Bexar County Emergency Management

According to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), there are many factors that will affect the direction of emergency management in the coming years. These can be classified as global challenges, global opportunities, national challenges, national opportunities, professional challenges, and professional opportunities. Global Challenges include some issues like global climate change, increasing population and population density, increasing resource scarcities, rising income inequality, and increasing risk aversion. Global Opportunities has to do with increased scientific understanding of the hazards and societal responses, as well as revolutionary technologies. National Challenges involves increasing urbanization and hazard exposure, interdependencies in infrastructure, continued emphasis on growth, rising costs of disaster recovery, increasing population diversity, terrorist threats, low priority of emergency management, legal liability, and intergovernmental tensions. Due to these factors that will affect the direction of emergency management in the coming years, there is need for us at emergency management division to adjust operational plans to meet these challenges and especially changes emanating from constant changes expected in technology and other threats we face.

According to http://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/emergency explains the steps that need to be taken and the importance of an emergency plan. “When an emergency occurs, the first priority is always life safety. The second priority is the stabilization of

Tragic events that cause damage to property and life may destroy the social, cultural and economic life of a community. Communities must be engaged in the various phases from prevention to recovery to build disaster resilient communities. In order to do this, there must be a disaster preparedness plan in place that involves multiple people in various roles.

An emergency operations plan for the community in which we live is a document of great importance to each of us whether we know it or not. This paper examines the emergency action plan for Knoxville, Tennessee. In the course of the examination, it will compare and analyze the plan for Knoxville with the standards set forth in the textbook for this course along with other recognized sources in the field of emergency management.

This chapter provides an overview that describes the basic types of hazards threatening the United States and provides definitions for some basic terms such as hazards, emergencies, and disasters. The chapter also provides a brief history of emergency management in the federal government and a general description of the current emergency management system—including the basic functions performed by local emergency managers. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the all-hazards approach and its implications for local emergency management.

Editor’s Note: This Chapter is the continuation of an adaptation of a state plan for disaster preparation and response. In total, the original chapter comprises Chapters 1, 14, 16-18.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has developed and implemented many practices for managing both natural and man-made disasters. Emergency managers play an important role in ensuring these practices are fulfilled entirely and all disasters are handled efficiently and effectively. Through the development of plans emergency managers work to reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management does not avert or eliminate the threats but instead focuses on decreasing the impact of disasters. Issuance of the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 (HSPD-5) has forced Homeland Security to manage domestic incidents better and they have done so through the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The NIMS system offers a reliable nationwide model to assist “Federal, State, tribal and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work together to prevent,

An emergency is a severe, sudden and sometimes risky circumstances requiring urgent action (Salman Sawalha, 2014). Escalation of an emergency situation can lead to disaster; which is an unusual event that can cause lost of life and property (Salman Sawalha, 2014). International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRRCS) define disaster as “unexpected devastating events that disrupts the operations of a population or public which leads to huge losses and overwhelmed the affected community 's ability to respond to the situation with the resources they have at hand”. There are two main types of disaster that can lead to emergency situations; these include natural and man-made disasters.

The Saint Louis County emergency Operations plan has the fundamental mission of establishing the emergency guidelines for the County and other offices to follow during a major incident or disaster situation ("St Louis County BEOP," 2013). It includes all requirements for request for assistance and informs at all levels what their responsibilities are during a response incident. The plan was designed to address all hazards that affect the county and everyone that lives in it. This is a plan that does not limit the individual response efforts of the various entities that are involved on responding to any hazard situation. The Plan is designed to provide the general frame work but allows for the innovative measures to be

The burden of emergency management has grown great deal in the last few decades. We have seen an increase in natural disasters, a new threat of terrorism on our front door and an increase in manmade disasters. All of these have tested emergency management in a number of cities and towns across the nation. It is not always disasters that present problems for emergency managers. We have to look beyond our traditional view of emergency management of helping us during times of disasters and view what issues they consider may affect their emergency response. Issues that emergency management see that are moving into the critical area are issues of urbanization and hazard exposure, the rising costs of disaster recovery, and low priority of emergency management.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the lead agency when responding to disasters from a federal perspective. In a large-scale disaster such as a strong hurricane, FEMA will oversee the response operations and assist the local, county, and state emergency management agencies as needed. FEMA will receive regular updates on the status of the hurricane and broadcast the information out to the affected states in order to provide a prompt response. In case of evacuation, previously established evacuation plans would be utilized to remove people from the impacted area. The state and local emergency management agencies will assist in disseminating the information to the affected areas. In general, plans should be implemented to call in all emergency responders to be ready for response and recovery operations.

Data obtained by assessing social vulnerability must be implemented within each phase of the emergency management process; mitigation, response, and recovery. First, to effectively respond and recover from incidents emergency management agencies must concentrate on the mitigation phase to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. This is achieved through a thorough hazard/vulnerability analysis (HVA). This type of analysis assesses the risk of physical, economic, and social vulnerability within all communities of a given jurisdiction (Lindell et al., 2006, p. 165). Additionally, the basis of the HVA allows emergency managers to effectively plan for disaster by creating pre-planned responses to disasters (rather than improvised response) and staging resources to locations with the highest probability of risk; ultimately contributing to the mitigation and response phases.

Actions taken to minimize adverse impact of disasters. These including structural measures like building of flood defences and non-structural measures like training etcetera. Public awareness related to disaster risk reduction, contribute in promoting a "culture of prevention" by changing attitudes. It revolves around civil institutions responsible to prevent disasters.

Risk for disasters is a part of life; emergency situations occur more frequently than many people believe. A wise person plans for the worse, and hopes for the best. After a disaster, how well a community can recover will depend largely on how well they prepared in advance. Risk management includes identifying any potential risks to a community and proactively planning to minimize the threat. Proactive organization of resources and people to respond to emergencies can mean the difference between a community’s ability to regroup and recover, and the loss of life. To better

This subject aims to teach students the main elements of emergency management for natural disasters and to a lesser degree terrorist attack. Students will understand the principles involved in emergency