Basic Premises Advocated by the Committee Include:
1. An event in this regional area involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
will affect the political, social and economic conditions of the entire region.
2. Response to a WMD event in the region will require the resources of every
level of government, most of the area's health care institutions, much of the
business community and many of the area's human services agencies.
3. Due to the multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary nature of response
to a WMD event, the use of the incident management system, particularly the
use of unified command, is imperative.
4. Preparedness for, response to and recovery from a WMD event in the region
should be based on a comprehensive, coordinated regional strategy.
5. Funding and resources obtained by area jurisdictions and/or agencies should
be invested to enhance the comprehensive regional approach to homeland security.
6. Local government agencies, working together from throughout the region,
should recognize the importance of increasing their mutual capabilities to
ensure the safety of residents and their property. Local and regional emergency
planning, response and mitigation efforts must be strengthened to prevent the
loss of life, to minimize any damage to property and to restore community business
activity if an event should occur.
First Responder Preparedness/Homeland Security Plan
1. Emergency Management Plans - The majority of communities in the region
either has a plan or is included in a county plan. Not all of the plans are
up to date nor include a terrorism annex. For the purposes of this planning
effort, the region will work with smaller jurisdictions not currently part
of a plan and will assess how to expand existing plans to address terrorism
for all agencies.
2. Mutual Aid Agreements (MOUs) - While several communities and various agencies
have these, they take multiple and inconsistent forms and may be confusing
to navigate in a crisis or incident. It is suggested that a template for a
regional agreement be developed taking into consideration what some of our
jurisdictions have already done as well as the statewide mutual aid provisions
passed by the Legislature a few years back. The agreements should include liability
and protocol issues.
3. Communications Interoperability - Two issues were identified with regard
to communications: the ability to distribute information across the region
to emergency response contacts, and the ability of responders to communicate
with each other in the field.
4. Equipment & Training Assessment - A regional assessment team will identify
core capabilities needed for responding to terrorism incidents and assess current
capacities of responders in each county. The goal will be to develop a plan
that ensures all first responders have equipment and training to provide primary
or support response depending on technical training demands, level of staffing,
and overall resources to sustain use of equipment.
*The committee fully endorses federal and state legislation, regulations,
policies and funding strategies that support regional approaches. In this manner,
participating
agencies can benefit from the combined efforts of all involved.