Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area, but is the most sparsely

populated. It is over 600,000 square miles, but has only 1,900 miles of principal or inter-state roads. Thirty percent of the population lives in communities that cannot be accessed by road or ferry. Due to the State’s immense size, diverse geography, extreme weather, and rugged terrain, Alaska’s first respond-ers are put to exceptional tests of their skills compared to their counterparts in the Lower 48 states.

George Coyle, Specialist with the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, says one of the

biggest challenges they face in Alaska is geography. “Because the population of the state is scattered across a geographic area twice the size of Texas with a transporta-tion infrastructure the size of Vermont, it can create major logistical hurdles and also increase response costs.” He says that because so many communities are only accessible by boat or air transport, first responders will use four-wheeler vehicles for travel during the summer, and snow machines and sleds during the winter.

Oscar Delpino is an EMS technician in Cordova. Cordova is a land-locked town that is only accessible by plane or ferry. The

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Maritime Survey Identifies Training Gaps page 4

Rail Car Incident Response Training page 5

Seminoles Improve Event Security page 6

Volume 3, Summer 2010

Rural Preparedness QuarterlyTraining and Information for America’s Rural Communities

Inside

Alaska’s first responders battle extreme weather and terrain

2 RDPC www.ruraltraining.org

nearest towns are Whittier or Valdez, which can take as long as 3.5 hours to reach during the summer months to 6.5 hours during the winter months. Help is a long way away. Sometimes, Delpino says, planes cannot land due to poor visibility, and if they are also experiencing mechanical difficulties with the ferry, it poses a logistical chal-lenge. Some towns like Skagway may be as many as 72 hours away from mutual aid

from other U.S. responders, and, there-fore, need to consider turning to Canada, which is only two hours away, through the Pacific NorthWest Emergency Management Arrangement (PNWEMA) treaty.

David Gibbs, Director of Emergency Operations in Fairbanks located in central Alaska, says his department’s location is very isolated, despite the 100,000 population living there. Fairbanks is located between two mountain ranges, and climate is very extreme with temperatures running from 50 below in winter to over 90 in summer. Further, 90%of the area of Fairbanks has no roadway system. Gibbs explains that “on average it takes

seven7 hours for the responders in the region to get aid to the local people from the closest area (Anchorage), but depending on the type of disaster, it could take longer.” Gibbs says they are also at risk for earthquakes and flooding in his area.

“Major storms that threaten these communities can also keep response assistance from being available for days,” says Coyle. Coyle adds that if a major event occurs mid-winter, there may be no daylight for weeks in which to respond.

Jodie Hetrick, State Fire Training Director and volunteer firefighter from the Central Mat-Su Burrough has seen geography play a role in response times. “For our statewide hazmat team to get them on site to a big event is going to take time. It’s not like stateside where they hop in the rigs and head out. Quite often we’re going to have to fly – if something happens in Juneau, they’re going to fly people there. Prudhoe Bay is an example. Their school caught on fire and burned down half the community and we were sending firefighters from Nome and Bethel by plane for back up. Some of the first people on the ground were deputy fire marshals from Anchorage and they had to set up the ICS system. The fire had been burning for hours and that was the only way to get there. We had to make sure we had planes available. We don’t have a fleet of airplanes available – it’s all commercial flights, so making things like that happen is way different. It would be like responding...your back up is going to be Dallas, Texas and you are responding to Los Angeles. You’re their mutual aid is the best way to describe it.”

Besides dealing with remote distances, Alaska responders are subject to tempera-ture extremes. Hetrick says firefighters face challenges with personnel and equipment that would never be an issue for responders in the rest of the United States. “There are temperature extremes – super cold with winds - the conditions you are working in you have to take super good care of your equipment and your people and you have to watch everything a bit more,” says Hetrick.

