Preparedness of Local Emergency Managers in Terms of Operability - Essay Example

The pre-incident is very critical in determining the success of the succeeding efforts in terms of handling the incident itself, and the post-incident.

The pre-incident information flow of Oklahoma City is crucial to leading to the training, planning, and coordinating efforts of the whole system.
This system includes training, planning, and coordination efforts among the community members. Because the training and meetings are regular, which is every month, and the informal consultations are done on a more frequent basis, the local members have gained preparedness through the good flow of communication.

Why the ad hoc operational interoperability techniques used proved successful
Preparedness: all-hazards response capability

The city of Oklahoma has ensured preparedness by developing an all-hazards response capability, which is aimed to train, plan and coordinate efforts in any disaster that will come to the city. By first being prepared, the people concerned would have known what to do when a thing happens.

The preparedness of the city includes engaging all the concerned parties in the planning phase. Because the people who are concerned are involved in developing ideas, then coordinating them with others who play a role in the system, the concerned parties have a feel of how the flow of communication will be even when during the incident. These people include firefighters, police officers, public health officers, urban search and rescue teams, engineers, public work officials, military personnel, and hospital and other medical care providers. These people also have developed strong working relationships with people in the local media who helped communicate the information to the public.

The ‘drafting and competing of local and state disaster response plans are part of the preparation. The integration of these plans through communication has proven vital when a real disaster has occurred.

Strong working relationship

The strong working relationship proves to be a vital element in the communication flow of the system during the incident. Because people have developed a strong relationship during the preparations for disasters, the flow of communication was easier and smoother, which lead to the success in the interoperability in the situation.

Through regular meetings, cross-organizational coordination, and informal consultation, the people who are concerned have developed a sense of understanding while creating a context in which they should act as one—during a disaster. As stated in the case, when these people knew and even address each other using first names, the strong working relationship equipped with the plans they have made for such situations enabled the communication flow.

The context in which the plans have been tailored, giving them a common experience has proven to be crucial in making them act properly, promptly, and adequately during the disaster or the incident itself. This strong working relationship has proven to be crucial too even during the post-incident. While during the incident, the strong internal working relationship was the vital part—those who are directly concerned with the system in addressing the disaster, the strong external working relationship was crucial in the post-incident.

The good flow of information which is coordinated during the pre-incident to the public and other external entities that can help the victims and do something to fulfill their part in the disaster has proven to be very crucial to the success of interoperability in such a disaster as the Murrah’s bombing. Read More