New Madrid Seismic Zone
A long stated goal of the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium, a not for profit that serves as the coordinating hub among eight states to improve preparedness, response and recovery from earthquakes in the Central U.S. has been to develop the means to share information in order to meet their mission. To address this, CUSEC established the exercising of a regional information sharing capability as their main goal during the 2011 National Level Exercise which was focused on an earthquake around the San Madras fault. DHS’s First Responders Group (FRG) partnered with CUSEC in order to support them in reaching that goal.
As the lead contractor supporting CUSEC for FRG, G&H worked with the CUSEC Executive Leadership to identify and develop the technical capacity to share seven regional Essential Elements of Information that were deemed critical to support a statewide and regional response during the exercise. CUSEC, using the Virtual USA Information Sharing Library, was able to share and use nearly 90 data layers within their native operational environments. The project produced several tangible benefits including a first time creation of a regional operating picture for specific emergency support functions (i.e. transportation status, power status, shelter status, et al) that was locally managed and customized for operational use by each of the eight participating states.
Currently, G&H is building upon that foundation and working toward implementing and exercising a regional capability to facilitate the request and acquisition of mutual aid with the CUSEC states.