Project 3 -

The command and control of an emergency by teams of people trained to work together goes back to Roman times. When Rome's legions were conquering empires, Roman military leaders used some of their best soldiers and unit leaders to fight fires within cities and towns to minimize the property damage to those they conquered. Military command structure has been used for centuries for major fire-fighting teams or units worldwide. In the United States, both volunteer and professionally staffed fire departments continue to use military command structures.

The U.S. Forest Service developed the National Interagency Incident Management System (NIIMS), the first federal government command and control system to manage major wildfires in the Western states and other areas. It combines the resources of federal, state, and local governments with private-sector resources to combat major forest fires around the country. Because large forest fires often cross state boundaries, multiple levels of government must coordinate their efforts to combat and extinguish them. The NIIMS is the basis for the now-established National Incident Management System (NIMS) that has been adopted under the NationalResponse Framework (NRF), and is required training for all emergency responders who may be called upon to help or assist with a national emergency under the NRF.Presidential Directive No. 5 establishes the requirement for all emergency responders to be trained in the NIMS.

The NIMS has established the foundation upon which the incident command system and the unified command system are built. Both the NIMS and the incident command system have the organizational systems required to handle the emergency being faced. These systems can be simple for small incidents and can be expanded into more complex management structures to handle massive incidents. Both the incident command system and the unified command system are recognized as part of the NIMS, as mentioned in module 1.

We will discuss both the incident command system and the unified command system below.

Incident Command System

The incident command system (ICS), sometimes known as the incident management system, is the major organizational structure used for responding to and managing emergencies on the scene in the United States. OSHA, when it promulgated the HAZWOPER rule in 1989, mandated that an ICS be used to manage hazardous-materials incident emergencies and to protect emergency responders. That rule specified that one person would manage the on-scene activities and bring the emergency event to a successful conclusion.

The ICS, as it has evolved, has an incident commander, who usually functions from the command post, and four functional sections. Liaison officials from other organizations involved in the emergency response, the public information official (PIO), and the lead safety officer all report directly to the incident commander.

The four functional sections—administrative, logistics, planning, and operations—are on a somewhat equal level below the incident commander. The head person for each of these sections reports directly to the incident commander. For additional information on the ICS, see the Relevant URLs list in the Additional Information section of the syllabus.

Figure 4.1 is a simple organizational chart of the on-scene ICS.

Figure 4.1 Organizational Chart of the Incident Command System

We will now describe the four functional sections of the ICS.

Administrative Section

The administrative section is responsible for administrative and financial obligations and tracking costs involved with the incident. It will be involved with procurement actions in support of the logistics section, such as purchasing equipment and supplies called for by the IC. It will also track work hours and expenditures, process insurance claims, and gather damage estimates and costs.

When criminal acts may have been involved in creating the emergency, the administrative section provides support for gathering evidence and documenting the chain of custody of the evidence until the emergency incident is over. Such documentation helps ensure that the evidence is not tampered with or altered so as to make it unusable in a criminal court proceeding. The police have rigid rules for maintaining the chain of custody, and proper documentation goes a long way to verify that the evidence has been properly handled and packaged. The administrative section turns all the evidence and related documentation it has obtained during the emergency back over to the law enforcement authorities.

Logistics Section

The logistics section is responsible for obtaining the supplies, staff, equipment, and food required by the emergency responders as authorized by the IC. It provides the facilities, ground support, medical rehabilitation, and communications the emergency responders need. Coordinating with the operations section, it also provides the staging areas for emergency response units that are called in to help, but that are not dispatched directly to the incident scene immediately upon their arrival. These staging areas are usually out of harm's way but near the incident scene, which permits them to move promptly to their assignment area once it is determined.

Planning Section

The planning section supports the IC in forming the strategy and tactics to be used in controlling the emergency. It documents the emergency response objectives and goals established by the IC.

