Introduction
The crucial infrastructure areas are normally assets and systems that guarantee everyday actions are conducted sufficiently and add to individual and sustainability or society aims. The infrastructure’s failure could affect the outcome in the incapacitation of the governmental purposes and could extremely risk the state’s tasks of safety and welfare. One of the areas that I have spotted and settled to address in this paper is the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) (Jones, 2017). It comprises a society of high-experienced people equipped and trained to provide, respond, prepare, and prevent retrieval facilities to the residents throughout everyday emergencies and operations. The ESS sufficiently works with the policies of physical and cyber resources, which is essential for allocating facilities to a wider geographical place. The area comprises an organized setup structure with a chain of directives disbursed across the many states. It includes tactical preparation in linking the numerous shareholders, for example, volunteers, in enlarging the reply to efforts. The ESS comprises respondents of management systems, law implementers, public works, medical personnel, and fire and rescue amenities. They work together liable on their parts of proficiency to attain the common goals of reducing disaster effects and deliberating daily happenings. This paper deliberates a detailed study of the Emergency Services Sector and delivers a detailed knowledge of its significance in national security and sustainability.
Policies Directing Emergency Services Sector
The ESS is planned below the strategic planning frameworks, which contains the advancement of objectives and goals and the help of a vision and mission statement. The invention of the area’s mission plans should comprise a proactive direction of protective actions where the partnership is the first method. The initiatives are placed according to the presidential orders to the general Federal Departments and agencies (Borg, 2022). The vision statement is steered by the dire desire to manage the dangers related to the area. It traces the features of coordination of information structures, crucial support structures, and personnel protection as essential parts of confirming that emergency response actions are conveyed in an extraordinary, timely, and coordinated way to form public assurance in the flexibility of the area.
Placing the objectives of ESS was a type of partnership that involved the applicable departmental organizations related to the division to ensure that all the problems regarding Americans’ well-being and safety were sufficiently addressed at the local and national levels. The emphasis on developing the objectives entailed the human life values and protection priorities of the physical assets connected to the sector. The ESS trusts in a common duty, which contains a partnership with the various partners and community members to enable the formation of well-informed features of sustainability and safety (Borg, 2022). The survival of the sector’s capability is another essential element of the policy structure whereby the goals and objectives are developed following the available resources and information systems to foster resilience and enhance the smoothness of operations. The goals of the ESS are oriented and observe timely targets to ensure that progress is monitored and contributions to the vision statement are covered.
The sector is also made of a segment called value proposition, whereby it provides the relevant partners with a structure of mutual benefits they standards to encounter when engaging fully with the development and implementation of the protective initiatives. The collaboration indicates adopting national procedure and policy over the continual expansion of organizational capability that would influence the alterations of supervisory standards at the homeland security of infrastructure protection. The partnership efforts likewise foster development and research plans that target evolving the jurisdiction and strategies of the sector’s mission goals continually to match the emerging trends of security and protection. Each partner is reflected as an essential asset in refining the risk management activities, business perspectives, and operational processes of the ESS.
Structure and Function of the Sector
To further address the hardships of critical infrastructure, the ESS sector is made under a diversity of service elements that point to disintegrating the incident management functions and making the goals attainable. The feature of teamwork orders the part to express emergency facilities disciplines that would expand the range of assistance and confirm that all the sustainability and safety requirements are enclosed during the short and long-term function. The major purpose of the ESS is to aid recoveries of communities affected by a tragedy, guard the property and environment, and warrant the people’s safety. The part is split into networks, systems, and assets and incorporated into physical, cyber, and human elements to safeguard that its jobs cover the further essential scope of security and sustainability requirements. The ESS comprises five disciplines: public works, law enforcement, emergency management, fire and emergency services, and emergency medical services. These basic parts allow the roles to be disbursed distinctively and proportionally to improve effectiveness and efficiency throughout response and planning activities. There are competencies: Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Search and Rescue, Aviation Units, Hazards and Materials, Public Safety Answering Points, and Special Weapons and Tactical Operations. They build the part’s effective implementation and performance procedure at the territorial, state, ethnic, and local stages.
The deliberation of ESS as a critical infrastructure segment is by the detail that it comprises a broad distribution of facilities, equipment, and capable staff across diverse geographical relocation that attends to the main role of security. It likewise considerably relies on complex communication technologies to direct and handle its varied factors at the community, state, and local levels. The physical parts included in ESS comprise storage, transportation, training, support, and operations services. The area relies on these requirements to conduct its everyday activities as needed for the mobility and mechanical purposes of the area. The ESS is likewise made of the cyber section, which comprises the electronic, networks, database management, and communication structures that allows it to undertake IT roles and handle cyber-connected problems. The human element is likewise a deliberation because the main roles of safety and sustainability in CIKR point to refining the value of life. The ESS is composed of thousands of career personnel and millions of volunteers who pledge to talk about Americans’ security and safety requirements at a professional level.
