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Mission
To enhance national resiliency to a full range of potential disasters by conducting research leading to innovative tools and applications that empower the homeland security and emergency management community through education, training, outreach and operational support. The Institute seeks to improve the emergency preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation activities for communities, supply chains and critical infrastructures that support our economy and our way of life.
Core Values
Collaborative public-private partnerships and enhanced disaster consequence models are essential to improve socio-economic disaster resiliency.
Approach
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The Institute’s research team accomplishes its "national-scale” mission through research into public-private partnerships, establishing best-practice based linkages between the government and industry stakeholders at all levels and across all critical infrastructure sectors. The team focuses on analyses of critical infrastructure and supply chain interdependencies, in an overarching effort to minimize the loss of life and impact on economy.
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The Institute’s technology development team leverages advanced supercomputing, visualization, GIS, and communications technologies to transform research into consequence models, what-if scenario simulations, and decision support tools that enable informed decision making under rapidly evolving and complex conditions.
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The Institute’s operational support team strengthen strategic partnerships between key public and private entities in emergency management at all levels; mobilizes the Institute’s national scale public and private sector partners, including non-profit organizations, as well as the Institute’s R&D capabilities to support homeland security and emergency management practitioners.
Outreach and Operational Support
The Institute accomplishes its mission through research into public-private partnerships, establishing best-practice based linkages between the government and industry stakeholders at all levels and across all sectors. These collaborative linkages enable coordinated disaster preparedness and response, resource management and information sharing, analyses of critical infrastructure and supply chain vulnerabilities, and consequence modeling of hazards, in an overarching effort to minimize the loss of life and impact on economy. The leveraging of strategic partnerships enhances the ability of affected communities and businesses to prepare for, respond to, and recover from all-hazard disasters, thus improving our resiliency as a Nation.
The NIMSAT Institute has over 30 local, statewide, regional and national public, private and academic partners to enhance its national-scale homeland security and emergency management agenda. Locally, two such partners include the Louisiana State University Stephenson Disaster Management Institute (SDMI), and First Call Network Inc., both based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Louisiana Business Emergency Operations (LA BEOC)
The Louisiana Business Emergency Operations Center (LA BEOC) is a joint partnerhsip between Louisiana Economic Development (LED), the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP), the National Incident Management and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT) Institute at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Stephenson Disaster Management Institute (SDMI) at Louisiana State University.
Enhanced communications, research and technologies will provide LA BEOC stakeholders, including public and private sector homeland security and emergency management practitioners, with enhanced capabilities and tools to improve disaster management in Louisiana.
The LABEOC will support the coordination of activities and resources of businesses and volunteer organizations in Louisiana and across the nation as well as with the public sector to improve response, improve self-sufficiency, reduce reliance on FEMA and other federal assistance in order to maximize business, industry and economic stabilization, returning the business environment to normal operations as quickly as possible. The LABEOC portal integrates advanced interactive communications technologies donated by First Call Network Inc., to send real-time alerts and notifications to facilitate communication of critical information between the public and private sector stakeholders in emergency preparedness and response.
Current News
National Emergency Managers Association (NEMA) 2010 Mid-Year Conference
Pictured: (L-R) Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); Bryan Koon, Senior Manager of Operations, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; Dr. Ramesh Kolluru, Executive Director, NIMSAT Institute.
Louisiana Business Emergency Operations Center Launch
LA BEOC is Louisiana’s first emergency operations center dedicated to response and recovery for businesses
On June 2, 2010, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret joined Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, or GOHSEP, Director Mark Cooper, University of Louisiana at Lafayette President Joseph Savoie representing the National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies, or NIMSAT, Institute, and Louisiana State University Chancellor Dr. Michael Martin representing the Stephenson Disaster Management Institute, or SDMI, at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Louisiana Business Emergency Operations Center, or LA BEOC.
The LA BEOC represents the first time Louisiana’s public, private and academic sectors have coordinated emergency efforts of businesses and volunteer organizations statewide in a structured manner. Serving as an annex of the state’s Emergency Operations Center, the LA BEOC will facilitate communication with the state’s major economic driver industries, as well as owners and operators of critical infrastructures and key resources to enhance Louisiana’s emergency management efforts. The LA BEOC will be led by the NIMSAT Institute, with support from SDMI, under an overarching leadership of LED and GOHSEP.
The LA BEOC will work with businesses to improve their disaster preparedness; improve communication with business and industry before, during and after disaster events; rapidly develop accurate economic impact estimates to support decision making and requests for business assistance; coordinate response efforts to assist businesses in their efforts to return to normal operations as quickly as possible; and help coordinate post-disaster economic recovery.
Please visit LABEOC.ORG to register your business or view more information.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
In a collaboration between the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's National Incident Management and Advanced Technologies Institute and Louisiana State University's Stephenson Diaster Management Institute, the Louisiana Business Emergency Operations Center (LA BEOC) has been activated on April 28, 2010. The informational portal has been set up in response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill to facilitate offers of assistance to the United States Coast Guard and BP, in the event that their efforts to contain the spill 48 miles off the coast of Louisiana were unsuccessful. The exploration well is located in the Mississippi Canyon Block 252, operated by British Petroleum (BP) and owned by Transocean Ltd.
On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the rig, resulting in the tragic deaths of 11 workers and many more injured who were subsequently rescued at sea. On April 22, 2010, the rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving a damaged riser spilling an estimated 5,000 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf every day. This incident has been declared a "spill of national significance” by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and a full-scale emergency response plan has been launched by the responsible party – BP – and the U.S. Coast Guard in an effort to contain the oil spill, cap the undersea well, and mitigate the consequences to the gulf coast. Louisiana and other Gulf States stand ready to assist the BP-Coast Guard response efforts when called upon to do so.
Please visit LABEOC.ORG for more information.
For more information on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, please visit emergency.la.gov or deepwaterhorizonresponse.com.
Haiti Earthquake Relief
The NIMSAT Institute is working with Louisiana GOHSEP and Louisiana VOADs to identify a list of the agencies and websites/phone numbers for those who want to contribute to the Haiti Earthquake Relief. The Institute is leveraging its connections with the private sector national organizations as well as the expertise of its staff, primarily Ms. Shannon Strother, the Institute’s Applied Research and Outreach Manager, in global disaster management to help identify the best approaches to contribute to the Relief efforts.
Please click on the link to find a list of the agencies and websites/phone number for donations with a brief description of what can be offered to the respective organizations.
On the Institute's response to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike...
"Truly [the NIMSAT Institute's] efforts have laid a solid foundation for future response across all jurisdictional levels and fostered a critical partnership that will place both the State of Louisiana and the Nation in a greater position of future preparedness.”
-Mark Cooper, Director, Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
"The Institute facilitated public-private partnerships that ensured that Louisiana had the necessary resources to manage the disasters, and conducted impact estimates that were instrumental in seeking congressional support. In addition, the NIMSAT team provided timely technical support to the State that ensured the successful management of the response to both hurricanes, with minimal loss of life and property.”
-Sen. Mary Landrieu, United States Senator
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