2017 Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Coalition Overview

During April and May, coalition members attended meetings held in Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Covington, Gray, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, New Orleans, and Shreveport.

The coalition is comprised of financial institutions, regulators, emergency personnel, law enforcement, weather service personnel and armored carriers. The primary purpose of the emergency preparedness meetings is to bring together coalition members to foster working relationships that ensure better preparedness for and more effective recovery from an emergency event. 

Natural emergencies begin and end locally. In the event of an emergency, decisions are made at the local level; therefore, it is vital that the financial institutions build strong working relationships with their local law enforcement and emergency personnel. The way the system is designed is that the local and parish emergency personnel make decisions and take charge of an emergency event in their particular area until their resources are depleted then they call the state in for assistance. By building relationships on the local level, the bankers will be more on top of any given situation than if they wait for news from the state level. 

The first 72 is on you which means that you, personally and your business need to be able to take care of yourself for the first 72 hours after a natural emergency event. After that, assistance should be available. 

The Louisiana Business Emergency Operations Center is a collaboration among the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Louisiana Department of Economic Development, LSU’s Stephenson’s Disaster Management Institution and UL Lafayette’s National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies Institute. The Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Coalition represents the financial sector with the LABEOC. The goal of the BEOC is for private industries to come together to form a partnership with government to be better prepared for an emergency event and respond to and recover more effectively from an emergency event. The physical BEOC facility is housed at ULL’s NIMSAT headquarters in Abdalla Hall in Lafayette. Banks should register on the LABEOC website, www.labeoc.org, to view situational analysis throughout an emergency event. Banks may want to register a contact person from each branch and let customers know that they can register, also. The benefits of registering: (1) situational awareness, (2) ability to request goods and services, (3) ability to provide goods and services, (4) assist GOHSEP when contracts are exhausted. I think the biggest benefit to the bank is the ability to have ongoing situational awareness updates. And, for the bank’s customers, this connection may give them the opportunity for work during an emergency event when they may otherwise be without work. See a You Tube video explaining LABEOC at http://youtu.be/XWWXHpVLMcI. 

Community Emergency Response Team training is available in most regions. The national website is https://www.ready.gov/citizen-corps. Contact your local emergency operations office for details and to schedule training for your bank employees if interested.

Financial Institutions are encouraged to talk with their customers about emergency preparedness.

The Red Cross has several mobile apps that you may be interested in, http://www.redcross.org/prepare/mobile-apps. Red Cross is available to do outreach presentations to groups and companies. They encourage you to like their face book page. Also, they remind you to have a hard copy of contact information. 

One bank uses Voicenation for phone message service, 866-766-5050, www.voicenation.com. One bank is using Rapid Cast from High Ground Solutions to communicate with employees, http://highgroundsolutions.com/rapidcast/. It can send email blasts, text blasts and can convert voice to text.

You can get enhanced 911 (E911) apps for cell phones that will allow the cell company to release geocode to 911 responders so that they can locate you in the event of an emergency.

For more information or to join the coalition, contact 
LBA Chief Operating Officer Ginger Laurent at laurent@lba.org. 

 

For a complete copy of the meeting notes, download the document below.
2017 Emergency Preparedness Meeting Notes
(Microsoft Word Document)

Miscellaneous Resources: 

State Regulators Issue Cybersecurity Best Practices

State banking regulators and the U.S. Secret Service released banker best practices for managing the risks of certain cyber-threats. Community bankers participated in the development of the best practices through the Bankers Electronic Crimes Task Force. Click here to access the best practices. Click here to read more from state regulators. 

Financial Sector Cyber Exercise Template

U.S. Treasury has worked with private sector and government partners to develop the Financial Sector Cyber Exercise Template, which is designed to aid financial sector companies in strengthening their cybersecurity posture by providing a template for carrying out internal cybersecurity exercises. The template available for download below was developed to assist companies who wish to use it in not only considering their own internal processes, but also discussing how they can most effectively engage with the national architecture for coordinating response to significant cybersecurity incidents among government and industry. 
2017 Re-entry Requirements by Parish
(Microsoft Word Document)
Flooded Safe Deposit Vault Planning
(Microsoft Word Document)

Federal Reserve Bank Resources

FDIC Resources

FDIC Cyberspace Brochure
(Microsoft Word Document)
FDIC Cybercustomer
(Adobe PDF File)
FDIC Cyberbusiness
(Adobe PDF File)
FDIC FIL Cybersecurity
(Adobe PDF File)
FDIC 2017 Letter to Louisiana Bankers
(Microsoft Word Document)

Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions Resources

Department of Homeland Security

UAS Resource Website

DHS has incorporated a new resource within the DHS counter-UAS website (click here to go to the website). This instructional video contains information on the threats posed by the nefarious use of UAS, potential implications to critical infrastructure operations, and options for risk mitigation.

Active Shooter Preparedness Program Team Launches New Videos

The Active Shooter Preparedness Program Team officially launched three new videos on the DHS website (click here to go to the DHS website). These videos are embedded in each of the tabs within the website to ensure widest visibility. Below are descriptions of each. 

  • Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan: A great resource for individuals unable to attend an in-person workshop or those who would like a refresher. This 90 minute dynamic video describes the fundamental concepts of developing an emergency action plan for an active shooter scenario. It guides viewers through important considerations of a plan development by utilizing first-hand perspectives of survivors, first responders, and subject matter experts similar to the workshops.
  • Action Shooter Emergency Action Plan Trailer: This one minute video provides a brief overview of the components of the Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan video.
  • Options for Consideration: Replacing the previously available resource, this seven minute video demonstrates possible actions individuals can take if confronted with an active shooter; it provides updated information that includes considerations for individuals with disabilities and incorporation of technology into security practices. 
DHS Bomb Threat Checklist
(Adobe PDF File)

FEMA Resources:

Click here to visit FEMA's National Disaster Recovery Framework

How to Prepare for an Active Shooter Scenario

FEMA’s PrepareAthon! campaign has announced the availability of their How to Prepare for an Active Shooter Scenario Guide that outlines steps individuals can take before, during, and after an active shooter incident. Click here to go to the guide. The Guide also includes the following:

About America’s PrepareAthon! Campaign America’s PrepareAthon! is a national community-based campaign that moves individuals from awareness to action by preparing for relevant hazards through group discussions, drills, and innovative communications-related products. The campaign increases the number of individuals who understand which disasters could happen in their community, know what to do to be safe and mitigate damage, and help their community do the same. Click here to learn more.

Know Your Alerts & Warnings 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency reminds individuals that receiving timely information about weather conditions or other emergency events can make all the difference in knowing when to take action to be safe. FEMA’s fact sheet, Be Smart. Take Part. Know Your Alerts & Warnings, outlines and describes various programs available to the public to help them stay connect and alert to emergency situations.

Prepare for Hurricane Season 

FEMA encourages businesses and individuals to prepare for the 2017 hurricane season which begins May 15 for the Pacific coast and on June 1 for the Atlantic coast. Preparation begins with assessing your risk, developing plans, assembling supplies, and conducting emergency drills. For information on hurricane preparedness both at home and for the workplace, click here to visit FEMA’s Preparation Hurricane page to download some of the following resources:

Louisiana Credit Union League Resources

Click here to view a video on shared branching.
LCUL Shared Branching Information
(Microsoft Word Document)