Emergency Services Sector Plan (ESS)
The Emergency Services Sector is the first line of defense for the vast majority of crucial infrastructure sectors. Within this sector are a diverse array of disciplines that serve and protect America’s critical infrastructure and the population of the area. A disruption of services would result in an overall failure within this sector that would result in a measurable loss of life, public health issues, significant economic loss and ultimately would have a domino effect of disruption to other areas of critical infrastructure that would be staggering to overall community (DHS,2015). Within this sector, the risks can vary from cyberattacks to natural disasters, terrorist attacks and biological, radiological
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These four goals were Partnership Engagement, Situational Awareness, Prevention, Preparedness and Protection and Recovery and Reconstitution. In order to achieve these four goals, the sector and its partners developed twelve priorities they would focus their efforts towards which included developing and using processes and mechanisms to support partnerships within the sector, information sharing, sharing and utilizing best practices within the sector. In addition, these collaborative councils identified eighteen activities that the councils identified 18 activities that collaborative partners would do that would improve the security and resilience of emergency services throughout the United States. Taking direction from the Presidential Policy Directive 21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Plan, Directive 21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Plan (DHS, 2015), an increased focus was placed on cyber security and solutions to technological issues. They strived to increase a cross discipline and cross sector collaboration that would utilize up to date sector risk assessments to shape their information sharing capabilities and what requirements were needed or may …show more content…
They must look at all levels from the Federal all the way down to the local level in order to best leverage resources that will address the prioritized risks as effectively as possible. To address this effort identification is done through SLTT Government Identification which utilizes existing liaisons and partnerships that have knowledge of the sector, subject matter and critical infrastructure assets (DHS,
Waugh, William L, and Gregory Streib. "Collaboration and Leadership for Effective Emergency Management." Public Administration Review, 66.6 (2006): 131-140.
The National response plan outlines four key actions the disaster coordinator should take. They are gaining and maintaining situational awareness, activate and deploy key resources and capabilities, coordinating response actions and demobilizing. Throughout the response it is essential that responders have access to critical information. During the initial response effort the situation is will change rapidly. Situational awareness starts at the incident site. For this reason it is essential that decision makers have access to the right information at the right time. By establishing an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) all key responders are brought ...
Both man-made and natural disasters are often devastating, resource draining and disruptive. Having a basic plan ready for these types of disaster events is key to the success of executing and implementing, as well as assessing the aftermath. There are many different ways to create an emergency operations plan (EOP) to encompass a natural and/or man-made disaster, including following the six stage planning process, collection of information, and identification of threats and hazards. The most important aspect of the US emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is the creation, implementation and assessment of a community’s EOP.
NIMS provides a uniform nationwide basis and way for federal, state, tribal, and local governments, along with the public to work on preparedness, recovery, response and mitigation no matter what causes an event. With all organizations using the same application, effective and efficient responses are possible. Organizations will be able to arrive on the scene and be ready to assist and understand exactly what each group is doing and why. Protocols are set and it is known what equipment and personnel are available. With NIMS all groups are able to integrate und...
The CPP is inherently different from traditional models developed by federal entities in several ways, the most important being that it is a “bottom-up” planning method as dictated by one of the directives of the Act of 2007. FEMA was asked to partner with State, local and tribal governments, emergency responders, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in addition to other federal agencies typically involved with disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts. Most FEMA and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) systems and methods in the past have been driven from the “top down”, such as the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management Systems (NIMS) and have focused on the structure of command and control rather than coordinated partnerships (Ruback et al., 2010). Another significant directive of the Act of 2007 is the specific focus on preparedness for catastrophic events rather than disasters, which are more regional in scope.
