This paper presents a critical incident manual for emergency and public service agencies in the State of Alaska, including police, fire, and emergency medical teams. It addresses the unique geographic challenges Alaska poses for disaster response and outlines the essential components of contingency planning, personnel identification, and scenario-based training. The manual details Incident Command System (ICS) roles and responsibilities, the role of the Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) program, and funding mechanisms available through the Department of Homeland Security. It serves as a practical reference for small and remote Alaskan communities preparing for both natural and manmade disasters.
The paper demonstrates effective use of policy synthesis: the author draws on federal guidelines, state agency documents, and academic research to construct a unified, operationally coherent manual. Rather than simply summarizing sources, the paper weaves them into a logical sequence — from the rationale for planning, to personnel assignment, to training — showing how multiple levels of government and scholarship converge on best practices for first response.
The manual opens with an introduction establishing scope and audience, then builds an argument for contingency planning using geographic and policy context. It moves into personnel identification with supporting tables (ICS roles, training components), and closes with scenario-based training recommendations. This problem–framework–implementation structure mirrors real-world emergency operations planning documents, making it both academically sound and professionally applicable.
This critical incident manual contains information that will be valuable for all emergency and public service agencies in the State of Alaska, such as police, fire, emergency medical teams, and others tasked with first response to natural and manmade disasters. The manual contains the relevant components of operations, planning, administration, and logistics with a view to providing first responders with the general information they need for rapid activation and deployment.
Every disaster is unique, but there are steps emergency first responders can take to ensure their own safety while maximizing the effectiveness of their response. In this regard, Katoch (2006) emphasizes that, "Although disaster response is inherently chaotic, tried and tested international tools and procedures do exist to assist a disaster-affected government and its people to handle the situation" (p. 153). Because of the enormous geographic size of the State of Alaska, it is vitally important for all emergency and public service agencies responsible for emergency first responses to implement a command response structure that provides guidelines which can be followed as the situation demands.
Despite efforts on the part of the federal and state governments in recent years, delivering assistance to remote areas of Alaska may require a significant amount of time. As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security points out, "Planning for emergencies ensures that emergency services, local authorities, and other organizations better communicate and coordinate efforts, improving disaster response and post-disaster recovery" (Alaska emergency planning, 2013, para. 1). Irrespective of the source and type of disaster, the primary goal for emergency first responders remains the same: "Federal, state, and local requirements are concerned with providing safety and security for the public under threat of a full spectrum of potential disasters" (Alaska emergency planning, 2013, para. 2). Therefore, identifying the specific personnel and positions for each function becomes a critical first step.
The State of Alaska is enormous — bigger than many countries — and this means that local community leaders need to assume responsibility for identifying specific personnel or positions for each emergency response function. This point is made by the Alaska Division of Homeland Security, which reports, "The successful management of a disaster begins at the local level. When a community is prepared to deal with a disaster the impact can be minimized and lives may be saved" (Small community emergency response plan, 2013). The flip chart depicted in Appendix A can be distributed to each responsible first responder to help coordinate emergency responses.
Besides identifying specific personnel or positions for each emergency response function, it is important to develop a community emergency plan that outlines how the community will manage disasters (Small community emergency response plan, 2013). Even though every community differs, the essential elements of the community emergency plan should include local, regional, and state resources that support local response (Small community emergency response plan, 2013). Moreover, a wide range of financial incentives are available pursuant to the Patriot Act that make prior disaster planning possible, and per capita, Alaska receives the second highest amount of disaster planning funding — Wyoming ranks first (Sokolsky, 2004).
One of the most important sources of funding for Alaskan first responder needs has been the Department of Homeland Security's science and technology allocations for the following purposes:
To facilitate the distribution and utilization of these funds, the Department of Homeland Security formed the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), which has been central in adapting these requirements to localized needs (Fein, 2003).
Despite this high level of funding and Homeland Security priorities, the scope of disaster planning involved in the unique case of Alaska makes the assignment of individuals who will be first to respond to anthropogenic and natural disasters — and what positions they will fill — all the more important. With respect to the specific personnel or positions needed for each function, Latourrette, Peterson, Bartis, Jackson, and Houser (2008) advise that, "The term emergency responders refers to those personnel within the community that deploy to emergency incidents" (p. 7). Emergency responder organizations and specialties include the following:
In some or even many cases, emergency responders will serve in more than one capacity or provide other specialty services (Latourrette et al., 2008). According to the State of Alaska Division of Homeland Security, "The Small Community Emergency Response Plan assumes that community leaders and residents understand their community better than anyone outside the community" (Small community emergency plan toolkit, 2013).
At a minimum, the community response plan should define the roles and responsibilities for different types of disasters before they occur (Small community emergency plan toolkit, 2013). According to the guidelines provided by the federal government, "The most critical decision is who will lead. Some communities may have their mayor or chief be an incident commander, while others may look to one of their first responders or someone who naturally takes charge" (Small community emergency plan toolkit, p. 3). The following specific roles and their respective responsibilities, which small communities in Alaska have used most frequently, are set forth in Table 1 below.
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