Emergency Preparedness Drill

Emergency Preparedness Drill. Floods are the natural phenomena that result in catastrophic effects such as loss of property, displacement, injury, and to excellent extent death. Across the world, more so in the United States of America, floods are frequent and most catastrophic whenever they occur. Some of the leading causes of floods involve the rivers raising above the normal level, accumulated rain and some cases the failure of the dams. Due to the severe catastrophic effects of the floods, it is essential that appropriate measures put in place to handle the situation whenever the floods occur. The effectiveness of the measures ranges right from the initial response, the incident management, resource demobilization, restoration, and recovery. This essay examines these measures in detail and relates to their usage in the flood incident in the city of Mertzville. The essay thoroughly examines the role played by the different stakeholders in charge of the emergencies issues both from the public and private agencies.
Keywords: mitigation, recovery, management, floods, resources, equipment, agencies, etc.
Introduction
Across the world, floods are common and catastrophic mainly caused by the rivers raising above the average level, accumulated rain and some cases the failure of the dams. Due to their serious catastrophic effects, measures need to be put in place to hand the floods whenever they occur. The essay examines these measures ranging from the initial response immediately the floods occur to save lives and protect property, to incident management, restoration, and recovery.

Therefore, the effectiveness and efficiency of these measures is the primary determinant factor of the success of the whole emergency operation plan.
Initial response
The operations plan gives a clear framework on what response should be taken to manage an emergency incident such as the flood with the aim of saving a life; protect the infrastructure, property and the environment (Penning-Rowsell and Theresa 105). Therefore, the initial response will include calling upon the police from the nearby stations to aid as we continue to keep the federal and local emergency agencies informed of the situation. The reason for keeping these group informed is to help in the searching, rescue mission and the evacuation of the affected people, property and any other valuables.
The firefighters will be called upon in case of any fire outbreak as well as the ambulance services to help in giving first aid to victims. This will as well involve the procurement of the equipment for safety including the life jackets that can help the drowning victims swim through water. Since the chemical, food and other dangerous structures are affected by the flood, medical equipment and substances will be supplied to help to curb pneumonia, snake bites, and diarrhea. The methods for fighting floods will be implemented including the sandbagging as well as the building of the earthen dikes to allow easy flow of water. The city departments of Fisheries and in charge of Oceans need as well to be informed to take up the activities in response to flooding (Penning-Rowsell and Theresa 113). The general public will be informed of the safety mission to take personal precaution.
Incident management
Upon the occurrence of the incident, many will respond including public and private emergency services. The family members, the friends, and even the media will be concerned and want to inquire about the whole situation. Managing all these activities and required resources will be possible with the help of the Incident Management System which combines all activities, equipment, and facilities. The Incident Command System designed to manage the regular operations disruptions are included in the Incident Management System Jensen, (Jessica and Steven 160).
The command staff will be assigned with the duty of reporting to the Incident Commander. In a large-scale emergency incident like the floods occurrence at the City of Mertzville, all the command staffs will be tasked to offer the support. The command staff will include liaison officer together with public information officer, and the safety officer (Jessica and Steven 179). The incident commander will lead the rest in the Incident Command System. After reaching at the flood area within the City of Mertzville, the Incident Commander will have to maintain the command the way it is and approve the Action plan as well the request to order and supply the resources needed for the incident. The safety officer will take charge of the safety matters of the flood occurrence, as public information officer gives out information to media and public, and then the liaison officer will contact other agencies both public and private.
ICS Org. Chart
59309077216000125603039116000Incident commander
3981450577850039782755778500
Safety officer
Liaison officer
Information officer
Operations
planning
Logistics
Administration
39782758826500
1935480192405003574415228600004629151924050052368452286000046291519240500
Demobilization of resources