This section gathers the information needed by the emergency responders. It also receives from the other functional areas information on how well the strategy and tactics are working in bringing the emergency to a successful conclusion. Such information typically includes

· current safety data sheets

· chemical cards with information about the hazardous materials that may be involved in the incident

· the wind direction and speed and current weather reports for the immediate area of the incident

· a current topography map or layout of the emergency scene area

The planning section also obtains the information the employer for the site may have reported, such as the Tier 1 and Tier 2 forms addressing hazardous materials onsite, along with building diagrams and floor plans.

The section, coordinating with the other sections under the IC's leadership, develops the incident action plan. It helps the IC obtain technical experts that are needed on the scene and helps formulate the recovery plan. Finally, it helps in demobilizing the emergency response units on the scene when they are no longer needed.

Operations Section

The operations section implements the IC's incident action plan or plans. It uses the tactics and follows the strategy that the IC for the emergency has adopted, including fighting fires, rescuing victims, and providing emergency medical assistance. We will describe this section in greater detail later in the module.

Unified Command System

The incident command system normally works well for most emergency incidents. When such incidents become larger and cross state or national borders, or involve multiple levels of government agencies with specific responsibilities for the area involved in the emergency scene, then the unified command system provides a more functional management structure for all concerned.

The unified command system brings together the assigned leaders for each of the organizations that have responsibility for some aspect of the area involved in the emergency scene. It provides the structure for them to work as a team and to set common objectives and strategies that all will support. This system is responsible for the overall management of the incident.

Typically, the unified command will include the federal on-scene coordinator, a state on-scene coordinator, the IC (or ICs) who manages emergencies in the locale, the facility or vessel management official whose property is involved with the emergency or the responsible party, and others. 

Emergency Communications

Emergency communications, one of the functions of the logistics section, is a critical element in determining the success of an emergency response. All participants at all levels of an emergency response must communicate clearly, concisely, and effectively with each other.

Effective emergency communications are essential to protect emergency responders and the general public. If conditions at an emergency scene necessitate evacuation, effective emergency communications can mean the difference between life and death for both emergency responders and the public.

If it is anticipated that mutual-aid emergency responding units that use different radio frequencies and terminologies will come from other areas, the emergency communications setup should be planned accordingly. Liaison officials may have to be assigned to the IC's staff or stationed at the command post to provide clear, accurate communications to these units. These officials should use their radios to relay the IC's instructions to their units, to keep them informed, and to relay communications from the mutual aid units to the IC. Another option is to place liaison officials at the station of the commander who heads the operations section. As the NIMS training effort progresses across the nation to all emergency responders, this type of problem will diminish on emergency scenes.

As we have mentioned, in the World Trade Center tragedy, emergency responders found that when they were inside the buildings, their radios did not work very well when they tried to communicate with outside units or with the alarm headquarters. Using cell phones helped, but then those phone lines became overloaded. Planning for situations such as this is essential for effective emergency communications. Many large buildings install repeaters for cell phone reception, but police and fire department radio communications are not always considered or included in the building design. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now addressing the public radio spectrum to help improve police and fire department radio reception by creating separate parts of the spectrum for police radio communications in one range and fire department radios in a different range, to help eliminate interference between them and to exclude all others from using these specific parts of the public spectrum for any other purpose.

One of the goals of every IC is for all of the emergency units under his or her direction to use clear text and standard terminology in all radio communications to prevent any misunderstanding. This is one of the NIMS objectives as well.

In a massive emergency incident, the emergency operations center (EOC) may coordinate with representatives from involved cities and states and with federal agency representatives to plan the community's emergency response objectives, using the unified command system. The center is usually a fixed facility that has computer networks, maps, equipment, and supplies to help support a wide array of emergency response scenarios.

In a large-scale event, the IC is the on-scene manager, but she or he will report to the EOC and the lead official or officials in charge of the overall emergency response effort. Unified command structures generally will work from the EOC and not from the actual emergency incident scene.

