Sample portion of an emergency plan
Emergency planning is a very important part of public health intervention. It relates to keeping citizens safe when disaster occurs or developing a preventative strategy. This document will discuss the necessity of an emergency plan in communities and how they must be emerging from the background of a needs assessment. Fort Drum, New York is the community identified for this research and a sample emergency plan will be developed based on the evaluation of needs for that community.
Public Health: Emergency Planning Sample EOP
Introduction
Developing and maintaining emergency operation plans is a public health responsibility. Therefore, communities ought to always design measures either to prevent or deal with hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires and terrorists’ attacks among the most severe outcomes of nature or man-made destruction (FEMA, 2010). Fort Drum, New York city community is a military base consisting of approximately 12, 595 people on 170, 265 acres of land with a population density of 479.8 per square mile (US Census Bureau, 2012). From search this community seems not to have an effective emergency plan to manage terrorists’ attacks neither address natural disasters. As such, the need for implementation of a plan is obvious.
Two major elements ought to be considered when addressing safety. First, military bases are often attacked by enemy forces. From a military standpoint there may be defenses against these events, which do not impinge on public health policy. However, because of the neighboring populations that can be affected public health emergency policies must be enforced. Next, natural disasters such as flooding and fires ought to be address in effective emergency planning.
Sample portion of an emergency plan – Fort Drum
Purpose
The purpose of an emergency plan according to the comprehensive planning guide (CPG) 101 is formulating a blueprint to follow in cases of emergency produced by disastrous occurrences (FEMA, 2010). Specifically, this planning guide was designed by homeland security for military based communities like Fort Drum. In incorporating a sample plan for Fort Drum, this purpose must create the basis of all underlying deliberations pertaining to the sample emergency plan under review.
In presenting the purpose of this sample plan in relation to Fort Drum and in accordance to CPG 101; safety from man-made disasters is the main objective. Then, protection from day to day mishaps such as home and forest fires as well as flooding are secondary goals to be achieved in developing and maintaining emergency operations at Fort Drum.
Precisely, this plan is expected to have both "generic" and "hazard’ specific components embracing the military base disposition as well as a variety of emergencies and disaster miseries that challenge the activities of daily living in contemporary societies. Most importantly, this sample plan is an alert for policy makers in Fort Drum to identify what is to be done, by whom, when, where and why ( Vermont Emergency Management, 1996).
Scope
The scope of this sample emergency plan for Fort Drum is embedded within the boundaries established by the comprehensive planning guide (CPG) 101 (FEMA, 2010). However, this document was not legislated, but strongly recommended for communities like Fort Drum. It encompasses adopting a plan to be executed in phases. Please see appendix A for further details on the scope
Situation
Fort Drum is the home of the 10th Mountain Division the US Army. This community houses the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigade; 10th Aviation Brigade; 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade; American Red Cross; 20th Air force Aviation Squadron; police and legal services; health care services ( US Census Bureau, 2012).
The mission of this establishment is to command segments of the army squads assigned to the location; offer administrative and logistical support to resident units by training mobilization of almost 80,000 troops assigned to this location annually. Geographically, there is CDP of 25.4 square miles (65.7 km²), 25.3 square miles (65.4 km²) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.2 km²) of it (0.35%) is water (US Census Bureau, 2012).
While the military takes over a greater portion of land in the eastern part of Jefferson’s country there are nearby villages which can be affected should any disaster occur at Fort Drum. These include Philadelphia, Antwerp, Leray and Wilna. Black River is close to this community and flows around Fort Drum (US Census Bureau, 2012)
Assumptions
The assumptions that can be formulated from a public health perspective are Fort Drum has three major disaster potentials. Firstly, being a military base explosives are always in the atmosphere. This could cause a potential danger of pollution which can become an emergency for Fort Drum and the neighboring population. Next is the Black River that runs along the boundaries. This can be a potential danger to, especially, if this territory is below sea level. Thirdly, terrorists’ attacks from war enemies are highly likely.
Conclusion
The foregoing presentation outlined a continuity of operations plan and emergency plan for Fort Drum, adapted from the Comprehensive Planning guideline recommended by Homeland Security Department, United States of America. Conclusions drawn are that due to the military base activity Fort Drum is in potential danger of man-made invasions and the Black Water a flood hazard which must be addressed in an emergency planning form a public health point of view.
