Emergency Preparedness Guide

Preparedness Efforts is preparedness activities prepare the community to respond when a disaster does occur. Typical preparedness measures include medical personnel for the emergency services and for community volunteer groups. The medical facility will need to have the proper medical vehicles, equipment, supplies, and communications systems, and regularly training

The four phases of the emergency management cycle are Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. Mitigation is the process of reducing the occurrence, minimizing impact of the event, and preventing an event from occurring. Mitigation steps can happen before and after an event.

The emergency operations plan will assign specific city agencies within the jurisdiction orders and responsibilities they must take on during an emergency. Each of their tasks will be clearly explained and will be assigned to that specific department or agency so they will have the capability to perform them accordingly. As well as the type of assistance will be needed from the state, North Carolina, surrounding countries, federal government, and private entities. The emergency operations plan will include and prepare the cities agencies and departments that will be needed in an emergency crisis. Homeland Security, law enforcement agencies, the fire department, emergency medical services agencies, and hospitals will be the main agencies and departments on scene, each

Emergency management encompasses a wide range of protective measures aimed at improving a community’s resiliency, managing risks, and implementing mitigation strategies. When considering emergency response strategies, emergency managers must account for cultural issues within their communities. They must structure emergency planning around community policies and underlying issues that could hinder the implementation of mitigation measures. Using blanket strategies for disaster mitigation in most cases do more harm than good. Tailoring strategies to meet the needs of specific needs of community is the best way to approach disaster planning and mitigation efforts. Emergency mangers must

PREPARDNESS: “Typical preparedness measures include recruiting personnel for the emergency services and for community volunteer groups, emergency planning, development of mutual aid agreements and memorandums of understanding, training for both response personnel and concerned citizens, threat based public education, budgeting for and acquiring vehicles and equipment, maintaining emergency supplies, construction of an emergency operations center, development of communications systems, and conducting disaster exercises to train personnel and test

Disaster preparedness and response by healthcare professionals is an ongoing process. Either natural disasters or man-made catastrophes, emergency responders and healthcare services are the first to handle life threatening cases and ensure the safety of people.

Emergency Response planning should target to address the worst case scenarios (Ernst, Oct 4, 2006). As mentioned earlier, the first step in developing an emergency response plan is to conduct a risk assessment and identifying all the potential emergency scenarios (Department of Homeland Security, Emergency Response Plan). Scenarios must be site-specific, credible and be able to have the ability to test the responsiveness to the incidents (Developing Credible Scenarios for Emergency Response Planning). There are three main types of scenario exercises; Discussion based, Table top and Live. Refer to the web article: “Table Top Planning Scenarios” (A Preservation Planning Tool: Table Top Planning Scenarios, Level of Collections Emergency, Webpage)

Who is an emergency manger and what do they do? Generally, the emergency manager is responsible for the emergency management program within their county, city or designated area of control. From a layman point of view, programs may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and will contain Local Emergency Operations Plan and Hazardous Materials Plan.

When a crisis arises unexpectedly it places an organization in a precarious situation that jeopardizes the reputation of the company, the brands, key stakeholders as well as the employees. This has become even more critical in recent years as media outlets are no longer the only source of reporters, anyone with a cell phone equipped with a camera can report a developing crisis. For this reason, it is paramount that businesses in the modern era have an emergency plan in place before a crisis develops. A crisis is going to present numerous challenges even with a plan; not having a plan in place at all will drastically increase the odds of the crisis escalating to a point that it no longer is manageable. The intent of creating an emergency plan ahead of time is to be as prepared as possible to identify a developing crisis, manage the crisis and move beyond the crisis. There are a multitude of components that go into an effective emergency management plan from communication, to establishing a team, training key stakeholders as well as communicating internally and externally. In the midst of a crisis, there will not be sufficient time to bring everyone involved up to the level of proficiency required to deal with the developing crisis. For this reason, it is vital that all individuals who will be involved in managing the crisis have been properly trained and a robust emergency plan is in place. In some cases not

Emergency management is a difficult job, and there are many factors that goes into it, if a person wants to be effective at their job. Usually on the news stations, or on social media websites, we can see the actual disaster happening in real time, and/or can see the immediate damage the emergency has caused a town. An example, could be seeing the destruction a hurricane leaves in its wake from an aerial views from news helicopters. Usually after a few days the news will stop reporting on this event and move on to the next major news story. After a disaster occurs, people in the emergency management business are there to help pick up the pieces, and try to restore order or to help those in need. In many cases they are successful and everything,

The purpose of this plan is to provide a robust comprehensive emergency management structure utilizing provisions of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) to provide for an all-hazards approach. In addition, this plan will apply all the elements of emergency management process (mitigation, prevention, response, and recovery) to combat natural, technological, and/or terrorist incidents. Moreover, this plan provides the necessary information for any governmental, non-governmental, private sector, or community resource within or adjacent to the city of Goshen to know what must be completed and who must complete it as it pertains to the emergency management process. The overall goals of this plan are:

Looking back at the past eight weeks’, disasters have continued to occur across the United States. There have been riots in Baltimore Maryland, wildfires throughout the state of California and most of the Western United States, and more recently flooding in south-central New Orleans. As first responders, like the rest of the world, we wake up in the morning put both feet on the floor, go through some morning routine and most often fail to realize that today’s the day a disaster will occur. It may not be the people we serve, or in the community in which we live, but the potential is always there. Emergency planning is a pivotal key in being prepared for a worst case scenario. Since Hurricane Katrina, the federal government, state and local officials have stepped up their game in disaster planning. The federal government has established numerous guidelines and protocols for such events. The National Response Framework (NRF) superseded by the National Response Plan (NRP), the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and the Stafford Act are just a few of the government 's key programs. Recognized nationally bringing resources across the nation together and on the same page (Kramer Ph.D., 2009, p. 18).

An emergency response is an effort by public safety personnel and citizens to mitigate the impact of an incident on human life and property. But, when it comes to a crisis or a major disaster this can become very difficult. Because, when something so damaging and drastic happens, there’s really no fixing or changing the situation. All people or emergency responses can do is try their best to fix and help the situation as best as possible. These are things that most emergency response teams are prepared for and trained for.

Emergencies are inevitable. Whether they result from natural disasters, hazardous spills or accidents, or even purposeful acts of terrorism towns, cities, counties, states, and nations need to be prepared ahead of time with an effective course of action. The book, Emergency Response Planning for Corporate and Municipal Managers, written by Paul Erickson, challenges agencies and readers to assess the pieces that must be addressed to be effective in responding appropriately to emergencies. In this course, a few of the aspects of management that I learned about were the different types of emergencies, the necessary components of an emergency plan, how to set up a incident command center, and the need for and type of protective gear. Considering that I have been interning for the past two years at a large church that sees over 15,000 people attend each weekend, it is imperative to have a working knowledge of the things that can go wrong and an understanding of how the church can step in to assist the community in a disaster. Having an awareness of potential community threats is a must for the church to continue to be the light of the world and to be available to people in crisis.

In this section, the four phases of emergency management will be defined: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.