During stable conditions and non-disaster operations, individuals in the emergency management community must focus their efforts on finding ways to keep communities safe and secure. Doing so requires a commitment from emergency managers and local leaders to increase emergency preparedness and community resiliency. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Holderness, New Hampshire’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) by evaluating its components, strengths and weaknesses, and offering recommendations for improvement.
Background
With assistance from a grant funded through New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the EOP is a critical part of the governor’s initiative to protect citizens and critical infrastructure (Garneau, 2013). …show more content…
A strength found in the EOP is that it conveniently provides a categorized and alphabetical resource phone lists, organizational charts, an alert roster, and critical resource inventory charts. Secondly, it included a map of the town’s evacuation routes, geographic and jurisdictional boundaries and features, and locations of key facilities. The plan also provides various forms for responders and citizens to use, so that they fill out unrecognized or out of date forms. Another strength the EOP has is that it uses a team approach by including various groups that are actively involved in protecting the welfare of the citizens, and have a role in emergency and disaster response …show more content…
While it is almost impossible to guarantee specific disasters will never occur, careful planning will better enable Holderness to mitigate their destructive effects and respond to unsuspected disruptions appropriately, effectively, and expeditiously. Furthermore, a well thought out and implemented emergency operations plan can significantly assist in sustaining operations. A plan will develop and become stronger overtime when a jurisdiction incorporates lessons learned from previous disasters, and changes its plan with the changing
Background
With assistance from a grant funded through New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the EOP is a critical part of the governor’s initiative to protect citizens and critical infrastructure (Garneau, 2013). …show more content…
A strength found in the EOP is that it conveniently provides a categorized and alphabetical resource phone lists, organizational charts, an alert roster, and critical resource inventory charts. Secondly, it included a map of the town’s evacuation routes, geographic and jurisdictional boundaries and features, and locations of key facilities. The plan also provides various forms for responders and citizens to use, so that they fill out unrecognized or out of date forms. Another strength the EOP has is that it uses a team approach by including various groups that are actively involved in protecting the welfare of the citizens, and have a role in emergency and disaster response …show more content…
While it is almost impossible to guarantee specific disasters will never occur, careful planning will better enable Holderness to mitigate their destructive effects and respond to unsuspected disruptions appropriately, effectively, and expeditiously. Furthermore, a well thought out and implemented emergency operations plan can significantly assist in sustaining operations. A plan will develop and become stronger overtime when a jurisdiction incorporates lessons learned from previous disasters, and changes its plan with the changing