After the attack, the United States hastily constructed the Department of Homeland Security and downgraded FEMA, whose main duty was civil protection. This attracted criticism from some public administration experts that the U.S. government concentrated too much on terrorism…[After Hurricane Katrina] Critics… charged that too many government officials were not familiar with the “National Response Plan” which was implemented in December 2004 after 9/11 terrorist attack. Planning and training for large natural disasters were insufficient after the implementation of the plan. In short, too great a focus on counter-terrorism undermined capacities for natural disaster mitigation, response, and recovery in the post-9/11 United States (para. 7,
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
Local, State and Federal government have unique roles which would allow the flow of communication and resources to transition smoothly during each stage of progression. The local and state level (first responders) are the most important source as they can assess, coordinate and notify the next available resources of what is needed. State and local governments are the front runners of planning for and managing the consequences of a terrorist incident using available resources in the critical hours before Federal assistance can arrive (Managing the Emergency Consequences of Terrorist Incidents, July 2002). A Terrorist Incident Appendix (TIA) was designed to mirror an Emergency Operations Plan in relations to terrorist incidents. The TIA consists of six phases: Initiation, Concept Development, Plan Development, Plan Review Development of supporting plans, procedures and materials and Validation of plans using tabletop, functional, and full scale exercises. The TIA should be compared to those plans of existing Emergency Operation Plans (EOP) in place at the local and state level. Comparing plans before and incident allows time for comparison and revision of the various functions which will prevent disconnects to ensure coordination and
This paper will discuss the dynamics of the American Red Cross case and how it affected the ability to provide adequate emergency response to catastrophic events. Over 10 years, the American Red Cross has been implementing strategies to ensure that the organization is better equipped when dealing with disasters. Not only has the American Red Cross has been faced with so much negativity, the organization is fighting very hard to change the concepts of how the organization can rebound from such criticism.
Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2010).Introduction to emergency management. (4th ed., pp. 1-26). Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
All of us are aware that law enforcement plays a big role in our society. During the natural disasters, law enforcement becomes even more important and many people begin to depend on them. It is obvious that natural disasters tend to create chaos, mess, disorganization and their role is to calm people down. They are the ones who are helping victims with their fears, concerns, and public safety and still keeping “law and order”. In my paper I want to take a deep look at how law enforcement dealt with natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, and at their positive and negative impacts on our society. By looking through the article, journals and books I came to know that during Hurricane Katrina, law enforcement agencies were not well prepared to handle it. During natural disasters the most important part of law enforcement agencies is to be aware of pre-disaster planning as well as have special training. According to Michael Smith, “Katrina clearly demonstrated, however, that the failure by local law enforcement agencies to imagine and plan for major hurricane exacerbated the public safety impacts of the storm and severely hampered their ability to provide much-needed public services” (2006: 05).
At a local and state level, first responders have a considerable amount of risks responding to an international terrorist event on US soil. Depending on the magnitude of the terrorist threat, first responders must gather information of the threat to reduce the risks associated with that terrorist event. These risks could come in many forms that could disrupt the quality-of-life within communities and our nation.
When a disaster has occurred it is vital that all emergency response components work together in order to battle the disaster in an optim...
The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a disaster, as it “involved an entire community” (Edwards, 2013). The earthquake resulted in extensive damage to the infrastructure of the community and localized, long term, multidimensional negative effects to the surrounding communities (Edwards, 2013). While the earthquake had many characteristics of a catastrophe, it did not include “significant damage to the disaster response assets and deaths or injuries to emergency response personnel” (Edwards, 2013). The earthquake required assets from outside the community, such as Caltrans and the FHWA. Also, the damage and disruption was “confined to a sufficiently narrow geographic area” (Edwards, 2013).
These efforts have been concentrated and coordinated among national agencies, state agencies, local and tribal agencies. The need to become an ‘all hazard’ department is a responsibility that Homeland Security should have. The protection and preparedness to respond to all hazards will ensure that the American citizens are not only protected from terrorism but also from other risks that may emerge. Homeland Security is best placed to offer mitigation, response, and recovery in case of hazards (Oliver, Oliver, Marion & Hill,