After the flood incident has passed, the demobilization of the resources will follow which will involve returning of the funds used in the episode where they were before in an orderly, effective and efficient manner. The demobilization unit will be in charge of demobilizing the resources and equipment used upon getting approval from the incident commander. The demobilization will start immediately the accountability of the resources will be needed, but the authority will have to come from the incident commander. After that, the whole task of demobilizing will have to be coordinated by the coordination system of multiagency and the incident command system will be there to give the priority of the needs of essential resources and any further action including the reassignment.
Relocation of the resources will involve returning them to the owning agencies; any equipment was taken from the rental businesses will be returned as all the financial records taken to the commercial department. On the other hand, the documentation that might have been involved in the incident including the funds procured equipment and hired equipment all will be taken to the chief of finance.
Restoration
The restoration process will continue upon realizing calmness. The incident commander will closely work with the officials of the city of Mertzville by assigning them the rescue unit to help ensure the complete accountability of all those affected. It will be again the duty of the incident commander to ensure that all the personnel involved in the emergency incident as responders are available and that everyone is accounted for. An evaluation of the damage caused to the structures and building will be carried out by the hazmat crew including identifying any material hazard of structures that are harmful and completely clean up before it causes any harm (Broz 1498). Those businesses which had electric power before the incident, power will be restored, and generators will facilitate any other area critical to the social economy of Wentzville that has not yet been restored with power. The whole restoration responsibility will be taken up by all the stakeholders who will see help to those affected and unable to go back to their original life get help locally and from federal agencies.
Recovery approach
The North River flood has affected the lives of many people; it is necessary that the situation is well understood and necessary steps taking to handle the after- incident situation to bring normalcy (Dukic 400). First, the whole process of recovery will involve creating awareness among the residents of the city of Mertzville about what has happened and the likelihood of any worst scenario occurring in future. In approaching this final but important step of the whole emergency management plan, the public information officer will be very critical in getting the information to the public. The informational will do this through either the following ways or all of them. He/she will have to give a public informational statement considering all that had happened and all the records kept concerning the same. The public will then become aware of the real situation and the efforts put in place to bring it to easy control.
The implementation of the medical plan serves as a critical recovery approach especially to the victims who were directly or indirectly affected by the flood. The approach takes the attention of both the local and federal assistance to carter for the medical bills of those injured through the flood instance to resume healthy life after the incident (Dukic 404). Other approaches may take the position of the evacuation plan including returning the affected to the native location or find them a better place that will take their memories away. Then the mitigation plan will involve putting measures in play to avoid a repeat or prevent any future loss. The mitigation can take the position of training the employees working in different companies and other capable citizens on how to take safety measures in any future disaster. They are also trained on the efficient and effective use of equipment and resources. Then finally, the use of social media and other informational dissemination forums will be a boost to the whole process of recovery.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I can say that all the measures put in place right from the initial response which involved a mixture of activities to save and protect lives and properties to the very last recovery were sufficient. The critical incident management systems like the Incident Command system were utilized efficiently. After the incident, the demobilization, restoration, and recovery were well implemented to give the emergency call the meaning it deserved.

Works Cited
Broz, Dita, et al. “Lessons Learned from Chicago’s Emergency Response to Mass Evacuations Caused by Hurricane Katrina.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 99, no. 8, Aug. 2009, pp. 1496-1504.
Dukic Mijatovic, m., et al. “Flood Risk Management Analysis for Reducing Harmful Effects on Human Health, Environment, Cultural Heritage and Economic Activity in the Republic of Serbia.” Oxidation Communications, vol. 39, no. 1-I, 15 Mar. 2016, pp. 399-410.
Jensen, Jessica, and Steven Thompson. “The Incident Command System: A Literature Review.” Disasters, vol. 40, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 158-182. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/disa.12135.
Penning-Rowsell, Edmund, and Theresa Wilson. “Gauging the Impact of Natural Hazards: The Pattern and Cost of Emergency Response during Flood Events.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 31, no. 2, June 2006, pp. 99-115. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1475-5661.2006.00200.x.