NERRTC

Getting information out to the public in times of disaster is vital to saving lives, but it requires planning, training and practice. The Texas Engineering Extension Service’s two-day, grant-funded course, “Public Information in a WMD/Terrorism Incident” (MGT-318), covers the management and technical issues that practitioners must master when dealing with the media during times of crisis.

TEEX’s National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC) is expected to receive as much as $22 million through the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2012, which was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President.

The Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) has announced that the agency will receive $22 million for its National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC), which provides specialized homeland security and preparedness training nationwide.

TEEX’s grant-funded course, MGT 313 – Incident Management/Unified Command,
has been recertified as a blended learning course offered through the DHS/FEMA Homeland Security National Training Program.

TEEX’s Emergency Operations Training Center (EOTC) was the scene recently of a computer-simulated emergency drill for The Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan – the largest and busiest bus terminal in the world. This was the first time the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Lincoln Tunnel had held a joint emergency drill, and about 49 emergency response personnel and officials from New York City and The Port Authority participated in the exercise.

Petrobras America, Inc., part of the Brazilian state-run energy giant Petrobras (Petroleo Brasileiro), has called on TEEX for its expertise and assistance in reviewing and exercising the company’s emergency operations plan.

TEEX’s Emergency Operations Training Center in College Station was transformed last month into Newark Liberty International Airport, where two simulated explosions killed or injured passengers and crippled airport operations. The 50-plus participants from The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, the airport, airlines, and several New Jersey police, fire and EMS agencies responded as if it were a real incident.

The state of Texas has been working with TEEX to prepare for an active 2010 hurricane season that forecasters say could spawn 8-14 hurricanes. A series of planning meetings, tabletop exercises and rehearsal of concept (ROC) drills culminated in two full-scale functional exercises in the Houston-Galveston and Lake Sabine hurricane areas and the regions that shelter their evacuees – completed before June 1, the official beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Emergency personnel responded to a mock explosion of a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) in the New Jersey Marine Terminals during a training exercise only hours after a similar car bomb was discovered across the river in New York City’s Times Square. TEEX’s National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC) evaluated the full-scale exercise on May 2 for The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

The first two emergency management courses held simultaneously for a single jurisdiction – the Enhanced Incident Management/Unified Command and the Enhanced Emergency Operations Center (EOC) courses – were conducted recently for the city of Fort Worth at TEEX’s Emergency Operations Training Center (EOTC).