While many stateside firefighters have to be concerned about water conservation, it is not an issue in Alaska, says Hetrick. What they do have to contend with is freezing water hoses and other equipment. “We circulate water a lot, we never shut them off. You always have water flowing, and yeah, if you’re going to break down it’s like an orchestra. You have to do stuff very measured. When you shut down lines and you don’t shut everything down at the same

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Extreme Responders

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www.ruraltraining.org RDPC 3

time unless you’ve got a huge amount of staff and it’s even worse the farther north you go.” Her colleague, Doug Frey, Fire Chief from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope says they carry burners to melt the couplings enough to get them apart when disconnecting the hoses. “There’s times when we have to bring in low boy flat beds and we literally bring in front end loaders and we pick up frozen hoses up like logs and load them on these low boys and haul them out. “

Frey says that because they are covered in water from fighting fires, quite often every-thing is frozen over when they come out. Face shields and the valves of SCBAs occa-sionally will freeze up. “You’ve seen those commercial grade heat guns? Kind of like a big hair dryer. Our rehab center on the slope we carry those in there and then we have guys working rehab and they’ll take those heat guns and they’ll thaw out the buckles on the air pack and the turn out gear enough so you can actually get out of it and change it out, and it’s a whole different animal.”

Delpino agrees that the temperature is a concern on the equipment. “The worst case scenario is frozen equipment. If you don’t turn it on and off every other day, you will not be sure if your equipment will respond in colder temperatures. Fire trucks, chain saws, generators, lighting, hydraulic

equipment such as the jaws of life, are all in danger of wearing out much faster.”

Gibbs of Fairbanks says they can mitigate some of the problems by using equipment that is specially designed to work well in Arctic environments. They make adjust-ments in other areas too. “We can’t do wet decontamination for HAZMAT events, so we looked into alternatives and built warm decon units at hospital emergency rooms instead.”

Extreme cold is expected, but heat also poses a problem for Alaska’s responders, where some areas not only face 90 degrees Fahrenheit and above, but 24-hour daylight. “Most people think we’re a pretty cold place, but Fairbanks, for example, can have 100 degree temperature shifts in a day. They can go from 40 below to 60 above.” Hetrick adds that summertime in Fairbanks and the inte-rior can see temperatures well into the 90s. While many places in the Lower 48 contend with high summer heat, it can be more devastating in Alaska. “We’ve had a couple of communities that hit 100 and because we get 24 hours of daylight in the summer, heat stroke, and heat issues are extreme up there,” says Hetrick.

Still, Hetrick says, it’s what first respond-ers in Alaska are used to. She says that only when sharing stories with responders in other parts of the United States do the differences become apparent. “When we’re talking about how we respond on scene that the best temperature to fight fires is 20 degrees they look at you like you’re head is spinning around... because you’re not too hot, too cold, stuff doesn’t freeze too quick. When they talk about wearing refrigerant vests we’re thinking really? Seriously?”

To read more about RDPC course deliveries in Alaska, see the article on AWR 147 delivery in Wasilla, AK in this issue. To learn more about RDPC and other course deliveries, visit www.ruraltraining.org.

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Extreme Responders

4 RDPC www.ruraltraining.org

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Established in 2005 by Congress, the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consor-

tium (RDPC) develops and delivers all-hazards preparedness training to rural communities across America. The mission of the RDPC is to coordinate the develop-ment and delivery of preparedness train-ing in support of rural homeland security requirements and facilitate relevant infor-

mation sharing. The RDPC targets the most specific audiences in its training efforts, such as emergency responders along inland navigable waterways. These waterways have unique safety and security issues, which require specific training for all agencies responsible for the planning of and response to security incidents.

Although the RDPC currently offers training to address safety and security issues in rural port areas and inland waterways (AWR 144 Port and Vessel Security for Public Safety and Maritime Personnel), the training needs and gaps of rural public safety and maritime personnel are only known anecdotally. Consequently, in 2009, the RDPC conducted a training needs survey of this responder population as a means to fill a void in this gap of essential information.

The sample drawn for the study was comprised of public safety and maritime personnel from 30 rural ports and inland waterways across the United States. The sample represented four emergency responder disciplines affiliated with mari-time security and safety, including law enforcement (LE), fire services (FS), emergency management agency personnel

(EMAP), and port authority/security (PAS). Respondents were asked not only about

their backgrounds, but were questioned regarding their personal training delivery experiences and preferences, and asked to identify what they perceive as training needs and gaps. Respondents to the survey identified the costs associated with training, such as cost of travel and the cost of train-ing itself, as the most significant barriers to training attendance. When training is received, respondents indicated a preference for traditional classroom-based training, while also showing significant preference for hands-on training.

