Local Preparation and Response Aspect to a Potential Terrorist Event or Natural Disaster Monroe County

Local Preparation and Response Aspect to a Potential Terrorist Event or Natural Disaster

Monroe County

The relevance of having in place clearly defined strategies and plans to guarantee the safe and efficient evacuation of people during catastrophic events cannot be overstated. This could be demonstrated by having a close look at the response of Federal, State, and local agencies during past events, i.e. Hurricane Katrina. This text highlights Monroe County's logistical preparation and response aspect with regard to a potential natural disaster of the same scale as Hurricane Katrina. Of key importance in a discussion of this nature is the framework in place to ensure efficient evacuations.

An evacuation, according to the National Response Plan - NRP, "is an organized, phased, and supervised withdrawal, dispersal, or removal of civilians from dangerous or potentially dangerous areas" (Federal Highway Administration/U.S. Department of Transportation - FHWA/DOT, 2014). In essence, as the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the National Response Plan (NRP) observe, local and state governments constitute of the very first line of reaction with regard to evacuation and sheltering during evacuations (FHWA/DOT, 2014). This is particularly the case given that they have in place various arms and agencies dedicated to emergency response.

A natural disaster of the scale of Hurricane Katrina would require a multiagency response. Evacuation efforts would, therefore, assume a Federal, State, and local dimension, with each coordination entity playing a specific role, in sync with the other entities. At the state and local level, the U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration (2014) identifies the responsible state emergency management agency as a key coordination entity at the local and state level. In Monroe County, we have the Office of Emergency Management. Ideally, such an agency should see to it that all plans are not only well coordinated but also in sync with the relevant emergency management activities at the regional, tribal, and local levels. Monroe County's emergency management plan does not detail how it would coordinate evacuation efforts to ensure that such efforts aid or are supportive of a multiagency approach to disaster management. This is a weakness that could get in the way of evacuation efforts.