1. Johnson County Emergency Management Agency
Johnson County Emergency management Agency was founded as a department that coordinates disaster management issues for both the visitors and citizens of Johnson County. It was established following concerns by the citizens over a lack of properly coordinated disaster response, planning, mitigation and even recovery arrangements in the county. This led to losses of lives, uncontrolled destruction of property and also resulted in much destruction caused to the environment. In response to these concerns, the agency was formed with a disaster management department which coordinates the plans of the county to sense possible causes of disaster, propose prevention plans, tailor them and assess the effectiveness of the policies. Since its formation, there has been regular review of disaster risks, occurrences and improved responses to them due to the cutting age technologies the agency pulls together to respond to disaster incidences.
The agency is organized into departments according to clusters of emergencies to respond to, prevent or review. As such, the fire emergency sub-department is separate from the one that responds to floods, building collapses as well as those which coordinate the ambulance services for casualties. There also exists a separate department for risk assessors that ensures that disaster risks are detected in time and plans made to avert them.
2. Use of NIMS in Daily Activities
The agency is also compliant to standards. As a local agency, it also works in compliance with NIMS by incorporating NIMS into its training activities. This is to ensure that the expertise involved in distaer management at the agency is up to the required level. It also uses NIMS information data base in building its capacity in order to handle disasters by implementing NIMS federal disaster preparedness. The agency has also subscribed to NIMCAST a self-assessment tool that federal, state and local agencies can use to ascertain their level of suitability to handle disasters including terrorist related ones against the stipulated nationwide standards (FEMA 2014). This online service supplies agencies with information on how to upgrade their operations, resources and professionals in order to meet the functional threshold required of them.
3. Qualifications for Employment at the Agency
The company employs a wide variety of emergency experts. From those working in risk assessment, incidence reviewers, forensic experts and those who operate equipment. Most of the employees have to have the minimum emergency response competencies that are based on fire fighting. For major office jobs, a degree in disaster management is competitive enough. However, those who work in the agency were picked over their competitors due to possession of other added credentials such as firefighting, conversance with such tools as NIMS’ IS-200 ICS among others. However, some who also work in the company without necessarily any disaster management papers include logistics operators and some mechanical engineers who work on ensuring machinery and equipment are in good form to respond to emergency incidences (Walsh 2012).
The hiring procedures are also more than just panel oral interviews but extend to practical assessment of skills and competencies. This means that being hired in this agency calls for more than just waving a piece of paper at the interview panel. However, the agency organizes orienteer trainings for new employees in order to be abreast with the vast disaster management environment through meeting various experts.
4. Career Assessment
The agency opened insight into my abilities that are suited for employment in it. In my interaction with some of the employees especially in the firefighting department, I realized that some were getting certifications in the course of their career at the agency. One was a team leader who had a diploma in county disaster response, but had secured a few technical trainings which made him suited for work in various departments in the agency. In addition, I have a bachelor’s degree in disaster management I can apply for a variety of jobs in the agency.
References
Federal Emergency management Agency. (2014). National Incident Management System. Retrieved from http://www.fema.gov/national-incident-management-system
Walsh, D. W. (2012). National incident management system: Principles and practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
