Emergency Management Planning
New York Style
MaryAnn E. Marrocolo
Assistant Commissioner
Planning and Preparedness
New York City Office of Emergency Management
Agenda

What have we learned?

What does this mean for emergency planning?

Creating Plans to Facilitate Execution and
Action

In Summary…
What have we learned?
Question
Comparing major urban centers and small
town/rural areas, there are more similarities
than differences in emergency preparedness.
a. True
b. False
Hurricane Andrew

Inadequate
communication between
levels of government
concerning specific
needs

Lack of full awareness of
supply inventories and
agency capabilities

Failure to have a single
person in charge with a
clear chain of command

Inability to cut through
bureaucratic red tape
Oklahoma City Bombing

The IEMS and ICS
weakened early due to:
–
Immediate response of
numerous local, state, and
federal agencies
–
Three separate locations of
the Incident Command Post
–
Deployment of many Mobile
Command Posts,
representing support
agencies

Lack of knowledge of
IEMS, disaster response/
recovery planning and
implementation, and
emergency management
functions
9/11 Initial Response

Response operation
lacked integrated
communications and
unified command, both
within and among
individual responding
agencies

Crucial information for
informed decision-making
was not shared among
agencies.
2004-2005 Sonoma County Grand Jury Report

Written plans and checklists
are not consistent among
county, cities, agencies, and
departments

In some cases written plans
are non-existent.

The spasmodic use of
checklists misses a great
opportunity to put effective
planning into action at times
of great personal stress and
confusion.

Most senior management and
elected officials interviewed
were distanced from, and in
some cases ignorant of, salient
pieces of the plans.
Hurricane Katrina

Command and Control
was impaired at all
levels of government

Failure to heed past
lessons learned from
exercises and actual
events

Leaders were not well
versed in protocol and
failed to successfully
implement the National
Response Plan, and with it,
NIMS
Question
In my experience, the most important of the following
factors which leads to an inadequate response is:
a. Lack of clarity of who is in charge
b. Confusion about roles and responsibilities
c. People’s failure to follow the plan
d. Poor communication with “end users”
Have we learned anything at all?

It is unclear who is in
charge or what their job
is.
– Roles and responsibilities
are confused.

People do not execute
the plan.
WHY?

Our plans fail to
communicate to the “end
user” what is to be done.
What does this mean for emergency
planning?
Re-thinking the Traditional

Emergency planning
guidance is antiquated
and does not meet the
needs of modern
emergency response.
– SLG 101 was last
updated in 1996 and
made no structural
changes to its
predecessor CPG 1-8
(1990).

Increasingly complex
emergencies require
plans that clearly
articulate:
– Roles and responsibilities
– Response options
– Actions and tasks
Moving from Concept to Action
Action & Execution

Options

Roles

Tasks
Creating Plans to Facilitate
Execution and Action
Plan Simplification
Plan Simplification (cont.)
A Format that Clearly Answers…

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

How?
A Format that Links Options and Tasks
to Operational Phases
Operational Overview

CIMS Phases of an Incident
– Activation and implementation
– Investigative operations
– Life safety operations
– Recovery and restoration
operations
Case Study:
Transit Strike
A Format that Relates Options to Tasks
Operational Strategies

Connective tissue for
options and tasks
Case Study: Transit Strike (cont.)
A Format that Relates Roles to Tasks
Level of Detail
Exec
Operations
OEM Operations
ESF Operations
Field Operations
Agency Operations
Case Study: Transit Strike (cont.)
Case Study: Transit Strike (cont.)
Question
In my jurisdiction, we have simplified our public
health response plan into practical checklists for
the end users.
a. True
b. False
Case Study:
Transit Strike (cont.)
Case Study:
Transit Strike (cont.)
In Summary…

Don’t learn the same lesson twice.

Don’t forget the end user… it’s not you.

Don’t forget to link options, roles, and tasks.
Questions?
mmarrocolo@oem.nyc.gov
718-422-4385