Event Summary
The Executive Session on Domestic Preparedness (ESDP), a standing task force of experts concerned with emergency management, held its 5th task force meeting in January 2002, bringing together local and state first responders with federal officials and academics from the Harvard community to discuss challenges facing domestic preparedness planning after September 11, 2001.
Discussions included how jurisdictions are implementing best practices, how to pay for preparedness (with Baltimore Mayor Martin O''Malley ), public leadership in times of crisis (with David Gergen ), and public affairs in response to terrorism (with Sunny Mindel, former press secretary for Mayor Giuliani). The next session in June 2002 will focus on vulnerability assessment, radiological terrorism, the psychological consequences of terror, and private sector involvement with domestic preparedness planning.
The ESDP continues to engage in important policy initiatives and to present its findings at numerous conferences throughout the country as well as in the media. The ESDP staff and affiliates also are expanding the publication series, with nearly a dozen new papers and case studies, with topics including emergency communications and interoperability (by Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger), consequence management in the 1995 Sarin Japanese subway attack (by Research Associate Robyn Pangi ) and a study of the Hurricane Floyd evacuation in Florida. An ESDP book— a compilation of articles about preparing for and managing terrorism— is forthcoming from the MIT Press.
http://www.esdp.org