The Office of Infrastructure Protection
National Protection and Programs Directorate
Department of Homeland Security
Coastal Georgia Regional Resiliency Assessment Program
Chatham County Emergency Management Agency – 2015 Hurricane
Conference
April 7, 2015
Agenda
 Resilience Definition
 Regional Resiliency Assessment Program (RRAP) Overview
 Georgia Coastal RRAP Analysis
 Vulnerability of U.S. Ports to Hurricanes
 RRAP Key Findings and Resilience Enhancement Options
 Implementation Phase
 Questions/Comments
2
What Is “Resilience”?
 The ability to prepare for and
adapt to changing conditions
and withstand and recover
rapidly from disruptions
 Resilience includes the
ability to withstand and
recover from deliberate
attacks, accidents, or
naturally occurring threats or
incidents
Adapted from: Y. Sheffi, The Resilient Enterprise,
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005
3
What Is “Resilience”? (cont.)
 Key considerations:
 The “connectedness” of infrastructure; crucial dependencies
and linkages of critical systems
 Cascading impacts from disasters
 Knowledge, planning, and coordination among critical
infrastructure partners
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Regional Resiliency Assessment
Program
 The Regional Resiliency Assessment Program (RRAP) began
in 2009 as a pilot program out of efforts to assess security of
individual critical assets
 The goal is to identify opportunities for regional homeland
security officials and critical infrastructure partners to
strengthen resilience to all hazards
 The RRAP process identifies critical infrastructure security and
resilience gaps; dependencies; interdependencies; cascading
effects; and State, local, tribal, and territorial government
capability gaps
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project – Goal
Courtesy of Georgia Department of
Economic Development
 The goal of the Georgia
Coastal RRAP project is to
identify opportunities for
State and local homeland
security officials in Georgia
to strengthen lifeline
assurance for essential
functions reliant on portlinked infrastructure to
protect and strengthen the
national supply chain
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Activities
 Outreach and data collection activities conducted January June 2014
 Facilitated Discussion
 Stakeholder interviews
 Assessments and surveys at critical infrastructure assets
 Resiliency Assessment Report developed with Key Findings
and Resilience Enhancement Options
 Regional partners to build on initial project phase through
follow-on analysis and implementation activities
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Federal Partners
8
State Partners
9
Local Partners
10
Private Sector Partners
11
Private Sector Partners (cont.)
12
Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Analysis
 The Georgia Coastal RRAP
project focuses on the ability
of Georgia’s most vital
maritime assets—the Port of
Savannah and Port of
Brunswick—to withstand and
quickly recover from a
Category 3 hurricane
impacting the Georgia
coastal region
Courtesy of Georgia Ports Authority
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Analysis
Port Infrastructure
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Analysis
Georgia Ports Overview
 Port of Savannah
 Handles 80 percent of the products and materials entering
Georgia by ship
 Since 2009, container trade has grown by 23 percent
because of infrastructure improvements to the port’s
intermodal system
 Port of Brunswick
 Processes nearly 370 vessels and 2 million tons of cargo
every year
 Sixth-largest automobile processing port in the United
States and the third busiest roll-on/roll-off port in the country
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Analysis
State Resilience Characteristics
 Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA)
 Hurricane preparedness and response program
 Critical infrastructure program
 State Hazard Mitigation Plan awarded Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA)’s Enhanced Plan status,
resulting in $11 million additional mitigation grant funds
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Analysis
State Resilience Characteristics (cont.)
 Georgia Ports Authority
 Security plans
 Hurricane preparedness and response plans
 Maintains a mobile incident command trailer
 Georgia Department of Natural Resources
 Coastal incentive grant program
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Analysis
Regional Resilience Characteristics
 Chatham Emergency Management Agency (CEMA)
 Hurricane preparedness and response programs
 Recovery plan (in progress)
 Interagency coordination with Federal, State, and private
sector organizations
 City of Savannah
 Hurricane preparedness and response programs
 Fire boat
 Interagency coordination with State, county, and private
entities
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Analysis
Category 3 Hurricane Scenario
Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory
19
Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Analysis
Potential Disruptions – Category 3 to Category 5 Hurricane
 Hurricane storm surge from a major hurricane (Category 3+) is
expected to produce catastrophic levels of damage along the
coast and up to 50 miles inland
 Category 4 hurricane has the potential for winds of 156 miles
per hour (mph) and intense wind gusts, with microbursts of 8495 mph
 GEMA officials are concerned that the coastal region’s low-level
landscape could produce a storm tide upwards of 28 feet during
a Category 5 hurricane, inundating the six seaward-facing
counties and endangering the lives of more than 400,000
residents
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Vulnerability of Ports to Hurricanes
 Hurricane Sandy caused
extensive damage to the
East Coast in 2012
 Storm surge: 1-12 feet
from Florida to Maine
 2.5 million cubic yards of
sand/debris
 8.5 million customers
without power
 $37 billion in damages
Courtesy of National Weather Service
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U.S. Ports and Hurricanes
 Hurricane Sandy caused significant damage and disruption to
ports in New York and New Jersey
 Power outages
 Roads and railways choked with debris/standing water
 Containers floating/submerged in channel
 Port traffic halted until U.S. Coast Guard completed
underwater obstruction search
 Cargo ships redirected to Norfolk
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U.S. Ports and Hurricanes (cont.)
Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory
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U.S. Ports and Hurricanes (cont.)
Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory
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U.S. Ports and Hurricanes (cont.)
Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Key
Findings
 Marine salvage resource deficits could exacerbate posthurricane recovery efforts at the Port of Savannah
 Electric power infrastructure serving the Georgia ports and
metro Savannah are susceptible to hurricane-related
disruptions
 Coastal Georgia’s fuel distribution system is vulnerable to
hurricane-related disruptions, but State and local officials have
yet to develop contingency plans focused on fuel resupply
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project Key
Findings (cont.)
 Disruptions to local water systems and roadways could leave
the Georgia ports vulnerable to post-hurricane fires
 Georgia’s Coastal Incentive Program should be leveraged to
integrate natural defenses into critical infrastructure protection
measures
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project
Resilience Enhancement Options
 Key steps that State and local emergency management
agencies could take to enhance resilience of the coastal region
include the following:
 Incorporate large salvage marine assets into State and local
hurricane response and recovery plans
 Engage public and private stakeholders in an integrated risk
assessment process to identify the appropriate priority for
restoration of the region’s critical infrastructure
 Develop/update emergency fuel supply contingency plans
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project
Resilience Enhancement Options (cont.)
 Key Steps (cont.)
 Link State, local, private, and military fire suppression
assets to disaster mitigation plans and State and local
geographic information system databases
 Consider the links between natural defenses and critical
infrastructure protection in the region’s coastal planning
programs
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Georgia Coastal RRAP Project
Implementation Phase
 The Protective Security Advisor will work with State and local
officials during the implementation phase by:
 Supporting efforts to refine or enhance regional planning
efforts identified in the Resiliency Assessment, such as
recovery plans, hazard mitigation plans, and capability
assessments
 Facilitating outreach efforts, modeling and analysis projects,
planning workshops, risk training, and exercises with public
and private stakeholders and the U.S. military
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For more information, visit:
www.dhs.gov/critical-infrastructure
Jim Hardy
Protective Security Advisor, Georgia
[email protected]