Large-scale events such as nature-caused disasters or WMD events could have multiple emergency scenes over a wide area. Each emergency scene would have an IC who would report back to the EOC. It is the responsibility of each IC to keep EOC officials abreast of the progress or lack of progress involved at her or his scene so that a more comprehensive approach can be applied to control the hazardous conditions at various locations throughout the affected area.

The EOC, rather than individual ICs, will be the main conduit of public information to keep the press and citizens abreast of what actions they must take to protect themselves and their families. The EOC, from its planning efforts, will have a variety of ways to communicate with the press and public about the status of emergencies and to dispel any misinformation that may have been generated that could cause unwarranted fear among local citizens.

The EOC, in coordination with ICs, should develop a media-management plan and set up a joint information center as the outlet for public information from all levels of government involved with the EOC. The EOC is an ideal setup for use by a unified command system for managing large emergency events.

Emergency Response Operations

The operations section, one of the basic parts of the incident command system discussed above, serves as the main group of responders implementing the strategy and using the tactics adopted by the IC or the unified command. If the emergency involves hazardous materials, the section commander or operations officer will assign a safety officer to work in this immediate area. This safety officer will report any findings or problems to the overall safety officer designated by the IC, as well as to the operations officer.

One of the first steps the IC and the operations officer take is to size up the emergency scene to determine the nature and location of the problem(s) and where the best route of entry is to begin to control the hazard(s). This initial assessment is done first from a distance. If necessary, a reconnaissance team will be dispatched into the hazard area to better determine the nature of the emergency. This team may take samples of materials for further analysis.

The location of the hazard or hazardous material is called the "hot zone," and it is deemed the most dangerous area on the incident scene. The IC, after discussions with the operations officer and others, will decide what course of action to take. This course of action is called the incident action plan. An entry team of two or more will enter the hot zone to begin to control the hazard and implement the steps to achieve the IC's goals and objectives.

The decontamination process is an important part of the emergency response and is the responsibility of the operations section. Typical decontamination efforts are conducted in the zone next to the hot zone called the "warm zone."

On-Scene Hazard Zones

Under the incident command system, to control access to the danger areas, the operations section establishes four zones at hazardous materials incidents. They are the hot zone, the warm zone, the cold zone, and the public zone. Figure 4.2 shows emergency on-scene hazard zones and other related areas.

Figure 4.2 Hazard Zones

We will discuss each of these zones below.

The Hot Zone

The first zone is set up around the hazardous area and is called the hot zone. To provide some margin for any spreading of the material, the hot zone normally is larger than the actual area that is thought to be highly contaminated. The perimeter of the hot zone is known as the contamination perimeter.

The emergency responders entering the hot zone in the early stages of the emergency response must be fully protected against known and unknown hazards. The reconnaissance team (recon team), composed of two or more persons wearing full protective gear, should be the first group of emergency responders to enter the hot zone. The IC will attempt to minimize the exposure of the emergency responders to the hazards and will use the smallest number that will be able to survey the hot zone and take samples of materials.

Once the recon team presents the results to the IC and the operations officer, the entry team's work routine will be established. The entry team(s), working in pairs or larger groups, will be instructed as to what work must be done inside the hot zone. Then they will enter the hot zone to perform this work. The recon team and the entry team are the only emergency responders permitted in the hot zone during the emergency.

The Warm Zone

The second zone outside of the hot zone is called the warm zone. In it, a decontamination corridor is established that serves as the entry and exit point from the hot zone to the warm zone. All responders who enter the hot zone must come back through this corridor to be decontaminated, which helps prevent the spread of the hazard to areas outside of the hot zone. Medical monitoring of hot-zone workers will be conducted in the warm zone.

The hazardous materials safety officer will be in the warm zone at times during the emergency response, along with the team leader(s) for the recon and entry teams as they conduct their work in the hot zone. The team leaders observe the work of their teams and are in radio contact with them while they are in the hot zone. Those emergency responders involved with the decontamination process for the recon and entry team members when they leave the hot zone will also be in the warm zone. The perimeter around the warm zone is known as the safety perimeter.

The Cold Zone

The third zone, called the cold zone, has the access or entry point into the warm zone to control which responders enter into the warm zone. The hazardous materials staging area will be in the cold zone along with the tactical command post of the operations section leader. The perimeter of the cold zone is called the isolation perimeter and is used to keep the public, press, and other persons not directly involved with handling the emergency response away from the potentially contaminated areas.

The Public Zone

The zone outside the cold zone is sometimes referred to as the public zone. In it, the incident command post will be positioned, usually upgrade and upwind from the hazard if possible. The main staging area would be in this zone unless it is in the cold zone because of the size of the zones that have been set up. The public information officer would conduct the news conferences within this zone.

Protecting Emergency Responders

OSHA and EPA regulations require that emergency responders be protected. OSHA has promulgated two primary rules affecting emergency responders. 

1. The Fire Brigade standard: The Fire Brigades were established in 1980 for those employees involved in fighting fires on behalf of their employers. The Fire Brigade standard is found in 29 CFR 1910.156.

2. The HAZWOPER rule published in 1989 was mentioned in modules 1 and 2. EPA adopted this rule as its own in 1989. It is found in 40 CFR 311.

The EPA rule covers those volunteer and career emergency responders who are not otherwise covered under the OSHA HAZWOPER rule.

These federal rules establish minimum protective clothing and equipment criteria, training and refresher training criteria, emergency planning requirements, competent trained leadership to manage the emergency event, and emergency response procedures that must be followed for the protection of the emergency responders.

A number of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) voluntary standards have been developed in the last 15 years that address a wide variety of emergency responder issues. OSHA used NFPA standard 472 as a basis in developing HAZWOPER. To assist the emergency response community to be better prepared to carry out its work, NFPA has published standards such as:

· NFPA 472 Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents

· NFPA 1500 Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program

· NFPA 1561 Emergency Services Incident Management System

· NFPA 1600 Disaster and Emergency Management

· NFPA 1620 Pre-Incident Planning

In addition, NFPA has published a number of standards that address the qualifications and skills required of various members of the emergency response community. Some examples of these standards are:

· NFPA 473 Competencies for Emergency Medical Service Personnel Responding to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents

· NFPA 1521 Fire Department Safety Officer

We will now describe the roles and qualifications for some of these positions.

Role of Safety Officer

Safety officers play a critical role in the well-being of the emergency responders on the scene. They and their deputies provide extra eyes and ears on the emergency scene for the IC to help ensure that the proper safety practices and procedures are being followed in carrying out the assigned work.

The OSHA HAZWOPER rule requires that the IC appoint a safety officer. It allows the IC to serve as the safety officer for smaller incidents, if she or he wishes to do so.

The safety officer's primary duties on the emergency scene are to report problems directly to the IC and to stop any job task or assignment that is "immediately dangerous to life and health" (IDLH) or that is creating an imminent danger to the emergency responders. The safety officer checks to make sure all emergency responders in the hot and warm zones are properly wearing their personal protective clothing and equipment and that they are following the safety procedures and practices they have been trained to use in performing their work.

Role of Liaison Officials

Liaison officials are an important part of the overall emergency response for both the incident command system and the unified command system. Liaison officials provide a communication link with their on-scene organization units by using their radios at the command post to help the IC get the correct instructions to all units on the scene.

Liaison officials represent their organizations at the command post and should be authorized to speak on their behalf regarding strategy and tactics, logistics, and finance.

Emergency Rescue Operations

Emergency rescue operations include the rescue of injured or trapped victims who may be unable to escape the hazardous conditions at the emergency scene. The IC, as the incident action plan is developed, will place the emergency recovery of victims at the top of the priority list if it is deemed possible without sacrificing the lives of the emergency responders. No IC, however, is required to sacrifice the lives of the emergency responders in order to save victims' lives.