Regulatory Instruments that Determine Standards and Procedures
Homeland Security Act (2002)
This act is built below the cabinet-level section that warrants that Americans are safeguarded from human-triggered and natural risks by providing strategic and legal methods for security problems. According to Brook and King (2007), this legislative instrument defines the necessity of conserving the CIKR as a section of the National Preparedness Goal. It brings out a complete assessment of parts of weaknesses and expresses national tactical ideas for closing these gaps. This act conveys a platform for the execution of the presidential directives (HSPD-7) over a joined method of the national groups in safeguarding the Americans.
Critical Infrastructure Information Act (2002)
As shared in the DHS outline, this supervisory instrument allows members of the public to be comprised in intelligence data administration with the help of a methodical plan for the happy sharing of delicate data. The act warrants a suitable procedure of utilizing, collecting, and analyzing intelligence data to boost Americans’ sustainability and security levels.
Changes of ESS in the Post-9/11 Commission Era
A major part of modification in ESS management in line with the 9/11 proposals required the growth of subunits levels that would extend the allocation of responsibilities and duties of intelligence assessment and reaction actions across the community, state, and local levels (Cevik, 2015). By this method, the division could now manage emergency wants at the regional and national levels with the assurance of competence. This element is seen in the method assumed by the part to form the five disciplines of providing human, physical, and cyber services.
ESS Vulnerabilities and its Potential Threats
The major parts of examining the ESS vulnerabilities comprise protective measures, security management, dependencies, information sharing, and physical security. Data sharing factors comprise data platforms and sources for data-sharing, revealing the danger of losing important data value and disorienting the normal working. The physical safety factors comprise fences, gates, vehicles, parking spaces, intrusion detection systems, office buildings, etc., which reveals the ESS to natural and terrorism tragedies, such as hurricanes (Cevik, 2015). Dependencies comprise water, transportation, telecommunication, natural gas, electricity, and information technology, which reveal the area to staff mistakes, for instance, insider threats and pandemic flu. Finally, the protective vulnerabilities comprise unrealistic regulatory standards, random policy structures, and new protective measures that pressure the intelligence systems and reduce the value of resources of the area, therefore revealing it to limited capacities for handling events.
PART II
Historical Incident that Affected ESS
Hurricane Katrina is an outstanding historical event that enormously touched the ESS. Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) was mainly answerable for carrying the recovery, planning, responding, and mitigating facilities throughout this disaster (Deryugina et al.,2018). FEMA is reflected as a portion of the ESS division because its major purposes comprise assessment, collection, implementation, planning, and analysis of safety and response actions regarding an occurrence. It is a federal agency that has followed the 9/11 Commission proposals regarding expressing local and state elements for addressing occurrence problems. The ESS is legally managed, controlled, and organized under the FEMA outlines.
Hurricane Katrina occurred in August 2005; a steamy storm developed along the Bahama’s coast, which enlarged to a disastrous event and led to landfall along with Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. The tropical storm triggered a substantial effect of damage to properties and damage to human lives in this area. It became one of the most critical natural tragedies in the USA, killing more than 1,300 individuals in New Orleans. The report printed on the morning of 29th August regarding the unfolding of the incidents throughout the disaster management added further disappointment and sorrow to the people of America. It showed the government’s inability to respond, prepare, and plan for the emergency. The following flooding resulted in additional damage and property deaths below the state and federal government’s watch without much success in the incident management. The FEMA outline comprised a 600-page strategy that included the management of governmental activities and assimilation of community, state, and local partnerships, which, once actualization, displayed no fruits but instead caused additional errors and flaws that directed to the loss of many lives and additional properties. Throughout this time, though President Bush, the government recognized its contribution to the failure of handling Hurricane Katrina, regardless of having taught from past occurrences like 11th September. From these comments, the president guided a widespread review of the emergency facility conveyed throughout the hurricane and the essential changes to be started to improve management, preparedness, and prevention of future tragedies.
New Orleans was 80 percent swamped with water nearly six to twenty feet high, which led to challenges of emergency services deliveries, which comprise rescue and search missions. The event started by touching the physical pieces of ESS, comprising the mobile radio systems, storage, training, and functions services of emergency response divisions and carriage means, for example, cars for shipping essential response resources. Then, the cyber factors of ESS were ruined by the hurricane, counting emergency operations communications networks, data technology systems, database management, and electronic systems that were essential for enhancing the implementation and efficiency of response and response and planning activities. Finally, the human parts of ESS, counting the responders and applicable shareholders for disaster management, were likewise injured, and some died during the hurricane.
Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina That Have Implications for Infrastructure Protection Challenge of National Preparedness
One of the critical tests observed throughout the Hurricane Katrina management was the feature of national preparation, which is directly in line with a portion of ESS (emergency management discipline). The union of national response management was an issue throughout the occurrence whereby soon after the landfall, a variety of critical infrastructure was destroyed and could not function as anticipated, therefore disorienting the response capacities that are introduced over communication and giving of directions closely (Gosnell et al.,2020). This incident assigned the federal agencies to work collaboratively with the local and state authorities resulting in struggles in rescue missions and uniformity in drills. One of the major lessons discovered from this incident is federal government ought not to be the first responder to such disasters. Instead, the local government must manage the response activities instantly after the occurrence.
The national preparedness was likewise met with encounters of control and command at the federal level. The command centers from FEMA and DHS did not integrate; instead, there were practices of overlapping positions in these companies, which occasioned further confusion in the area through the incident administration. From these incidents, FEMA understood the need for obtaining realistic security partners over revising the current outlines to contain the operational structure in the local area. This initiative established management branches across the local levels in diverse states, and the agencies were trained, organized, and equipped to attain the National Preparedness Goal.
Challenge of Communication
The hurricane destroyed a substantial part of the communication systems and assets, which directly touched the success of emergency services. The 911 emergency call centers were disoriented by the storm, which interrupted the local emergency activities. The failure of the telephone services, television networks, and radio stations devastated the network systems, which might improve full operation and coordination between the citizens and the responders. The lesson learned from this incident included the necessity for meeting interoperability and operability needs for responders to refine the connection of architect strategies at the state and federal level in meeting the emergency facilities’ needs even after the failure of the communication division.
Recommendations for Improving ESS Protection and Security
Changes in Policies and Regulations
Founded on the above assessment, I have learned the necessity for leadership assessment and unceasing audits throughout the numerous ESS disciplines. Assigning experienced leaders to the forefront of the numerous parts is a classic consideration to warrant that facilities are well-coordinated and observe crucial features throughout emergencies (Osofsky & Osofsky, 2021). Though, enhancement constant and initiatives review must be in place to warrant that inability between leaders is recognized and replacements are completed. The leadership change in these settings reinforces the professionalism scope because each director will develop new tactics and strategies to advance the response activities. Essentially, the development creativities must be time-bound and reliant on the short and long–term assessments of the successful execution of objectives and goals.
The strategy structures that foster partnership must be started at the local and national readiness levels to extend the scope of information-sharing and reinforce resilience among the public. The regulatory strategies of ESS must include the support of Science and Technology initiatives, which will foster interoperability and operability at the numerous operations units to warrant that infrastructures in the emergency amenities division are not only protected but perform the needed safety and sustainability functions.
Strategies and Organization
All the moderations regarding organizational operations must include integrating and partnering with the central structures of the numerous units and private areas. The local and federal governments must organize with the private division to develop transparent, flexible, modern logistic and cyber structures that could reinforce the ESS operations capacity. They should conform with the large-scale parts of advancing technology and developing security and well-being needed to supplement the current systems and improve efficacy throughout actions. The numerous organizations must be included in response actions and assume the mandates of being shareholders in executing the disaster management strategies (Deryugina et al.,2018). One of the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina tragedy management was the feature of the effects of confining the involvement of external organizations by FEMA. Walmart was expected to offer transportation facilities and advise on evacuation routes. The firm was further conversant with the local structures, likely improved the response actions, and saved other lives. From this situation, the partnership is not just reflected as an organizational recommendation but as a tactical one because companies would increase the response scope capacity and, therefore, would supplement the weaknesses of governmental organizations.
Conclusion
Protecting the Emergency Services Sector is vital to attaining sustainability and national safety purposes. The human, physical, and cyber human elements of ESS are critical contributors to productivity in the delivery of facilities. The numerous disciplines of this division have extended the scope of assistance and ensured that the assets and systems are all working to attain the common purpose of keeping Americans safe. The deliberation of ESS as a network reveals a change of possible risks, as stressed in the above discussion. Thus, it is important to develop a policy, organizational, and tactical initiative that would reinforce the protection of the division over an outline of learning from past incidents, for instance, Hurricane Katrina, and starting further advanced proposals.
References
Borg, N. (2022). Critical Infrastructure: Cyber Security, Cyber Doctrine and Cyber Warfare. Open Access Journal of Science and Technology, 10(2).
Brook, D. A., & King, C. L. (2007). Civil service reform as national security: The Homeland Security Act of 2002. Public Administration Review, 67(3), 399–407.
Cevik, S. (2015). The Development Of The Eu’s Counter Terrorism Policies In The Post 9/11 Era.
Deryugina, T., Kawano, L., & Levitt, S. (2018). The economic impact of Hurricane Katrina on its victims: Evidence from individual tax returns. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 10(2), 202–233.
Gosnell, R., Hildenbrand, A., Miller, M., & Stürzer, I. (2020). Risks and Opportunities in the Arctic: Strategic Recommendations from ESS-N 20-06. Security Insights, (65).
Jones, S. R. (2017). The impact that a cyber-attack would cause within the emergency services sector (Doctoral dissertation, Utica College).
Osofsky, J. D., & Osofsky, H. J. (2021). Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill: Lessons learned about short‐term and long‐term effects. International Journal of Psychology, 56(1), 56-63.
https://www.dhs.gov/publication/critical-infrastructure-information-act
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