Welcome to Emergency Planning. Preparation for emergencies, disasters and catastrophes, whether natural or man-made, is the key factor in our ability to successfully mitigate, respond to, and recover from incidents that affect our communities and our nation. To be successful, emergency plans must be formulated based on risk analysis followed by continuous assessment of our capabilities. This is critical in order to detect vulnerabilities that could impact our community’s ability to cope during emergency incidents.
During the next eight weeks we will cover topics including threat assessment, risk analysis, formulation of emergency plans, emergency operations centers, coordination with supporting agencies, human responses to disasters, mutual aid agreements, and hazard adjustments. We will study national preparedness policies and doctrines, and review major incidents and disasters. Students will culminate their learning in the course by authoring a sample Emergency Operations Plan based on the hazards identified for their community.
Emergency planning involves the public entities one would typically think of when dealing with disasters – local and regional governments, fire, police, and EMS. But effective emergency managers must go beyond the public sector when planning to deal with emergency and disaster situations. Community–based planning engages all stakeholders including local residents, public health entities, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. Comprehensive plans provide a seamless transition from the planning process through the activation and implementation of the emergency plan. Effective plans communicate the objectives and goals of the incident and convey the actions necessary to achieve them. All organizations involved should understand how their roles and responsibilities fit in with the overall plan and be prepared to execute their identified assignments.
Throughout the course we will utilize FEMA’s Comprehensive Preparedness Guide, which is the foundation for state, territorial, tribal and local emergency planning in the United States. The Comprehensive Preparedness Guide will enable students to learn how to develop emergency operations plans to deal with specific hazards and threats. Effective emergency planning allows communities to produce integrated, coordinated and synchronized plans and to standardize the planning process across all phases of emergency management.
The end goal is to provide a systematic approach to dealing with an incident that communicates expected results in order to ensure a common operational focus for all involved. The fundamental principle is that emergency planning and homeland security operations begin locally and expand to the regional, state, and federal level as the affected jurisdictions require additional resources and increased capabilities. Good luck in the course!
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