The Government Dimension

The government of the nation is given the responsibility to protect the community from harm when a major disaster happens. Several organizations, for example, Office of Disaster Management, Executive Yuan in Taiwan, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in America, would publish documents relating to preparedness for, response to, and recovery from disasters. These programs consider the response for emergency relief to the community and what the government and private sections should do to spring back to normal situation from the government’s point view, if the critical infrastructures shut down. Moreover,

different departments will enact relative plans and strategies in the detail, for example United Stated Department of Transportation which provides the transportation recovery rules to reduce the consequences of a disruption.

"Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity

Programs"(2007) is published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) from America. It is developed through a consensus standards development process approved by the American National Standards Institute. The standard provides disaster and emergency

management and business continuity programs, the criteria to assess current programs from varied viewpoints. It can apply to public, not-for-profit, and private entities on fire and other safety issues.

The program shall follow a planning process which is the strategy, prevention, mitigation, emergency operations/response, business continuity, and recovery plans. The objective of each plan is described in Table 2.3.

Plan objectives

The strategic plan define the vision, mission, goals, and objectives of the program.

The emergency

operations/response plan

assign responsibilities for carrying out specific actions in an emergency.

The prevention plan establish interim and long term actions to eliminate hazards that impact the entity.

The mitigation plan establish interim and long term actions to reduce the impact of hazards that cannot be eliminated.

The recovery plan provide for short-term and long-term priorities for restoration of functions, services, resources, facilities, programs, and infrastructure.

The continuity plan (business continuity plans)

identify stakeholders that need to be notified, the critical and time-sensitive applications,

alternative work sites, vital records, contact lists, processes, and functions that shall be maintained, as well as the personnel, procedures, and

resources that are needed while the entity is recovering

Table 2.3 The objective of each plan

The prevention plan and mitigation plan are similar, but the prevention plan emphasizes on how to reduce the occurrence of hazards, however, the mitigation plan emphasizes on how to reduce the impact of hazards when we can’t avoid hazards.

Recovery planning in continuity plans for public sector normally includes bringing infrastructure and individuals back to pre-incident conditions through implementing mitigation measures to facilitate short- and long-term recovery. In addition, continuity of operations plans might use business impact analysis to identify critical governmental functions. Business continuity planning in the private sector incorporates both the initial activities to respond to an emergency situation and the restoration of its functions to

pre-incident levels. The meanings of both plans in public sector and private sector are much the same, but still have difference.

In this study, recovering plan and continuity plan are much close to what we want to explore.

From the government viewpoint, the transportation network takes millions of people to and from work, school, and vacation destinations every day, and transports goods and services from one coast to the other. (Office of Intelligence, Security, and Emergency Response, 2009) Critical infrastructures in transportation systems play an essential role in communitywide disaster mitigation, response, and recovery. Therefore, they are high-priority targets for resilience enhancement. (Tierney & Bruneau, 2007)

Private transportation industry stakeholder, defined in “The National Transportation Recovery Strategy (NTRS) (2009)”, is an owner or manager of a private company specializing in transportation services, assets, systems, or infrastructure, for example,

transportation carriers and third party logistics in Taiwan. For the government standpoint, the role of private transportation industry stakeholder is responsible for the local community to deliver goods and play an assistance role in rescue when a disaster occurs, so it is vital to the effective, safe, and timely recovery and restoration of its own transportation system or infrastructure. NTRS (2009) provides the recommendations on how private transportation industry stakeholders can prepare for and manage the transportation recovery process. We review the recovery actions that are took before and after an incident.

Before an incident

1. Enter into Mutual Aid Agreements: In accordance with applicable laws and regulations, entering into mutual aid agreements can obtain assistance with other transportation industry stakeholders.

2. Coordinate with Government and Other Transportation Industry

Stakeholders: Coordination efforts among all private companies or organizations and government involved in the transportation network recovery process are vital to ensuring that restoration occurs safely and quickly.

3. Train: Train the staff to serve as technical or subject-matter experts in the response and recovery phases. Pre-identify these essential employees for the

transportation operation and set expectations and requirements so they can respond the incident quickly with no confusion.

4. Improve Materials and Construction Methods: Through risk assessments for the transportation entity, it can understand what those risks are and the probability of occurrence on the infrastructure. In order to mitigate these risks, the transportation entity can use the result of risk assessments to make improvements to the materials and

construction methods when building and maintaining the transportation asset or infrastructure.

5. Develop a Business Impact Analysis: Develop a business impact analysis (BIA) for the company to determine the financial losses that could incur if the company and the transportation system or infrastructure were to be damaged or destroyed. Consider the economic, logistical, and social impacts that the loss would inflict on the community at large.

6. Develop a Continuity of Operations Plan: Using the results from BIA, the companies are strongly encouraged to develop a business continuity and recovery plan for the transportation service, system, or infrastructure. Further, companies are

encouraged to review, exercise, and enhance the continuity of operations plans on a

regular basis. There are several approaches needed to consider in continuity plans.

(National Fire Protection Association, 2007)

(1) Succession: To designate at least three successors for each position to ensure that the leadership will continue to function effectively under emergency conditions.

(2) Pre-delegation of emergency authorities: To ensure that sufficient enabling measures are in effect to continue operations under emergency conditions.

Emergency authorities have been enacted that specify the essential duties to be performed by the leadership during the emergency period and that enable the leadership to act if other associated entities are disrupted, and to re-delegate with appropriate limitations.

(3) Emergency action steps: Actions that facilitate the ability of personnel to respond quickly and efficiently to disasters/emergencies. Checklists, action lists, and/or standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been written that identify emergency assignments, responsibilities, and emergency duty locations. Procedures should also exist for alerting, notifying, locating, and recalling key members of the entity. The SOPs and notification procedures should be integrated.

(4) Primary and alternate emergency operations centers: A facility or capability from which direction and control is exercised in an emergency. This type of center or capability is designated to ensure that the capacity exists for the leadership to direct and control operations from a centralized facility or capability in the event of an emergency.

(5) Alternate operating or backup facilities: Provisions also exist for alternate site(s) for departments or agencies having emergency functions or continuing operations.

During Recovery

After the incident occurred, the government suggests the private transportation industry stakeholder doing the following actions to respond it.

1. Conduct Damage Assessments: Be prepared to assess the impact of the incident on your transportation service, system, or infrastructure and the impact this damage has on the overall transportation network.

2. Help the government to implement the recovery actions : During the recovery period, the private transportation industry stakeholder should be fully involved in all means of information sharing in coordination with government and other private companies.

Company’s employees may be asked to advise government decision-makers, so the company may provide subject-matter expertise’s suggestions to the government. The company also should prepare to provide critical transportation resources to community for critical facilities, such as hospitals, during the initial response and recovery phase.

3. Implement Improved Materials and Construction Methods: The new, improved materials and construction methods may be strongly encouraged or required by regulators to prevent similar damage from occurring again.