AHC Emergency Management Consulting

That was the subject line of a sad e-mail that I received today.  We did indeed lose a friend, a hero, and a father figure to many of us. The e-mail informed us that Wm. "Bill" Vargas passed away last night, peacefully and from natural causes.   Bill was a legend in our business and a dear friend to all of us at All Hands.  In his memory, I thought it would be appropriate to recap his career, based on his excellent resume.  Bill, you will be missed by us all. Those of us that knew you well, know what a large hole you leave in our profession and was a leader you were over the years as new concepts in search and rescue and incident management were under development. Bill Vargas had over forty years of experience in our business, having served in the military and as an an administrator in both federal and state government.  Bill worked for us from the beginning of All Hands as a consultant and instructor.  Bill was our though leader on all things incident management and se

One recent news paper headline read:  Victory! New York to Receive Increase in Anti-Terrorism Funding The story  indicates that Representatives Nita Lowey and Steve Israel announced that an amendment has passed the House that would enable New York City to receive more anti-terrorism funding. Under the new amendment, the story reports, grant recipients of the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) would be limited to 25 of the highest-risk cities in the nation. "I am pleased this amendment passed to ensure UASI grants benefit highest-risk cities and will work to ensure the Senate passes this provision and President Obama signs it into law," said Lowey. Based on the 2010 allocations, which may change due to new risk calculation formulas , the following top UASI cities would appear to be safe.   However, the impact of new risk formula is not yet understood . The two lists below are in order based on the 2010 allocations as announced almost a year ago... New York City  L