Building a “Culture of Preparedness” and readying a nation for disaster isn’t limited to the United States.
A three-day summit at the Emergency Management Institute that focused on emergency management training and education continues the collaboration between FEMA and Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention.
Supported by the U.S. Northern Command’s Humanitarian Assistance Branch, the two agencies agreed to a six to 10 year project that will strengthen emergency management training and education in both countries. They committed to sharing knowledge in emergency management training, exercises, and education to support and enhance the capacities of the each nation.
These bilateral engagements will support the development of civil preparedness/emergency management career roadmaps, standards, certifications, and resource typing in Mexico and provide expanded training materials and opportunities in the United States.
This will prepare officials in civil preparedness and emergency management, and related professions to be capable of leading disaster preparedness, risk reduction, and response operations at the federal, state, and municipal level in Mexico and the United States.
The United States and Mexico have collaborated on a wide variety of emergency management issues since 1980. U.S. Northern Command has often served as a vital enabler of these engagements, bringing resources and expertise to bear on common problems.
Recent meetings in Mexico City provided our leadership with an awareness and understanding of many of the highly advanced systems that Mexico has developed over the past eight years.
Mexico has one of the most advanced earthquake early warning systems in the world, and developed a web-based national risk assessment system, the Disaster Risk Atlas, to help emergency managers understand the risks and vulnerabilities in a specific community. It is also public-facing, allowing the general public to better understand the risk specific to their communities.
In a joint final statement, Center for Domestic Preparedness Superintendent Tony Russell and Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention Director Dr. Carlos Valdes said,
“We view this inaugural meeting as the beginning of a lasting relationship that will foster great benefit for both nations and the region in emergency management and civil preparedness training, education and exercise preparedness.”