Search Results for: incident evaluation

NIMS Alert: NQS Qualifications and Task Books for Recovery, Mitigation, and Incident Evaluation

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 1 Comment

The National Integration Center (NIC) has been busy with developing more National Qualification System (NQS) tools for incident management.  Here are the titles for the latest release open to public comment: Damage Assessment Coordinator HM Community Education and Outreach Specialist HM Community Planner Specialist HM Engineering and Architect Specialist HM Floodplain Management Specialist EHP Environmental … Continue reading NIMS Alert: NQS Qualifications and Task Books for Recovery, Mitigation, and Incident Evaluation →

Incident Evaluation

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 4 Comments

I’ve written at length about the importance of quality evaluation of exercises.  Essentially, if we don’t evaluate exercises, and do it well, the benefits of the exercises are quite limited.  Generally, we don’t see a benefit to incidents.  By their very nature, incidents threaten and impact life, property, and environment – things we don’t view … Continue reading Incident Evaluation →

Preparing to Use the Incident Command System

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 4 Comments

For a bit of context, if you haven’t already read them, please take a look at these other ICS related articles I’ve posted: Incident Command System Training Sucks ICS Training Sucks… So Let’s Fix It Preparedness – ICS is Not Enough The crusade to improve ICS training and implementation continues… We invest a lot of … Continue reading Preparing to Use the Incident Command System →

Preparing for Disaster Deployments

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 1 Comment

I wrote last year about my trepidation over Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) being considered as a deployable resource. The problem is that even most professionally trained emergency personnel aren’t prepared for deployment. We need to do better. One of the key aspects of a disaster is that it overwhelms local resources. This often requires … Continue reading Preparing for Disaster Deployments →

FEMA’s First Lessons Learned From COVID-19

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 1 Comment

FEMA recently released the Pandemic Response to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Initial Assessment Report (January – September 2020). The report has many elements of a traditional after-action report. The authors reinforce that the report only evaluates FEMA’s response, not those of other agencies or entities. That said, emergency management, by nature is collaborative and FEMA’s … Continue reading FEMA’s First Lessons Learned From COVID-19 →

EOC Skillsets and Position Task Books Finalized

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager Leave a comment

Back in April, FEMA released the drafts of EOC skillset documents and position task books for public comment.  A few days ago, the final versions of these documents were released on FEMA’s National Qualification System (NQS) website: https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/nims/components#nqs While the hub of emergency response is the incident command post, the hub of emergency coordination is … Continue reading EOC Skillsets and Position Task Books Finalized →