In order to protect citizens, infrastructure, business and property, Governors have to perform pivotal responsibilities. In case of a disaster emergency, the Governor which is also the chief executive is responsible for the adequate response of any type of emergency such as human caused, natural or technological incidence1. The performance of a successful emergency response requires from the Governor good communication and relationship with the respective governmental agencies, community, private-sector and institutions2. Therefore, because the Governor should respond to the citizens who voted for him, he should be responsible for maintaining stakeholders always engaged in the public’s health and emergency responses. According to the …show more content…
Likewise, the Governor has the authority to deploy the National Guard and he may use it to assist in response operations, in support of the local incident commander or the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA)2.
Under the terms and conditions of the Stafford Act, once the state of Pennsylvania has reached its maximum limit of resources, the Governor can request a Presidential Declaration of Major Disaster, in order to receive federal support. He may also use the Commonwealth funds and may transfer up to $10,000,000 from unused General Fund money in order to deal with the disaster emergency. Moreover, the Governor can use all Commonwealth and political subdivision resources available as necessary to deal with the disaster emergency and is responsible of authorizing purchases, lease or make other arrangements with the Federal Government for temporary housing units to be occupied by disaster victims so it can serve as shelters. The Governor may also request the interstate mutual aid which supplements emergency response capabilities of Pennsylvania. He must first look within Pennsylvania borders to determine whether the resources are available to support his responsibilities involved in the immediate response.
If there is a need of evacuation during the emergency, the Governor has the authority to evacuate all or part of the population from the threatened area. This evacuation will be coordinated and
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
evacuation, making emergency repairs to the levees, and providing food and law and order in an unprepared shelter). These measures, born of necessity, may be quite different from or exceed in scale anything responders have done before. They must be creative and extremely adaptable to execute improvised tactics. Equipping organizations to recognize the novelty in a crisis and improvise skillfully is thus a far different (and far more difficult) matter from preparing mainly to implement preset emergency plans. Scalability and Surge Capacity In many disasters, as Katrina well illustrated, responders must cope with far greater numbers of endangered people or more extensive damage than usual. To scale up operations to handle this surge of demand, emergency agencies require access to resources in larger quantities than normal and frequently to specialized equipment or
Emergency powers allow for a Governor during situations that could cause damage to the state, to ensure that the state is adequately prepared for the emergencies and disasters. The powers given to the governor here is usually within statue or constitution and usually found in the state emergency management laws (Zimmerman, 2012). Additionally, these powers relate to the US President, as the Governors will declare state emergencies and then petition the President for a major disaster declaration to open up federal FEMA funding and response to help
In the case of the Oklahoma City bombing, there is an exception to the use of military resources through solely the authority provided from the Stafford Act, and that is the Immediate Response Authority based under the MSCA. This exception allows a local military commander to provide assistance through resources and personnel to civil authorities before authorization was handed down. According to the U.S. Army, “At the scene, some 100 Guardmembers immediately helped the search for survivors. They set up an emergency operations center and reported to the state 's civil emergency management agency” (Smith, 2010). Hastily following these actions, assistance came from two local military bases, Fort Sill and Tinker Air Force Base, where the commanding officers authorized a variety of equipment and personnel to assist before the federal government authorized assistance. Fort Sill, an Army installation approximately an hour and a half away from Oklahoma City, “Fort Sill released two medical evacuation helicopters, explosive
In chapter 3, titled “Congress and the Agencies”, we learn of a few of the many laws, processes and agencies that have been created to better prepare the United States for a national emergency. Since the origins of the United States, the President has always been the lead on emergencies that required attention by the federal government, but the legislative and judicial branches of the government have become more and more involved in making sure that it is done constitutionally. One of the main reasons for this is because of the statutes that have been created because of the response to emergencies. These statutes have been separated into three separate categories.
When an emergency or natural disaster strikes, the state of Wisconsin must coordinate emergency operations that are closely managed in order to respond effectively and that is the job of the State Emergency Operations Center. The Operations Center has a status and within the status there are 4 levels.
Planning for recovery will be implemented at the same time local governments are taking the emergency response actions necessary to protect the public. Preparations will be made for rapid deployment of resources necessary to facilitate
This is a review of Emergency Management: The American Experience 1900-2010 by Claire B. Rubin and Butler (2012), chapters 1 and 2. Emergency management at the federal level was nonexistent before 1950 when the Federal Disaster relief Act was passed. Disaster relief was the responsibility of state and volunteer agencies like the Red Cross. Several disasters paved the way for emergency management. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the San Frisco Earthquake of 1906, and the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 were the disasters that laid the foundation for the 1950 Federal Disaster relief Act (Butler, 2012, pg. 17).
Public safety and welfare of the community falls under the jurisdiction of elected and appointed officials. Local officials provide strategic guidance and resources during preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. They must have a clear understanding of their responsibilities for success in emergency management.
In “Wither the Emergency Manager,” Niel R. Britton comments on Drabek's “Human Responses to disaster: An Inventory of Sociological Findings.” Britton describes six positive and negative issues in emergency management as it is today. In this paper, we will discuss the implications on emergency management as a field and on the individual manager.
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.
After a powerful tornado, 60% of businesses and a residential area have been destroyed. This has led to a series of negative events that need to be dealt with. These events include the town having no working lights, reports of residents' children and spouses missing, and even reports of gunfire. At this point, the state is aware of the disaster that has hit this town and the Governor is activating the National Guard. Beyond these initial steps, no further action has been taken, and I must respond immediately to deal with the crisis at hand.
An effective crisis management response plan outlines specific procedures for administrator, teachers, and students during evacuation emergencies. Administrators work with teachers, students, parents, law enforcement officers, business and community members, to develop an effective emergency and crises plan. The administrator provides leadership in developing and monitoring the school safety plan and also establishes procedures for emergency evacuation and crisis management at different stages of the plan. However, an effective leader develops a comprehensive prevention education plan, and regularly reviews the code of conduct manual for revisions and current laws.
In a new form of protection and communication, social media is the main thing that everything is using in today’s times. Marketing employees have positions as titled as social media directors. Companies have people watching and monitoring everything that happens with their social media reputation all hours of the day everyday. Young people are seeing the power of social media everyday with teachers demonstrating how fast a picture can be shared across the world. Social media is relatively new and could possibly open many gates for communication. This depends heavily on who is publishing information and news on social media. If news spreads fast on social media, then the use of it can be used for emergencies. If many people are
This extract will elaborate on some of the legal considerations that the emergency manager must consider when conducting searches, seizures, and evacuation operations during an emergency management activity. Unfortunately with the unforeseen nature of the emergency and/or disaster one must consider whether this event involves imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, harm, lost of life or property resulting from any natural or man-made cause, the choices that must be made by local officials frequently are not easy to make in a split of a second (Nicholson, n.d.). Most of their decisions may not be the most popular choice but must be the course of action that will benefit the cause.