Albert Fluman was appointed director of the National Incident Management System Integration Center in January 2006. This year, his group will be implementing improvements to the NIMS process.

Has NIMS offered any surprises?

I don't really know if there have been any big surprises in the implementation of NIMS since 2004. The nation as a whole understands the importance of having one incident management system. And since NIMS is based on best emergency management practices, procedures that many emergency management professionals have been using for decades, the adjustment to NIMS has been relatively easy.

How much progress has been made in NIMS compliance?

For the first two years, the self-certification program worked very well. But to move toward a higher level of implementation, we're going to tie NIMS implementation to specific measurements. This is extremely important. I'm asked almost daily by Congress, “What is the status of NIMS implementation nationwide?” By October of this year, we'll be able to provide the nation with the status of NIMS implementation in each state. The states can look at how local governments are doing. It will tell us where the system is succeeding. It is also going to tell us where we need some additional work. We are hoping that through this reporting process we may be able to specifically target some grant dollars to those areas that need some improvement.

If money and politics were no barrier, what would you do to improve the nation's response ability?

Resource management is the key to effective NIMS management. You can have a wonderful incident command system and have all of your personnel trained and credentialed, but if you cannot get resources to the scene, you are still going to have a problem. Having a national or at least an effective state-by-state resource-management system is where we need more improvement.

Another concept is to ensure the entire nation has a common operating picture for a particular incident. We've placed a lot of emphasis on the data aspect, computer programs and software that will graphically project the picture. But we haven't spent a lot of time on how we gather all the information that goes into that picture. We need to train people to rapidly assess damage so we can accurately paint that picture. The data-management system is important, but if we are not able to provide accurate information, the system it is almost worthless.

How is NIMS being evaluated?

One of my first actions when I took the job was to review and evaluate the existing NIMS document. One of the components of NIMS requires us to conduct an extensive review and evaluation, and that had not been done. We went through an extensive review. We had the document rewritten. We sent the revised document out for comment; we had two national review periods and received about 6,000 comments. We focused in on some of the information that we received from hurricanes Katrina and Rita after-action reports. Our general review and the concurrence we got from the nation was that the document for the most part was sound. We needed to clarify the guidance and in some areas incorporate a better explanation of preparedness functions and make the document a little easier to understand. We hope to have it out by June 1.

What type of emergency poses the greatest threat regarding NIMS?

Any incident where we do not have a clearly defined incident site. With a tornado we know where the damage is. But biological, radiological, chemical or pandemic-flu incidents can have widespread incident scenes. With these you will not have your command post at the incident scene. The incident could be injured folks over a widespread area. NIMS and ICS certainly take this into account and can operate effectively for these types of incidents. But keep in mind, we have not had many of these types of incidents, so the testing of the structure has only ever been done in exercises.

How important is it to have nonemergency groups trained in NIMS?

It is pretty important because once the initial response to the disaster is under control, traditional response agencies' role diminishes. As we move into short-term and long-term recovery, a lot of the activities shift to public works, the private sector and volunteer agencies. Pulling people out of buildings and getting them to hospitals is a very short time frame compared to how long it is going to take New Orleans to recover from Katrina. NIMS integration throughout all disciplines that will have responsibilities for the entire disaster continuum is important.