Officer - According to FEMA, “The Incident Command System title for a person responsible for one of the Command Staff positions of safety, liaison and public information.”
Operational Period - According to FEMA, “The time scheduled for executing a given set of operation actions, as specified in the Incident Action Plan. Operational periods can be of various lengths, but usually last 12 to 24 hours.”
Operational Priorities - The desired end-state for the operations.
Operations Section - The Incident Command System (ICS) Section responsible for all tactical incident operations and implementation of the Incident Action Plan. In ICS, the Operations Section normally includes subordinate branches, divisions and/or groups.
Operations Section Chief - A member of the general staff who establishes the tactics to meet the incident objectives and directs all operational resources.
Operations-Based Exercises - According to FEMA, “Exercises characterized by actual response, mobilization of apparatus and resources and commitment of personnel. They are usually held over an extended period of time and include include drills, functional exercises and full-scale exercises. They can be used to validate plans, policies, agreements and procedures, clarify roles and responsibilities, identify gaps in resources needed to implement plans and procedures and improve individual and team performance.”
Parish - The State of Louisiana has deep Roman Catholic roots as a result of being under French and Spanish rule during the state’s inception. Because of these roots, municipal boundaries were created along church boundaries. These boundaries are still in place today and act as the equivalent to county boundaries.
Personnel Accountability - According to FEMA, “The ability to account for the location and welfare of incident personnel. It is accomplished when supervisors ensure that Incident Command System principles and processes are functional and that personnel are working within established incident management guidelines.”
Plain Language - According to FEMA, “Communication that can be understood by the intended audience and meets the purpose of the communicator. For the purpose of the National Incident Management System, plain language is designed to eliminate or limit the use of codes and acronyms, as appropriate, during incident response involving more than a single agency.”
Plan Development - According to FEMA, “The process of generating and comparing possible solutions for achieving goals and objectives, determining response and recovery capabilities and identifying resource gaps.”