Situation:

The Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency (RIEMA), along with other agencies and municipal offices, needed to complete a Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) and submit the results to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Need:

RIEMA needed help organizing the event including who/which offices should attend, priority topics to discuss, how to assess the level of each threat. Secondarily, once the information was gathered, they needed help compiling all the data into a compelling and useable report.

Solution:

To accurately and comprehensively analyze the potential dangers affecting Rhode Island, Hagerty Consulting performed a THIRA to understand the probability, vulnerability, and impacts of various natural, technological, and man-made threats and dangers. Impacts can vary according to time of occurrence, season, location, and other factors, and all of those were noted. Once the THIRA process was complete, Hagerty developed and wrote a State Preparedness Report (SPR) to be submitted to DHS.

Outcome:

The SPR outlined strategic goals for Rhode Island to work toward based upon the results of the THIRA; the results will also impact any future hazard mitigation planning cycles.  With only finite resources available to devote toward protecting the lives and property of the State’s residents, Rhode Island is much more aware of its vulnerabilities and how to prioritize those resources.