Boston, March 21, 2014 — 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.
Military personnel was deployed in Boston on April 15, 2013, after Marathon bombings (bostonese.com file photo).
“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.
To learn more about the Office of Emergency Management, visit www.boston.gov/oem or follow @oemboston on Twitter. For more information about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s grant programs, please visit www.fema.gov/grants.