The study attempted to identify train-ing needs and gaps among the respondents across an array of areas within maritime security and safety, including Incident Command Systems (ICS), Transportation

Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), regulation-related training, small vessel security, and leadership training.

First, surprisingly, more than half of the respondents indicated some kind of need for training across various ICS training areas. It is concerning when taking into consider-ation with the fact that while ICS training is not mandatory for security personnel of high-risk marine terminals, it is, however, an essential component of maritime safety and security. An additional concern is the need for ICS training within the LE and FS respondents, which comprised over two-thirds of the sample. Compliance with ICS training requirements within the LE and FS disciplines, as well as other first responder disciplines (i.e., EMAP), is mandatory for jurisdictions to be eligible for federal preparedness funding.

Second, TWIC is a nation-wide mari-time security initiative that has occupied the attention and resources of both industry and government for several years. There are circumstances concerning TWIC that may constitute a security emergency. A third of the respondents indicated some kind of need for training, which is not surprising since RDPC has found anecdotal evidence supporting a lack of sufficient knowledge about TWIC in its delivery of AWR 144, especially among law enforcement person-nel. It may be possible that if responders had more knowledge about TWIC and the security circumstances concerning TWIC, this figure would be much higher.

Third, interesting responses were received under the field of regulation-driven training. Two-thirds of the respondents indicated some type of need for training in conducting drills and exercises, which matches an industry need discovered anecdotally by RDPC. Furthermore, this area frequently generates deficiencies during annual U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) security compliance inspections.

The study also yielded interesting find-ings with regard to training needs and small vessel security issues in rural port areas. A majority of the respondents reported that they did not have as a sufficient level of knowledge about small vessel security

RDPC Conducts Maritime Security Survey

www.ruraltraining.org RDPC 5

issues. The small vessel threat is arguably one of the major threats to the U.S. maritime transportation system. Further, in recent years the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified threats from small vessels as a major area of concern for ports. Of those respondents who indicated that a threat from a small vessel is a major concern for their port area, they were then asked to describe specific security measures that have been developed to mitigate the threat. Respondents provided a range of responses to this question, including:• Increase in the presence of the USCG; • Developing more physical security

measures; • Implementing more effective policy; and • Receiving more training.

Currently, RDPC is in the process of developing a DHS approved small vessel security course to address these identified training needs.

Many of the training needs identified above underscore the desire for or need for interagency cooperation. Under the field of leadership training, the sub-topic of multi-agency coordination for maritime security was identified as a need by almost two-thirds of respondents. The emphasis on partnership and cooperation was reinforced by the responses to the question concerning resources to handle an unusually chal-lenging security situation. The responses indicated that by themselves, the respon-dents felt that they could not handle such a situation. In partnership with responding

agencies on a local, state, and federal level, however, they did have the resources to handle such a situation.

The findings of this study provide a great deal of substance for the RDPC with regard to training curriculum and future research. The RDPC will utilize the information gath-ered in this study to refine, where appropri-ate, training curriculum and develop new training in order to continue meeting the training needs of rural emergency respond-ers who are associated with rural ports and inland waterways. To view the complete report, please visit the RDPC Website at: www.ruraltraining.org/news/item/training-needs-survey-rural-public-safety-and-mari-time-personnel-2010.

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Maritime Survey

Rural first responders, emergency managers, and even railroad officials in and around the South Central region of Alaska are

better prepared to respond to a freight rail car incident involving hazardous materials (Hazmat) after receiving training delivered by the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium (RDPC). RDPC provided critical training in rail car incident response to 47 participants—mostly volunteer firefighters on the frontlines of protecting their home communities—giving them valuable information they will need if or when such an incident should occur in the State of Alaska.

