The federal declaration process on disaster requires that for the president to declare the existence of a disaster, the request should emanate from the affected state Governor. The request goes via the regional office of federal emergency management agency. A preliminary damage assessment is done by the federal and state officials with the aim of estimating the disaster intensity and its impact on people and public resources. The information obtained is included in the Governor’s request as proof that the disaster is of great sternness and magnitude and the state and local governments are not able to respond to it and hence require the assistance of the federal government. Usually, the PDA is accomplished before the submission of governor’s request, but when the disaster is too severe, the request can be made before the PDA.
In the request, the governor requires taking the appropriate action as provided by the state law and direct implementation of the emergency plan by the state. Information on the resource that the local and state governments have used and will be used in responding to the disaster is provided. Moreover, the governor should agree that the local and state government will agree to cost sharing on the expenses and requirements in eradicating the current disaster in the state. When the president receives the governor's request, the president can declare that a serious disaster exists and therefore acting many federal programs to give a hand in the response and recovery endeavors (Sylves & Búzás 2007). However, not all the programs are activated for every disaster. Programs are activated with the considerations of the needs identified by PDA and any other information that may have been uncovered.
Back in the 1970s, there were several catastrophic fire occurrences in California urban interface, which prompted the development of incident command system (ICS). It was after several properties were damaged, several people were injured, and others died. After thorough investigations, the personnel assigned to evaluate the causes of the fires discovered that response problems stemmed from inadequate management.
The ICS was developed to solve the management inadequacies. Incident command system is a logical management device meant to meet the requirements of emergency or non-emergency occurring. It is an on-scene occurrence management conception that is particularly designed to allow the responders to embrace an incorporated organizational makeup that is equal to the intricacy and requirements of any particular incident or numerous incidents without being stopped by jurisdictional boundaries. It allows efficient and effective management of domestic incidents by combining equipment, procedures, facilities, personnel, and communications working within the organizational structure.
ICS has become the measure for emergency management all over the country. It is effective to use in natural disasters, acts of terrorism as well as the planned effects. It is an essential aspect of national incident management system because of the way it works. ICS works in five functional fields with command as the first (Department of Homeland Security, 2013). Command defines the occurrence aims and operational period goals and directs them to the other fields. The operation is the other field that aids in the development of the strategy that meets the objective in the command. The other field is logistic that supports in the use resources to implement the strategy. The other field is planning is responsible for developing an action plan. Finally is the finance field, which helps in monitoring the progress of the incident response.
Private Citizens can be involved in homeland security through forming a neighborhood watch. Neighborhood watch offers citizens avenues to come together and against crimes in their community. Taking part in the neighborhood watch program citizens can be eyes and ears of the law enforcers by making sure they report any suspicious behavior in the community as well as assisting in developing a disaster preparedness plan for the community. While forming a neighborhood watch, neighbors need to be informed of the problems in the area and the possible solution so that they can join hands to fight them. After that, it is important to inform the local police to gain their support. Meeting of neighborhood watch should be publically advertised to allow inclusion of everyone for instance by flyers and posts. Finally, it is always important to have convenient meeting time as well as the venue.
The neighborhood watch is effective with the alarming rates of crime in the community are reduced. Again, the community feels in control of their security and no longer feels helpless. These neighborhood watch programs do not only help in fighting crime and insecurity but also fosters unity.
A united community has more strength to respond to disasters facing them because the problem of one member of the community is the problem of the whole community (Friedmann, & Cannon, 2007). Apart from the creation of disaster preparedness plans and fighting of insecurity, neighborhood watch can also help the homeland security to develop an evacuation plan, develop the local warning system to apply during the disaster as well as the possible target areas for terrorist aiming to attack the community.
According to Department of Homeland Security (2013), the national response framework has three annexes namely emergency support functions (ESFs) annexes, support annexes, and incident annexes. EFS annexes give organization for bringing together federal interagency help for a Federal reaction to an incident. They are means for grouping roles most often utilized to offer federal-to-federal assistance as well as to federal support to states for declared emergencies and disasters. An example of EFS annexes is ‘public works and engineering’ that functions are to protect the infrastructure and ensure emergency repair, restore infrastructure and carry out construction management and other engineering services. The primary agencies in this annex are the department of defense and department of homeland security. The support agencies include the department of agriculture, department of energy and department of commerce among others.
Support Annexes, on the other hand, offer description on how federal agencies and department work together and implement the general administrative requirements as well as functional processes necessary to guarantee effective and efficient incident management. An example of support annexes is financial management annex, which aims at offering crucial financial management help to all actors in NRF activities.
The agencies involved in this support annex are the department of commerce, department of homeland security and department of justice among others. Finally, the incident annexes give a description of the situation, the concept of operations as well as responsibilities for specific hazards types.
An example of incident annexes is food and agriculture annex that offers a description of the responsibilities allied with all the events that involve the Nation’s food and agriculture system that need an organized federal response in using the five principles of national response framework. Some of the agencies in this annex are the department of agriculture, department of commerce and department of homeland security.
References
Friedmann, R. R., & Cannon, W. J. (2007). Homeland security and community policing: Competing or complementing public safety policies. Journal of homeland security and emergency management, 4(4).
Sylves, R., & Búzás, Z. I. (2007). Presidential Disaster Declaration Decisions, 1953-2003: What Influences Odds of Approval?. State & Local Government Review, 3-15.
