Draft Proposal of Emergency Operations Plan

The safeguarding of life and property is one of the most important responsibilities of a
government. Given the frequency with which devastating disasters occur in our county, one
way in which the local government carries out its role of preserving life and property of the
county’s residents is through effective planning and implementation of emergency operations
plans. An emergency operation plan is a document that provides structure and processes that
guide an organization in disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery
(Alexander, 2017). This paper presents a draft of an emergency operations plan for the local
county.

Overview of Hazard

Flooding poses one of the greatest dangers to the lives and property of the residents of
the county. The high risk of flooding in the county is due to a number of factors. They
include geography, topography, and climate change. The county is located in an area that
experiences frequent super storms and heavy rainfall (Ghanbari, Arabi & Obeysekera, 2020).
Much of the county is also low-lying thus making it susceptible to floods. Lastly, global
warming is predicted to lead to a significant increase in sea levels (Ghanbari et al., 2020). As
a coastal county, such increase in sea levels is likely to lead to floods that affect large parts of
the county.

Sequence of Events, Resources, Participants and Sharing of the Plan
Once the initial plan has been drafted, the plan will be shared with first responders to
flood and other disaster situations. From their training and experience, their input to the plan
will be highly valuable. After getting the input of the first responders, the plan will be
presented to the county council. This presentation will be done through the county’s planning
working group. It is the county council that will decide whether to adopt the plan or have it

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redone again. Once the plan is approved, it will be presented to the public for their input. It is
important to have the input of the public in order to have its support during implementation.
Input of the public will be put into consideration when making the final changes to the plan.

Identification of specific roles in the plan

For effective implementation of this emergency operations plan, it is important to
have specific roles and then assign individuals, departments, and agencies specific
responsibilities of carrying out the specified roles (Bullock, Haddow & Coppola, 2017). The
roles under this emergency operations plan are coordination of resources needed for
preparedness and response of the hazard that has been identified. This role will be performed
by the emergency management agency. The other role is inspection of all drainage systems in
the county to make sure that there are no blockages that may impair water flow when
flooding occurs (Shah, Rahman & Chowdhury, 2018). This role will be performed by the
transportation department. Lastly, the plan calls for well-trained personnel who will carry out
flood control activities and ensure there is sufficient supply of clean water to everyone during
the floods (Shah et al., 2018). For this role, the county should liaise with the federal
government and request the help of U.S Army Corps of Engineers who have excellent
training and experience in carrying out such activities.
Other entities that will perform specific roles under the proposed emergency
operations plan are the department of agriculture, National Weather Service, and community
groups such as churches, non-governmental organizations, and volunteer groups as well as
local authorities. The department of agriculture will help in mapping areas that are most
prone to floods and which, therefore, need additional flood-control measures. The National
Weather Service will help in providing early warning for flood events in order to allow
governments, non-governmental organizations, individuals, and private sector entities to

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effectively respond to the floods (Bullock et al., 2017). The local authorities will ensure that
the county has effective building codes that will be adhered to when constructing any
building in the city so that all buildings in the county are strong enough to withstand floods of
whichever strength. As for non-governmental organizations, volunteer groups, and religious
organizations, their role will be to spread awareness to the local community about
implementing measures that increase the county’s flood preparedness.
Securing buy-in for the plan

For the plan to be adopted and implemented, it needs to have support and buy-in from
all the important stakeholders that are affected by the plan. These stakeholders are the
government officials, private sector, non-governmental organizations, and the general public
(Sylves, 2019). Without buy-in from these stakeholders the plan it will be hard to adapt and
implement it in an effective manner. To obtain buy-in, that the plan addresses a key hazard
with not only a high likelihood of occurrence but also whose occurrence is likely to lead to
significant loss of life and property. Apart from demonstrating the seriousness of the hazard, I
will also show that the hazard mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery plans that have
been outlined in the plan are workable and are in line with regional and federal plans thus
making it easy to coordinate the plans implementation with agencies from state and federal
governments (Sylves, 2019). I will also demonstrate that the county has adequate resources
and capabilities to support flood management activities outlined in the plan.

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References

Alexander, D. E. (2017). How to write an emergency plan. Dunedin Academic Press Ltd.
Bullock, J. A., Haddow, G. D., & Coppola, D. P. (2017). Introduction to emergency
management. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Ghanbari, M., Arabi, M., & Obeysekera, J. (2020). Chronic and Acute Coastal Flood Risks to
Assets and Communities in Southeast Florida. Journal of Water Resources Planning
and Management, 146(7), 04020049.
Shah, M. A. R., Rahman, A., & Chowdhury, S. H. (2018). Challenges for achieving
sustainable flood risk management. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 11, S352-
S358.
Sylves, R. T. (2019). Disaster policy and politics: Emergency management and homeland
security. CQ Press.