Functional Capability Analysis

Read Also

To ensure adequate emergency preparedness, emergency managers should analyze their emergency response organization’s capability to perform its basic emergency response functions. Historically, these functions have been categorized as agent generated and response generated demands (Quarantelli, 1981a). The agent generated demands arise from the specific mechanisms by which a hazard agent causes casualties and damage, whereas response generated demands arise from organizing and implementing the emergency response. Lindell and Perry (1992, 1996b) elaborated Quarantelli’s typology by drawing on federal emergency planning guidance (National Response Team, 1987; US Nuclear Regulatory Commission/Federal Emergency Management Agency, 1980) to define four basic emergency response functions. These are emergency assessment, hazard operations, and population protection (which are agent generated demands) and incident management (which encompasses the response generated demands). Emergency assessment consists of those diagnoses of past and present conditions and prognoses of future conditions that guide the emergency response. Hazard operations refers to expedient hazard mitigation actions that emergency personnel take to limit the magnitude or duration of disaster impact (e.g., sandbagging a flooding river or patching a leaking railroad tank car). Population protection refers to actions—such as sheltering in-place, evacuation, and mass immunization—that protect people from hazard agents. Incident management consists of the activities by which the human and physical resources used to respond to the emergency are mobilized and directed to accomplish the goals of the emergency response organization. The operational aspects of implementing these functions will be addressed in more detail in the next chapter, but rest of this section will address the actions that must be taken to prepare to implement them. These preparedness actions involve analyzing the disaster demands to identify the personnel, procedures, facilities, equipment, materials, and supplies the emergency response organization will need.

Emergency Assessment

Preparedness for emergency assessment requires the emergency response organization to detect and classify an environmental threat. Some natural hazards—such as many flash floods and earthquakes—are detected and classified by local agencies. Other natural hazards—such as hurricanes, tornadoes, major floods, and tsunamis—are detected and classified by federal agencies. Moreover, incidents at fixed site facilities are usually detected and classified by plant personnel, whereas transportation incidents are detected by carrier personnel, local emergency responders (e.g., police and fire), and sometimes by passers-by.

The local emergency manager should review the community HVA to identify all hazards to which the community is exposed in order to determine how detection is likely to be achieved and transmitted to the appropriate authorities. Locally detected hazards require the emergency manager to ensure the necessary detection systems (e.g., stream and rain gauges for flash floods) are established and maintained. For hazards detected by other sources, the emergency manager must ensure that a report of hazard detection can be called in to a community warning point that is staffed around the clock, usually the jurisdiction’s dispatch center.

Another important aspect of emergency assessment is hazard monitoring, which requires continuous awareness of the current status of the hazard agent as well as projections of its future status. The technology for performing hazard monitoring varies by hazard agent. In many cases, continuing information about the hazard agent is provided by the same source as the one that provided the initial hazard detection. For example, the National Hurricane Center provides hurricane updates every six hours (or more frequently, if needed). Similarly, plant personnel should provide continuing information about a hazardous materials release.

Environmental monitoring is also needed when the geographical areas at risk are determined by atmospheric processes. As noted in Chapter 5, toxic chemicals, radiological materials, and volcanic ash are carried downwind, so changes in wind direction, wind speed, and atmospheric stability must be monitored to determine if the area at risk will change over time. Thus, procedures must be established and equipment acquired to obtain current weather information and forecasts of future weather conditions. Environmental monitoring is also needed for hazmat spills into waterways because, for example, the speed and direction of ocean currents determine which sections of shoreline will be affected.

Moreover, damage assessment is needed to identify the boundaries of the risk area and initiate the process of requesting a Presidential Disaster Declaration. Here also, personnel, procedures, and equipment must be designated to perform this function. Finally, population monitoring and assessment is needed to identify the size of the population at risk if the number of people in the risk area varies over time (e.g., tourists present in the summer but not in the winter). This requires emergency managers to maintain calendars of major events, such as festivals and athletic contests, that bring large numbers of people into their jurisdictions. It also necessitates working with schools, hospitals, and nursing home administrators to monitor the progress of special facility evacuations and with traffic engineers to monitor evacuation routes for risk area residents.

Hazard Operations

Preparedness actions for hazard operations vary significantly from one hazard agent to another. In some cases, hazard operations require equipment that is normally available within the community. For example, preparedness for structural fires, conflagrations, and wildfires mostly requires equipment that local fire departments use in routine methods of hazard source control. However, some hazard agents require special preparation. For example, chemical incidents might require special foams to suppress vapor generation. Area protection works are another type of hazard operations that is best illustrated by elevating levees during floods. The large number of sandbags needed for such operations also requires advance preparation. Moreover, some hazard agents such as earthquakes require special preparation for postimpact operations to implement building construction practices and contents protection practices. For example, heavy construction equipment is needed to stabilize buildings, extricate victims, and protect building contents from further damage.

Population Protection

Preparedness for population protection sometimes requires emergency managers to develop procedures for protective action selection. For some hazard agents, there is only one recommended protective action. People threatened by tornadoes or volcanic ashfall should shelter in-place whereas those threatened by lava flows, inland floods, storm surges, and tsunamis should evacuate. In other cases, such as toxic chemical and radiological releases, the appropriate protective action depends on the situation (Lindell & Perry, 1992; Sorensen, Shumpert & Vogt, 2004). Consequently, communities exposed to such hazards should develop procedures for protective action selection in advance.

Similarly, emergency managers should devise procedures for warning the risk area population for each of the different hazards identified in the community HVA. In slow onset incidents, such as main stem floods, there is likely to be adequate time for mechanisms such as face-to-face warnings. However, rapid onset incidents such as toxic chemical releases might require the acquisition of siren systems. Emergency managers should also prepare for search and rescue by considering whether special training and equipment is needed for swiftwater rescue from floods, heavy rescue from buildings collapsed by earthquakes, and other specialized circumstances. Impact zone access control/security, hazard exposure control, and emergency medical care require special protective equipment for emergency responders in CBR hazards so emergency managers should prepare for these hazards as well.

Incident Management

Because incident management activities are directed toward the response generated demands of an incident, preparedness for this function varies relatively little from one hazard agent to another. Agency notification and mobilization requires the acquisition of equipment such as pagers and the development of procedures such as the designation of watch officers to ensure that key personnel are notified rapidly. Mobilization of emergency facilities and equipment is achieved by acquiring critical documents (e.g., maps, plans, and procedures) and storing these in close proximity to the room that will be activated as the EOC (if the jurisdiction does not have a permanent installation). Communication and documentation are supported by the acquisition of radios, telephone systems, and personal computers as well as the establishment of procedures for message routing and recording. Emergency managers prepare for many of the emergency response organization’s specific activities such as analysis/planning, internal direction and control, logistics, finance/administration, and external coordination by identifying the ways in which personnel will perform tasks or have reporting relationships that differ from the ones they encounter in normal conditions. The emergency manager can work with personnel assigned to the emergency response organization to devise organization charts, task checklists, telephone lists, and other job performance aids that will assist them in their emergency duties. Preparedness for public information can be facilitated by identifying a joint information center (JIC), providing extra phone lines for media personnel, and developing basic background information about the jurisdiction, its hazards, and the emergency response organization.