FEMA's preparedness and response role in national grid outages

Role of FEMA in the Event of a National Grid Outage

The objective of this study is to examine the role of FEMA in the event of a national grid outage. This will be accomplished through a review of literature in this area of inquiry.

A national grid outage could occur for various reasons including CME flares of the Sun, terrorists attack damaging the grid or weather events that shut the grid down for days, weeks, months, or even longer than a year's time. Should any of these events occur resulting in a national grid outage, FEMA has a critical role to play in responding to such a situation.

FEMA's Role

FEMA is reported to be charged with providing support to both first responders and U.S. citizens in the event of a disaster and to make sure that "as a nation we work together to build, sustain and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards." (Disaster Philanthropy, 2013, p.1) FEMA is reported to be rather than the sole provider of assistance in such events but instead is a public-private partnership that supports "best practices, established protocols, joint training and preparation, shared situational analysis and the full awareness of area resources." (Disaster Philanthropy, 2013, p.1) There is a great deal of dependence of FEMA, the Red Cross and National Grid on Smartphones and other mobile devices for use in communications between citizens, agencies and their responders, and FEMA's local partners in the event of a national grid outage. This is a great method as long as everyone still has battery charge left in their mobile devices but as time wears on during such a crisis, this method of communication and resource dissemination is likely to fail miserably.

Summary and Conclusion

FEMA has prepared a drill in November that will enable them to review their response efforts and to identify any shortcomings so that when a national grid outage does occur -- and at some time this surely will be the case -- they are able to respond effectively, efficiently, and in a fashion that provides relief to the population in the ways that are most needed specific to the situation which is faced during such a national emergency. FEMA has, due to its experience in the response effort to Hurricane Katrina, come to the realization that they cannot operate independent of local and community actors or without the resources that are available to them on a local basis. FEMA response efforts will be coordinated with local resources and personnel to deliver the best possible response to such an emergency including peacekeeping and directing resources where they are needed the most to ensure the population's survival during such an event.