State firms form groups for disaster response
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | July 24, 2004

The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/07/24/state_firms_form_groups_for_d\
isaster_response/

If disaster strikes at next week's Democratic National Convention, Boston-area
businesses will have an unprecedented new seat at the emergency response command
center -- and tens of millions of dollars in material and services lined up to
help respond

After months of discussions, the imminent arrival of 35,000 delegates,
journalists, and politicos has spurred more than 20 area corporations to form a
new Massachusetts Business Response Network. It inventories everything from
warehouse space and hazardous-materials suits to excavators and portable
generators -- and executives with skills suitable for crisis response -- that
businesses are prepared to make available to public safety officials in the
event of a terrorist strike or other disaster.

The network, whose backers include EMC Corp., Genzyme Corp., Partners
HealthCare, Raytheon Co., and Shawmut Design and Construction Inc., is modeled
on a similar New Jersey effort completed last year. That sought to avoid, in the
case of a disaster, a repeat of the logistical snarls as hundreds of businesses
volunteered people, equipment, and goods to respond to the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

The Democratic convention is also driving another unprecedented example of
coordination between area businesses and public safety. As state emergency
management officials open a command center in an underground bunker in
Framingham, representatives from a business group called the New England
Disaster Recovery Information Exchange will for the first time have a designated
seat alongside agencies like the State Police, Massachusetts National Guard, US
Coast Guard, and the state Department of Public Health.

Members of the nonprofit exchange, which was formed in 1991, envision being able
to get information about incidents and threats to companies much more rapidly
than in the past, and also enlist private security forces as the eyes and ears
for public safety officials.

"We've always worked on an informal basis with the private side, but we felt it
was important to really make this part of a formalized state plan," said Peter
Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. "It's a
great resource for us for bi-directional communication. You don't have to rely
on friendships and connections to know what's going on."

The US Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have their own
security coordination center in Boston. State officials have opted to use the
1950s-era civil defense bunker adjacent to State Police headquarters in
Framingham, which they have used for managing winter storms, hurricanes, and the
"Y2K" New Year's Eve of 1999-2000.

Exchange president Ed Deveau said, "This is a major precedent. God forbid, if a
big event happens down the road, the state, the city, and private industry will
be in a much better position to communicate." The organization will be using a
blast-messaging technology provided by Envoy WorldWide Inc. of Bedford to send
instant security updates to over 1,000 corporate executives' cellphones, e-mail
accounts, and portable messaging devices.

Deveau said 21 executives from exchange member companies have undergone special
training for their eight-hour shifts inside the bunker, which will go into a
24-hour-a-day operation starting tomorrow morning at 8. "There's a basic list of
do's and don'ts," Deveau said. "It's like being a kid and being invited to the
adult table at Thanksgiving: Mind your manners. Don't disrupt things while
you're sitting there."

While exchange involvement in convention security monitoring and coordination
will extend only through Friday, the Business Response Network will become a
permanent enhancement for state disaster response plans. The US Department of
Homeland Security has issued nearly $200,000 to support the effort.

"One of the lessons coming out of 9/11 was that there were a lot of folks in the
private sector who wanted to offer help, and there were public sector officials
who welcomed that assistance, but the mechanisms for clearing that in the middle
weren't that developed," said Cesar Brea of Business Executives for National
Security, an association backing the effort. With the incentive of the deadline
to be ready for the DNC, Brea said, "tens of millions of dollars that will be
accessible that wouldn't have been available otherwise."

Besides equipment and supplies that would be used to clean up after a truck bomb
or chemical, biological, or nuclear attack, companies are also offering disaster
response space. Polaroid Corp., for example, has pledged to let public officials
use part of its 330,000-square-foot distribution center in Norton, near
Interstate 495. Raytheon is also offering warehouse space and secured
command-center rooms in undisclosed locations "dispersed throughout the metro
area," spokesman David J. Shea said.

Judge said that if Boston were targeted for a terror strike, having space well
outside the city to intercept, inventory, and then allocate incoming supplies
would be crucial.

"Sometimes you create a secondary disaster dealing with all this unsolicited
help that can show up," Judge said. "Without space like this, it's hard to
separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of what's coming in, and what you
actually need