PNWER Center for Regional Disaster Resilience

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• PNWER Center for Regional Disaster Resilience
• Matt Morrison, Chief Executive Officer, PNWER

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PNWER Profile

• PNWER formed by statute in 1991
• PNWER is a Public/Private Partnership
• Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho,
  Oregon, Montana, Saskatchewan, Washington, Yukon

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PNWER Center for Regional Disaster Resilience
www.RegionalResilience.org
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Private Sector Partners
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PNWER Disaster Resilience Program
PNWER is referenced in the National
Infrastructure Protection Plan as the model for
bringing the public and private sectors together
to address critical infrastructure protection
issues. Feb. 2009
PNWER is listed as a best practice for working
with other states and provinces to address
critical infrastructure security issues in the
NGAs Governors Guide to Homeland Security -
March 2007
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The Resilience Tautology

• Resilient assets and infrastructures require
  resilient regions
• Resiliency requires understanding which assets
  are critical in any specific scenario
• Understanding criticality depends upon
  understanding the interdependencies between and
  among critical infrastructures (criticality is
  dynamic)
• Understanding interdependencies require cross
  sector information sharing
• Cross sector and public/private information
  sharing requires the creation of an environment
  of trust where stakeholders feel safe to share
  their vulnerabilities

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Blue Cascades Regional Exercise Series

• Blue Cascades I (June 2002)Oregon Terrorist
  attack on BPAs grid system examined
  interdependencies and cascading impacts
• Blue Cascades II (Sept. 2004) focused on both
  cyber and physical disruptions
• Blue Cascades III (March 2006) Recovery
  Restoration from 9.0 Subduction Zone Earthquake
• Blue Cascades IV (January 2007) Critical
  Infrastructures and Pandemic Preparedness
• Bluc Cascades V Supply Chain Relisence

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Blue Cascades Regional Exercise Series
350 Experts at Blue Cascades III Tabletop
Exercise in Bellevue, Washington Subduction Zone
Earthquake Scenario

• Blue Cascades I (June 2002)focused on a
  physical disruptions
• Blue Cascades II (Sept. 2004) focused on both
  cyber and physical disruptions
• Blue Cascades III (March 2006) Recovery
  Restoration from major earthquake
• Blue Cascades IV (January 2007) Critical
  Infrastructures and Pandemic Preparedness

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PNWER Center for Regional Disaster Resilience
Projects

• Development of Regional Cyber Security/Resilience
  Coordination mechanism (NWWARN Northwest
  Alliance for Cyber Security)
• Assisting Integrated Biological Restoration Demo
  (IBRD)
• PNW Columbia River Basin Risk Assessment/Mitigatio
  n Study
• WS DOT SR 520 Bridge Exercise
• SCADA Security Workshops
• Comprehensive Bio-Hazard Community Resilience
  Roadmap
• Helping coordinate PNW Border Health Alliance
• Regional Interdependencies Workshops

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Fostering Cooperation and Collaboration

• Internal and Regional Interdependencies
  Initiatives provide a business case for
  organizations, regions and states to overcome
  deep-rooted differences, turf issues, and
  stove-piped thinking
• Enables us to focus on how we can partner with
  perceived competitors to increase our own
  readiness and the resilience of the region

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2009 Dam Sector Exercise Series Columbia River
Basin Overview
Tri-Cities Bridge
Tri-Cities, Washington
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2009 Dams Sector Exercise SeriesScope

• The goal of the exercise series is to develop
  a regional disaster resilience and preparedness
  strategy for the Tri-Cities area that can be
  utilized for the broader Columbia River Basin
  region.

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Exercise Series Timeline
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2009 Dams Sector Exercise Series (DSES-09)
Columbia River Basin Project Goal
2009 Dams Sector Exercise Series Columbia Basin
Project Goal

• To produce a holistic, cost-effective strategy
  and implementation plan to assure the resilience
  of the Columbia River Basin with focus on dams,
  locks, and levees
• Project will assess, from a risk-based
  perspective, consequences for interdependent
  infrastructures and other essential service
  providers from all-hazards disasters and identify
  prevention and mitigation measures

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Current Project Status

• Currently the 2009 Dams Sector Exercise Series is
  nearly complete
• Dam owners, Emergency Managers along with
  Federal, State, and Local Stakeholders have been
  engaged in this holistic approach to dam and
  levee failure
• The first phase had wide involvement of
  stakeholders from throughout the Columbia River
  Basin

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Pilot Project to Develop a Comprehensive
Community Bio-Event Resilience Roadmap
Bring together public health and other experts
with key state and local agencies,
infrastructures, industry, business, academic,
and community organizations to focus on community
bio-event resilience Enable government
agencies at all levels with regional stakeholders
to gain greater knowledge of bio-event impacts on
communities and longer-term consequences
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Comprehensive Community Bio-Event Resilience Plan
(CCERP)

• Identify common goals, gaps and barriers between
  private sector organizations and public health,
  healthcare partners and local emergency
  management on improving information exchange,
  resource management and communications during
  health and medical emergencies
• Develop a holistic blueprint for community
  bio-event resilience that will encompass all
  aspects of preparedness and disaster management,
  including prevention, protection, response,
  recovery/longer term restoration, and risk-based
  mitigation to address communications, business
  and operational continuity, logistics, supply
  chain, and resource issues, public
  education/training, and exercises.

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Contact
Center for Regional Disaster Resilience www.region
alresilience.org Matt Morrison Pacific Northwest
Economic Region (PNWER) 2200 Alaskan Way, Suite
460 Seattle, WA 98121 206-443-7723 www.pnwer.org M
att.morrison_at_pnwer.org