Why lifelines?
- FEMA developed the community lifelines construct to increase effectiveness in disaster operations and better position the Agency to respond to catastrophic incidents
- Lifelines are the most fundamental services in the community that, when stabilized, enable all other aspects of society
- When disrupted, decisive intervention (e.g., rapid service re-establishment or employment of contingency response solutions) is required
- During initial response, priority efforts focus on stabilizing community lifelines.
- Lifelines provide an outcome-based, survivor- centric frame of reference that assists responders with:
- Root Cause Analysis
- Interdependencies
- Prioritization
- Ease of Communication
How were lifelines developed?
- FEMA released initial guidance (Lifelines Toolkit) introducing the lifelines construct in February 2019, followed by significant stakeholder outreach and feedback including:
- State and Local Emergency Managers
- Interagency Partners
- Private and Non-Profit Stakeholders
- Construct was validated during responses to Hurricanes Michael, Florence, and Dorian, Super Typhoon Yutu, Alaska Earthquake, and during Shaken Fury full-scale exercise.
- Lessons learned from exercises, operations, and stakeholder feedback resulted in refinement and improvement to the construct.
- National Response Framework (NRF) 4th Edition formalized lifelines in national response policy
- Enhanced Lifelines guidance (Lifelines Toolkit 2.0) released to support NRF Publication.
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View the Lifelines Toolkit online at: Community Lifelines Implementation Toolkit | FEMA.gov
If you have any questions or feedback, please email them to: Lifelines@fema.dhs.gov