Base Plan for Incident Level 2
Situation
The situation in question revolves around a terrorist attack involving a nerve agent, sarin gas, which has been released on a crowded subway train in Tokyo, Japan. The number of those exposed to the gas is in the range of 5,000 with 11 persons dying as a result of the gas while a further 1,000 require hospitalization. Before the attack, neighbours had made complaints regarding the terrorist group, which is considered as a religious cult.
Mission/Scope
The mission is to establish a clear framework for emergency assessment and management to help in hazard mitigation and victim care. The idea is to develop a buffer with the intention being towards ensuring that the victims are identified by the first-responders. Additionally, it is expected that the personnel involved the incident would also be in a position to conducting site remediation and monitoring to prevent further exposure to the agent.
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Planning Assumptions and Critical Consideration
The primary assumption that would be involved in the case is that there is a possibility of a secondary hazard or event of similar magnitude. During planning, it is essential to consider the possibility that the attackers may have placed a secondary device that would release sarin gas after emergency response. From this perspective, the primary critical consideration is having to engage in technical decontamination of the affected area to ensure that there is no secondary hazard.
Concepts of Operations
The first concept that would be considered is fatalities and injuries. From the information given, the number of persons that died as a result of exposure to the gas is 11 while those that required hospitalization is 1,000. The second concept of operation to consider is service damage, as the attack occurred on a subway train; thus, meaning that it is much more likely to affect transit. Lastly, it is essential to consider long-term health impacts. Some of the persons hospitalized as a result of the gas may experience long-term effects of the gas, which is an important concept to consider.
Request for Federal Support
The application for federal support will be specifically focused on incident management taking into account the number of persons that were affected, which is approximately 5,000. The federal government may offer support through the national guard with the aim being towards ensuring that the persons exposed to the gas are cleared before they are allowed to leave. Additionally, the federal government may also offer support in the decontamination of the scene to prevent secondary hazards. The request to the federal government for help will be made by the health of the local command that has been involved in responding and management of the emergency.
Coordination of Federal Support
The coordination of support from the federal government will be taken over at the local command centre that has been created as part of the emergency response and management. All activities will be managed and coordinated through which centre as a way of ensuring that there is uniformity in the approaches taken up towards dealing with the impacts that the terrorist attack may have had on the public. The command centre will have an incident commander (IC), who will be pivotal in ensuring that he/she not only helps in the coordination of efforts but also allows for efficiency in the management and response to the incident.
Provision of Federal Support
Federal support will be provided by some of the relevant agencies mandated with dealing with such kinds of terrorist attacks. The expectation is that the agencies will be involved in the decontamination of the subway train, environmental testing, and provision of public information on the progress made in dealing with the incident and preventing future attacks.
Concept of Support
The idea of support will seek to define the logistics involved in emergency management and response. The command centre may need to adopt a three-level support structure with the aim being towards ensuring that indeed, the outcomes of the intervention is adequate. The three-level support structure will incorporate first responders, EMS, and chemical experts. The idea is to help establish a clear front through which the incident would be managed efficiently while ensuring that it is well contained. In each structure of support, the expectation is that the teams involved will seek to create an effective platform through which to ensure that the incident is well managed.
Coordinating Instructions
Each of the teams involved in the emergency management and response will be expected to have a team leader, who will receive instructions from the command centre after which he/she will be expected to provide his/her team with such instructions. That helps in the effective coordination of guidelines considering that it becomes much easier for the teams involved to work in unison as a way of ensuring that they achieve set out goals. The incident commander (IC) will be the overall in-charge in seeking to ensure that he/she provides relevant information on what the teams ought to consider as part of their approaches to the effective management of the emergency.
Operational Risk and Risk Management Strategies
The nature of the risk, as has been identified, is chemical terrorism attack (non-food), which poses a severe risk attributed to the overall impacts that such an attack may have concerning the magnitude of persons affected. However, a key strategy to help in dealing with the risk is promoting situational assessment. According to the Response Federal Interagency Operational Plan, situational assessment reflects on engaging in a “Review and revision of existing policies, plans, and procedures. Utilization of information to inform initial response activities as a means to provide an initial shared situational awareness until a standard process could be accomplished, which would include a more thorough analysis and provide shared situational understanding” (Homeland Security, 2016, p.B.1-8). That serves as a basis through which to ensure that the strategy remains effective in ensuring that the risk is minimized to the fullest.
Operational Coordination
The success achieved in operational coordination depends solely on interoperability between the aspects of communication as one of the ways through which to ensure that each of the teams involved in the emergency is well-positioned to deliver on its expectations. The idea is to help create a front through which to promote internal coordination and interoperability between the different communication systems. The influence that this is likely to have is that it will help push the overall effectiveness of the emergency management and response approach towards ensuring that the outcomes are acceptable. That creates the need for having to ensure that operational coordination is considered as a critical factor to help build a structured approach to effective emergency response.
Areas to Concentrate Follow-On Efforts
The main square was follow-on efforts must be concentrated the identification of threats and hazards. In this expectation, the main idea is to embark on a process through which to create a comprehensive list of warnings and dangers that are likely to affect the community (Homeland Security, 2018). The file must include the type and possibility of a threat, as this will be of great value towards ensuring that the agencies involved can narrow down on the possible risks to consider in seeking to improve on security.
Role as Incident Commander
The incident commander (IC) is considered as key in the management of emergencies, as he/she is responsible for all aspects of the emergency response. The first key role of the IC is to develop incident objectives to help in determining what the emergency response expected to achieve. Secondly, the IC has a crucial role in the management of all operations during emergency response. What is clear is that it becomes much more comfortable for emergency response teams to work under a single command structure.
Interagency Partners
It is essential to develop an interagency plan that will seek to ensure that multiple agencies are included in the emergency response process. The idea is having to create a standard through which to promote efficiency in the manner in which the interagency partners operate. However, it will be necessary for each of these partners to take note of the fact that they work under a single structure of command, which is headed by the IC. Consequently, this means that all-important decisions are to be made from the top with each of the partners being assigned a specific task to undertake as part of the emergency response process.
References
Homeland Security. (2016). Response Federal Interagency Operational Plan , 2nd Edition. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1471452095112-507e23ad4d85449ff131c2b025743101/Response_FIOP_2nd.pdf
Homeland Security. (2018). Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) and Stakeholder Preparedness Review (SPR) Guide: Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 201 , 3rd Edition. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1527613746699-fa31d9ade55988da1293192f1b18f4e3/CPG201Final20180525_508c.pdf
