National Incident Management (NIMS)

The assistance provided for the purpose of helping the victims of a disaster rebuild their homes to the same living conditions they had lived in before the disaster, FEMA assisted 130,000 middle income and low income families rebuild after the Northridge earthquake (Eugene, 2010). FEMA also assisted with the coordinated the response of 27 federal agencies that were involved in the recovery process. The FEMA United States Fire Administration student manual “ICS-300: Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents” (2013) refers to this type of command structure within the Incident Command System is defined as a “Unified Command”. The Unified Command type of management system allows for multiple agencies to work together to plan and strategize but most importantly to be able to collect resources from each agency without having to go through extra steps. This coordination was said to have had a huge benefit by being able to get the funding for repairs and to be able to decrease the time frames set to repair and rebuild the infrastructure (highways and roadways) needed to the get the city moving again. (DeBlasio et al,.

Public safety integration occurs horizontally at the local, state and federal levels of government, and integration also occurs vertically between respective public safety entities at the local, state and federal levels of government. ICS requires a common communications plan and interoperable communications processes and architectures (Federal Emergency Management Agency - FEMA, 2013). Additionally, ICS states

The CPG 101 incorporates the concepts of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) into the planning guide. NIMS is the result of Homeland Security Directive Five. The directive came from President Bush February 28, 2003. The goal of NIMS was to offer a necessary foundation for emergency management to identify, prepare, respond and recover in any emergent situation. The approach and vocabulary established with NIMS remains the same nationwide to ensure consistency.

After September 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland of Security was formed in response to the terrorist attacks. Out of the birth of the agencies formed, the National Incident Management System (NIMS) was created to allow clear allocation of resources and a systematic approach to emergency management. The system can be effective in many responses where many levels of government and response are imminent to respond to the disaster. Many of these agencies are emergency management, police, fire, health, and EMS from all levels of government. NIMS can be used on any type of incident and of any size or scope in nature.

Ensuring Resilience to Disasters has more tasking’s than another mission and involves many different agencies to accomplish those tasks. The four tasks are to mitigate hazards, enhance preparedness, ensure effective emergency response, and rapidly recover. The main agency that is responsible for these tasking’s is FEMA. FEMA’s mission is to “reduce the loss of life and property and protect communities nationwide from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters” (FEMA, 2017, p.2). FEMA works with federal and State services to assist them in accomplishing their goals. They also assist local services by assisting in setting up emergency management agencies (LEMA) and set guidance for Emergency Operations Planning (EOP). EOP’s are “plans that provide an overview of the jurisdiction’s preparedness and response strategies. It describes expected hazards, outlines agency roles and responsibilities, and explains how the jurisdiction keeps the plan current.” (FEMA, 2010,

An Initial recommendation determined that all local and state governments work together to develop one set of state protocols utilized during a crisis. These protocols would be implemented by all responding or involved agencies during a county or state crisis declaration. As with any area, territories and boundaries are a major issue. Without a clear, concise directive, the different state and local police agency jurisdictions may handle this combined protocol. However, the assortment of EMS agencies within my direct surrounding area would certainly have issues as to who establishes the EMS incident command. Unfortunately, there are still too many boundaries that even lower scale multi-victim motor vehicle accidents have previously caused friction between responding agencies.

I see the utility for its intended audience, as well as for a casual reader, curious about emergency response for incidents which occur on or near college campuses. The format of the article allowed me as novice to the National Incident Management System to stay engaged and grasp the concept. There are only there main sections to this article, “Understanding NIMS”, “Becoming Compliant” and the “Conclusion”. The two sub-sections of this Understanding NIMS section manage to provide an overview that helps the reader to understand NIMS in just seven short paragraphs. The Illinois Criminal Justice Authority report offers a brief glimpse of history about campuses incidents, without going into great detail, to spark the interest of the

NIMS is a uniform set of processes and procedures that emergency responders at all levels of government will use to conduct response operations. NIMS helps improve cooperation and interoperability among organizations. The framework is adaptable and accessible. It encourages all hazards preparedness. NIMS enables a variety of organizations to contribute successfully in emergency management and incident response. NIMS creates uniform professional emergency management and incident response practices.

According to FEMA incident command system (ICS) “is a management system designed to enable effective and efficient domestic incident management by integrating a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure. ICS is normally structured to facilitate activities in five major functional areas: command, operations, planning, logistics, Intelligence & Investigations, finance and administration. It is a fundamental form of management, with the purpose of enabling incident managers to identify the key concerns associated with the incident—often under urgent conditions—without sacrificing attention to any component of the command system”(2017). As explained by FEMA incident command system is the designates system to integrate different component with the purpose of organize the agency and classified different emergencies so every one of them can get the attention needed base on its

Government at all levels plays an important role during disaster management. Actions and roles of each government agencies are spelled out in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the National Response Framework (NRF). But before we go into details on the roles of governments, let me first of all explain what constitute emergency and emergency management, just to give clearer understanding some of these terms. Then I will examine the roles of governments at all level including first responder actions, mutual support, lead and support roles.

Today, the Incident Command System (ICS) is a major component of NIMS and is widely used in emergency management response. However, this was not always the case. According to David A. McEntire and Gregg Dawson, authors of the article, “The intergovernmental Context,” ICS was originally developed by the fire service in 1970. Its purpose was to assist in the command of wildfire events. It was unique because it standardized operations, yet offered flexibility so that it could be used on any number of events, regardless of size or type (McEntire & Dawson, 2007, p. 63).

The NIMS model of incident Command Systems (ICS) will be used as the framework for all responses to hazardous material releases. This will allow flexibility to rapidly activate and establish an organizational structure around the functions that need to be performed to efficiently mitigate an incident (Washoe County LEPC, 2006).

It is a location that is used to arrange and relate all necessary information and is generally the “control area”. The Incident Command Post a major component of the NIMS (Wolf,2012) is located within the EOC. It’s primary focus tactical on-scene response can be used during small and large situations. They are organized and have representation from all levels. These centers can be temporary or permanent entities and will include a detail that fits the incident who have full knowledge and certain skills. Also under the center are DOC’S Department Operations Center. This area requires effective and reliable communication because of the type of information transmitted through the center. The EOC will only be successful with the use” of mutual-aid agreements and joint communications protocols among participating agencies” (Walsh,2012). An interesting factor is that it has a Policy group that advises. This method comes in handy when making drastic decisions, legal guidance is good to cover your tracks. In supply when you are not sure if it is legally right to charger someone for signed equipment you consult with the legal aid to see if you are headed in the right direction. “Director of Emergency Management is the person in charge in local and state levels. This is the room one would want to be in, all the officials are in the Center. Space is something that is a delicate situation because it must be able to accommodate five various groups. The primary functions of the EOC are resource support for incidents and management. It has several task that it must take care of so task so board is displayed to show current updates. Tracking all availabilities with things such as “Shelter Status, Equipment Status and EOC staffing charts” (Walsh, 2012). The “Interoperability in the EOC” section defined a word used in the system as interoperability “the ability of

* In The missing piece of NIMS: Teaching incident commanders how to function in the edge of Chaos, the author notes that first responders have to deal with a disaster situation already unfolding, and not “all the pieces fit together nicely.” The author writes about the Five Tenets of Working in Chaos.

Establishing the incident command system is first and foremost. The system establishes a common organizational structure that is conducive for different types of agencies as well as multiple jurisdictions to be able to effectively work together in response to the situation. The components of this system include the Incident Commander, who oversees all aspects of the disaster response, operations, planning, logistics and finance/administrative (Briggs & Twomey, 2003).