Emergency Planning Steps• 5 steps in emergency planning

• Step 1: Establish a team• Step 2: Analyze capabilities and hazards• Step 3: Conduct vulnerability assessment• Step 4: Develop the plan• Step 5: Implement the plan

Step 1: Establishing the Team• Emergency Planning Teams

• Federal Level• State Level• Regional Level• Local Level

Federal Level Emergency Response• In most disasters requiring Federal involvement, this

happens in partnership with the State at the field or “incident” level

• At the federal level, FEMA appoints a Federal Coordinating Officers (FCO’s) to each region

• The FCO’s are assigned by the President to manage a particular disaster

Regional Federal Level teams• Personnel in FEMA’s ten Regional offices work with State

FEMA officials to understand needs and provide incident management assistance.

• The Regional Administrator works with the Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO) • Multiple FCO’s appointed to each region• Deputy Federal Coordinating Officers (DFCO)• Directors for Planning, Recovery, Response, etc.

• Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMATs)• Interagency, regionally based response teams that provide a forward

Federal presence to improve response to serious incidents.

• Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC) • 24/7 coordination centers that expand to become interagency facilities

staffed in anticipation of a serious incident in the Region or immediately following an incident.

State Level Emergency/Disaster Team

• Governor’s Authorized Representative (GAR)• Assistant Governor’s Authorized Representative (AGAR) • State Coordinating Officer (SCO) • Deputy State Coordinating Officer (DSCO)

Local Level Emergency Planning• Local Disaster Response Agencies• Regional Teams• Fire Departments• Site level response

Step 3: Vulnerability Assessment• What-if / Scenario analysis • HAZOP (Hazard and Operability) Studies • FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analyses) • Fault Tree Diagrams• Decision Tree Analysis • Capability Assessment Readiness (CAR) for state and

local governments

WHAT IF ANALYSIS• Used to identify hazards• Can include people and/or equipment

FRAMEWORK• What-if analysis is a brainstorming approach that uses

broad, loosely structured questioning to:• Postulate potential upsets that may result in accidents or system

performance problems• Ensure that appropriate safeguards against those problems are in

place.

Brief summary of characteristics • A systematic, but loosely structured, assessment:

• Team of experts brainstorming• Generate a comprehensive review• ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place • Typically performed by one or more teams with diverse

backgrounds and experience • Applicable to any activity or system • Used as a high-level or detailed risk assessment technique • Generates qualitative descriptions of potential problems in the form

of questions and responses• Lists of recommendations for preventing problems

Assessment Quality• The quality of the evaluation depends on:

• quality of the documentation• training of the review team leader• experience of the review teams

Most common uses• Generally applicable for almost every type of risk

assessment application especially those dominated by relatively simple failure scenarios

• Occasionally used alone, but most often used to supplement other, more structured techniques especially checklist analysis

Limitations of What-if Analysis• Although what-if analysis is highly effective in identifying various

system hazards, this technique has three limitations: •  Likely to miss some potential problems

• The loose structure of what-if analysis relies exclusively on the knowledge of the participants to identify potential problems.

• If the team fails to ask important questions, the analysis is likely to overlook potentially important weaknesses.

•  Difficult to audit for thoroughness• Reviewing a what-if analysis to detect oversights is difficult because there is no

formal structure against which to audit.• Reviews tend to become "mini-what-ifs," trying to stumble upon oversights by the

original team.

•  Traditionally provides only qualitative information• Most what-if reviews produce only qualitative results; they give no quantitative

estimates of risk-related characteristics.• This simplistic approach offers great value for minimal investment, but it can

answer more complicated risk-related questions only if some degree of quantification is added.

Step 4: Developing an Emergency Plan1. Direction and control

• See FEMA’s Guide for All-Hazard Emergency Operations Planning

2. Communications• See FEMA’s Guide for All-Hazard Emergency Operations Planning

3. Life safety• Activities to prevent the loss of life

• Evacuation• Sheltering• Shelter-In-Place• Lockdown

4. Property protection • Activities to minimize damage (ie: sandbagging, boarding up windows, etc.)

5. Community outreach • Community services that can be made available and coordinated to disaster victims

6. Recovery and restoration• Damage restoration• Temporary power• Mold remediation

7. Administration and logistics • See FEMA’s Guide for All-Hazard Emergency Operations Planning

8. Identifying Challenges and Prioritize Activities

9. Writing the Plan

10. Establishing a Training Schedule

11. Coordinating with Outside Organizations • How will your plan be coordinated with other emergency agencies?

12. Review, Conduct Training and Revise

Week #6 Assignment• Pick a type of emergency you are most familiar with and

limited to a local emergency.• You are in charge of a disaster team that will be

responsible for developing an emergency plan for this disaster. Use a unique hazard approach.

• For each of the 12 components of the disaster plan development process (Step 4), develop a framework you would implement to coordinate the development of this plan.

• See Chapter 7 of your textbook• See the link to FEMA’s Guide for All-Hazard Emergency

Planning

Example• You and your local team will be required to develop an emergency

plan for a factory of 300 employees.• 1. Planning for Direction and Control

• Analyze the emergency situation and decide how to respond quickly, appropriately, and effectively.

• Direct and coordinate the efforts of the jurisdiction's various response forces.• Coordinate with the response efforts of other jurisdictions.• Use available resources efficiently and effectively.

• Issues to address:• Evaluate direction and control issues across the disaster phases • Adopt a disaster management system • Identify personnel availability and skills

• What resources are needed?• Personnel• Financial• Equipment