As the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the country leaving cities, towns and many tribal governments scrambling to adjust and acquire needed resources, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe activated its Emergency Plan. This plan allowed the tribe to jump to the front of the line for needed PPE resources to support the tribal community and Mashpee Indian Health Services with test kits, while others were still trying to define their needs. It’s also allowed the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to provide needed support to neighboring tribes, including Emergency Management Director Nelson Andrews personally delivering essential supplies to the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe.
Five years ago, Mr. Andrews established the Emergency Management Department for the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation, and had support from Ann Marie Askew and Allyssa Hathaway in the early phases. Picking up on a previous tribal emergency preparedness history and drawing on his previous 10 years as a FEMA employee.
He first served as the Logistics Section Chief during the 2011 Springfield, MA tornado. He then went on to serve in more than 20 Presidentially declared disasters, including hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and served as a director for on one of the National Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMATs).
As the Emergency Management Director for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, his key roles and responsibilities are the preparedness, planning, mitigation, response, and recovery for the Tribe, all while building out the key foundation components and sections of Logistics, Operations, Planning, Finance and Administration. Mr. Andrews attended his first E0580, Emergency Management Framework for Tribal Governments course in 2016 and has completed several EMI courses during his tenure as the Emergency Management Director for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
Mr. Andrews is also a member of the Barnstable County All Hazards Incident Management Team, and on a more national level, he is the Co-Chair of the Homeland Security and Emergency Services Committee for the United South and Eastern Tribes (USET). USET is a non-profit, inter-Tribal organization representing 30 federally recognized Tribal Nations from the Northeastern Woodlands (Maine) to the Everglades (Florida) across the Gulf of Mexico (Texas). Mr. Andrews is also a member of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Tribal Working Group and DOE Tribal Radioactive Material Transportation Committee in addition to various other tribal and national committees and working groups.
Mr. Andrews was the fourth Tribal Nation graduate of the FEMA National Emergency Management Advanced Academy and one of the first of the FEMA Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMAT) Academy.
“My experience has provided me the opportunities to meet with the Administrators of FEMA under two administrations as well as the Deputy Assistant Secretary and Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security as an invitational guest on separate occasions to provide insight and engagement on the needs of Tribal Nations in regard to emergency management capability gaps and discussions related to amendments of the Robert T. Stafford Act.”
The majority of the support that Mr. Andrews provides to his Nation and surrounding jurisdictions is made possible through grant funding.
“At the present time, I manage various grants all ranging in funding amounts and scope. I have applied for these grants through countless hours of research, narrative, and budgets and am continuously applying for additional funding as these are the means in which our EM department is fully sustained. Through this current grant funding, We have been able to enhance the capabilities of the EM department significantly. We now have response vehicles, all ranges of generators, Red Cross instructor training, Shelters and Kits, Search and Rescue drones with Thermal imaging, FAA Remote Pilot Certifications and FAA Waiver Certificate of Authorizations to legally fly over accident/incident scenes as one of the first in New England. In addition to being one of the first entities our EM Department has been awarded funding for the first and only tribal AmeriCorps program on the eastern half of the United States. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe AmeriCorps Program has a primary focus area on disaster services, but has recently been placed on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The AmeriCorps program was intended to complement the EM department’s Community Emergency Response Team and Tribal Emergency Response Task Force. Additional resources have been obtained through a Government surplus program and partnership that I have established; some of these resources include Coast Guard boats for search and rescue, response vehicles, tow-behind HVAC generator and EM response travel trailers, in addition to a number of other preparedness and response assets.”
Throughout his career, Mr. Andrews has had many opportunities to speak about areas of concern for Tribal Emergency Management:
Guest speaker at FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute National Preparedness Symposium
Member of the Focus Groups for the Tribal Curriculum updates underway that will be used to assist Tribal Governments in developing and enhancing their emergency management capacity and capability.
Guest speaker at the National Congress of American Indians Annual Convention, where he gave a presentation on post-disaster pitfalls and how various tribal nations are affected.
Speaker at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Southeast New England Conference in addition to various
DHS FEMA Center for Domestic Preparedness Tribal Training Week Focus Group. Mr. Andrews’ most recent invitational
Speaker at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) 2019 All-Hazards Emergency Management Conference presenting on “Tribal All-Hazards Preparedness and the Interlacing Dynamics Between Tribal, State, and Local Emergency Management.”
Andrews states, “Many of these skills I’ve learned and applied and the opportunities I’ve had can be attributed to my previous experience within FEMA in addition to the knowledge and networking gained through the EMI Tribal Curriculum and other EMI training opportunities.”
