The Emergency Operations Plan
Steven Remus
Kaplan University
FS499
Professor Jones
16 Oct, 2012
FS Capstone

At the least, every level of government should have an effective emergency operations plan that allows for basic continuity of operations of the government, disaster relief for the affected areas, but an effective emergency operations plan should mitigate the disasters effect on the community. It is imperative to include pre-planning pinpoints of resources that allow us to always be at the ready for a quick response so that we can assist those in need without causing them undue pain and suffering. The emergency operations plan should do just what its namesake states. It should be a plan for operating the government, resources, and personnel in times of an emergency.
According to FEMA “while the causes of emergencies vary greatly; the potential effects of emergencies do not. This means that jurisdictions can plan to deal with effects common to several hazards, rather than develop separate plans for each hazard, “(FEMA, 1996). So our
Kaplan emergency operations plan while it needs to cover the potential detrimental effects of each hazard, some hazards have common effects that we can plan for across the board, and therefore we should aim to plan for the effects of emergencies and not each specific disaster.
Every emergency will not be the same or require the same approach because that is just the nature of the beast. If emergencies had the same standards over and over again then we could easily plan to alleviate completely those hazards. FEMA goes on to state “EOPs developed using the functional approach consist of a Basic Plan, functional annexes, and hazard-specific appendices,” (FEMA, 1996). So as we develop the Kaplan EOP we should strive to have a basic plan, annexes to that plan that support our functional responses, such as the responsibilities of the fire, police, and emergency medical services. Lastly we will have hazard specific appendices that will basically detail out the functional annex responsibilities per specific disaster, like an earthquake or hurricane.

The basic plan is very much what one would expect it to be. FEMA defines the basic plan as “the legal authority for emergency operations, summarizes the situations addressed by the
EOP, explains the general concept of operations, and assigns responsibilities for emergency planning and operations,” (FEMA, 1996). Within our Kaplan EOP we need to ensure we address the situations we hope to cover and then summarize what that situation may entail. For example, summarizing a hurricane emergency, we will want to highlight things like potential flooding and contamination of the water supply and then identify the agencies we will have carrying out a responsibility in this part of our plan. This is where we also need to outline our legal authority for the actual execution of the EOP and include in their things like evacuation authority, and to delegate the authority for things like the scene command or where resources should be prepositioned.
The second part of the Kaplan EOP should be the functional annexes. As defined earlier these explain the responsibilities of each specialized service, like the fire and police departments
(FEMA, 1996). Within these functional areas we will outline the specialized services that each of these departments or offices will be responsible for during an emergency. Some of these things could be identifying who will maintain responsibility for a swift water rescue during a hurricane or who will be responsible for ensuring looters don’t take to the streets post disaster. Things these small will generally be the least talked about at the table because they are common things, but not having even the smallest detail laid out can lead to confusion amongst everyone involved.
The third portion of the Kaplan EOP should be our hazard specific appendices as outlined by FEMA (FEMA, 1996). Here we will outline our procedures for specific hazards. These will include different types of terror attacks as well as the range of natural disasters we could potentially face in the city of Kaplan. Within this section there should be specific checklists as to

what actions must be taken by each agency as well as the standard for operations if there is time to prepare, during the event and in recovery operations. This will establish everyone to be on the same page and know who is responsible for what. The checklists will direct actions appropriate to each phase and ensure the most important and time sensitive items are started or completed first.
There is a bevy of benefits from developing a proper emergency operations plan.
According to CCOHS “The planning process may bring to light deficiencies, such as the lack of resources (equipment, trained personnel, supplies), or items that can be rectified before an emergency occurs,” (CCOHS, 2012). These deficiencies being identified during our planning process will allow us to identify how to work around and resolve them in case of an emergency, instead of us identifying the shortcoming during the emergency. This is why the city of Kaplan needs to have and ensure its emergency operations plan is effective.

FS Capstone
References
CCOHS. CCOHS, (2012). Why have an emergency plan?
. Retrieved from website: The planning process may bring to light deficiencies, such as the lack of resources (equipment, trained personnel, supplies), or items that can be rectified before an emergency occurs.
FEMA. FEMA, (1996). Guide for all-hazard emergency operations planning . Retrieved from website: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/plan/3-ch.pdf