Among the many difficult decisions the IC must make, one of the most difficult is the decision to stop trying to rescue victims. The IC usually holds off on this decision until it is inconceivable that any victims are still living because of lack of water, temperature extremes, or other conditions inside the hot zone.

The emergency rescue operations may also include saving the lives of valuable animals or pets. It also includes removing, to the extent feasible, the property that is deemed valuable such as art objects, historical documents, and similar items.

The emergency recovery operations will continue while the IC also attends to bringing the hazardous conditions on the emergency scene under control and to a successful conclusion.

Termination Steps, Critiques, and Feedback

The IC terminates the emergency response when she or he deems that the emergency is over and that the hazards are fully controlled or eliminated. At this point, the IC will transfer command and control of the former emergency scene over to the property owner or other responsible authority and will allow the emergency response units to return to their stations.

The termination step requires a substantial amount of documentation, especially for large-scale events such as nature-caused disasters and WMD events. Such documentation usually covers:

· safety procedures followed at the scene

· site work operations

· hazards confronted by the responders

· lessons learned from all of the activities at the emergency scene

· psychological counseling provided to emergency responders and the IC

The termination process involves the following four steps:

1. documentation of the debriefing of the participants in the emergency response

2. determination of which emergency responders and chief officers should receive grief or other counseling to help them handle the trauma they have endured in the emergency response and to help them prepare to return to duty

3. analysis of what worked and what didn't

4. critique of the parties involved in the emergency response

Emergency responders will offer feedback during the emergency incident on what needs to be done better, but the more structured feedback is that documented during the termination step. The documentation done during the debriefing of the emergency response participants will be valuable for finding ways of improving the emergency response.

Conducting a critique is important in properly terminating an emergency incident. Representatives of all of the agencies participating in the emergency response should take part in the critique, although this is not always possible, especially for large-scale events. The IC or her or his designee should chair the critique. The incident safety officer and the four section leaders, especially the operations-section head, should attend the critique.

The critique should involve a discussion of the specifics of the emergency incident. Everyone attending should be encouraged to speak about all the issues relevant to the incident. The goal of the critique is not fault finding, although the problems will emerge if the critique is properly conducted.

The purpose of the critique is to find out from all participants what worked well and where improvements must be made before another emergency of this type occurs. From the critique, the "lessons learned" should be developed and provided to all of the participating agency representatives. Critiques are especially helpful with those emergency events that were addressed using the unified command system.

Some lessons learned can be applied across the board to all emergency response activities, and some should be applied only to a particular type of emergency such as a WMD event. Training is one of the topics that will receive a lot of attention in the critique for many large-scale emergency events as will the need for grief or psychological counseling for those emergency responders who are suffering from the trauma they experienced.

Emergency Response Operations

As we stated in module 2, a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) emergency event is a federal crime scene, which makes it different from other hazardous material emergency events. As soon as it is determined to be a WMD event, the FBI will dispatch an agent designated by the president as the federal coordinating officer under the Federal Response Plan, which was discussed in module 3.

Because the WMD emergency scene is a federal crime scene, extra precautions must be taken not to disturb evidence on the scene other than what is absolutely necessary to carry out the emergency response activities. 

Handling WMD events is more difficult than handling other emergencies. Emergency responders need additional training to not only handle the event itself, but to handle situations before the event occurs. 

Emergency responders must:

· know how to collect and forward intelligence regarding potential terrorist actions before a WMD event occurs

· know the potential targets for terrorist attacks in their communities and develop plans appropriate for these locations

· know which personal protective equipment must be used at WMD events

Law enforcement emergency responders must know the prescribed procedures for handling unknown packages thought to be potential WMD devices. The potential for secondary explosive devices being used against emergency responders will have to be evaluated at each of these events for the protection of the responders. The process of decontaminating evidence or packaging it so it is not a hazard to those handling it must be planned for in advance.

Federal and state investigation boards or agencies will also respond to a WMD incident if it is a transportation event or if explosives or chemicals have been involved at a fixed facility. These boards will have procedures that the IC and the emergency responders must accommodate to the best of their abilities.

