INTRODUCTION
For decades, the ten municipalities in the state defined Housatonic Valley Planning Region have been prepared to respond to varied emergencies. Such preparation for emergency response is a core function of government at all levels.

After 9/11 strengthening emergency response mechanisms became a national priority. It was determined nationally that regional planning could assist this effort, in that investments would be more cost-effective and resources could be shared.

In Connecticut, the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) added a regional focus. And as part of this new view, DEMHS is partnering with HVCEO and other regional planning agencies to strengthen emergency response.

A regional component has been added to other emergency response processes as well. Below is an overview of these activities. The purpose of this summary is to enable local officials and the public to more easily understand and make use of these activities.

Maps relative to emergency management planning:

--- CT DEMHS 2009 Responder Assets by Town
--- HVCEO 2008 E-911 Resources

--- CT OSET 2009 Public Safety Answering Points
--- CT DPH 2009 Mass Dispensing Areas

1. DEMHS REGIONAL PLANNING
DEMHS has divided Connecticut into five emergency planning regions. To take the lead in its forty three town “Region 5” subdistrict for northwestern Connecticut (Greater Danbury, Greater Waterbury, Greater Torrington and Northwest Corner rural), DEMHS assembled a planning and coordination leadership group.

Its official title is the “DEMHS Region 5 Regional Emergency Planning Team.” A key task of the new Planning Team is to prepare a DEMHS 5 Regional Emergency Operations Plan. The guidebook utilized is an 8/2008 FEMA document entitled Producing Emergency Plans (Interim Version 1.0, 1.9 mb).

The state and all 43 municipalities already have emergency operations plans (EOPs). The regional EOP will be the new regional interface between the more traditional State of Connecticut and municipal EOPs.

Importantly, funding priorities specified in the new DEMHS Region 5 Emergency Operations Plan will be tied to federal grants from the US Department of Homeland Security. Selection will now favor projects with regional aspects that achieve economies of scale. Total funding for DEMHS 5 yearly is about $950,000.

There is considerable local influence over the DEMHS 5 planning process, as the 43 chief elected officials within DEMHS Region 5 are the voting members of the Planning Team, approving regional recommendations to DEMHS headquarters as to how grants should be distributed.

But these chief elected officials will not be expected to meet frequently. Rather, the detailed plan preparation work will be the responsibility of a smaller Steering Committee that will meet monthly. The Chair of the Steering Committee is Fire Chief John Field of Torrington and the Vice Chair is Waterbury Public works Director John Lawlor.

The Steering Committee includes two HVCEO appointees, HVCEO Deputy Director David Hannon and Ridgefield Emergency Management Director Heather Burford, who is also the Fire Chief for Ridgefield.

Other Steering Committee members from the Housatonic Valley Region are ESF 5 Chair Danbury Emergency Management Director Paul Estefan and ESF Chair 13 Brookfield Police Chief Robin Montgomery.

"ESF" as used above is a key acronym in this process. The DEMHS 5 planning process includes a variety of functional area working groups, organized around “emergency support function” terminology, a national standard for all EOPs in all jurisdictions. There are fifteen nationally defined emergency support functions (ESF).

Due to its dominance in the emergency planning field this terminology is worth becoming familiar with. Importantly, the DEMHS 5 spending plan for setting grant priorities will be organized on an ESF by ESF basis.

Of the fifteen national ESF's ten will be activated for the upcoming DEMHS 5 regional planning process. The nine chairs of these ESF’s are also part of the work oriented Steering Committee.

As shown below two of the nine active ESFs will be chaired by persons from the HVCEO region, thus adding to this area’s representation on this important Committee:

ESF 1 - Transportation
ESF 2 - Communications, Steve Savage, Northwest CT Public Safety Communications Center
ESF 3 - Public Works and Engineering, John Lawlor, Waterbury Director of Public Works
ESF 4 - Firefighting, Watertown Fire Chief Larry Black
ESF 5 - Emergency Management, Chair Danbury Emergency Management Director Paul Estefan
ESF 6 - Mass Care, Housing and Human Services, co chairs Richard Stubbs of the Waterbury Red Cross and Rocky Tomlinson of the Western CT Red Cross
ESF 7 - Resource Support (not yet activated)
ESF 8 - Public Health and Medical Services, Karen Spargo, Naugatuck Valley Health District
ESF 9 - Resource Support (not yet activated)
ESF 10 - Oil and Hazardous Materials, Torrington Fire Chief John Fields
ESF 11 - Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Cobelli
ESF 12 - Energy (not yet activated)
ESF 13 - Public Safety and Security, Chair Brookfield Police Chief Robin Montgomery
ESF 14 - Long term Recovery (not yet activated)
ESF 15 - External Affairs (not yet activated)

2. MUNICIPAL EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT DIRECTORS
Each municipality in the state has an emergency management director. This position, paid or volunteer, is accompanied by a local emergency planning committee (LEPC).

