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A medical center setup in Georgia waits for it’s first flight of patients from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Photo courtesy of FEMA.

The Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) is the national mutual aid system for states through which a wide range of resources can be deployed — from emergency medical services, to law enforcement and mass care assistance.

One of the first successful large-scale implementations of EMAC was in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. William Whitson, who was assistant city manager of Port Orange, Florida, in Volusia County at the time, was instrumental in coordinating EMAC assistance to the city of Long Beach, Mississippi, on behalf of Volusia and neighboring jurisdictions.

Below, Whitson reflects on his own experiences and provides advice for successfully providing EMAC assistance after a natural disaster.

Educate yourself on the extent of damage and needs of the receiving community.

• If possible, send at least one staff member to the impacted site to survey damage and assess immediate and long-term needs.
• After a site visit or thorough investigation of needs, establish a team and a plan to address needs.

Assess regional interest in providing assistance and coordinate with surrounding jurisdictions.

• When possible, strengthen your efforts by partnering with other municipalities in your region and across the state.
• Assign clear roles and responsibilities for each community providing assistance, based on the strengths of the available resources and personnel of each community.
• Keep in mind that you will be reimbursed by the impacted state for assistance provided through EMAC.

Develop a coalition, teams to address specific needs, and team leaders.

• “We put together the Florida Coalition, a team of people who wanted to help, and then designated mission leaders,” Whitson explains.
• Teams of personnel should be built around a certain skill or ability to address a specific need, such as an information technology (IT) assistance team or a property appraiser team to assist with damage assessments. 

Be familiar with and careful to follow the chain of command. 

• Giving assistance through EMAC must be approved by the local and county governments, and then by the state EOC. It then must be approved by the receiving state EOC, followed by the receiving county and receiving city or town, if applicable.
• Before states can provide assistance through EMAC, a federal disaster declaration must be made in the impacted state, and the governor of that state must request EMAC assistance.

Maintain communication and coordination between teams.

• When a new team arrives on-site, ensure they are briefed by teams already providing services on-the-ground before performing work.
• Avoid duplication of efforts, confusion, or improper documentation by holding weekly meetings with all teams and developing a schedule of work with specific assignments delegated to team members.

Develop plans on a weekly basis to address immediate needs.

• “We developed a customized, evolving plan to address weekly needs and then cleared it all through the proper chain of command each week,” says Whitson.
• Hold weekly calls to discuss what is needed and who can provide it.
• Ensure the plan goes through the chain of command for approval and is properly documented.

Relevant legislation, policy or regulation: 

Emergency Management Assistance Compact, Pub. L. 104-321, Oct. 19, 1996