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| The Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security will hold a |  
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| public hearing on Tuesday, September 23, 2008, at 8:00 a.m. in the Capitol |  
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| Extension, Room E1.016.  The Committee will hear public and invited |  
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| testimony regarding the following interim charge: |  
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| Examine the roles and best practices among individuals, state and local |  
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| governments, hospitals and other health care providers, and the insurance |  
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| industry for disaster planning and first response efforts.  Explore what |  
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| changes are needed to better prepare for natural disasters to mitigate |  
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| claims and losses.  Include an assessment of the state's implementation |  
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| of recent recommendations for evacuations, including movement of |  
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| medically fragile populations.  Study the level of preparedness among |  
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| critical infrastructure entities in both the public and private sector, |  
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| the effectiveness of state disaster relief policies relating to this |  
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| infrastructure and the sufficiency of personnel needed to restore this |  
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| infrastructure.  Assess the state's preparedness to handle a public health |  
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| emergency.  Examine the challenges of interoperability of communications |  
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| technologies to improve coordination of different plans across |  
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| The Committee may also hear testimony on other issues under its purview. |  
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