AWR 147 Rail Car Incident Response, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)-certified course presented free of charge to students, introduces the rural responder community to basic rail car design and construction features as well as damage assessment strategies to help interpret damage to rail cars in a Hazmat incident. Upon completion of the course, participants will be better prepared to respond to a freight car incident without endangering the health and safety of the responders and the environment.

Captain Rusty Lassell of the Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Depart-ment in the small town of Healy said he traveled 400 miles round-trip to attend the eight-hour, instructor-led course held earlier this year in Wasilla. “We felt that with the Alaska Railroad traveling the length of the Denali Borough it was important we got as much train-ing as possible,” Lassell said. “This training gave us the understand-ing we needed to enable us to respond safely to a rail car incident, and the knowledge to find important paperwork and personnel upon arrival at the scene.”

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RDPC Delivers Rail Car Incident Response Training To South Central Alaska

6 RDPC www.ruraltraining.org

The Alaska Railroad, which carries both freight and passengers, extends from Seward and Whittier in the south, passing through Anchorage and beyond to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the interior of the State. Denali Borough, gateway to Denali National Park, is one of 16 boroughs in Alaska located between Fairbanks North Star and Mat-Su Boroughs.

“The training was very useful and profes-sional,” Lassell added. “It was extremely beneficial to us as responders and emer-gency managers as it increases our level of awareness to the different types of rail cars that could be involved in an accident.”

George Coyle, Emergency Management Specialist with the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said the training instilled in him a greater sense of preparedness in the event of a freight rail car incident. “The training provided a more complete under-standing of the issue and what we can do to better protect rural communities and

increase the odds of a good response if there is a derailment or possible terrorist act,” he said. “After completing the training, I feel better prepared should something occur.”

James Seeberger, Hazardous Materials Manager for the Alaska Railroad Corpora-tion in Anchorage, participated in the train-ing along with other volunteer firefighters and first responders. “My overall experience with this training was very good,” Seeberger said. “I am a railroad professional and I attended to stay current with emergency response technology and methodology as well as network with local responders.”

The training, developed by the Ohio-based University of Findlay, an academic partner of the RDPC, was held on a weekend earlier in the year in Wasilla, which is the largest city in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough located in the South Central region of Alaska. “The class was conducted on a Saturday to provide training to a largely volunteer group,” Seeberger recalled. ”Many of these responders could not have afforded travel or time off to

attend this training at another location during normal business hours.”

As more and more rail traffic involves the transportation of valuable cargo and hazardous materials, the RDPC is provid-ing critical training that not only helps rural first responders in Alaska but other emergency management teams in other rural communities throughout the United States react more effectively to a freight rail car incident. In 2008, the Federal Railway Administration (FRA) reported there were more than 7,000 rail car accidents and incidents in which 20 involved hazardous materials requiring the evacuation of over 5,000 people. In the last five years, there have been 166 incidents involving hazardous materials, most of which occurred in rural America, according to the FRA.

For further information on the AWR 147 course or RDPC in general, visit the RDPC web site at www.ruraltraining.org. To sched-ule this or any other RDPC training, please contact the RDPC at (877) 855-7372.

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Rail Car Incident Response

IMPROVING EVENT SECURITYSeminole Tribe takes advantage of MGT 335

The Seminole tribe of Native Ameri-cans, located in the State of Florida, is spread over six reservations. In fact, they have more contiguous reservations than any tribe in North America. Geography can present special problems for tribal police, who must cover the widespread area from Hollywood, Florida in the south to Tampa in the north – a distance of more than 250 miles. Although the total population is only about 3,300 enrolled members, the population of a single reservation can swell into the tens of thousands during a planned event. These unique challenges are what inter-ested the tribe in the RDPC MGT 335 Event Security Planning for Public Safety Professionals course, which was recently delivered at the tribal headquarters in Hollywood.

The 16-hour instructor led course is designed to educate small and rural

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www.ruraltraining.org RDPC 7

RDPC Academic Partners

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community public safety personnel as well as local officials regarding security concerns and considerations involved with planning any event. The course enables participants to recognize and plan adequate strategies and security measures to prevent or mitigate security incidents which may occur during a scheduled event.

