ZEEK THE GEEK ONLY!!!

This report should be produced in the context that it will serve as available information to you that will be used in conducting a verbal briefing on a critical incident situation. (Note: The substance of the material developed and used for your “briefing” is what’s important. Like in the real world, you want to use substantiated facts or projections, rather than just “fluff” that fills up the pages. Meaningful information assists decision-makers in making well-founded and concrete decisions about how to best mitigate operational threats.)

The actual document you prepare should be thought of as the one you would use if conducting a high-level executive briefing of either military and/or civilian emergency response executives.

You may want to consider reporting information that is both research/historically oriented and practical situation oriented in that it provides a venue for making recommendations to senior decision-makers (the people you are briefing).

During the presentation of an actual executive briefing, you may be asked to provide both an historical aspect, also known as background profile, and then also a recommendation for action. For the purposes of the Research Paper consider the expectation that you are expected to make recommendations for action. After all, recommendations are needed when future planning is to be effectively developed.

To tie together the sequential steps required to effectively pinpoint and gauge the potential effects of hazard, each student will, beginning as early in the course as possible, produce an Executive Risk 4

Asssessment and PowerPoint Presentation (ERAP) of sufficient quality that it could be used as the basis for developing subsequent risk mitigation plans and programs.

Drawing on available hazard descriptions (FEMA and other sources), you are to first:

1. Devise a realistic hazard scenario (including geographical location), and then

2. Gather data necessary to develop likelihood-of- occurrence estimates, vulnerability assessments, and projections of losses.

The totality of this presentation should summarize significant findings and clearly identify the affected communities (and/or areas, regions).

Briefing materials should also specify the EADP (emergency actions and disaster preparedness) agencies to which the information is to be forwarded for further action (including incorporation into contingency and disaster response plans, the employment of risk mitigation measures such as amendments to building codes, zoning ordinances, etc. ).

Note:

Course focus is on the threat identification and assessment process as an essential preamble to corrective action and/or recovery. Consequently, you should focus on defining and describing the threat, its significance, the vulnerability of target areas/populations, etc. Only after those issues have been resolved should you focus on “what should be done once a hazard event has occurred.” Disaster response procedures (such as response deployments, evacuations, medical treatment, etc.) are relevant to project assessments only to the extent that they serve to change the calculus of risk.

Supporting documentation to the Executive Risk Assessment Project will be prepared according to standards set forth in the APA Publications Standards Manual, to include any necessary tabular and/or graphic summaries, and a concluding section on specific recommendations.