Cincinnati and Hamilton County Emergency Response Plan, Research Paper Example

Introduction

This paper compares the main features of the Emergency Response Plans (ERP) for both the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County in Ohio.

City of Cincinnati ERP

The City of Cincinnati has identified a wide range of circumstances that would define an emergency. This includes such items as Fire, Flooding, Landslides, Acts of Terrorism, Tornado’s etc. The ERP plan covers how the Emergency Services (Fire, Police and Ambulance) would respond in the event of an emergency declaration. In addition, it defines comprehensive guidelines for how citizens should prepare for such events. At the individual level, citizens are advised to construct a personal preparedness plan that includes such items as: (1) The selection of a responsible person to take charge of the family or group of people (2) Adequate provision of emergency supplies, as in accordance with specific individual needs (3) Emergency contact information (4) Resources available for use in an emergency situation ( 4) Outline plan of how actions will be co-ordinated.

The City website also provides important links to where additional information can be found. This includes links to that of FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security. In fact, the bulk of the detailed information is derived from the knowledge base contained on the FEMA website.  The ERP also covers guidelines for the procurement of suitable insurance coverage protection plans, in particular that of flooding which is deemed to be a high risk in this area. (The City of Cincinnati, 2011)

The main criticism of the City website is that it relies heavily upon the advice and information provided by FEMA. This questions whether the City has sufficient resources, knowledge and planning to deal with a serious Emergency situation.  This is not made transparent or clear from the main City website.  As witnessed with the disaster in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina the City was slow to respond and the National Guard and other resources were slow in responding to the emergency situation.  ERP’s should also be frequently tested to ensure that the stand-by emergency plans are reasonably adequate to meet emergency needs.  There is no evidence that the City conducts or carries out such exercises.

Hamilton County ERP

By contrast Hamilton County put forward, a 198 page document (ERP) made available in PDF format on their website. (County, 2010). This plan seems to be extremely well thought out and is strategic by nature.  It is updated on an annual basis and has both version control and change management built into the plan.  It has comprehensive coverage of a range of different disaster scenarios and fully incorporates a co-ordinated approach of the Emergency Services, State Resources and Federal Resources. The document clearly demonstrates a great deal of thought process in the integration of these needs and demonstrates a level of centralised control and co-ordination in the event of a disaster.  The document covers the legal aspects of having all of the required heads of emergency services signing up and supporting the ERP.  This document is made very transparent on the Hamilton County Website and is both easy to read and understand.

The different disaster scenarios have been clearly demonstrated and these supported with appropriate levels of mitigation actions.  There are adequate committees and Incident Management response teams to deal with the emergency.  Most important is the fact that they have not just dealt with the Disaster Recovery Component of a disaster but also examined the business continuity aspects in terms of both Government / Local Authority support and how private enterprises should respond in seeking both help and support.

The County focuses upon the major known threat, which is that of flooding posed by the White River that flows through the County.  This has posed a significant threat in the past with a history of emergency situations.   The ERP has been strengthened in the area of Flood Disaster and there is a specific component that deals with this threat in Hamilton County.   Another nice feature of the Hamilton County web site is that they offer the information in a number of different languages, as indicated by small flag icons on the site.  Adobe Acrobat is a free downloadable reader that means anyone can download the ERP PDF file and incorporate this into their own ERP planning document.

The ERP paper also makes reference to the conformity of   its ERP with the quality found in the Indiana State ERP.  A somewhat odd reference given that Hamilton is in Ohio and it makes fewer references to the Ohio State ERP.  Again, this questions whether they consider the Cincinnati and Ohio State ERP’s are adequate or fit for purpose. You are left to read between the lines.

The ERP plan from Hamilton County is extremely well structured in terms of presentation and layout (Fig 1 refers).

Essentially, they have created a Basic Plan that is subdivided into three main copmponents – (1) Emergency Support Functions (2) Hazard specific annexes (3) Reference Annexes.

Conclusions

The City of Cincinnati would derive a great deal of benefit from seeing the professional way in which Hamilton County have set out their approach to Emergency Response Planning. It would be possible to emulate this approach and take more control of their own plan without placing heavy reliance upon FEMA and Federal resources.  Equally, the public derive more comfort from seeing a well set out plan for such potential circumstances.

Works Cited

County, H. (2010). Hamilton County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. Hamilton, OH: Hamilton County.

The City of Cincinnati. (2011). The City of Cincinnati Emergency preparedness. Retrieved 8 9, 2011, from The City of Cincinnati : http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cityfire/pages/-16164-/