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OCR for page 103
Resource Guide 103
Similarly, there should be open communications among Transportation Management Cen-
ters (TMCs), Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs), Fusion Centers (FCs), and other respon-
der agencies.
None of this, however, has any further direct impact on organization and staffing.
RESPOND to Emergencies
When emergencies occur, the EM/TIM Teams discussed previously go into action. Depend-
ing on the level of incident, EOCs may be activated, and state transportation agency personnel
assigned to them will relocate to the facility.
The only additional organizational suggestion made is that the state transportation agency
should adopt a practice used in the military and by many public safety agencies--have a stand-
ing, rotating Emergency Duty Officer (EDO) who is available 24/7 and whose contact informa-
tion is known to TMCs, EOCs, and FCs, as well as to public safety dispatch centers. Designate an
EDO at both the state (central office) level and local/regional (e.g., district) levels; the EDO would
be able to quickly launch all needed notifications within the transportation agency, depending
on the nature and severity of the incident. This practice is probably most effective when the EDO
is a leader of the EM Team at the state level, and someone associated with a TMC if local/regional.
RECOVER from Emergencies
There are no special organizational or staffing needs associated with this phase. Of course, if
restoring transportation services will be required, the EM Team must be fully conversant with
the emergency power available to the agency in terms of issuing emergency contracts, task orders,
and modifications to contractors to perform needed services.
Decision-Making Sequences
In emergencies there are literally thousands of decisions that might need to be made by every-
one from the individual responder, up through the ranks to the Incident Commander (IC), and
even higher. These decisions have to do with protective or rescue actions by the responder at the
immediate level to decisions regarding such major issues as allocation of resources, activation of
EOCs and similar facilities, calling out special forces such as the National Guard, and activating
contraflow operations.
The former are issues of good TIM/EM practices and training, but the EOPs should cover the
latter, at least in terms of designation of authorities. The key is speed--decisions must be made
quickly and competently. While all possibilities are impossible to foresee--as we found out on
9/11--the mechanisms for decision making should be clearly laid out so there is no question as
to who has the authority to act. FEMA's Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG 101) to Pro-
ducing Emergency Plans, in the second sentence of the text, reads, "[CPG 101] promotes a com-
mon understanding of the fundamentals of planning and decision making to help emergency
planners examine a hazard and produce integrated, coordinated, and synchronized plans"
(emphasis added) (CPG 101, 2009). This aspect is repeated throughout the document, and it
stresses that the EOP needs to identify decision points. These can be guided by this excerpt from
the document:
A response action is correctly identified when planners can answer the following questions about it:
· What is the action?
· Who does it?