Mass Casualty Operations

Terrorists get their name from the fact that their goal is to cause fear in the general population as well as to destroy property and lives. Some of the materials that could be used to cause a WMD event are made to create mass casualties among the public or the targeted group. The term mass casualties means not just deaths, but serious injuries requiring medical attention. Such casualties create additional fear among the public. This is especially true for biological hazards that can be spread from victim to rescuer to another person or persons.

The normal hazardous materials emergency response can handle a relatively low number of victims in an emergency incident. When hundreds or thousands of people believe they are victims, however, the decontamination process and procedures become stressed. The emergency responders responsible for the decontamination process and the emergency medical service and local hospitals then become overloaded. Therefore, there must be careful planning for events with the potential for a large number of victims so that they can be treated promptly and properly. Psychological and grief counseling for the victims and their families who request it should also be planned for.

Emergency communications become as important as giving an early warning to the emergency medical services and local hospitals to gear up for the victims that will be coming in for treatment. These services and hospitals may want to call in off-duty staff to help handle the emergency overload of victims. Plans must be developed for safely transporting victims to the triage staging area first and then on to the hospitals and clinics. Such plans should be coordinated with the law enforcement agencies because of potential transportation and traffic issues.

Decontamination and Medical Maintenance

Decontamination Procedures

The decontamination process used for the emergency responders may need to be altered so children, women, and elderly people are more willing to go through it. Even an altered process should still be effective in handling the victims, the transport vehicles, and the hospital emergency rooms that treat the victims. The decontamination supplies and equipment must be planned for in advance in case large numbers of victims must be processed.

Medical Maintenance

Medical maintenance of victims may require a substantial supply of treatment materials and drugs. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be called upon to help with treating the victims. Some treatment regimens may require that drugs be taken for weeks or months, so these regimens must be planned for.

Other treatments must be accompanied by iodine supplements, for example, at nuclear power plants when the public is exposed to radiation. Treatment regimens must also be planned for potential chemical and biological agents that could be used in a WMD event. Finally, there must be planning to ensure adequate supplies of the longer-term treatments that will be dispensed by clinics to the patients generated by a WMD event.

Termination Activities

Because the location of a WMD event is a federal crime scene, greater security precautions must be taken with debriefing information. Multiple law enforcement agency representatives will most likely debrief the emergency responders. Likewise, these representatives will probably also conduct and document the critique. The administrative section's documentation and recordkeeping may also contain data that the law enforcement officials may want to control for future prosecution of those who caused the WMD event.

The termination steps and the documentation generated may all become part of the evidence-collection efforts of the law-enforcement agencies. In this case, security concerns will most likely prevent any public release and use of the documentation. Materials and documents deemed important or relevant to the criminal case being prepared by the law-enforcement agencies will be placed in their custody until the case is closed.

Nature-caused disasters are large-scale events that can involve large numbers of people and produce significant property and environmental damage. Such a disaster may generate more displaced persons than a WMD event because most potential WMD targets are not typically residential buildings. Nature-caused disasters can last for days or weeks.

These disasters often lead to downed power lines, obstructed roadways, washed-out bridges, deep snowfalls, and other obstacles, thus making it extremely difficult for emergency responders to reach and help the victims. The loss of power to a wide area causes other problems for the victims and the emergency response community.

Emergency Response Operations

The problems nature-caused disasters create for the emergency response community differ from those caused by hazardous materials-type emergencies because they can last much longer, have a greater impact on the community and its citizens, and can impede the emergency response community in performing its work. A further complication is that all levels of government may play a role in the emergency response or recovery operations or both.

In nature-caused disasters, the federal, state, and local authorities and the private emergency response organizations must cooperate to help the victims and return the affected area back to normal as soon as possible. When multiple agencies are involved, implementation of the unified command system is normally required to effectively manage the emergency event. Worst-case scenarios must be used in planning emergency communication systems so that effective communication will be available for all the involved agencies.

