Publications available for school/community security planning

Information has been received from the SD Office of Emergency Management that may be useful to school officials who are members of their community’s emergency planning task force.  It may also be useful for school boards who are working on security plans for school buildings.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released four new publications in the Multi-Hazard Risk Management Series developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The publications contain guidance on designing, constructing, and engineering high occupancy buildings that are more resistant to damage resulting from terrorist attack. The purpose of the publications is to make communities aware of science and technology that can be applied to protect people and critical infrastructure from the affects of terrorist attacks on high occupancy buildings. The documents are:

• FEMA 426, Reference Manual to Mitigate Potential Terrorist Attacks Against Building
• FEMA 427, Primer for Design of Commercial Buildings to Mitigate Terrorist Attacks

·         FEMA 428, Primer to Design Safe School Projects in Case of Terrorist Attacks

·         FEMA 429, Insurance, Finance, and Regulation Primer for Risk Management in Buildings

These guidelines can be effectively used along side FEMA 386-7, Integrating Human-Caused Hazards Into Mitigation Planning, already available since September 2002. The publications are free and can be downloaded from FEMA's website at http://www.fema.gov/fima/rmsp.shtm. The official news release can be viewed at http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=10407.

A mitigation planning company, Visual Risk Technologies, has developed a system to assist emergency management agencies in satisfying the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Plan requirements by creating a standardized, detailed plan that community and state officials may use to:

• identify and understand the severity of potential hazards
• allocate resources for mitigation projects, and
• ensure that their hazard mitigation planning reduces and, to the maximum
  extent possible, eliminates the consequences of natural and man-made
  disasters.