EMC106 - Who's in Charge? - 2/4

A textbook example of the latter approach to real emergency management is the 1989 airline emergency landing in Iowa. If you have seen the movie and other training videos based on this incident, there is no doubt that there was one person in charge. Coordinating? 

Of course, but with clearly defined authority and responsibilities. Such a person speaks and acts on behalf of the chief executive of the jurisdiction.

Based on this brief and simplified description of emergency management, you can determine where your community stands. It is up to you to function as effectively as you can within the reality of your organizational structure and political facts of life.

2. PROCEDURES. People cannot function effectively without procedures. Any good procedure should be written. Remember the adage: "If it's worth doing right, it's worth writing it down." Some people can duck responsibility when there are no written procedures.

   There is an art to writing procedures so that they are clear, concise, and correct. An overly detailed procedure can be restrictive and unresponsive. Never be reluctant to use and modify the existing procedures of others to fit your situation. Why reinvent the wheel? Don't waste money on consultants who can't give you a product based on the real world or are experienced in being where the "rubber meets the pavement".

   Some emergency managers cannot craft good procedures -- it's an art. But surely someone on staff can do it. Maybe that's you. Then, as a last resort, there is the outside consultant. The consultant is preferably one who is or was employed in the same or allied Public Safety field within the past five years.

   Sometimes procedures are prepared by people who have little or no experience in that field of expertise. The departments and people who are charged with executing emergency operations know that and tend to relegate unrealistic and unworkable plans and procedures to the circular file.

   At one time it was the standard practice to employ retired flag rank military officers to head up civil defense agencies. By and large they have been replaced by people with strong command, control, and administrative skills. If the emergency management official has any authority, this requirement is a virtual "must."

(Continues next week)