Program Description

  Emergency Management Planning, Response & Recovery

This program plans for consequence management, mitigation, and response to natural and man-made disasters, including terrorist events that may involve chemical, biological, radiological/nuclear, or explosive/incendiary devices. Activities involve compliance with Federal and State requirements for emergency management planning and operations; logistics support, administration, and finance coordination; serving as the liaison with Federal, State, regional, and local agencies; sheltering and relief support; coordination of regional policy-level decision making and public information dissemination; and public education. Regional coordination is provided through the emergency support functions of the regional, State, and Federal agencies as outlined in the Regional and National Response Framework. The Emergency Management Group (EMG) is supported by this program when it activates to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in response to emergencies.

Elements of this program include:

• Emergency Operation Plan updates, training, and implementation.
• Planning, coordination, and operation of information and communication systems in the EOC to support the EMG in consequence management, resource allocation, logistics and mutual aid support, and decision-making.
• Establishment and maintenance of an asset management inventory of available resources that can be used to support an EMG response and recovery operation, including resources from private and non-profit organizations.
• Public health coordination of hospitals for disaster and terrorist event response.
• Coordination for public health planning for large-scale mass population medical dispensing, and strategies for isolation and quarantine for management of disease outbreaks, if required.
• Coordination of Fire, Police, Public Health Services, Transportation, and other appropriate County departments and agencies regarding incident command systems and training/certification on the use and application of the National Incident Management System.
• Coordination and management of volunteers and communications organizations that can support disaster response - the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service and Civil Air Patrol.
• Support and management for the Local Emergency Planning Council regarding "community right to know" requirements and providing advice and recommendations to the County Executive and County Council regarding the storage of certain hazardous materials in the County.
• Management of the County's Hazardous Permitting Program, in conjunction with Federal law, regarding the licensing and permitting of facilities and the handling and storage of certain regulated hazardous materials.
• Coordination of multi-discipline exercises with the County and regional partners.
• Maintenance of the EOC and the information and situation awareness systems therein.