April – June 2019, Vol. 2
New Hampshire School Safety Resource Center
On March 7th, the New Hampshire School Safety Resource Center was launched. The Resource Center is a direct result of the NH Governor’s School Safety Task Force’s recommendation 49 to “establish and maintain a complete and centralized school safety preparedness online resource center to make it easier for schools and interested parties to access relevant information.”
The goal of the New Hampshire School Safety Resource Center is to have a central location of the resources available to assist educators, emergency responders, community organizations, school mental health professionals, families and students in creating safe, positive and successful educational environments for students in all New Hampshire schools.
You can sign up to be notified of updates to the resource center, as well as upload any resources that your community has that might be useful to others. Go to https://schoolsafetyresources.nh.gov/ to check out this great new resource for New Hampshire.
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Preparedness at Every Level
Granite Pine participants worked through problems presented by the scenario at locations throughout New Hampshire and Maine.
NH HSEM is proud of their community preparedness partnerships at every level. Recently, HSEM participated in the Granite Pine Functional Exercise, which brought together agencies and staff from New Hampshire, Maine, and the Federal Government to respond to an imaginary incident on the Piscataqua River Bridge in Portsmouth, NH. FEMA, NH HSEM, MEMA, Portsmouth and Kittery emergency responders, as well as the NH and ME National Guard, all came together to participate in this exercise.
In addition to Granite Pine, HSEM is looking forward to working with our state and federal partners in similar exercises. Currently scheduled are:
- Crimson Contagion – The Crimson Contagion 2019 Exercise Series is a four-part nationwide series that includes two tabletop exercises and a seminar to examine issues related to information exchange, coordination of resources, and policy decisions in a non-Stafford Act environment, with a non-traditional lead federal agency, in accordance with the Biological Incident Annex and Presidential Policy Directive #44. The Full Scale Exercise is scheduled for August 13-16, 2019.
- GridEd V Exercise: Training &Exercise will be assisting with the Eversource GridED V Exercise scheduled for November 13-14, 2019. The focus will be the response to a physical attack on an electric facility and the coordination activities between federal, state and local officials.
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NH HSEM Planning Updates
On April 5, 2019 the Interagency Hazard Mitigation Team (IHMT) review committee assembled to prioritize and rank mitigation projects for the final two Presidential Disaster Declarations (HMGP DR4370/DR4371) which occurred in March 2018. Three projects were prioritized for submission to FEMA for review:
- Town of Lee Tuttle Road Culvert Project
- Town of Plymouth Look Lake Culvert Project
- Town of Grafton Wild Meadows Road Culvert Project
HSEM and stakeholders continue to work through the SEOP update. Subcommittee groups have been formed and are meeting on a regular basis to update applicable sections of the Base Plan and Annexes.
HSEM is in process of building out the EMPG FFY 2019 Application. As a reminder eligible sub-applicants can submit applications for consideration via our Resource Center at: https://prd.blogs.nh.gov/dos/hsem/?page_id=225. Per the EMPG Guidance, high priority projects include:
- Development or update of LEOPs.
- Development or update of COOP Plans.
- Equipment to support/enhance the capabilities of PRIMARY EOCs (Maximum Award: $40,000.00).
- Backup power for PRIMARY EOCs (Maximum Award: $75,000.00).
- Backup power for PRIMARY shelters (Maximum Award: $75,000.00).
- Backup power for water and sewer treatment facilities (Maximum Award: $75,000.00).
- Backup power for critical communication structures – i.e., towers with communications equipment (Maximum Award: $25,000.00).
- School emergency notification systems for public schools and law enforcement agencies (the grant award shall not exceed $1,800.00 per school building and $120.00 per police device/terminal).
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Northwood Elementary School Reunification TTX
On Tuesday 4/9, HSEM assisted the town of Northwood in a school reunification tabletop exercise. Representatives from the local school, fire and police departments collaborated to work through the plan to get students and parents reunited after an incident.
The Push for Reunification
Training and Exercises has seen an increase in interest for reunification exercises over the past several weeks. From all across the state, communities have requested exercises on this often overlooked component of preparedness. Reunification exercises are often passed over in lieu of categories like Active Threat or Weather Emergencies, but they are vital part of community preparedness. The process of reunification is both time and labor intensive and will rely on a solid foundation of understanding to implement.
Recently, Littleton schools partnered with the local responders to participate in a reunification tabletop exercise. A full scale exercise is scheduled for mid-June. Similarly, a reunification exercise series is planned for Northwood starting this month
If you are interested discussing a reunification exercise series for your community, please reach out to your HSEM Field Representative.
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HSEM Staff Spotlight
Meet the Radiological Instrument Maintenance and Calibration Team
The members of the RIMC division work with NH emergency responders, especially in the communities of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant Emergency Planning Zone, to keep their radiation monitoring equipment up to date and running with perfect accuracy. Members of the team take in, test, calibrate, and return radiological testing equipment to our NH partners. The RIMC team consists of Monroe Bean, Greg Kaylor, Robert Sardinskas and William Small.
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Annual State House Easter Egg Hunt
Ready the Prepared Puppy joined his friends Governor Chris Sununu, the Easter Bunny, Sparky the fire dog, and Smokey Bear to help the children of New Hampshire celebrate Easter during the Annual State House Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 6th.
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Congratulations to new Department of Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn and Assistant Commissioner Perry Plummer on their confirmations by the NH Executive Council on April 17th.
