Running Head: EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS DRILL FINAL 1

Emergency Preparedness Drill Final

Students Name

Institutional Affiliation
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Emergency Preparedness Drill Final

The sudden weather conditions that have impacted Mertzville city have been as a result

of heavy rains accompanied by hail. The North River has flooded due to these conditions. The

Mayor was rapid in his response through the implementation of Incident Command System

(ICS), a form of emergency response affiliated with weather conditions. Before entering the

scene, it will be crucial for the agencies to conduct safety evaluation. The Fire department, police

department of the city, and the EMS will form the initial respondents. The police department will

close the roads leading to dangerous zones and provide assistance when required. The Fire

Department will handle all the incidents related to water but with no limitations to rescuing

victims trapped in floods and vehicles as well as evacuating the victims to higher altitude

regions. The medical services will also be in site providing first aid to all those not willing to go

to the hospital. All the agencies will set up a location where they can disseminate information

and provide any assistance to victims. In addition, there will be gathering of information to

determine whether further assistance is required.

Incident management

The top priority worth considering in the incident management is the implementation of

rescue and response teams, and the continuous updating of the ICS. The size and the complexity

of this emergency contribute to the generation of detailed information by the incident

commander regarding the hazards that could occur as a result of surface runoff traveling through

the city and industrial areas. Some processing plants store dangerous chemicals which upon

coming in close contact with water could cause massive harm to the community and the

environment. Following these risks, there was the implementation of the Incident Action Plan

(IAP). The IAP encompassed the comprehensive measures required to communicate the various
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activities of operations and support in all the agencies. To ensure efficacy in manageability, the

incident commander must see to it the principle elements of planning, administration, operations

and logistics are embraced as required. This would give various positions as tabulated below;

As per Level of Organization As per Title As per Position of Support

Incident Commander Incident Commander Deputy

General Staff Chief Deputy

Branch Director Deputy

Command Staff Officer Assistant

Division Supervisor N/A

Unit Leader Manager

Task Force Leader Single Resource Boss

The IC comprises various leaders and supervisors responsible for every occurrence, and

they form a team that ranges between three to seven on their team. The commanding staff

encompasses the public information officer (PIO), a liaison officer, and a security officer. In

addition, there is the general staff that was on scene providing support.

The IC is responsible for the delegation of command functions. To enhance clarity in the

delegation, the commander ensures the gathering of vital information which he/she then

disseminates to the various staffs during the briefing process. The chain of command is

necessary to enhance proper response to the emergency and to see to it that order is maintained

and the personnel recognize each level of authority within the parameters of incident

management in the organization. For effective service delivery, there is a supervisor designated

for each site during the command unity. Every personnel is expected to report to the incident
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command for assigning of duties and highlighting of relationships between agencies. This would

help to eliminate the confusion that may arise from conflicting directives. Moreover, there are

managers installed at each level to assist in the provision of more directives during the critical

situations.

Despite the occurrence of various emergencies and jurisdictions involved in the incident,

the IC operates under the unified command multiagency collaboration using a single jurisdiction

to assist in simplifying the rescue of victims affected by the floods. Such agencies and the units

of rescue all have different authorities legally and geographically. Nevertheless, all of them work

in unity and efficiently. IC supervisions rescue mission has an unstructured form that does not

follow a specific set of objectives. Instead, the objectives and goals are majorly defined by the

situation at hand which in this case is rescuing victims stranded by floods and maintaining the

control of the situation. The IC would identify the routes to be used, the equipment required, and

develop the necessary techniques required to enter the affected areas. Plans are then developed

and then dispersed through the entire operations following particular procedures and protocols.

Upon receiving notification from the first responders, the emergency plans are

immediately set into action. At this point, air operations are dispatched to assist in the rescuing

missions. Also, the strike teams, police boats, tugboats and the coast guard are then dispatched to

assist. Helicopters are used to drop the police or the fire drivers into the water to assist with the

operation rescue during the floods. In addition to the rescue operations, fireboats will be

dispatched to handle any hazardous materials that may come with floods from the chemical

industries.

Demobilization of resources.
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Demobilization is the key aspect that will come after the floods and should be done with

much efficacy. The demobilization unit will be responsible for handling this process. Upon

approval to move forward from the IC, the unit will commence the demobilization process

immediately. This will involve demobilizing the resources and equipment to use in the incident.

It is worth noting that resource demobilization will only take place under the authorization of the

incident commander. All the equipment will be returned to the owning agency, rented equipment

will as well be returned to the businesses, and the records will then be forwarded to the

department of finance. All the documentation done regarding funds utilized and rental equipment

will be returned to the financial chief. The demobilization unit has developed the incident

demobilization action plan (IDAP) containing the details of the demobilization. The IDAP has

been logged with the Incident Command Post.

Restoration.

As part of the restoration efforts, the IC will continue to assign rescue and recovery units

which will work with the city officials to ensure that all the citizens displaced by the floods are

accounted for. Incident commanders will ensure that all the emergency response personnel are

accounted for through conducting a roll call. Hazmat crews will then respond to the industries

and assess the damage caused to the building and other structures that house the hazardous

materials. After all these, there will be the restoration of power required to rebuild and

reestablish the economic and social pillars of the city. Critical locations showing difficulty in

restoring power will be provided with generators. Those who will be unable to return to their

homes will be provided with aid by the local and federal assistance. Leadership strategy from a

recovery point of view is the key to the successful restoration and should be the responsibility of

all the stakeholders.

Recovery approach.

The process of recovery will commence after ensuring that all the citizens are aware of

the tragedy that has befallen their city. The public information officer will conduct an

informational statement to the local media to assist inform the citizens. The media will ensure

that vital information such as how the floods were caused by massive volumes of water

collecting in the North River reached the target people (Rogers, Skinner, & Zechman, 2016). The

media is the best way to disseminate information to the public regarding the situation. Various

mediums could be used such as TVs, radio, newspaper, and social media. One thing worth noting

is that it is not necessary for the media houses to be from this town. Information regarding

transportation is critical too. The floods will have impacted most of the roads. Thus, knowing the

safest routes would be ideal. With this in mind, the police will set additional safety traffic

officers to assist with the traffic. Most importantly also is that the government leaders should

stay in town until the situation is resolved.

Medical care must be offered to the victims who succumb injuries during the disaster.

This, therefore, implies that the medical practitioners must exhibit higher levels of first aid skills.

All in all, the confidence with everyone will face the situation will be determined by the

government (Mancia & Fagard, 2014).

It is important to acknowledge that the mitigating actions can only be executed using an

effective recovery plan. The government should put in place recovery policies that address such

emergencies. This would include but not limited to emergency management operations plans at

large scale sporting events.

Conclusion
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The flood that occurred in the North River caused massive displacement of individuals

and affected most businesses. The response of the plan that the team came up with to the flooded

area along with the coordination and the implementation of the disaster response was efficient

and effective, every planning detail regarding the initial response was broken down as required,

the incident management and the demobilization of resources among other factors were

magnificent. We have managed to learn that there are fundamental operations planning in the

case of a sudden disaster and we have also expressed these important details in the paper.
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References

Mancia, G., & Fagard, R. (2014). Hypertensive urgencies and emergencies. Journal of

Hypertension, 32(9), 1911. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/hjh.0000000000000302

Rogers, J., Skinner, D., & Zechman, S. (2016). The role of the media in disseminating insider-

trading news. Review of Accounting Studies, 21(3), 711-739.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11142-016-9354-2