Deepwater Horizon's influence on contingency planning
In an exclusive for ContingencyToday.com, the US Coast Guard's Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, describes the response to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and how it is influencing future US national contingency plans, including the development of a common operational picture, or COP, through use of GPS, Automatic Identification System, and Geographic Information Systems
The largest oil-spill response in the history of the United States, a Spill of National Significance involving more than 6,300 vessels, 35,000 personnel, 17 staging areas, 2.57 million feet of containment boom and 4.17 million feet of sorbent boom, began as do most all tragedies to which the U.S. Coast Guard responds - with a desperate call for help to a watchstander in a Coast Guard Command Center. As the event grew in complexity and magnitude, the command structure developed and expanded proportionately, from an incident managed on the watchfloor of the command center to one managed by a Na… More…
Optimising border security at Channel ports
Barely a day goes by without another report of illegal immigrants stowing away in transport destined for Britain.
As those seeking entry to Britain become increasingly fed up of being held in limbo in France, they seek ever more inventive methods of securing their transport across the Channel. But is the situation as grave as the UK newspapers suggest and what is currently being done to protect Britain's borders? The main responsibility for stopping those wishing to enter the country illegally lies with the UK and French border security agencies. These agencies police the ports on both sides of the channel, monitoring the situation and stopping to check vehicles they deem suspect. Due to European laws, i… More…
Duty of Care begins long before take-off
Travis Vincent, director of security services at International SOS, looks at the challenges of implementing Duty of Care for business travellers and expatriate workers
The tens of thousands of executives and employees stranded in various parts of the world due to the volcanic ash cloud emitted from Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland is a timely reminder of the risks associated with business travel. While we cannot usually predict acts of god, businesses do have a duty to ensure that employees familiarise themselves with the country they are going to before they travel and that they are trained to act in accordance with best practice should a situation occur. The last year alone saw 3.5 million international trips by employees, a quarter of which were to high or ex… More…
Protection of critical infrastructure - present and future solutions
Without energy, transport, water, food, information exchange, financial systems and health systems, citizens' living standards would be gravely compromised
Failures of one of these critical infrastructures or services can arise from very different sources, for example terrorism, natural disasters, or industrial hazards and on very different scales (from local to national or even trans-national causes or impact). In all cases, the state as well as the provider have to take care for a quick and effective relief to the population. There is a growing demand for critical infrastructure protection for energy facilities, oil and gas refineries as well as offshore platforms or pipelines, nuclear power plants and water reservoirs. Here, the objective is … More…
