The Department of Homeland Security is paying close attention to America’s infrastructure, including some of that right here in Pike County, the McComb Rotary Club was told Wednesday.
Sept. 11 showed terrorists can “use our own infrastructure against us,” said Max Fenn of Summit, protective security advisor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Mississippi.
Also, he noted, Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the “cascading effects” of threats, natural or terrorist related, to the infrastructure. For example, when electric power is disrupted in widespread areas, like it was during Katrina, fuel supplies are shut down, which in turn can have other devastating effects on the economy and people’s lives.
He said a national infrastructure asset data base exists, and “we know what’s important.”
Part of Fenn’s job is working with the private sector as well as public agencies such as the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and local authorities in protecting infrastructure.
Eighty-five percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure is privately owned, he said, and “there’s a lot going on” in seeking to protect it.
Fenn showed two videos in addition to his remarks. One was a recruiting piece for terrorists and another was on the importance of homeland security.