Those who lose their homes or whose homes have become uninhabitable will need temporary housing. Because the emergency response to a nature-caused disaster may go on for some time, there must be a substantial pool of available personnel to provide relief and backup to those involved in the initial response. Food service, rest areas, shower facilities, and other facilities and services, such as grief and psychological counseling, therefore must be planned for so that emergency responders can do their work as efficiently and effectively as possible and remain on duty.

The National Weather Service, by providing early information about the paths of various weather-related events, can and has helped to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from these events. In these events, then, the damage to property and the environment becomes the greatest concern.

Support Services for Victims and Displaced Persons

The National Weather Service provides helpful information on storm tracks, so that people in the path of the storm have time to evacuate to a safer location. After the weather event occurs, the police will usually assist people when they return to their homes if the homes are badly damaged. Displaced persons will need food, clothing, and shelter, and these items must all be planned for in advance of the nature-caused disaster. Some victims and their families may need grief counseling to help them cope with the trauma they have been through.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is the primary federal agency designated under the Robert T. Stafford Act that can provide assistance with housing and low-interest loans to the victims to rebuild and to get their businesses back up and running.

Recovery Steps

It can take months and years to recover after a nature-caused disaster. No matter how long it takes, it is important to begin the recovery effort as soon as the emergency has subsided. The necessary and important but difficult task of body recovery is the first step to be taken in recovery. It must be done with the utmost care and sensitivity after the emergency has passed and it is safe for emergency responders to enter the area. Those engaged in this effort must understand that these victims have loved ones who want to provide a proper burial for them.

The next step is to remove the hazardous materials and containers that may have been displaced by the nature-caused event and to remove other hazards that could harm other emergency responders and the public as they reenter the damaged area. 

Federal and state officials and insurance adjusters will be out reviewing the property and environmental damage to the impacted area. Depending on their findings, these officials will be able to provide some additional resources to help the survivors recover some of their losses from the emergency event. 

Businesses in the impacted area should have their own contingency plans, which should include the recovery steps necessary to get their businesses back in operation to serve their customers.

Cleanup and recovery operations goals should include returning the impacted area to its pre-disaster- event status, if that status is desirable. Cleanup efforts might involve removing debris and damaged goods that would otherwise cause hazards to those returning to their properties and businesses after the disaster. 

Another cleanup effort would be to evaluate the water-supply system and the public health issues related to it. For example, contaminated drinking water can cause a variety of diseases that will create a worse disaster than the nature-caused disaster. 

Other public health issues that might have to be addressed are malfunctioning wastewater treatment facilities and dead farm animals that must be removed. Other public utilities must be checked to make sure they are safe for public use.

Cleanup can include removing sunken vessels that are obstructing waterways so that boats and ships can pass through, thereby helping businesses to return to normal.

Individuals will clean up their own properties as they see the need and have the resources to do it. Businesses must do whatever cleanup and decontamination are needed so that they can meet the applicable government regulations to reopen their businesses and again serve their customers.

Recovery operations are those steps that get survivors back to the status they enjoyed before the disaster. In addition to food, clothing, and shelter, some survivors may need additional help such as psychological counseling. Some of the emergency responders may also need such counseling to help them cope with the trauma they have endured so it, too, must be planned for in advance.

Business recovery planning is necessary to ensure that businesses of all sizes prepare for continuity of services to their customers after a disaster. To ensure that the business does not lose customers to its competitors, the business leaders must prepare to provide the same level of service that has been provided prior to the disaster. These business leaders must prepare their employees so that they will be aware of their responsibilities with respect to reporting for work and other duties related to continuity of services after a disaster has adversely affected the place of business.

There are many ways to prepare a business recovery plan. Insurance carriers and their loss prevention services can assist policyholders with developing the necessary prevention and recovery plans that can assist the business and its employees in getting back to work as soon as possible. There are five basic steps that any business recovery plan should address to ensure continuity of service of the business to its customers. They are discussed in detail below.

