About a year ago, FEMA distributed a draft revision of Community Preparedness Guide 101: Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans (CPG 101). Since then we hadn’t heard much about the update progress, until yesterday. This latest draft, including in formation on how you can provide feedback, can be found here. This latest draft incorporates some … Continue reading A New CPG 101 Draft
I know I’m a big nerd when it comes to this stuff, but I was really excited to receive the notice from FEMA that the new Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101: Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans has been published! This has been a long time coming. This update (version 3) replaces the previous version … Continue reading A New CPG – 101 for Emergency Planning (v 3)
FEMA has recently announced an upcoming update to CPG-101. CPG-101 is short hand for the “Community Preparedness Guide 101: Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans” document. CPG 101 is a legacy document, which through its own versions and previous iterations has for decades has served as the standard guidance for emergency operations planning in the … Continue reading A New CPG-101 is Coming
Mutual aid is a great resource. We get help from our neighbors, or even those beyond our neighbors, providing additional numbers, capabilities, or support to aid our response to incidents and disasters. Mutual aid is mentioned in practically every emergency operations plan I’ve read, yet it’s clearly taken for granted. Most jurisdictions simply don’t have … Continue reading Mutual Aid Preparedness
Some recent social media discussion on EOC management systems has prompted far too many thoughts for me to write in small character quantities… I’ve been fortunate to have been involved in prospecting several systems for EOC management and other workflow management needs, along with obviously having used a multitude of these systems in EOCs and … Continue reading EOC Management Platforms
Through the years I’ve had numerous conversations with states, cities, and others about organizing their emergency operations plans (EOPs) around Emergency Support Functions (ESFs). In every conversation I’ve suggested against the use of ESFs. Why? Let’s start with definitions. One definition of ESFs provided by FEMA states that ESFs ‘describe federal coordinating structures that group … Continue reading ESFs Aren’t for Everyone
I recently read an interesting piece in Psychology Today by Dr. Christopher Dwyer titled ‘How Experience Can Hinder Critical Thinking’. Do check it out. There is application to pretty much everything, but of course I tend to think of things in the context of emergency management. The article starts with the age long argument of … Continue reading Experience Bias
Are you prepared to deal with an incident within your incident? Have a proper contingency plan in place to support life safety and operational continuity
New administrations get to identify their priorities for various areas of focus… this can be both good and bad. It’s not a simple thing. New priorities should embrace progress, while ensuring that certain existing priorities, programs, and projects remain. Yes, some existing programs may deserve to be scrubbed, but far too often we see administrations … Continue reading Six Emergency Management Priorities for the Next Administration
On Labor Day, NYS Governor Cuomo signed a bill requiring public employers to develop a very specific emergency plan for future public health emergencies. This may include a continuation of the Coronavirus pandemic, or another emergency. Some details and guidance below… WHO The requirement applies to public employers, including: State, county, and local governments Public … Continue reading A NEW NYS Public Employer Emergency Planning Requirement
The Contrarian Emergency Manager 