FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN
R2 –WEEKLY BULLETIN
Volume 1, Issue 8 March 6, 2009
FACE TIME IN REGION II
By Michael Moriarty, Acting Regional Administrator
Even in the era of Web 2.0 communication,
there is still no substitution for face–to-face
communications. So, in a continuing effort to foster
robust communications with our states and territories,
and to maintain alignment between their efforts and
ours, we have scheduled a series of quarterly, live (not
virtual) meetings. Tuesday was our first meeting with
NYSEMO.
Attended by Division Directors of both SEMO
and RII, we met to resolve current issues and to look to
the horizon to forecast upcoming challenges. Here are
a few items of general interest:
Formalize the Comms Process - The size
and significance of New York City makes it tempting to
work directly with the City on local issues but SEMO
requests that we maintain the relationship of federal to
state, and state to county/local for communications to
ensure that critical, response-related information is
effectively passed down the chain, and that the state
role isn’t marginalized.
Quick Strike Meals & H2O - NY State would
like to have a logistics staging and distribution center
nearby to service the population of Regions I and II
from “Day One.”
Disaster Declaration Process – NY State
would like to receive training on the disaster declaration
process. Training will be available for both State
partners and RII personnel.
Victim Repatriation – In the event that victims
from catastrophic disasters occurring in other parts of
the country are to be relocated to NY, the upstate
facilities of Stewart Airfield and Camp Smith will be
used.
IT TIP of the Week
TAKE A NUMBER….
By Marcia Edwards
IT Services Branch
Just a reminder: For IT assistance and
security requests, you must submit an email to
FEMA-R2-Helpdesk. Please refrain from phone
calls and walk-ins unless you’re unable to submit a
Helpdesk ticket. Critical IT requests are the only
exceptions.
Put a brief description of the IT problem in
the subject line. Add any other pertinent details in
the body of the message, which should include your
office location; details of the IT problem; and due
date, if the IT problem requires a completion date.
You can review the status of the helpdesk
tickets by clicking on the R2-HelpDesk within the
Outlook public folder.

FEMA PUTS KIDS ONLINE
FEMA donated 370 surplus, pre-used
computers to 26 public schools and six private nonprofit
organizations in Puerto Rico. The gift was
made in coordination with the Office of the
Governor, the PR Department of Education and the
General Services Administration (GSA), under the
GSA’s “Computers For Learning Program,” which
helps schools with financial constraints obtain
excess equipment from federal agencies.
FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN
WHAT IS THE IPS?
“For the Homeland Security Management System
to be effective and address long-range challenges across
multiple disciplines, all homeland security partners should
develop a planning capability that may also be employed
during times of crisis.”
Guided by this Presidential Directive, the
Integrated Planning System (IPS) fulfills the
requirement for a standardized national planning
process. It provides a basic framework for
developing a series of products leading to a
synchronized Federal plan. The IPS is a “how-to”
guide for Federal departments and agencies to
develop contingency planning documents that
support State, local, and Tribal governments.
Ultimately, the IPS provides a common Federal
planning process made up of three levels of
planning: strategic, operational, and tactical.
The IPS supports the development of a
family of related planning documents: Strategic
Guidance Statements (SGSs), Strategic Plans,
Concept Plans (CONPLANs), Operations Plans
(OPLANs), and tactical plans.
The target audience for the IPS is those
Federal agencies with a role in homeland security,
with a particular focus on agencies that rely on, or
provide assistance, to other agencies.
Federal agencies with no existing planning
processes are required to adopt the IPS. Although
the IPS does not supersede any existing State, local,
and Tribal planning Processes, it is the standard
general planning system the Federal Government
will use for scenario-based planning. It is designed
to highlight commonalities among most planning
processes, because planners often apply the same
fundamentals to developing plans regardless of the
objective or desired effect.. As such, the IPS is
compatible with many existing planning systems.
While State, local, and Tribal governments
are not required to adopt IPS, they are the
foundation of the homeland security planning
process; and clearly their participation in integrated
planning, and understanding, of this document is
crucial.
Want to know more? Contact Preparedness
Analyst Terra Flynn at terrence.flynn@dhs.gov

FEMA VETERAN LEADS UNION
IT and Telecom Specialist Arnold Davis,
who has been with FEMA since its founding, was
elected President of Local 2203, American
Federation of Government Employees this week.
Congratulations Arnold!

FACES OF REGION II
If you’ve worked a Region II disaster in the
past 18 years, you know Pat Lipp. She’s the one
with the answers. Got a problem with your
timesheet? Credit card issues? “Ask Pat Lipp” is
the constant refrain of a bustling JFO.
Pat joined FEMA in 1991 during Puerto
Rico’s “Three Kings” disaster. “At the time, my
husband was teaching at the University of Puerto
Rico. When FEMA put out the call for local hires, I
was the first on line, and I ended up collecting and
organizing the applications of the other applicants
that day,” Pat says. She soon became a mainstay
of the Management Division Cadre.
By 1992, Pat and her husband had moved
to Connecticut, but she returned to Puerto Rico for
a flooding disaster that year. One Saturday, while
working at the JFO, she got a call from FCO
Marianne Jackson, requesting that she be in
Albany for a snow emergency the following
Monday. She agreed, arriving in Albany Monday
morning in time for work, but she had only
summer clothes for the snow emergency. “I
thought I could make do until the weekend, when I
would return home for boots, hats and gloves,”
she said. “But it snowed that weekend…and the
three weekends after that. Finally I had to hit the
mall, and on the next Monday I looked like a ‘New
Yorker.’” Pat is FEMA flexible.
Pat’s been deployed to Texas (twice),
Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, Florida, Virginia and
multiple times in New York, New Jersey, Puerto
Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
She gets great satisfaction from her HR
work. “I absolutely love it when employees see me
and say I ‘hired’ them. They’re happy to see a
familiar face and I love knowing local hires have
been converted to DAEs.”
Pat has a special affection for new DAEs,
who she routinely guides and counsels. “Often it’s
just listening to a stressed out employee. Or, it
can involve work with the ERO. It depends.
“I know a lot about FEMA , but most of all I
know who to call when I don’t know something.”
FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN