Unit 1 will cover the following enabling learning objectives:

• Define the Community Lifelines construct and its use in emergency management operations
• Recognize the evolution of the lifelines construct based on a historical need to characterize incident impacts and prioritize emergency management efforts during a disaster response

Approximate time for completion: 15 minutes

 The following terms are defined below to provide context necessary for understanding the information presented in Unit 1:

• After-Action Report: A document intended to capture observations of an incident or exercise and make recommendations for improvements
• Core capabilities: Distinct critical elements necessary for achieving the National Preparedness Goal
• Emergency Support Functions: Provide the structure for coordinating federal interagency support for a federal response to an incident
• Situational awareness: The ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical information about an incident

Links to reference materials are listed below for more information:

1. After-Action Report
2. Core capabilities
3. Emergency Support Functions
4. Situational awareness

Module 1: History and Overview

Background and Evolution of the Community Lifelines

Construct Historically, FEMA collected information according to specific program and activity. The unprecedented scale of disasters in 2017 highlighted FEMA’s challenges with balancing concurrent large-scale operations with Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, as well as the wildfires in California. The 2017 Hurricane Season After-Action Report identified FEMA’s need to create a more structured prioritization and response concept. The Community Lifelines construct addresses this need by providing an outcome-driven approach that promotes the importance of situational awareness, prioritization of response efforts, and decision-making processes to stabilize an incident.

Defining Community Lifelines

Community Lifelines are the most fundamental elements in the community (e.g. fire, police, hospitals, gas, etc.) that enable a functioning society. The stabilization of these elements are crucial to supporting the day-to-day needs of the community.

The Seven Community Lifelines

There are seven Community Lifelines:

• Safety and Security;
• Food, Water, Shelter;
• Health and Medical;
• Energy;
• Communications
• Transportation; and
• Hazardous Materials

We will describe the Lifelines in greater detail as we go through this course.

Lifelines and Emergency Management

What is the relationship between Lifelines, Emergency Support Functions (or ESF), and core capabilities? ESF’s provide the structure for coordinating federal support by delivering the core capabilities across different agencies. Each of the 15 ESFs comprises a department or agency that has been designated as the ESF coordinator, along with primary and support agencies. ESFs work with leadership to improve preparedness for collaboration and support states’ delivery of core capabilities to stabilize Lifelines. Core capabilities are distinct preparedness elements that help guide response activities during disasters and for achieving preparedness benchmarks. ESFs work with leadership to improve preparedness for collaboration and support states’ delivery of core capabilities to stabilize Lifelines. Think of it as “Ends, Ways, and Means”. To give you an example of how this ties together, ESF #4: Firefighting may help coordinate federal firefighting activities and supports resource requests for public health and medical facilities and teams. This ESF delivers the Fire Management and Suppression core capability and works to achieve the stabilization of the Safety and Security Lifeline. While there is not an official crosswalk connecting Lifelines, ESFs, and core capabilities, you will find that the Lifelines are often linked with certain core capabilities and ESFs.

How Community Lifelines are Incorporated in Planning and Response

The Community Lifelines construct helps emergency managers quickly assess disrupted critical services and plan how to restore them. Pre-incident, lifeline services are provided by the public, private, and non-profit groups within the community. Disruptions to lifeline services may cause significant threats to life and property. Therefore, stabilizing lifelines is the highest priority when responding to disasters.

Tying Lifelines and Emergency Management

The National Preparedness mission areas—Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery—identify 32 total core capabilities required to address common threats and hazards.

• The Response core capabilities are the grouping of actions that can be undertaken to stabilize an incident

The relationship between Community Lifelines, core capabilities, and ESFs is conceptualized using the “Ends, Ways, and Means” example:

• Ends: Lifelines describe the services within a community that must be stabilized or re-established (the ends) to alleviate threats to life and property
• Ways: Response core capabilities describe the grouping of actions that can be taken to stabilize and re-establish lifelines. FEMA enhances coordination and integration to execute lines of effort (LOEs) for response and recovery planning and operations
• Means: ESFs and other organizing bodies (the means) make up the organizational structure across departments, agencies, community organizations, and industries to enhance coordination and integration to deliver the response core capabilities

Incorporating Lifelines into Response

The Community Lifelines construct helps responders and emergency managers quickly assess disrupted services and determine which of the core capabilities are required to deliver and re-establish those  services.

This enables decision makers to:

• Determine the severity of the disaster’s impacts on critical infrastructure;
• Identify limiting factors and gaps to address those impacts; and
• Quickly prioritize solutions to alleviate threats to life and property

This concludes the instructional content for Unit 1.

Unit 1 covered the following topics:

• Background and evolution of the Community Lifelines construct
• Defining the Community Lifelines
• Lifelines and Emergency Management
• How Community Lifelines are Incorporated in Planning and Response

The next unit will dive deeper into the seven Community Lifelines and its breakdown into components and subcomponents.