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EA 01 Disaster Response

Version 2.1 by Ryan Larkin on 2016/09/16 16:23

Washington County Sheriff's Office

EMERGENCY SERVICES DIVISION

Policy Manual

Volume: EA

Contingency Management

Chapter: 01

Disaster Response

Replaces and/or Supersedes:

08/21/2012

Published:

08/21/2012

Review Date:

08/21/2013

Sheriff Cory C. Pulsipher

Division Director Pete Kuhlmann

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EA 01_101  Definitions

EA 01_102  General

EA 01_103  On Duty Employees

EA 01_104  Off Duty Employees

EA 01_105  Disaster Response Facilities

EA 01_106  Disaster Response

EA 01_107  Family

EA 01_108  Evacuation

EA 01_109  Communications

EA 01_110  Response Manuals

EA 01_111  Sample Incident Command Organizational Chart

EA 01_101  DEFINITIONS

  1. WCSO:  Washington County Sheriff's Office
  2. PCF:   Purgatory Correctional Facility
  3. Disaster:  A disaster is a natural, man-made or technological event resulting in significant physical damage, destruction, loss of life, or a drastic change in the environment.
  4. Disaster Response Facility:  One of several locations pre-established as meeting points to coordinate the multi-agency response to a disaster with the command structure established to manage the incident resources (see section EA 01_111 Disaster Response Facilities List).
  5. EOC:  Emergency Operations Center
  6. IC:  Incident Command. The command structure established to prioritize response actions and assign and track resources responding to an emergency or disaster. The IC should consist of at least an Incident Commander, a Safety Officer, a Public Information Officer, and a Liaison.
  7. SAR:  Search and Rescue
  8. WCSSAR:  Washington County Sheriff Search and Rescue

EA 01_102  GENERAL

  1. Policy:  
    1. Employee contact information, including phone numbers and addresses, shall be kept up-to-date by the employee and verified by their supervisor annually (reference policy: AB 02 Employee Files, Goals, and Evaluations).
    2. In the event of a disaster, employees should prepare for long term operation activities. Activities may include support in other jurisdictions and may take place in distant parts of the county or in adjacent counties.
    3. Following the initial event, employee shall work to become available to assist with emergency response as soon as practical, and shall notify the Sheriff’s Office command staff of their availability by any available means.
    4. Emergency conditions involving the threat to life, or substantial property damage, resulting from disasters observed by or reported to an employee shall be reported to IC.
  2. Rationale:
    1. When major incidents occur, response activities should be coordinated to insure a prioritized response, to control scarce resources to insure their effective use, and to avoid duplication of effort. Event conditions should be brought to the attention of supervisors and incident command personnel to facilitate the coordination of response activities and to ensure that inquiries from the media and public information needs are properly addressed.

EA 01_102  ON DUTY EMPLOYEES

  1. Policy
    1. In the event of a disaster, on duty employees should immediately contact their on duty supervisor to receive disaster response orders. If the employee is unable to make contact with their on duty supervisor, the employee should begin to check critical infrastructure in their immediate area. If the inspection of critical infrastructure is impossible due to infrastructure damage, or when critical checks have been completed duty employees should make contact with or report to the nearest Disaster Response Facility (reference Disaster Response Manual).
  2. Rationale:
    1. Disaster response activites should be coordinated to insure an effective use of resources and that proper personnel acountability is maintained.

EA 01_103  OFF DUTY EMPLOYEES

  1. Policy:
    1. In the event of a disaster or extraordinary circumstances as deemed necessary by the Sheriff or the authorized designee, off duty employees may be required to report for duty. Failure to promptly respond after receiving an order to report for duty may result in employee discipline.
    2. Off duty employees should first respond to their family needs and then prepare to report for duty.
    3. After the safety of the employee's family has been secured and emergency needs of the employee's property have been seen to, the employee should first contact the EOC accountability line at (435) 652-5815. The employee should then contact the WCSO to receive disaster response orders. If the employee is unable to make contact with the WCSO, the employee should make contact with or report to the nearest Disaster Response Facility (reference Disaster Response Manual).
  2. Rationale:
    1. Effective and timely reporting will help improve response times, provide for personnel accountability, and allow emergency managers to identify available resources.

