Unit 2 will cover the following enabling learning objectives:

• Describe how Community Lifelines are applied to gain situational awareness, status reporting, priorities, planning, and operational decision-making
• Define the concept of incident stabilization and how lifelines are used to support stabilization efforts
• Define the seven (7) Community Lifelines and describe its relationship with individual components and sub-components

Approximate time for completion: 15 minutes

 The following terms are defined below to provide context necessary for understanding the information presented in Unit 2:

• Critical Infrastructure: Assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacitation or destruction of such assets, systems, or networks would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters
• Objective: Specific and identifiable actions carried out during an operations
• Response: Activities that address the short-term, direct effects of an incident. Response includes immediate actions to save lives, protect property, and meet basic human needs.

Please visit the following links for more information on the key terms above:

1. Critical Infrastructure
2. Objective
3. Response

Module 2: Community Lifelines

Purpose of Community Lifelines

Lifelines’ primary objectives are to ensure the delivery of critical services and alleviate threats to life and property during a disaster. Lifelines provides responders an outcomes-based approach through situational awareness, status reporting, and support with planning/operational decision-making. Through community lifelines, incident information is reframed and operationalized to:

• Rapidly determine the scale and complexity of a disaster;
• Identify the severity, root causes, and interdependencies of impacts to basic, critical lifesaving and life-sustaining services within impacted areas;
• Prioritize operational objectives that focus response efforts on the delivery of these services;
• Communicate disaster-related information across all levels of public, private, and non-profit sectors using a commonly understood, plain language lexicon; and
• Guide response operations to support and facilitate integration across mission areas

Incident Stabilization

Stabilization occurs when basic lifeline services are provided to the community, either by the rapid re-establishment of services, or through the employment of a contingency response solution. This happens either by the rapid re-establishment of services, or through a temporary response solution. A response solution is usually only for a very limited time. Examples of this include running portable generators to provide electricity or using a tent hospital to provide medical care for a community. The re-establishment of lifeline services implies the normal lifeline services are available within the community through infrastructure repairs or other means, making for a longer-term stabilization solution. Examples may include installation of generators to run a critical facility without grid power or resuming the commercial supply chain to a community.

The Seven Community Lifelines

As stated previously, the Community Lifelines construct is broken out into seven Lifelines:

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

Lifeline Components and Sub-Components Each lifeline comprises multiple components that encompass the general scope of services for a lifeline. For example, the Food, Water, Shelter Lifeline contains four components:

• Food;
• Water;
• Shelter; and
• Agriculture

These components are further divided into relevant sub-components that provide a granular level of services to a community. For example, the Water component is made up of three sub-components:

• Drinking Water Utilities;
• Wastewater Systems; and
• Commercial Water Supply Chain

Explaining the Seven Community Lifelines

The Safety and Security Lifeline includes law enforcement and government services, as well as the associated assets that maintain communal security, provide search and rescue, suppress and manage fires, and support public safety.

The Food, Water, Shelter Lifeline is characterized by support systems that enable the sustainment of human life, such as food retail and distribution networks, water treatment, transmission and distribution systems, housing, and agriculture resources.

The Health and Medical Lifeline comprises of infrastructure and service providers for medical care, public health, patient movement, fatality management, behavioral health, veterinary support, and the medical industry.

The Energy (Power & Fuel) Lifeline is made up of electricity service providers and generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure, as well as gas and liquid fuel processing, and delivery systems.

Explaining the Seven Community Lifelines (continued)

The Communications Lifeline consists of infrastructure owners and operators of broadband internet, cellular and landline telephone networks, cable services, satellite communications services, and broadcast networks (radio/television).

• This includes alerts, warnings, and messages, 911 and dispatch, and access to financial services

The Transportation Lifeline comprises multiple modes of transportation that often serve complementary functions and create redundancy, adding to the resilience in overall transportation networks.

• This includes roads, rail, and air as well as all public transportation

The Hazardous Materials Lifeline is characterized by the systems that mitigate threats to public health or the environment

• This includes chemicals, nuclear/radiological exposure, or other toxic substances that, if not properly handled or contained, cause risk to health.

This concludes the instructional content for Unit 2.

Unit 2 covered the following topics:

• Purpose of Community Lifelines
• Incident Stabilization
• The Seven Community Lifelines
• Lifeline Components and Subcomponents

The next unit will examine how the Community Lifelines construct can be used to establish stabilization targets, assess incident objectives and priorities, and how federal tools are used for situational awareness and status reporting.