Emergency Management System (NIMS)

In the United States, a community’s emergency management system is expected to implement adequate security measures to effectively protect the public from natural disasters and resolve terrorist attacks. As such, the Incident Command System (ICS) creates a uniform methodology and principles in response to on-scene emergencies managed by the public and private sector for single or multiple incidents. In addition, the National Incident Management System (NIMS) model expands the concept at a countrywide level to include interoperability between Federal, State, local, and tribal authorities; the preparation, response, recovery by private sector and nongovernmental organizations; and consistent terminology, training, and reporting requirements for

During the preparation phase; however, the most critical element is planning and the formation of a collaborative planning team. In furtherance of this concept, the ideal purpose of this team is to prevent a terrorist attack from occurring or protect the public from the impacts of disaster. Besides homeland security officials and emergency managers, representatives of the planning team also include community and business affiliates, as well as church based organizations. In addition, planning teams will identify local resources with expertise in Weapons of Mass Destruction events to support community preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery efforts. This holistic approach provides additional resource to combat risk associated with terrorism and distributes responsibilities equitably across the public and private branches of the

As such, understanding the situation with respect to identifying potential targets and assessing risks is the most relevant characteristic for this stage of disaster cycle. To highlight the importance of the process, implementation of emergency operational plans by emergency management officials is dependent on the risk assessment. (FEMA, Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans, 2010) Evaluation of information includes analysis of threat assessment and probability, historical data, and demographic