EA 01_104  DISASTER RESPONSE FACILITIES

  1. Policy:
    1. If an employee cannot make contact with the WCSO and reports to the nearest Disaster Response Facility (as detailed above), until relieved or otherwise instructed by IC, the first responding employee at a Disaster Response Facility shall:
      1. Start a check-in log and begin maintaining accountability for all responders reporting to the Disaster Response Facility. An account of all assignments shall be created and tracked;
      2. Coordinate security of the facility; and
      3. Establish and coordinate of a system to receive and track incoming incident information.
    2. Rationale:
      1. Disaster Response Facilities need to be operational as soon as possible during a disaster. The recording of event information and accountability allows incident commanders to prioritize response and work to insure the safety of responders.

EA 01_106  DISASTER RESPONSE

  1. Policy:
    1. Employees should not self dispatch or be drawn into operations not assigned or approved by IC. In the event that such is deemed necessary by the employee, the employee shall notify IC.
    2. Throughout disaster response activities, employees should be checking for hazardous conditions, threats to life and damage in their immediate area and relaying this information to IC.
  2. Rationale:
    1. IC cannot account for or render aid to a self dispatched officer since IC will be unaware of their location and activities. Self dispatching may interfere with previously planned responses from IC cause a duplication of effort, or cause more harm than good.
    2. IC must receive continual updates in order to properly allow for effective response planning and to adjust operations to meet changing needs .

EA 01_107  FAMILY

  1. Policy:
    1. If their place of residence is unsafe, employee family members may come to the WCSO or the EOC for shelter.
  2. Rationale:
    1. Employees may be more effective disaster responders with the knowledge that their families are safely sheltered.

EA 01_108  EVACUATION

  1. Policy:
    1. In the event of a disaster or emergency which requires evacuation of the WCSO Administrative building or PCF, all employees shall follow implemented evacuation plans and posted exit strategies (including the evacuation of visitors and inmates).
    2. Posted exit strategies shall include any special directions for physically impaired persons.
  2. Rationale:
    1. Pre-planned emergency contingencies may help reduce confusion and mitigate losses.

EA 01_109  COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Policy:
    1. Communications should be kept to a minimum and limited to necessary disaster response communications.
    2. Responders should only use radio channels and talk groups assigned by IC.
    3. Initial Radio communications by WCSO IC's shall take place on the WCSSAR 800MHZ channels. Incident Commanders shall establish a communications plan, in coordination with dispatch, as soon as practical and response communications shall adhere to the plan during event operations.
    4. Status updates should be provided to IC and EOC when available.
    5. Whenever possible, non-critical communications should be relayed via instant messaging through the Spillman computer system. If Spillman is not available, text messaging should be used. When text messaging is not possible, non-critical communication should be relayed via telephone. Radio communication should be reserved for critical communications and other communication approved by IC.
  2. Rationale:
    1. Communications should be controlled to minimize confusion and to reduce the chances of overburdening the communications systems.
    2. Instant messaging and text messaging places significantly lower demands on communications resources.
    3. Text messaging should not be used for critical communications since text messages may be delayed by the communications system.

EA 01_110 RESPONSE MANUALS

  1. Policy:
    1. Disaster response manuals shall be maintained. A copy shall be stored in each WCSO vehicle and each WCSO administrator's office.
    2. Disaster response manuals shall include:
      1. A roster of all current WCSO employees (to be reviewed annually and updated by the Sheriff's designee);
      2. Contact information for all current WCSO employees, including addresses and phone numbers (to be reviewed annually and updated by the Sheriff's designee);
      3. An On Duty Disaster Response Checklist (to be reviewed annually and updated by the Emergency Services Director);
      4. An Off Duty Disaster Response Checklist (to be reviewed annually and updated by the Emergency Services Director);
      5. A critical infrastructure list (to be reviewed annually and updated by the Emergency Services Director);
      6. A sample Incident Command Organizational Chart; and
      7. The locations, addresses, and phone numbers of all Washington County Disaster Response Facilities (to be reviewed annually and updated by the Emergency Services Director).
    3. All supervisors should familiarize themselves with the disaster response manual.
    4. Disaster response manuals shall be kept up to date. The Emergency Services Director shall review and update, if necessary, the disaster response manual annually to ensure that the manual conforms to any revisions made by the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
    5. Employees shall insure that the disaster response manuals assigned to them and the information contained in the response manual is kept secure.
  2. Rationale:
    1. A disaster response manual will provide employees with a quickly accessible guideline of their expected actions during a disaster.

EA 01_111  SAMPLE INCIDENT COMMAND ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

Attached