen exactly how unsecure our borders are. The U.S/Mexico border is a
prime example. Illegal immigration, human trafficking, and illegal drugs move through our border each
day. According to Stringer (2018) the number of undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. began to
increase dramatically in the 1990s and reached a peak of 12.2 million in 2007. It is vitally important to
secure our borders. The influx of illegal immigrants and drugs and human trafficker and victims must be
stopped. To better secure our borders, more resources, funding, and personnel must be dedicated to
border protection. Increasing the numbers of ICE, CBP, and Coast Guard personnel could potentially
reduce the amount of illegal entries and drugs in the United States.
11 Maritime Security
One of the United States Coast Guard’s elven essential missions is the Ports, Waterways, and
Coastal Security (PWCS) mission (Nemeth, 2016). Within the PWCS are key port areas designated by
the Coast Guard or Captain of the Port (COTP). These key port areas are zones within ports or along
navigable waterways where heavily populated areas, Department of Defense assets, choke points or
Maritime Critical Infrastructure/Key Assets (MCI/KA) would be vulnerable to attack. MCI/KA are facilities,
structures, systems, assets, or services so vital to the port and its economy that their destruction or
disruption would have a debilitating impact on the port (USCG, 2017). The United States Coast Guard
does an exceptional job guarding our key infrastructures. To further enhance their range and scope of
protection, additional federal, state, or local agency should coordinate with the COTP to overlap
coverages of these critical infrastructures.
12 Transportation Security
13 Homeland Security Presidential Directorates
There are numerous Homeland Security Presidential Directorates, the aforementioned are key
directorates pertaining to homeland security and emergency management.
14 National Response Framework
We recognize that disasters will eventually occur, therefor planning, mitigation, and response plans are
implemented to combat known or unforeseen catastrophes. The National Response Framework
implements the “Preparedness Life Cycle”: Training, Equipping, Exercising, Evaluation, Mitigation, and
Planning. This life cycle is an important resource for creating and maintain a resilient foundation for
emergency management. Conversely, I believe recovery plans can be quite difficult to navigate. For
example, it took years for the Gulf Coast to recover after Hurricane Katrina. No one could have foreseen
the devastation that took place or the damage that followed.
15 National Incident Management System
NIMS guides all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations (NGO), and the
private sector to work together to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover
from incidents. NIMS provides stakeholders across the whole community with the shared
vocabulary, systems, and processes to successfully deliver the capabilities described in the
National Preparedness System. NIMS defines operational systems, including the Incident
Command System (ICS), Emergency Operations Center (EOC) structures, and Multiagency
Coordination Groups (MAC Groups) that guide how personnel work together during incidents.
NIMS applies to all incidents, from traffic accidents to major disasters
16 Incident Command Systems
Compressive resource management and the distribution of resources is quite essential to incident
control systems. Jackson, Faith and Willis (2010) efficiently addressed the compressive resource
management function of ICS:
To be effective, capabilities and resources have to be delivered where they are needed, when
they are needed, to the people that need the, and these capabilities and resources have to be
able to do what is necessary when they get there (p.2).
While none of the functions listed in ICS are technically more important than the other, a consolidated
action plan, while on paper may look good, may be only be good on paper
17 Role as Emergency Manager
Emergency managers can be found throughout many federal, state, and local agencies. Often time the
role emergency manager is a collateral duty of a member within state and local agencies
According to Waugh and Streib (2006) disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery are the
end products of complex political and administrative interactions, and the results cannot be easily
controlled or anticipated. While the emergency manager and the heads of the various partner
organization hope for the best and plan for the worst in the wake of a disaster, in the end the response
and recovery is only as good as the personnel in the field and the supplies that are available
Fugate (2017) expertly stated that as emergency managers “We tend to plan and exercise for what we
are capable of handling and hope we can scale up. This is a recipe for failure. We cannot just scale up”
(p.7). We must plan for the worst and train our emergency personnel to do more with less. Though it may
sound counterproductive, history has taught us that in times of disaster, we do not always have exactly
what we need to do the job we are challenged with
18 Local, State, and Federal Roles
The DHS is expected to create an emergency management partnerships with other federal agencies,
state and local governments, volunteer organizations, and the private sector to better serve the public.
(Sylves, 2015)
Fire, law enforcement, and first responders go hand in hand. During times of disaster or tragedy we often
see these three entities working closely and efficiently together. Tsai and Chi (2012) aptly stated that
“those who need to step into the breach at a moment’s notice must be able to manage conflicts arising
from numerous concurrent tasks, clashes over jurisdictional differences, and disputes over various
inextricable matters” (p.1). Even on a national level, fire, police, and first responders know their jobs and
work together to achieve their goal
19 All Hazards Approach
All hazards emergency management or preparedness can trace its roots back to the Disaster
Relief Act of 1974. In 1974 President Nixon enacted the Disaster Relief Act of 1974 in order to offer
support to those effected by a disaster. The act stressed a multi-hazard or all hazards approach to various
types of disasters. Sylves (2015) describes all hazard emergency management as:
The essence of this concept is that common sets of emergency preparedness and response
procedures and practices are applicable in any locality regardless of differences in geography or
demography. It is also assumed that an economy of scale can be reached by planning and
preparing for disaster in generic terms (thus, “all hazards”) rather than by planning or preparing
for each unique type of disaster. (p. 17)
The all hazards approach directly correlates with respects to the response to terrorism. One should not
always take precedence over the other, but be fluid and adaptable. The homeland security style of
emergency management has become more response oriented, less collaborative, and more centralized
(Waugh, 2006). An all hazards approach coordinates the planning and response between various
departments and agencies within a city or county
20 Biblical Perspective
As this brief comes to a close, we should reflect on what the Bible tells us about homeland security and
emergency management. Matthew 25:13 tells us to “Watch, therefore, you know neither the day nor the
hour” while this verse is speaking to Christ’s return, the lesson remains the same, we must always be
vigilant and prepared for the unknown. In Proverbs 27:12, The prudent sees danger and hides, but the
simple go on and suffer for it. Again, those that plan for the unknown are far more prepared than those
ignore the existence of danger.
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