In the aftermath of 9/11, we swore to “Never Forget.” We swore this due to the 343 firefighters that were lost at the event. We swore to never forget the police officers that were lost, or the citizens. We swore to ensure we never forgot the lessons learned through preparedness, response, and security enhancements. We have poured countless dollars into ensuring that we did not fail if a subsequent attack occurred again.
New and Revised Programs
Because of 9/11, we have the Department of Homeland Security, NIMS, the National Response Plan, now superseded by the National Response Framework. We have also produced the Target Capabilities List, and further refined the Resource Typing List, just to name a few of the positive achievements resulting from 9/11. All of these items have helped shape emergency and disaster management.
New Training and Education
Resulting from 9/11, we saw a great focus on Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) or weapon of mass destruction (WMD) training and education.
We also saw numerous class offerings from the Center for Domestic Preparedness, and many other training institutions that taught us how to detect a CBRNE event and how to protect ourselves if the event were to occur. We recognized many new education programs that developed to fill the knowledge gap.
I was even fortunate enough to graduate from a doctoral program in homeland security.
Have Some of Our Efforts Gone to Waste?
While we have seen much improve in the aftermath of 9/11, we are now to the phase where the majority of the grant funding has ceased to exist to fund all of the local capability-building efforts, such as collapse response teams and hazmat/CBRNE response units and equipment.
Much still exists at the federal level, but we must forget that the response to every disaster is local.
Locally, what is your plan to maintain any new capabilities that were acquired due to the homeland security grants? Can you sustain it locally? What is your plan to maintain the training levels on CBRNE response? How will all of the retirements affect that training maintenance and knowledge base?
If we do forget, as we promised not to, what excuse will we have when it happens again?
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