Emergency management directors in the HVCEO area and the location of their emergency operations center (EOC), are as follows:

Bethel: Thomas Galliford, EOC in Town Hall
Bridgewater: James Lillis, EOC in Town Hall
Brookfield: Wayne Gravius, EOC at Police Department
Danbury: Paul Estefan, EOC in City Hall
New Fairfield: Francesca Disimone, EOC at Police Department

New Milford: Marla Scribner, EOC at Police Department
Newtown: William Halstead Sr., EOC at Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue
Redding: Donald Takacs, EOC at Police Department
Ridgefield: Heather Burford, EOC in Town Hall Annex
Sherman: Vacant, EOC at Sherman Volunteer Fire Department

As with the new DEMHS regional emergency operations plan described above, each municipality prepares a local EOP. The standard fifteen emergency support functions (ESF) defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Response Framework will become the organizational structure for local EOP's.

In pursuit of their mutual interests with neighboring towns, in 2007 the ten local emergency management directors purchased and installed in each municipality technically compatible and coordinated video conferencing equipment. This modernization project was proposed by the Mayor of Danbury in 2004 and endorsed by the HVCEO.

The new video communications system is used to coordinate local emergency activities prior to, during and following major emergencies requiring an intermunicipal response. This equipment will also facilitate local participation on "live" internet based emergency management training courses.

With this system the nature of a disaster as captured on photos can be seen by all. Maps of projected airborne or waterborne chemical plumes and fallout can be quickly shared. Municipal officials can better coordinate during extreme weather or transportation emergencies such as a prolonged shutdown of Interstate 84.

The City of Danbury has taken a leadership role with other aspects of regional emergency coordination as well. This includes:

-- Development activities towards a regional hazardous materials response team including a HAZMAT drill in September of 2006. Drill participants were various City of Danbury departments and other fire departments including Torrington, Waterbury, Woodbury Redding and Ridgefield.

-- Several regional response assets are stored in Danbury. These include cots and blankets/pillows/personal supply kits, a decontamination trailer, a hazmat incident response truck, foam trailer and mass casualty incident trailer.

-- In the near future a regional mobile hospital unit will be stored at Danbury Airport, owned by the CT Department of Health.

Looking ahead, we can expect that upcoming in 2008 the municipal emergency management directors will be meeting as a group for aspects of the DEMHS 5 plan preparation.

3. PUBLIC HEALTH
EMERGENCY PLANNING COMMITTEE
Health departments serving our ten town area have been meeting monthly since July of 2004 at the HVCEO office. Their purpose is to advance and coordinate emergency preparedness and response planning with a public health component.

This activity is under the sponsorship and guidance of the CT Department of Health (CT DPH). Like CT DEMHS, after 9/11 CT DPH added a regional focus to its emergency operations. These activities are now coordinated with DEMHS.

The Chairman of this regional group is Newtown Health District's Director of Health Donna Culbert. The Vice Chairman is Ridgefield’s Director of Health Edward Briggs. In addition to HVR local Directors of Health, other professionals in the health emergency field also attend, including a Health Department medical advisor, CT DPH's regional epidemiologist, Danbury Hospital's Emergency Management Director and the Emergency Services Director of the American Red Cross, Western CT Chapter.

A past focus of the group has been the preparation, in cooperation with CT DPH, of a “Public Health and Medical Services Regional Emergency Response Plan" for the area.

This document follows the structure of ESF 8 - Public Health and Medical Services, again demonstrating the interagency coordinating value of the standardized ESF terminology. This regional planning work remains active in 2008 and is now integrated into DEMHS Region 5 ESF 8 emergency response planning.

Some important documents relevant to this group:

1. During 2006 all ten municipalities approved a regional mutual aid agreement for public health emergencies. The purpose was to better address threats that could overwhelm one municipality. The municipal resource inventories that are part of this mutual aid agreement, identifying the items to potentially share, are updated each year.

2. In January of 2008 the Committee made a PowerPoint presentation to members of the Connecticut General Assembly. Activities and accomplishments of the group were summarized. This informative presentation is accessible as a pdf file.

3. A record of the regional pandemic drill of April 2008, using the Region's new mobile field hospital, is available as a video file.

All ten municipalities approved this regional agreement during the summer of 2006. The municipal resource inventories that are part of this mutual aid agreement, identifying the items to potentially share, are updated each year.

A recurring theme at monthly meetings of the Public Health Emergency Planning Committee is collaborative planning for regional drills and exercises to test and evaluate the effectiveness of emergency response plans. Developing a coordinated plan for alternative care facilities within the HVR as a component of hospital surge capacity planning is another important activity.

