BOSTON
-- This week Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced that Boston will receive
$18 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency, representing a 2.47%
increase from last year’s funding award. The funds will be used to
support ongoing and future homeland security initiatives through the
Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant program.
"Last week I met with DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to
discuss these grants, as well as preparations for this year's Marathon
and our plans for the upcoming Urban Shield training activities," said
Mayor Walsh. "The City of Boston has maintained a strong relationship
with Homeland Security, and has historically used these vital grant
funds to ensure that the people of Boston are safe, which is, in large
part, why our coordinated response in the wake of last year's Marathon
was so professional and effective.
I'm grateful for Secretary Johnson's continued support of our City, and
grateful for the support of our delegation -- particularly Senators
Warren and Markey, and Congressmen Lynch and Capuano -- in this
application process."
In
line with federal grant guidance, the region's first responders will be
meeting in the next month to decide what projects they need to build
upon and/or sustain to best ensure that the region reaches its national
preparedness goals. Many of the investments made through prior years'
grant funding will be visible during the 118th Boston Marathon,
including specialized equipment for police, such as bomb-detecting K-9s
and command vehicles; new fire detection equipment, and investments
made in communications interoperability so that first responders can
communicate with one another.
Past funding has supported initiatives such as Urban
Shield Boston, the largest first responder exercise conducted in New
England and the cornerstone of the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region
(MBHSR) training and exercise program. Urban Shield is a continuous
24-hour exercise, during which first responders are deployed to
strategically and tactically complete a real world scenario. The goal of
Urban Shield is to test and evaluate specific public safety
capabilities that have been developed, or enhanced, with the investment
of funds received through the UASI grant program.
Urban Shield
Boston was last held in November 2012 and involved more than 1,800
emergency response personnel from more than 50 local, state and federal
agencies. The 2012 exercise was around a mass casualty event, and marked
the first time that hospitals participated in the exercise, challenging
participants to handle a threat, triage a mass casualty incident, and
then disseminate the patients to the multiple hospitals in Boston in an
coordinated fashion. Participating in this exercise helped teams
identify gaps in their plans that they were able to address long before
the tragic events of April 15, 2013.
The
UASI program provides financial assistance to address the unique
multi-disciplinary planning, organization, equipment, training and
exercise needs of high-threat, high-density urban areas, and assists
them in building capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to,
and recover from threats or acts of terrorism. The City of Boston was
designated as an UASI site in 2003. Boston is a part of the Metro Boston
Homeland Security Region (MBHSR) along with eight surrounding
jurisdictions: Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Quincy, Revere,
Somerville, and Winthrop. The Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management
(OEM) coordinates and administers the UASI grant program on behalf of
the MBHSR.
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