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Crisis Response Summit
brings officials from throughout
northern Indiana to campus
The National Council on Readiness and Preparedness will test drive a
summit on homeland security at Manchester College on Monday, Oct. 16.
NCORP also is visiting six much-larger cities across the nation, gathering
best practices for community preparedness and response. North Manchester
is the first stop. Almost 500 northern Indiana leaders involved in
disaster preparedness and relief, emergency response and government
leaders are invited to participate.
 Information
gathered in this national tour will help the agency develop a
National Blueprint for Secure Communities, said NCORP Chair James S.
Gilmore III, who will co-host the summit with Bernie Beier, director of
Homeland Security for Fort Wayne and Allen County. Other
cities on the summit tour are Boston; Charleston, S.C.; Tampa, Fla.;
Galveston, Texas; Portland, Ore., and Arlington, Va.
“America’s security depends on America’s communities to effectively
respond to large-scale crisis during the first 72 hours,” said Gilmore,
former governor of Virginia. “Domestic response is only as strong as our
least-prepared community, and all first response to a natural
disaster or an attack is local response.”
The North Manchester summit will demonstrate how local government can
partner with the private and community sectors to multiply responder
capability during the first 72 hours of crisis, Gilmore said. The summit
begins at 3 p.m. in Flory Auditorium of the Science Center on the North
Manchester campus.
“Municipalities and first responders must be more self-sufficient at the
local level,” said Beier. “When there is a flood, tornado or other
emergency, we have to act locally. We cannot wait for the state and
federal government. They are good partners, but local first responders
have to be organized and ready to respond in the crucial first 72 hours
of a disaster.”
At 10 a.m. Monday morning, Gilmore will address the entire Manchester
College student body about national security and civil liberties,
followed by a noon question-and-answer session with about 300 first-year
students studying the topics. The public is invited to those sessions,
in Cordier Auditorium.
Gilmore headed the Congressional Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic
Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass
Destruction – also known as the “Gilmore Commission.”
Of the commission's 164
recommendations, 146 have been adopted by the federal government and
Congress.
Manchester College’s
convocation series and its First-Year Colloquium focus on preparing
students to engage in lively discussions on controversial topics. In
addition to the balance between national security and our civil
liberties, students are discussing safety and speed in the development
of prescription drugs, global warming and freedom of speech.
For more about the
National Council on Readiness and Preparedness, visit
www.ncorp.org
Manchester College,
with 1,056 students from 27 states and 26 countries, offers more than 55
areas of study in courses designed for faculty-student interaction. For
more about Manchester College, visit
www.manchester.edu
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