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ORGANIZING FOR EMERGENCY
RESPONSE
- This review makes it clear that the Village’s
commitment to NIMS training was important in meeting the challenges of the
March 13/14 storm. The National Incident Management System was developed in
response to the 9/11 attacks; it sets out standardized procedures for
managing personnel, communications, facilities and resources. Given the
effectiveness of the NIMS model in practice, we need to reinforce our NIMS
training and to optimize the advantages that NIMS doctrine provides to the
emergency response team.
Goals for Village
Administration:
- All Village managers will complete appropriate
NIMS training and obtain certification by September 1.
- The Village Emergency Management Plan will be
reviewed and updated so that all managers can capitalize on the NIMS
doctrine. The revised Emergency Management Plan must prepare the
Village and individual households to deal with a widespread power outage
of five to seven days. The 2010 Emergency Management Plan should be
completed by September 1.
- Following NIMS doctrine, the Village will remain
in close communication with the Nassau County Office of Emergency
Management, and will monitor weather conditions. The Police Department
will continue to devote the closest attention to any indications of
terrorist activity in the metropolitan area.
- In the event that a crisis warrants declaration of
an emergency the first step in the process will be initiation of the
Emergency Operations Center in the Mayor’s Office on the second floor of
Village Hall. Should it become necessary to declare an Emergency under
NIMS doctrine, the Mayor will formally designate a specific Incident
Commander to have hands on responsibility for the emergency response.
The appointment of that person will depend on the nature of the
emergency.
- The Recreation Center is a potential shelter for
those who become homeless in an emergency. Therefore, it is desirable to
obtain a generator to provide electricity to the Rec Center. The
Emergency Management Officer will investigate the best methods to obtain
a generator for Village Hall, to allow communications to continue
through a severe outage.
- A positive lesson from the storm lies in the value
of mutual aid agreements. In preparation for future emergencies the
Village department heads will assure that mutual aid plans or memoranda
of understanding with other municipalities, utilities and outside
vendors are in place.
Communications
- The central lesson of March 13/14 is the critical
importance of communications, to obtain information from residents, to share
it with the emergency response team and to keep the public informed. Some
residents stated that on March 13 they were unable to make contact with the
Power Plant because the number they called --- 766-5800 ---was constantly
busy. Residents then called the Police Department which became inundated
with telephone calls. Power Plant staff was actively responding to the
unprecedented 800 household outage, but the existence of the single phone
line to report emergencies was a vulnerability that will be corrected.
Goals for Village
Administration
- Village staff will meet with Verizon
representatives to investigate the best methods of improving Power Plant
communications. The immediate goal will be to install additional
telephone lines, so that multiple residents can make reports to the
Power Plant simultaneously.
- The long range goal is to establish an emergency
call center, if not in the Power Plant, elsewhere in the Village. The
ability to receive multiple telephone calls simultaneously is important
because the Electric Department does not have the technology to identify
every outage
- Village staff will also investigate the use of a
separate telephone line to enable residents to obtain updated status
messages similar to those posted on the web.
- Village staff will research methods of setting up
voice messaging service to enable callers to leave messages in the event
that it is not possible to make contact during periods of very high
volume telephone activity.
- In keeping with the NIMS model, the 2010 plan will
affirm the integral role of the Public Information Officer in
emergency management, with the goal of providing sound facts to help residents
reach informed decisions, and to rule out rumor and speculation.
- The Emergency Management Officer will also
investigate the possibility of establishing a Village emergency radio
frequency that will enable residents to hear radio broadcasts from the
Village when an emergency occurs.
- The Village will develop a separate page on the
Village website to specifically advise residents of how they can best
prepare to meet emergencies. We will also publish periodic emergency
preparedness bulletins as part of This Month in Rockville Centre.
COMMUNITY RESPONSE IN
EMERGENCIES
Goals for Village Residents:
- One sobering conclusion drawn as a result of the storm
is the need for emergency preparedness education and for residents to act
upon this information to prepare themselves and their families to meet
conditions that can occur in a disaster.
- Residents need to be aware that preparedness is a
shared responsibility.
- Residents will be informed of the option to
provide their cell phone numbers to the Village website, so that those
numbers can be incorporated in the Swift 911 system.
- Residents will be encouraged to access the Village
website and follow the link to the Swift 911 website to register their
telephones, including their cell phones, so that we can send telephone
messages and text messages to the numbers that residents provide. We
will also encourage residents to provide their e-mail addresses so that
we can send notifications to residents by e-mail.
- Residents will be informed and encouraged to
prepare to independently provide for their household needs
for a minimum of 3 (three) days as per the recommendations of the Nassau
County Office of Emergency Management.
- The Village Board of Trustees will continue to
encourage residents to be prepared for emergencies and to train as
Community Emergency Response Team volunteers through Nassau County’s
Office of Emergency Management.
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