Step One: Develop a business recovery team.

Select those essential employees that have the skills necessary to get the parts of the business back into operation. Assign these employees to specific jobs that must be accomplished to set the recovery into operation. Delegate responsibility and authority to these employees so they can get their job done. Consider the possibility that the employees on the recovery team may have limited resources (human, financial, and/or physical) and plan accordingly.

Step Two: Have an alternative work site available.

Be prepared to temporarily move your business location elsewhere during recovery. Choose a location that can provide the necessary utilities, physical size and layout, access to transportation links for shipping and receiving as well as public transportation for employees. If necessary, choose a facility that has the necessary security protections to ensure the safety of your employees and the company's inventory.

Step Three: Be prepared to contact all your business customers immediately.

It is essential that the business have the capabilities to reach out to each of its customers to let them know what is happening. You should have a backup messaging system to get the information about your business's disruption and loss to your customers and suppliers. They need to know if your business will be continuing to serve their needs. You need to know the status of your customer's and vendor's current orders. You need to know if such orders can be met. Make sure you know when your new inventory will be available for future orders. Make sure that all your customers know that, while there may be a slight disruption in service, that your company is working to get its supply chain back on line. Be reasonable with expectations. Do not tell your customers something that you know your business cannot possibly follow through with to get orders done.

Step Four: Plan to work with other businesses providing goods and services like yours.

Be prepared to contact other businesses providing similar goods and services so that you can work with them to continue providing your customers with needed goods and services. Unless your business provides truly unique goods and services, there most likely is a nearby business (competitor) that provides similar goods and services. This is a difficult business practice to negotiate because your business most likely will be dealing with your competitors, and the other business will be anxious to draw new customers from your established customers. Perhaps there is a similar business beyond your immediate area, that can work with your business to provide additional inventory until you have built your business back to pre-disaster levels. Your business must develop good relations with both your customers and competitors to set up a temporary resolution to overcome your business's losses.

Step Five: Be prepared to work with your wholesalers and other vendors.

You should be prepared to work with other businesses to provide your business's customers with the goods and services that the other business has in inventory. Your business should be prepared to serve as an "intermediate supplier" or "reseller" to provide your customers with what they need by purchasing goods and services directly from the other business. Also, wholesalers, who are generally in the retail trade, may provide a way to get the goods and services to your customers without shipping directly to your business. Again, a tough area to negotiate without the potential for losing customers. With your business having limited resources, you may still be able to contact customers, take their orders, and then contact another business to ship directly to your customers bypassing the need and time to ship through your facility in the short term. Again, a difficult area, but depending upon your business and your relationship you're your wholesaler and your own customers, it may be a reasonable approach to the continuity of goods and services as the business recovers from its disaster event.

Handling customer goods and services and ensuring long-term recovery of a business is only one phase of an effective business recovery plan. Company officials must also be prepared to tackle their business infrastructure. The business needs to address how its finances will be handled. The business needs to consider how, with limited cash flow, it can address how bills will be paid, business utilities restored and maintained, business records recovered, employee's provided compensation and insurance coverage, and rebuilding or replacing damaged business property and equipment as required. Many businesses carry business interruption insurance and it is important to understand exactly what is covered by such policies. Particularly where flooding is a risk. The government often provides flood insurance rather than independent insurers. As part of their customer service provisions, insurance companies can be an important asset at the time of a disaster. Their employees may have the skills and contacts necessary to get your business back on the road to recovery and to be as fully operational as it was before the disaster. So too do local, state, and Federal government agencies have resources to aid a business in disaster recovery such as small business loans, business advice, clean-up, restoration of community infrastructure, and recovery services, etc.

It is important to realize and understand the importance of effective business recovery planning. It should be an integral part of any emergency or disaster planning efforts. Having an effective business recovery plan and putting it into use promptly when disaster strikes can contribute to the overall recovery of the local economy and well-being of the community. It can reduce the loss of jobs and businesses in local communities and regions.