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In many localities, disaster planning is confined to emergency management. To improve the effectiveness of disaster planning, it’s important that all municipal departments engage in disaster plans with emergency management and develop a department specific emergency operations plan (EOP).

IBTS spoke with Roger Jolliff, director of the Tulsa, Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency, about best practices he’s developed for working with local departments throughout disaster planning.

“If any community is simply assigning emergency management to the emergency manager and not giving them active support, they’re falling behind,” Jolliff says.

Build relationships and exercise with emergency management, other local department agencies and external partners during disaster planning.

“You should always reach out to them on a professional and personal basis to help build trust,” Jolliff says. “We have a very aggressive exercise plan to bring all of our partners together.”

Assist emergency management with the development of EOPs.

• Give feedback and input on the portions of disaster planning that are relevant to your agency whenever they are updated. “We give them [local departments] substance by providing the core plan, and then ask them to develop their portion,” explains Jolliff.

Don’t forget about NGOs and the private sector.

• Integrate external partners into your department’s emergency plans. External partners can include social services agencies, VOADs, utilities, faith-based organizations and private sector organizations. “They may not be disaster based, but they should still be informed of what you’re doing,” Jolliff says. “They’ll find ways to support you that you might not even be aware of.”

Participate in at least one training session per year with emergency management. 

• This provides a refresher for veteran staff members and ensures that new staff members are briefed on your locality’s disaster response and recovery plans before the start of each season. Seasonal training sessions that review and exercise disaster plans for perils most apt to occur in the upcoming season typically work best.

Develop a department continuity of operations (COOP) plan.

• Every department should work with emergency management to develop their own COOP plan. They help ensure that your department functions properly during disaster events to increase the effectiveness of the emergency manager and the entire response framework. Use this COOP plan template to get started.