FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN
R2 –WEEKLY BULLETIN
Volume 1, Issue 9 March 13, 2009
ALL EMERGENCY MANAGERS
By Michael Moriarty, Acting Regional Administrator
Slipping Sysiphus
Sometimes the struggle alone is enough to fill your heart,
but other times, we need results. In Greek mythology the
character of Sysiphus stands out as one who is fulfilled by
the struggle. If you recall the story, it is about a man who
continually pushes a large round stone up a hill only to
have it roll down again. Yet, he does it over and over
again with the same result. Let’s try to stay out of the
Sysiphus School. Rather, let’s try to change things up a bit
and test new strategies to see if we can get to the top
together. Although it is difficult to address cultural change
issues in a short newsletter article, I would like to
germinate some seeds (it is almost spring, after all). If we
are going to further improve the Region’s readiness
posture to favorably respond to disasters, then
EVERYONE of us has to be considered a responder.
Each member of the team needs to be ready to minimize
misery and restore a semblance of normalcy to our fellow
citizens when impacted by disaster.
To realize this, everyone will have an emergency
assignment going forward. I have asked Dug Salley to
prepare rosters for two 15 member ERT-As (a.k.a. Type III
IMATs) to deploy in instances when the RII IMAT is
unavailable. I have also asked him to provide backups for
each position of the RII IMAT in case one or more of those
members become sick or incapacitated and can’t deploy. I
have also asked him to roster a full staff for our RRCC
(roughly 55 positions) When you do the math you can see
that we need over 100 emergency positions. Lastly, I
have asked Dug to find ways to broaden the pool of
players in Exercise Vigilant Guard later this month to
include some new members of the team or those who
may not have current experience in the RRCC. Keep an
open mind and it will be rewarding.
TIP of the Week
Know Your OUTLOOK
By Yen Pan
IT Services Branch
Knowing the quirks of your Outlook email
system can save both time and aggravation.
• If you have emptied your Deleted Items
folder, but need to retrieve a message
that is less than 30 days old, view the
Deleted Items folder, and select Recover
Deleted Items. Then select the message
you want to recover. The message will be
returned to the Deleted Items folder.
• Messages with attachments larger than 10
MB cannot be emailed. If you must share
larger files, please contact the Help Desk
to request a folder on a shared drive.
• Please do not use the following characters
in subject lines: & % … / \
Users of Outlook Web Access will not be
able to open them.
If you have any questions about these standards,
please contact the Help Desk.
RANDOM NOTES

CALLING ALL DAEs
The Disaster Reserve Workforce Division
(DRWD) is creating an e-mail distribution list to
disseminate reserve workforce information when
you are NOT deployed. This information will
include news flashes, newsletters, agency surveys,
policy, program and cadre updates.
To get on this distribution list, send your
personal email address with full name, region or
affiliation to:
FEMA-DRWD-Program@dhs.gov
Please include “Email Participation” in
the subject line.

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FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN
DAEs …Deployment Notes
By Cynthia Paul, Region II External Affairs DAE
For DAEs, a disaster deployment defines
much of our work. When we get together, we
often talk about our travels, adventures, and the
problems of living out a suitcase.
I recently heard about bedbugs from a
fellow DAE, who had first-hand experience with a
problem plaguing hotels across the country.
Bedbug infestations have been on the rise
worldwide for the past decade.
Both Toronto and Cincinnati have city-wide
bedbug taskforces, which New York is looking to
replicate. The number of reported bedbug
infestations has risen in New York from two in
FY03 to 9,213 in FY08. Next month, (April 14),
the EPA will host a two-day conference in
Washington on the public health implications of
bedbug infestations.
A bedbug is a small nocturnal insect that
lives by feeding on the blood of humans and other
warm-blooded hosts. Bites consist of raised red
bumps, or flat welts, and are accompanied by
intense itching.
To protect yourself:
1. Call your hotel you and ask if they have
had a bedbug problem;
2. Leave your luggage outside the room and
do a quick investigation first;
3. Lift the sheets off the mattress quickly, as
they scatter fast (they have a reddish hue);
4. Check around and behind the headboard,
inside mattress seams and pillow cases;
5. Never leave your clothes lying on the bed.
Elevate your luggage off floor, and close
luggage when not in use.
FACES OF REGION II
Adie Koby – Program Specialist, Risk Analysis
Adie Koby is FEMA Flexible.
She began working for the Federal
government in 1996 as a Grant Officer/Technical
Representative (GOTR) for the Department of
Labor, Employment & Training Administration
(ETA), where she oversaw more than $80 million
in employment services formula and
congressional grants for the New York region.
In 2005, ETA re-organized its operations,
consolidating its 10 regional offices to six, and
forcing Adie and her family to move to Boston,
“We had to deal with the new reality,” Adie says.
“Since I am used to dealing with change,
and have traveled widely, I just viewed it as
another opportunity, but for my kids it was a real
crisis. They went from living on the Lower East
Side to the countryside of Brookline, Ma. It was
beautiful, but we had to adjust to New England
culture, its’ slower pace and colder weather. It was
nothing like NYC,” Adie says.
“But I’m very optimistic and blessed with a
gift of turning lemons to great lemonade. We
made great friends and have lovely memories. My
kids went off to college, and now when they
complain, it’s about missing Boston.”
In the Boston, Adie was the Federal
Project Officer (FPO) Team Lead for the State of
Maine. She loved working with a state partner,
and is glad she made the move, but found that her
professional focus had changed. She is currently
enrolled in Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Master
of Advanced Science (MAS) program, and
recently committed to a focus in Emergency
Management Administration.

FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN