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Members of Congress Bring Together

National and Regional Leaders to Discuss Homeland Security

New Community and Regional Resilience Initiative brings public and private sector together in emergency preparedness, response and recovery

Tennessee Valley Corridor Press Release

October 24, 2007

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), Congressman Zach Wamp (R-TN), Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC) and Congressman Gresham Barrett (R-SC) are among the Members of Congress from the Southeast leading a special one-day event on November 19 in Greenville, SC focused on how the South can become a model for the nation on the important issue of homeland security and community resilience.

Half of the one-day event will showcase the emerging Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI) that was born out of Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI). CARRI is a new U.S. Department of Homeland Security pilot program focused on helping more communities strengthen their ability to prepare for, respond to, and rapidly recover from significant man-made or natural disasters with minimal downtime to basic community, government and business services.

According to SERRI director Warren Edwards, being more resilient is not only helpful to a community in the event of a disaster, but it can also be an important driver for economic success.

"We believe that community resilience is tied very closely into economic development," said Edwards. "Communities that demonstrate resiliency plans are in a much better position to attract new businesses and new investments and to assure insurers and investors that they can avoid devastating costs and delays in the event of a catastrophe. Look at the lessons learned the hard way from New Orleans and you can see why this issue is so important to any community potentially at risk from hurricane, flood, tornado, earthquake, or terrorist act."

The November 19 event in Greenville, SC already includes an impressive array of presenters and participants in addition to event hosts Congressman Zach Wamp (R-TN) and Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC). Confirmed speakers during the Community Resilience sessions include:

Congressman Gresham Barrett (R-SC)
Warren Edwards, Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Southeast Regional Research Initiative
Jason Jackson, Director of Emergency Management, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Bob Shea, Associate Deputy Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency
Ted Fox, Director of Public Works, Shelby County, Tennessee
Dr. John Plodinec, Science Advisor, Savannah River National Laboratory

"This partnership could prove to have positive economic benefits for the entire area," said Senator Jim DeMint. "The meeting will discuss critical early stages of response to a worse case scenario disaster and how it will affect the local economy. As many have said, when we fail to prepare we will automatically prepare to fail."

"Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 proved that traditional models and approaches to emergency management and disaster recovery did not go far enough in preparing and helping communities recover their economic strength quickly enough," said Congressman Wamp. "That's why Senator DeMint, Congressmen Inglis and Barrett and I are so excited to bring so many public and private sector partners together from all across the Southeast on November 19th in Greenville to discuss our ability to withstand, recover from and quickly react to any threat of natural disaster or terrorist attack."

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Resilient Communities Key to Economic Success

By: Warren Edwards

Director, Southeast Regional Research Initiative, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

October 4, 2007

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, citizens of the Gulf Coast region of the United States faced the daunting task of putting their lives, their economies and their communities back together. Homes had to be rebuilt, businesses had to be reestablished and basic services had to be restored just to get life back close to normal.

As the Gulf Coast slowly rebuilds, it becomes increasingly clear that traditional approaches to disaster recovery do not fully prepare communities to respond to or recover from natural or man-made catastrophes and reestablish the fabric of the community or economy quickly and effectively. Communities that wish to remain vibrant in the face natural disasters and in a world of increasing threat of terrorism must pursue new strategies to become truly resilient.

A resilient community anticipates problems, opportunities and the potential for surprise. It reduces vulnerabilities. It responds effectively, fairly and legitimately. And it recovers rapidly, safely and fairly. In addition to the key disaster management services that local governments provide, a resilient community recognizes that private businesses, individual citizens and volunteer organizations and associations are critical parts of the fabric of a community and play significant roles in community resilience.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory through its Southeast Regional Research Initiative has developed an innovative new program to address this need to help communities become resilient. The Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI) is a regional program with national implications. It seeks to understand how communities can best prepare for, respond to and, most importantly, recover from natural or man-made disasters and then translate that understanding into practical processes and tools that assist communities in moving to ever higher levels of resilience achievement.

We believe that community resilience is an economic driver. Communities that demonstrate resilience attract new business and assure insurers and investors that they can avoid costs in the event of a catastrophe. Resilient communities have the understanding of the interdependencies within their region that assists public officials and private businesses in making informed, effective resource decisions.

The United States is inherently a resilient nation. Building resilient communities and, thereby, resilient regions will result in an even stronger America – one ready to recover fully and bounce back quickly from any natural disaster or terrorist attack.

The terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania and Hurricane Katrina taught us hard lessons. It’s time to help our communities put those lessons to work.

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Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI) Announces Charleston, SC as Third "Partner Community"

Project part of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's

Southeast Region Research Initiative

CARRI Press Release

October 16, 2007

Leaders from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI), and their partners at Savannah River National Laboratory, announced today that Charleston, South Carolina and its surrounding counties will join Gulfport, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee in a new partnership to better define community resilience and to help more communities prepare for and quickly recover from natural and man-made disasters.

An important new initiative of ORNL's Southeast Regional Research Initiative, CARRI is already working closely with leaders of Charleston to help develop and share the essential benchmarks, tools and techniques that any community or region should take to strengthen its ability to prepare for, respond to, and rapidly recover from significant natural and man-made disasters with minimal downtime to basic community, government and business services.

"We will be looking to draw insights from the experiences of all sectors of the Charleston community as we begin to construct what we are calling our ‘resiliency toolbox," said CARRI Director Warren Edwards. "If we can identify what these ‘partner communities' need to be truly resilient, then we can use that information to assess vulnerabilities in other communities and then work with them to help close the gaps."

Edwards said that the decision to approach Charleston about becoming a "partner community" for the project was strategic since the city's location on the Atlantic Coast and as a major seaport makes it susceptible to both natural and man-made disasters.

"Charleston is particularly vulnerable to both hurricanes and earthquakes," Edwards said. "We feel like we can learn a lot from Charleston given what it has already shown in its ability to respond to and recover from Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Charleston, under the leadership of Mayor Joe Riley has shown a strong commitment to becoming an even more resilient community in the future."

For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ResilientUS.org/.

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CARRI Partner Community Briefs

Gulfport, Mississippi

The CARRI - Gulfport Community Partnership Launch was held on October 3 at the campus of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport. The session was hosted by Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr. In attendance were over 50 leaders from across the Gulfport community and surrounding region representing the private sector, non-governmental organizations, the media, and local, state, and federal government. Attendees included representatives from U.S. Senator Thad Cochran and Trent Lott's offices and Governor Haley Barbour’s office.

The partnership’s next steps include establishing designated points of contact within each participating organization and conducting due-diligence reviews of existing reports, plans, and requirements and participant interviews. The findings of this research will be compiled into a draft resilience framework and shared with community participants in early 2008 as a starting point for community discussions regarding Gulf Coast resilience.

Shelby County, Tennessee

The CARRI – Shelby County Partnership Launch will host the Memphis Urban Area Stakeholders Kickoff meeting on October 30th in Memphis. Currently, there are over 80 individuals scheduled to attend the kickoff meeting.

The partnership has met with and will partner with Memphis First, an organization of private sector companies devoted to helping the private sector better prepare for natural and man-made disasters and sharing best practices.

The CARRI – Shelby County Partnership is also pleased to have the University of Memphis, the Shelby County Office of Preparedness (Tennessee Homeland Security District 11) and the Memphis-Shelby County Emergency Management Agency as key partners in this exciting new project.