What is Emergency Management?
Emergency Management (EM) is a four step process:
Mitigation: The process of preventing or lessening the impact of natural disaster/terrorism.
Preparedness: The process of planning for natural disaster/terrorism.
Response: The process of requesting and managing resources during a natural disaster/terrorism.
Recovery: The process of recovering from natural disaster/terrorism.
Who does Emergency Management?
Everyone
plays a part, including citizens. In a
formal sense, each city and county should have a designated Emergency
Manager. In Box Elder County, the
Emergency Manager is Sheriff J.
What does an emergency manager do?
Each of the four steps requires different collaborative efforts and planning. For example:
Mitigation: Study the different types and kinds of disasters and determine what can be done to lessen the impact. Collaboration with building, planning and zoning required. Also, participation in a Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC).
Prepardness: An Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) for Box Elder County outlines who will do what in a disaster. This plan is constantly reviewed and County department heads meet monthly at the Emergency Management Committee to plan and train.
Response: Knowing who to call and what they can offer by way of
resources in
Recovery: What are the steps to get our community back on its feet after a disaster including physically, economically, infrastructure, etc.
What is a citizen’s role in Emergency
Management?
A community can only be ready for natural disaster/terrorism if its citizens are ready. Being ready means having a Family Preparedness Plan and Disaster Supply Kit. Local Government will be overwhelmed during a disaster. It takes time to restore basic resources like water; power, etc. and get State and Federal assets to the scene. You need to be self sufficient until those resources can get there. The old rule of thumb was a 72 hour kit but various disasters have proven help might not arrive by then. Think one week minimum when building a disaster supply kit.
For detailed information on Family Prepardness Plans, Disaster Supply Kits, and Natural Disaster and Terrorism; visit these websites:
redcrossutah.org and click on the online pamphlet link.