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Beginning with the terrorist attacks of 2001, the importance of emergency preparedness and management has escalated due to a confluence of both natural and man-made disasters. The last five years have seen the United States challenged by flooding in urban hospitals centers (Silverstein, 2012) chemical explosions in rural areas such as West Texas (Scheer & Moss, 2013), mass shootings at a indoor entertainment venue in Aurora, Colorado (CNN US, 2013) and terrorist bombings at major outdoor municipal event - the 2013 Boston Marathon (Jangi, 2013). The Nation has also witnessed carnage in a small elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut (Haigh, 2013), tornado destruction of an entire community in Missouri (TheWhiteHouse, 2013), and other catastrophes that spanned the width of the country from the crash of an Asiana flight at the San Francisco airport (Gray, 2013) to the New Jersey shoreline that endured Hurricane Sandy (“Hurrican Sandy”, 2013). These recent disasters reinforce the compelling argument for increased incident and disaster management training at all levels.
Even more important to those who sponsor or facilitate emergency management training (EMT), the last few years have seen indisputable evidence of a causal relationship between training activities and successful disaster responses in multiple and diverse scenarios. Recent publications on the positive impact of emergency responses to Hurricane Sandy, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the devastating tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama provide direct linkages to prior EMT and lessons learned (Jangi, 2012; Redlener & Reilly, 2012; Biddinger, et al. 2013; Kanter, 2012 ; Dean, 2012). Specifically, first responders credit ICS role practice for facilitating better teamwork (CDC, 2013) and improved proficiency in handling complex disasters (London. Min), improved response times (Hoffman & Kelly, 2004), the development of leadership command capabilities (Dean, 2012), and the ability to manage response over multiple judicial boundaries (911 magazine, 2012). Three seminal articles appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine (2013), highlight Boston’s emergency staff and other medical personnel’s attributions to EMT training and practice, and the direct application of drills to the successful medical response that saved countless lives (Biddinger et al., 2013, Jangi, 2013; Kellermann & Peleg, 2013). The value of interagency practice and the application of all hazard planning (Kanter, 2012; Dean, 2012) are mentioned by multiple first responders regardless of the type of disaster.