Wisconsin 's Emergency State Responders

In the essay "Top Ten Competency For Professional Emergency Management" Author B. Wayne Blanchard states, that Emergency Management requires collaboration from different organizations for it to be effective. Some of the organizations that a person is dealing with is Local and state and national level organizations. Some of the local organizations that communities deal with are American Red Cross, Cert (Community Emergency Response Team) and Emergency responders like the Fire Departments, and Police department. Some of our State and national organizations that we deal with are Fema (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and Homeland Security.

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.

As Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma successively lashed the gulf coast starting in late August 2005, nature’s fury exposed serious weaknesses in the United States’ emergency response capabilities. Not all emergencies pose this magnitude of challenge. In the United States, the initial—and usually major—responsibility for disaster response rests with local authorities. This “bottom-up” system of emergency management has a long history and continues to make sense in most circumstances. Core Challenges for Large-Scale Disaster

In Smith County, an E-4 tornado touched down in Stadtown leveling many of the homes and the shopping mall (Walsh, D.W., et al, 2012). Command was established by the local on the scene within minutes of touchdown. Given the impact of a potential of 900 residents in the area, there could be multiple levels of response needed to respond to and recover from this incident. Given that the response could include many agencies from many levels of government and specialties, the National Incident Management System (NIMS) would be instituted. The NIMS allows local, state, and

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

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,

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.

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.

State and local responders formulate the concepts within the FRP around disasters and emergencies that can be handled “the Federal Government is called on to provide supplemental assistance when the consequences of a disaster exceed State and local capabilities” (p.11). If assistance is required by State, and local agencies, the Federal Government has the ability to deploy a wide range of assets to aid state and local efforts during the disaster. The Federal Government has a large contingency of support personnel, teams, operating facilities, specialized equipment, and assistance programs that allow for disaster operations. “The FRP describes the major components of the system, as well as the structure for coordinating Federal response and recovery actions necessary to address State-identified requirements and priorities”

Current in the United States there is a huge impact form weather, starting with Hurricane Harvey and know Hurricane Irma. These two storms have tested and taxed the Emergency Response teams as well as the Emergency Management Teams on a Local, State and Federal Level. Hurricane Harvey came ashore in Texas, causing wide spread power outages, causing residents to evacuate their homes and overall disrupted the entire states and many parts of the country. With Hurricane Irma, we are seeing much of the same things on even a large scale. As Emergency Management we need to focus on the many different aspects of Preparation, Previous events and be able to employee the last technologies to help our residents, Family and

Over the last decade emergency management has changed to better provide the necessary provisions to the public during disasters whether

Our world is complex there has always been and always will be disasters that can happen anywhere anytime. There can be natural disasters, for example floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, wild fires and drought. There are also man-made and technology types of disasters from hazardous material spills, biological weapons, cyber-attacks to even civil unrest. According to PEMA, the history of emergency management can date all the way back the first civil defense program which was started during World War I and later during World War II the office of civil defense (OCD) was created by Pres. Roosevelt. In the past emergency management, has always been event driven. With each new crisis that our nation has gone through, the reason for and the avenue in which to accomplish emergency management has changed. No more so than when the terrorist attacked on 9/11. The 9/11 commission report states that the Incident Command System is a “proven framework for emergency response” (911 CR). The incident command system is a proven framework for emergency response by providing clear leadership and organizational structure, improving the effectiveness of resource efforts, and maintaining safety for responders.

There exist numerous types of situations that could cause an emergency response, nonetheless, who is supposed to provide emergency response to large scale emergencies? The answer is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); specifically the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Department of Homeland Security was created in lieu of one single event that happened on September 11th, 2001. There stand several entities under the DHS program, additionally; the Federal Emergency Management Agency heads the emergency response efforts under DHS.

Emergency management faces many challenges in today’s modern society. In the years prior to 9/11 emergency management was primarily focused on natural disasters. That has since changed; we now face a diverse variety of risks and hazards on a constant basis. As we continue to grow in population current and newer have compounded into more problems that emergency planner must face and find solutions for.