Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan

When a disaster impacts our community, we must provide a coordinated and comprehensive response and recovery system. Resources must be determined and prioritized, response elements must be identified and dispatched, and reports and records must be maintained in an organized fashion. It is essential that each municipality furnishes a plan that provides a framework for a community-wide system to ensure a coordinated response to emergencies and coordinated support of certain pre-planned events.

To guide planning and response activities, and to ensure effective and efficient coordination, the plan defines the scope of preparedness and emergency management actions in the community and facilitates all hazard preparedness, mitigation, response, and short-term recovery activities, thereby setting the stage for a successful long-term recovery.

The plan is based on the Federal Response Plan FRP, the National Response Framework NRF, and the National Preparedness Goal, and is compliant with the National Incident Management System NIMS, Incident Command System ICS, and the Comprehensive Preparedness Guide CPG. The plan conforms to the terms and conditions of state and federal laws and regulations and is compatible with state-level emergency management planning criteria. The plan is designed to continually evolve by responding to lessons learned from actual disasters and emergency experiences, ongoing planning efforts, training and exercise activities, and updated state and federal guidance.

A central function of the plan is to prescribe activities to be taken by the Chief Municipal Official as well as other government and community officials to protect the lives and property of the citizens of the community and to satisfy the requirement that the community has an effective and operational emergency management plan overall. Generally, the plan describes the community’s emergency management organization, including the roles and responsibilities of municipal departments, identifies local agencies and partner organizations that provide command and coordination capabilities, and describes how command and response components are organized and managed during a disaster, major emergency, or planned event.

The plan guides all departments and agencies in the community and details the general roles and responsibilities of local departments and partnering stakeholders before, during, and following an emergency or event. The plan also provides for the systematic integration of additional emergency resources but does not replace other federal, state, or national emergency operations plans or procedures. It identifies lines of authority and organizational relationships for the management of emergency response actions, describes how people and property are protected in an emergency or disaster, and identifies legal authority.

While the plan can help to establish the relationships, responsibilities, and general guidelines for municipal departments during an emergency, it does not replace the responsibility each department has in developing its own emergency protocols and testing its own plans. The plan is not intended to limit or restrict the initiative, judgment, or independent action required to provide appropriate and effective emergency response, disaster mitigation activities, preparedness, and recovery efforts.

Overall, the plan describes the relationship between the community and local, regional, state, and federal emergency response structures, and:

• Formulates policies designated to protect life and property during incidents affecting or threatening life or property within the community.
• Provides guidance for strategic thinking and decision-making as it relates to emergency operations.
• Assigns department or agency roles and responsibilities to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from incidents threatening life or property within the community.
• Officially establishes NIMS and ICS as the organizational structure to guide activities during an emergency affecting the community, and
• Identifies lines of authority and community policy related to emergencies and disasters.

Effectively, the CEMP is only one aspect of a prepared and resilient community. All appointed and elected community officials, departments, volunteers, and partner agencies should become familiar with the plan to ensure the efficient and effective execution of their responsibilities.

Holland activates its CEMP when the community must respond to an emergency that requires multi-agency coordination within the community, and/or may require support from other local, state, and federal entities. In addition, Holland may activate the plan to coordinate multi-agency and/or multi-jurisdictional support of a pre-planned event. The Holland CEMP does not supersede any departmental standard operating procedure SOP or responsibility for day-to-day operations. The plan supplements but does not supplant the responsibilities or duties of any department or agency.

When activated, the CEMP is intended to accomplish the following goals:

• Identify and assign responsibilities to the involved agencies, organizations, partnering stakeholders, and other individuals for carrying out specific actions.
• Identify lines of authority and coordination for the management of the situation.
• Detail the methods and procedures to be used by designated personnel to assess the situation and take appropriate actions to save lives and reduce injuries, prevent or minimize damage to public and private property, and protect the environment.