These monthly meetings include discussion of numerous topics of joint interest, such as inter-jurisdictional public health emergency training in such areas as incident command, crisis and emergency risk communication, and hot line management.

4. HOUSATIONC VALLEY REGION
POLICE CHIEFS ASSOCIATION
This regional group formed in June of 2007. Monthly meetings are held in the HVCEO office.

All chiefs remain members of the Fairfield County Police Chiefs Association.
However, this more localized working group formed to 1) better address Danbury – New Milford Area issues, 2) align our towns with the new DEMHS 5 planning region boundary, and 3) pursue collaboration in the face of dwindling resources.

A variety of day to day police department training and management issues are discussed, as well as regional issues. Items addressed thus far include:

-- Preparation of a regional equipment and personnel assets inventory. This will lead to the sharing of resources in an emergency and identification of gaps in resources. The technical design of this project will adhere to ESF13 - Public Safety and Security standards.

-- Use of a $20,400 regional federal Justice Assistance Grant for Local Law Enforcement grant becoming available thru HVCEO. The chiefs have decided to direct this resource towards improved intermunicipal radio communications.

-- Used HVCEO geographic information system mapping capability for a map identifying locations of all police and fire departments, EMS, EOC, schools and town halls. While local police officers can locate such key facilities in their own communities, the chiefs wanted this tool to better prepare officers for emergency intertown mutual aid.

-- Input to the regional aspects of the intertown Danbury Hospital signage sign.

5. AMERICAN RED CROSS
OF WESTERN CONNECTICUT
Most experienced with response to regional emergencies is the American Red Cross of Western Connecticut, having had a regional focus for its emergency services for many years.

The Red Cross Disaster Response Plan addresses regional disaster services, preparedness training for the community, transportation for the frail, blood drives and a special focus on emergency sheltering.

Services also include a ready Disaster Action Team, Red Cross volunteers who respond to the scenes of local emergencies to provide immediate relief to victims and emergency workers, and maintenance of two trailers equipped with cots and blankets, one in Danbury and one in New Milford.

When in 2005 HVCEO received federal funds to create and support Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), it was the Red Cross that stepped forward to effectively manage the program. CERTs are designed to act as an auxiliary to existing emergency responders in the event of a major disaster.

The CERT program is sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security. It is designed to help train local volunteers in disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, emergency sheltering, and team operations.

The Western CT Red Cross used the federal grant to provide course materials, supplies and instruction. CERT training has been completed in Danbury, New Milford and Redding. CERT training is ongoing.

To the Region’s advantage, the Red Cross makes available the staff services of Rocky Tomlinson, Director of Emergency Services, who assists with developing all of the regional response efforts in this summary.

6. NORTHWEST CT
HAZMAT SERVICE PLANNING
A steering committee for Northwest Connecticut on this subject, known as the Northwest Regional Hazmat Response Team Advisory Board, has formed under the leadership of Torrington Fire Chief John Fields.

The goal is to coordinate and upgrade HAZMAT response from 42 municipalities by logical subarea, including the Greater Danbury - New Milford Area as one of the units. HVCEO appointees Mr. Richard Moss of Bethel and John Mangin of New Milford are participating.

HVCEO is serving as fiduciary for a state planning grant to this group which has engaged Robert Tomlinson as its planning consultant.

-- Reviews in 2003 of municipal emergency operations plans for conformance with federal emergency plan standards. A new terrorism annex for each was also created.

-- Since mid-2004 the Council has served as administrative agent for the finances and contracted consulting services of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Planning Committee.

-- In 2005 the Council published a laminated emergency operations field guide tailored to each community.

-- In 2006 it prepared the technical research report from which the health emergency mutual aid pact was formulated.

-- Since mid-2006 state-local coordination has been enhanced by including on every HVCEO meeting agenda an oral report by the DEMHS Region 5 coordinator.

-- In 2006 and 2007 the Council provided technical support and coordination as to specifications and installation of the regional video conferencing system. This video conferencing system consists of 10 Polycom VSX 7000s end point units and 1 Polycom MGC 25 Bridge. The Housatonic system is set-up to operate over the internet, so each unit and the bridge have a unique IP address.

Each of the VSX 7000s end point units has the capability to video conference with another end point unit, within our system or externally. The bridge gives the system the capability of video conferencing with 3 or more end point units, up to a maximum of 24 end points. However, funding for internet capacity for multiple connections ends 6/30/2009.

-- During 2008 much of the work of identifying emergency response assets for the DEMHS Region 5 Regional Emergency Operations Plan (REOP) is to be undertaken by HVCEO and the other regional planning agencies within the larger DEMHS 5 region. HVCEO will conduct SWOT analyses (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) for all 13 ESF’s.

-- Also in 2008 was the completion, jointly by HVCEO and Danbury Hospital, of a regional “H” hospital emergency directional signage plan. This Plan was prepared in cooperation with area police departments.