CCP 11-19-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Foreword . Dear Reader: The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon have made us all feel very vulnerable, and call into question whether or not as public officials we have done all we can to prepare our communities for a disaster, Disasters are, by definition, unusual, extreme events that cause extensive harm to life and property. Disasters can happen anywhere, and even the smallest town or rural county should have a current disaster response and recovery plan, Paper plans, however, are only as good as the people and organizations for which they are written, Providing leadership during a time of severe crisis is challenging, It is next to impossible if you don't have a good understanding of what your specific role is during a disaster -- either as an elected official or as a manager, We watched with admiration as New York Mayor Giuliani provided leadership to the citizens of his city; he did the things that, if properly rehearsed and exercised, every local government local elected official should be prepared to do, Citizens expect their local leaders to: . Provide information on alerting signals, action to take, and the like, in advance of the disaster. . Quickly and accurately assess the magnitude of an emergency and keep the public informed throughout the incident. . Provide for the rapid restoration of services, even when specific services are not the direct responsibility of the local government, such as with private utilities, . Provide for (or help provide access to) recovery services, such as family reunification, insurance claim preparation, tex counseling, etc, . Provide information on, and specific action steps toward, mitigating the impact of future emergencies, . Characteristics of Effective Emergency Management Organizational Structures is a self-assessment tool that was prepared especially for use by the chief administrator (elected or appointed) of a local government. It originated from research conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in the late 1970s for the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency, a forerunner of today's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), The research, in which I as a young ICMA staff member took part, was led by Lisa Stevenson, at that time ICMA's Director of Contract Research, and Harvey Ryland, formerly president of Ryland Research, Inc., and now President of the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), The research consisted of reviewing the operations of more than 300 local government emergency management agencies, and developing dozens of on-site case . studies of local government emergency management operations, The end result was Characteristics of Effective Emergency Management Organization Structures 7