Resources for Understanding and Improving Coordination with the Water Sector and other “Community Lifelines”

FEMA has published the Community Lifelines Implementation Toolkit to provide its partners with the information and resources to understand lifelines, coordinate with entities using lifelines, and serve as basic guidance for how to implement the lifeline construct during incident response. According to FEMA, the community lifelines include food, water, and sheltering; hazardous waste; energy; communications; transportation; health and medical; and safety and security. Operationalizing the lifeline construct has become a priority for FEMA. As discussed in the February 21 Security and Resilience Update, outgoing FEMA Administrator Brock Long prioritized reducing risks to community lifelines in his recently obtained annual planning guidance. Additionally, FEMA tested this construct during its responses to the 2018 hurricanes, specifically Florence and Michael. Access the toolkit at FEMA.