The Incident Command System (OCD)

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.

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.

The various local, state, and federal emergency management systems of the United States suffered a crude awakening in the decade of the 2000s. Systems expected to hold up were put to the test and failed to prepare for disaster, mitigate the damage, and, in some instances, actually hampered responses in life-or-death situations. Worse, all failings were highlighted in an age of global communication and mass media, on display first whether a man-made incident like September 11th attacks or natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina. The decade found the complacent government failing to maintain modern emergency management practices, stimulating began a series of doctrinal upgrades and training improvements. Yet, no matter the bureaucracy, writings, or money thrown at a problem, the first responder to the incident has and will continue to influence the outcome. While the individual responder stands as the most important part of

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.

Directly receiving directions from the Incident Commander as well as reporting to the Command Staff are sections that oversee, plan, and assemble the necessary resources to carry out the Incident Action Plan passed down from the Command Staff. The Operations Section is managed by the Operations Section Chief who oversees all tactical operations at the incident. Deputies can then be appointed underneath the Operations Section Chief to control different Branches of operations in order to keep the span of control in scale. Ideally one individual should only control five other individuals on scene. As resources grow, the span of control can be reduced through the implementation of Divisions and Groups. Divisions can be used if the need arises to slit operations into geographical locations. This allows for the Operations Section Chief to pass on vital information to crews in a specific location. These divisions may simply be a quadrant of a structure, as well as a large area. It enables for all Divisions to communicate and work together, even through the use of different methods. Groups can then be implemented to further break down Divisions into smaller more manageable resources. In each geographical location, the ability to control law

Natural and man-made disasters have increased in the past decade, and due to these changes, Emergency Managers had to make drastic changes in order to improve the way first responders operate in a disaster area.

, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders are passed within a military unit and between different units. Orders are transmitted down the chain of command, from a higher-ranked soldier, such as a commissioned officer, to lower-ranked personnel who either execute the order personally or transmit it down the chain as appropriate, until it is received by those expected to execute it.

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).

In everyday life communication is one of the most important aspects to receiving information. The information is not just verbal but reading or visual as well. Every morning we wake up and turn on the tv or sit down and read the newspaper. We begin to absorb the information and this continues throughout the day. The fire service no different. We rely on good communication to get our message across. Although, sometimes we fail to effectively use our communications well. This is not only at the company level, but as well in informing the public. I was once told, "information is power" and I certainly agree. Although, the key is to have effective and accurate information. Within the Incident Command System among the Command Staff rests a very

For my Emergency Support Function assignment, I choose to research, and discuss the Incident Command System “ICS” and the National Management Incident System “NMICS”. In this paper I will compare the similarities, and differences the advantages and disadvantages of each system, as it pertains to the Emergency Management System. The ICS system is a personnel management structure through which disaster response is controlled. ICS was developed by the State of California as a method by which earthquakes and other emergencies could be handled efficiently.

Therefore, NIMS sets the standards for the nation, emergency professionals and the communities before and during a disaster. Therefore, NIMS is a living system that provides guidance on how to proceed before, during and after an event by establishing a command and control structure to manage the disaster. Seemingly, it offers a roadmap to prevent or respond to threats and incidents regardless of its size and complexity through the use of its components, NFR and relying on the use of the Incident Command System (Broder & Tucker, 2012). Conceived from lessons learned, NIMS applies these lessons to continue to improve its processes from past events to save lives and property in the future.

Revere is a city in Massachusetts, found in Suffolk County. located approximately 5 miles from downtown Boston. With a population a little over 53,000. It is important for firefighters to understand they must be prepared to respond quickly, efficiently and safely to tornadoes. There are many things to take in consideration when it comes to a city such as Revere with a large population.

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 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.

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