Terrorist attacks, hurricanes, earthquakes, and flooding are a few of incidents that continue to affect the society. During an emergency response situation in the United States, there are different groups and experienced personnel at various levels of government or volunteer positions that are dedicated to respond to and recover from these incidents. These agencies reduce causalities and losses during the response phase aiming at offering support to the citizens. Every individual is determined to move forward and improve their abilities for a greater sense or coordination and cooperation. Organizations such as the Red Cross or Salvation Army are known for their disaster relief in times of emergencies while working hand-in-hand with the government to provide recovery series and disaster management. Most of these incidents are managed by the communities effectively at the local level, however, some incidents may involve other personnel’s from several levels of government, private sectors, or nongovernment organizations.
Organizational structure of emergency response and their differences
All the incidents responding both natural and manmade incidents begin at the local level because the individual affects private citizens and public officials in the town, city or county. The local government carries the responsibility of upholding the safety of the public as well as the welfare of all residents. The key players on this level manage the large majority of emergencies that take place each day. The jurisdiction involves local police, emergency medical services, emergency management, fire, public works and other bodies in the community who in most occasions are the first to detect a threat. Local government key players include the emergency manager who oversee emergency management activities and programs that happen daily. Chief appointed or elected official such as the mayor or county manager responsible for ensuring that individuals are safe and the welfare of the people. Lastly, there are the department and agency heads that with the collaboration of the emergency manager provide major response resources during the implementation of local emergency plans. Local jurisdictions receive majority external assistance from the states especially if an incident is beyond the capability, and it is unlikely for the responders to meet the needs of the public.
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The tribal government, on the other hand, is responsible for the welfare of the tribesmen and public safety. They answer to the matching levels of emergencies and incidents as other jurisdictions and at times request for and offer assistance to neighboring jurisdictions under common aid and assistance agreements. Under the Stafford act, Indian tribes have a right to request their own emergency declaration or assistance under a state request.
The state government has a major role during the incident response of coordinating resources and supplementing local efforts. The main role is, however, to complement and aid local initiates throughout the occurrence and during recovery from incidents. The state level should always be prepared in case the local capacities fail to meet the requirements to maintain and fasten the delivery of services and commodities to the local institutions and authorities. States offers support to local governments affected by hazards or incidents through the support of the following key players: Governor, Director, State Emergency Management Agency, and State Homeland Security Advisor. The governor is in charge of the public safety and State’s citizen’s welfare.
An incident may occur and exceed or anticipate the local or state resources when this happens; the federal agencies manage the incident using the necessary framework. Therefore, the response structures in federal government are flexible and adaptable as per the nature and scope of the emergency or incident. The federal government offers support to both state and local levels under the Stafford Act. The federal response involves the following key players: the president who guides all the response initiatives of the federal government and ensures that the parties apply quickly important leadership, resources and coordinating structures to the incidents. Under the incident management, there is FEMA Administrator and secretary of homeland security. FEMA administrator serves as the primary advisor to the president, homeland security secretary, as well as the Homeland Security Council. He/she is responsible for managing National Response Coordination center operations and providing efficient assistance to all functions of emergency support. The Secretary of Homeland security receives help from FEMA administrator on planning for, reacting to and recuperating from all emergencies. Another key player is the Attorney General who acts as the chief law enforcement officer. He/she takes lead responsibility in criminal investigations that involve terrorist threats and acts. Other key players include director of national intelligence and the secretary of state. The federal disaster help is a result of presidential declaration and the Stafford act ( Moss & Shelhamer, 2009) .
Examples of agencies who engage in emergency response activities
Private sector help in response contributions through engaged partnerships with all echelons of government. Most of the private sector institutions assist in operating and maintaining parts of the critical infrastructure of the Nation, planning for the employees, infrastructure, and facilities protection during an incident. They are also responsible for implementing plans that protect information and continuity of organizations operations. These organizations help in protecting the infrastructure systems and implement plans in case of disruption. By doing so, these organizations restore normal commercial activities rapidly and improve the life quality of individuals. It also helps communities and the nation recover at a fast rate. An example is the CIKR responsible for the restoration of commercial activities that run daily in the event of a disruption.
