Global Terrorism

Emergency Plan: Part I

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Emergency Plan: Part I

Introduction

Emergency plan for Metropolis, FL is an important aspect of the city’s ability to asses, evaluate and mitigate the occurrence and impact of a disaster. Planning for emergency preparedness is a continuous process which includes identifying and examining risk areas, organization, training and equipping of systems that will ensure protection of the people’s interest when disaster strikes (Bullock, 2009).

Resiliency planning

Resiliency planning in terrorism emergency plan is whereby people and systems are prepared to adjust quickly and recover from the occurrence of an emergency risk. According to the Home Land Security, resiliency planning is the ability to adapt to changing the changing conditions that are a result of disruption due to emergencies. Therefore, it can be concluded that resilience emergency plan is incorporating all those plans, techniques and designs that will help control the impact of the risk. Areas, where resilience planning could be used, include;

i. Critical infrastructure

Potential risk areas include national and public buildings where many people are known to converge. They include universities, highways, and hospitals. Most of this infrastructure is connected pausing a greater risk of damage in case of a terrorist attack. Resilience planning will ensure that structures built to adhere to specific standards and codes that will reduce the impact in case of an impact. Such standards include the housing regulations. Infrastructure development in Metropolis, FL will be needed to adhere to these planning and building standards because a loophole in one section could adversely affect the rest of the infrastructure. More to this, the city should have an infrastructure map that shows the distribution of the city’s critical infrastructure. Potential hot spots should be identified, and necessary mitigation measures installed closer to those areas. Mitigation measures include putting emergency response teams and institutions close to these hot spots or where they can easily access this infrastructure.

ii. Valuable natural resources

Terrorists aim at causing maximum damages; therefore, they would target natural resources such as water sources and the air we breathe. Potential risks include the use of biological chemicals which will be introduced into our water sources, then flow into the supply systems which are then directed straight to our domestic taps. This is an example of a bio-terrorism attack that could happen in Metropolitan, FL once terrorist access its water supply systems. Everyone in the city depends on the city’s water supply system for water. This includes children in schools, public hospitals, and industries. Therefore there is a great risk is at all these people could be exposed to contaminated water. To enhance safety levels of the water resources, water sources are well enclosed from outsiders and intruders in addition; regular water testing is done by the relevant bodies to ensure that no foreign and harmful compounds are introduced to the water. In addition, the department in charge of environmental protection will ensure the protection of the city’s air and other natural resources.

iii. Society and the community

Most of our societies are rich in culture and practices including different religion, gender, education levels and races. With the adoption of technology most of the people share communication platforms in the different social sites and communication systems. Cyber-terrorism which is an intentional attack or interruption of a person’s social network is a big threat to the society. A potential risk is breaching an attack on a person’s computer and internet services. Being a modern town, Metropolis, FL depends on different social networks and communication channels to ensure a continuous flow of information from one person to another, from one department to another and from one office to another. It is important for the city to secure its communication channels to prevent possible interruptions that could cripple communication for this will be a big threat to the town’s security and economy. A suitable approach would be to have a central management point which oversees that any source of terrorist activities can be traced and fixed as well as have a high encrypted system network that would be difficult to breach.

iv. Businesses and industries

Business and industries are the backbones of most of our town’s economy. These are institutions that hold most of the working population and as such are potential risk areas for terrorist attacks. Characteristics of such areas include; densely populated and developed, hold property of high economic value, and they also include government-owned facilities. Terrorists could aim at crippling the economy of a region by striking these commercial zones. For Example the bombing of a bank that is in the middle of an urban area affects the entire economy of the surrounding region (Cordesman, 2002). Resilience planning would install emergency response units in these zones of the Metropolitan, FL to control the damages that would occur.

Reactionary planning

Reactionary planning refers to the measures and institutions put in place which respond to a disaster that has already occurred. Usually, the cost response and recovering activities are expensive exacerbating financial and personal burdens faced by the affected parties.

Areas, where reactionary planning could be used, include;

i. Agri-terrorism

Agri-terrorism affects the agricultural sector. This risk occurs when the livestock or/and the crop production sectors are affected by a malicious pathogen that deteriorates the productivity level causing a drastic fall in the economic returns to a farmer (NoAuthorFound, 2013). For example, infection of livestock with the foot-and-mouth disease could affect dairy production in Metropolitan, FL. Planning will; therefore, require vaccinating infected animals as well as banning shipments from outside as they are a possible cause of the breakout.

ii. Building fires

Building structures are one of the most critical infrastructures of an urban area. In case of an incidence of fire, the first assumption by the response team would be that it was an act of terror. For this reason, the team will countercheck if a building has adhered to the building regulations and standards. Metropolis, TL is made up of different building structures. Therefore, the best planning approach for an effective emergency plan against terrorism is to ensure that every building has followed the building codes and has been approved by the relevant planning institutions.

iii. Cyber-terrorism

The youth who are the most dominant users of social media communication are most at risk of this attack. Due to the high risk of potential cyberbullying and cyber-attacks, the Metropolitan, FL city should ensure that there is a computer emergency response team of specialized personnel, that is always standby to respond to any suspicion of a terrorist incident.

iv. Hostage situation

This is a crisis which results from a terrorist attack which restrains the people’s rights and freedoms. Residents of Metropolitan, FL are all subjects to this threat and the only planning approach to responding to this risk is by establishing a hostage rescue team that will carry out hostage retrieval operations.

References

Bullock, J. (2009). Introduction to homeland security: principles of all-hazards response. Amsterdam Boston: Elsevier/Butterworth Heinemann.

Cordesman, A. (2002). Terrorism, asymmetric warfare, and weapons of mass destruction: defending the U.S. homeland. Westport, Conn: Praeger.

NoAuthorFound. (2013). Kern county Terrorism response and recovery Contingency Plan