Oxford County
Emergency Management Agency
PO Box 179, 26 Western Avenue
South Paris ME 04281
Ph 207-743-6336 FAX 207-743-7346
oxctyema@megalink.net
Office hours: Monday through Friday 8am-4pm
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What is Emergency Management?In its simplest terms, emergency management may be as simple as a homeowner responding to a broken water pipe and a flooded basement. Depending on the homeowner's abilities and resources, he or she may handle the emergency and restore services to normal without anyone else's help. In so doing, the homeowner has managed the emergency. Routine emergencies are daily situations faced by citizens and local emergency services personnel. For example, when firefighters respond to a call, they are managing an emergency. When the emergency medical services (EMS) unit responds to a home or arrives at the scene of a traffic accident, the EMS unit is managing an emergency. Emergency management programs at the local level are responsible for providing overall pre-disaster planning and other programs such as training and exercises for natural and man-caused disasters that can affect a community to ensure an effective response to and recovery from such events. While responsibility for responding to emergencies and disasters begins at the nearest level, the next level of response is activated when resources and capabilities are exhausted. At the most basic level, if a homeowner cannot extinguish a fire, the homeowner will call the local fire department. If a local community is overwhelmed and cannot respond to a disaster, it asks the state for assistance. Similarly, when the state's resources are exhausted it will turn to the federal government for assistance. This relationship is spelled out in the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as amended, which can be found at FEMA: Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Public Law 93-288) as amended. The average person probably thinks of emergency management in terms of a natural disaster such as a hurricane, tornado, flood, or ice storm. However, emergency management also embraces man-made disasters such as hazardous materials spills, major transportation accidents, large fires, and terrorist events. Regardless of the type of hazard, it is the responsibility of emergency management to help put in place mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery programs to deal with these hazards. The four phases of comprehensive emergency management appear in a circular relationship to each other. Each phase links to the others. Activities in one phase may overlap those in the previous. Preparedness moves swiftly into response when disaster strikes. Response yields to recovery at different times, depending on the extent and kind of damage. Similarly, recovery should help trigger mitigation, motivating attempts to prevent or reduce the potential for a future disaster. The disaster phases have no beginning or end, so recognition of a threat can motivate mitigation efforts as well as an actual emergency can. MitigationMitigation includes activities that eliminate or reduce the chance of occurrence or the effects of a disaster. FEMA pre-disaster mitigation programs have shown that communities can do a lot to prevent major emergencies or disasters from affecting them negatively. If communities cannot prevent disasters, they can at least reduce the damaging impact. For example requiring roof reinforcements will reduce damage from hurricane winds. Preventing new construction in flood plains or placing structures on columns in them can reduce the chance of flooded homes. PreparednessThe next phase of emergency management is preparedness. It is planning how to respond when an emergency or disaster occurs and working to marshal the resources to respond effectively. These activities help save lives and minimize damage by preparing people to respond appropriately when an emergency is imminent or hits. To respond properly, a jurisdiction must have a plan for response, trained personnel to respond, and necessary resources with which to respond. ResponseResponse is the third phase of emergency management and covers the period during and immediately following a disaster. During this phase, public officials provide emergency assistance to victims of the event and try to reduce the likelihood of further damage. Your local fire department, police department, rescue squads, and emergency medical service (EMS) units are primary responders. RecoveryRecovery is the fourth and final phase of the emergency management cycle. It continues until all systems return to normal or near-normal operation. Short-term recovery restores vital life-support systems to minimum operating conditions. Long-term recovery may go on for months - even years - until the entire disaster area returns to its previous condition or undergoes improvement with new features that are less disaster-prone. For example, a town can relocate portions of its flood-prone community and turn the area into open space or parkland. This illustrates how recovery can provide opportunities to mitigate future disasters. |
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