FEMA Announces Release of Community Lifelines Toolkit 2.0

Today, FEMA announced the release of the “Community Lifelines Implementation Toolkit 2.0” and the “Incident Stabilization Guide,” which provide updated information and resources to better understand and implement Community Lifelines throughout the emergency management community.

On Oct. 30, 2019, the National Response Framework, Fourth Edition was released. Key updates to the NRF include the creation of a new Emergency Support Function 14 for cross-sector business and industry, and the formalization of the Community Lifelines within national-level response policy. To support the NRF release, FEMA updated the “Community Lifelines Implementation Toolkit.”

Toolkit 1.0 was released in February 2019 as the first formal guidance on lifelines. Since then, FEMA has conducted significant stakeholder engagement with state, local, tribal and territorial emergency managers, interagency partners, and private and non-profit stakeholders to provide training, achieve buy-in, and gain critical feedback to help mature the construct. Since its creation, the lifelines concept has been widely accepted throughout the emergency management community, as the simplicity and plain language used for lifelines eases coordination and communication among partners at multiple levels.

The construct was validated during responses to various events during 2018 and 2019 to include Hurricanes Florence, Dorian and Michael, Super Typhoon Yutu, the Alaska Earthquake, and during the 2019 Shaken Fury full-scale exercise. Lessons learned from these events, as well as stakeholder feedback, resulted in refinement and improvement to the construct, as reflected in the updated toolkit.

Along with the updated toolkit, FEMA is releasing an operational draft of the “Incident Stabilization Guide.” The guide provides further explanation of how FEMA will use the lifelines during response operations and planning and introduces its potential applicability across the preparedness cycle and other mission areas.

Learn more about lifelines and access the “Implementation of Community Lifelines Toolkit 2.0” at www.fema.gov/lifelines.

If you have any questions, please contact FEMA Tribal Affairs at (202) 646-3444 or at FEMA- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..