The project, designed to help emergency agencies learn how to overcome jurisdictional obstacles when dealing with natural and man-made disasters, is funded through a $172,605 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

It is part of Oak Ridge’s Southeast Region Research Initiative, a $24 million federally funded effort to assist the Southeast in coordinating private and public efforts to anticipate, respond to and deter terrorist attacks, and to foster development of common tools and methods to enhance disaster response throughout the region.

The project has brought together nationally recognized experts in emergency management and criminal justice to work with first-responder agencies in 16 counties in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area to analyze existing response plans and to develop a regional emergency planning model that can be standardized and used in other jurisdictions across the nation.

Participants in the May 6 workshop include representatives of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management Office, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities, N.C. Highway Patrol, Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Mecklenburg County Health Department, N.C. Division of Emergency Management, Contingency Planners of the Carolinas, Wachovia, Duke Energy and First Restoration, as well as representatives from South Carolina agencies.

Laura Myers, professor of emergency management at Western Carolina University and a principle investigator for the project, will share regional disaster response planning created during the past year, and will explain how the planning model has been developed for use by other regions using the Charlotte region experience.

“A regional approach to disaster mitigation enables agencies to deal with disasters that impact neighboring jurisdictions, including those located outside the primary jurisdiction where a disaster may occur,” said Myers, who teaches criminal justice and emergency management at WCU. “The project has received a significant response from emergency experts around the country who see the relevance of this project for enhancing regional disaster planning.”

Western has applied for a second year of funding to expand upon work done in the Charlotte area and to broaden the focus to other regions of the Southeast. Larry Myers, assistant professor of applied criminology at WCU and a principle investigator for the project, is working with agencies in other regions to determine which communities will participate in the second phase.

“Several communities have expressed interest in using the planning model and are willing to use it to enhance their regional planning efforts,” said Larry Myers, who has established many contacts with criminal justice practitioners through Western’s online program in applied criminology. “The project is focusing on communities with a variety of unique characteristics – such as rural, coastal or mountainous areas – that will permit the testing of the model in vastly different locations.”

The daylong May 6 event will be held in the Charlotte Marriott Executive Park from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. For more information about the WCU project, contact Laura Myers at (828) 243-2952, or via e-mail at lbmyers@email.wcu.edu.

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Last modified: Wednesday, April 30, 2008