“The course has enlightened me as well as others that any particular event is going to bring unique challenges and it’s a matter of formulating a game plan according to the event,” said George Gonzalez, Training Sergeant for the Seminole Police Depart-ment. Gonzalez was one of 32 officers who took the course to help prepare for events like the Langorado Music Festival on the Big Cypress Reservation, where the population of 1,000 can reach as many as 60,000 during the event. There are no major thoroughfares to get to the reservation and no shelters, so weather and geographic location become consideration factors. “We are involved in hosting quite a number of events throughout the year, and they range from low key to very high profile where there are internationally known celebrities and athletes, so the class would certainly go hand and hand with being able to be better prepared and educated. This type of train-ing will help us to provide it for all members of the Seminole Police Department, as well as other agencies we might need to assist us in the process,” said Gonzalez.

Members of the Seminole Police Depart-ment found that the course helped them

to plan for the “what ifs” said Gonzalez. “Training is always mentally preparing so when it does happen you know how to react.” He says the course helps them develop a check list so they can react instinctively based on their training. “Your lack of training is going to cause major stress, chaos, confusion, and definitely compromise further the safety of the citizens attending.”

Since RDPC delivers training directly to the first response community that requests it, agencies like the Seminole Police Depart-ment can host the training at a location that is convenient to everyone who needs to

take the course. “We determined a central-ized location to get everybody to drive an equal amount of time, considering we are so geographically spread out. Traditional training has always been a challenge for us because of that, but this course allows us to adapt and overcome that,” said Gonzalez.

Lt. Jim Polan of the Seminole PD, who requested the training delivery for the Seminole officers, says he wanted to take advantage of the course to enhance the tribe’s existing programs, and invite local law enforcement partners to get a chance to meet and network with them before any future events. He says each of the six reservations have their own unique venues, including casinos like the Hard Rock, which are owned by the Seminole tribe. “Immo-kalee is a large reservation with a casino, and they have a festival coming up with live bands, open to the public, alcohol involved, so obviously this particular training has already pointed out some issues that relate directly to that event on risk assessment,” said Polan. He also said that the course helps with assessing adequate staffing, analyzing threats and going back over basics of policies and procedures that you have in place to make sure you have a safe and secure event.

For more information on the MGT 335 course or RDPC in general, email info@rural-training.org or visit www.ruraltraining.org.

PostalBulk Code

#0000Rural Domestic Preparedness ConsortiumJustice and Safety CenterEastern Kentucky University521 Lancaster Avenue, 50 Stratton BuildingRichmond, KY 40475-3102

This project was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number 2007-GD-T7-K007 administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency, Training & Exercises Integration/Train-ing Operations (TEI/TO). Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

To schedule training contact the RDPC • info@ruraltraining.org • 877-855-7372Register online at www.ruraltraining.org

RDPC TRaining EvEnTsJuly 19 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Marquette, IA

July 20 - AWR 147 Rail Car Incident Response, Dickson, TN

July 21 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Adams, MN

July 27 - MGT 335 Event Security Planning for Public Safety Professionals, Tavares, FL

July 28 – AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Ottumwa, IA

July 29 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Forsyth, GA

July 29 - MGT 381 Business Continuity and Emergency Management, Tavares, FL

July 29 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Dagsboro, DE

July 29 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Salisbury, MD

July 29 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Salisbury, MD

July 30 - AWR 147 Rail Car Incident Response, Forsyth, GA

August 2-3 - MGT 335 Event Security Planning for Public Safety Professionals, Lansing, MI

August 3-4 - MGT 335 Event Security Planning for Public Safety Professionals, Marion, IL

August 4 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Avon Park, FL

August 5 - AWR 147 Rail Car Incident Response, Independence, KS

August 16 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Cresco, IA

August 17 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Cresco, IA

August 25 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Mineral Wells, TX

September 9-10 - MGT 335 Event Security Planning for Public Safety Professionals, Forsyth, GA

September 10 - AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement & the Local School Systems, Batavia, OH

September 28 - AWR 144 Port and Vessel Security for Public Safety and Maritime Personnel, Guntersville, AL