Volunteer organizations respond to incidents that seem to exceed government organizations resources. An example is the Volunteer and Donations Management Support Annex.
Nongovernment organizations have an important role at the local, state, and national levels before, during and after an incident by performing important service missions in such times. Just like the private sectors, NGOs too contribute to response activities through the involvement of level of governments. NGOs provide vital support services such as providing emergency food supplies and shelters. An example is the American Red Cross which is a supporting agency responsible for emergency assistance, massacre, housing, and also offering human services. After a disaster strike in the City of Oneida, American Red Cross offered support to individuals in the community through the provision of life-saving blood and other needs (McDonald, 2017). Another example is the National Voluntary Organizations active in Disaster (National VOAD) which has 49 national organizations that have disaster response set as their priority.
Significance of: the National Response Framework
The national response framework offers guidelines on how the nation responds to unprecedented series of emergencies and disasters. This framework offers guidelines that help response parties to prepare for and deliver a integrated national response to these calamities regardless of the size or severity. The role of the national response framework is to ensure that all partners involved understand their roles, responsibilities, and relationships in domestic incident response for effectiveness. The framework is written for emergency management practitioners, government executives, and leaders in private-sector and nongovernmental organizations. The framework comprises of the Emergency Support function, core document, partner guides, and incident annexes (National Response Framework, 2008).
The national incident management system
Due to the many emergencies in communities, people require a collaborative approach to respond to these issues. The secretary of Homeland Security provides the president with necessary responses in the prevention of and recovery from terrorist attacks. The government and private entities sometimes have to work together to manage local incidents despite of complexity, setting, magnitude or cause. The NIMS presents adjustable and consistent national frameworks for these entities to work together across all incident management phases: from prevention to mitigation. This system offers standardized organizational structures such as ICS, public information systems etc to improve how jurisdictions and other disciplines handle an incident.
Incident Command System
More than thirty years ago, a devastating wildfire took place in California leading to the development of the concept of ICS. Many innocent lives were lost and many structures destroyed during the incident. The Incident Command System helps establish common managing and planning resources processes and also during operations within the same organizational structure, it allows the integration of personnel, facilities, procedures and communications. Jurisdictions and agencies use ICS for coordinated responses. ICS is responsible for all levels of emergency response and hazards
Stafford Act to emergency Response
The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency assistance Act (known as Stafford Act) is formulated to bring an orderly and systematic ways of state and local governments offering federal natural disaster assistance to the citizens. The Act was enacted in1988 and in 200 amended and since then in federal disaster policy acts as the centerpiece. The role of the Act is to define the declaration of federal disasters and determine the type of assistance that the federal government should provide. It also establishes the sharing of costs among all levels of emergency response. The Stafford Act establishes emergencies and major disasters as the only two incident levels. However, there are some failures associated with Stafford Act, such as the after the Hurricane Katrina September 11, 2011, the level of assistance offered was insufficient (Center for Disaster Philanthropy).
The United States and any other nation have emergency response dedicated to offer assistance or volunteer during incidences. Private sector organizations, NGOs, volunteers and other agencies are responsible for the public’s welfare and safety. These agencies helps communities and the nation recover at a fast rate after the occurrence of an incident.
References
Center for Disaster Philanthropy. (n.d). The Stafford Act . Retrieved from http://disasterphilanthropy.org/issue-insight/the-stafford-act/
McDonald, L. (2017). Red Cross honored for its community contributions. Oneida Daily Dispatch. Retrieved from http://www.oneidadispatch.com/general-news/20170325/red-cross-honored-for-its-community-contributions
Moss, M. L., & Shelhamer, C. (2009). The Stafford act: Priorities for reform . The Center. Retrieved from http://www.nyu.edu/ccpr/pubs/Moss_03.09.09.pdf
National Response Framework. (2008). Homeland security. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-core.pdf
