As an emergency management professional it is likely you may create or participate in emergency preparedness plans. The components of the Final Project for this course prepare you to develop an emergency preparedness plan for a fictitious community that meets the town's unique threats and demographic needs. One component of the Final Project provides for utilizing strategies to address any special populations in your fictitious community. Another component of the Final Project will be mitigation strategies you develop to help your community. You will also locate potential funding sources to help implement these strategies. Then in the last component of your Final Project you develop a media strategy for your fictitious community that will facilitate effective disaster communications. Finally, these components of the Final Project taken together provide you with the necessary tools to develop a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan for any community.
This Final Project is an Emergency Preparedness Plan for a fictitious community.
Scenario:
• You have been hired as the first emergency manager of a small town in the Midwest. The town is located in a tornado-prone area. Within the town is a large chemical factory, where the majority of the townspeople work. There is a large immigrant population. English is a second language to many of the immigrants, and some do not speak English at all.
• There is also a large elderly population and a deaf community.
• Alongside the town runs a large river that has been known to flood. A single bridge spans the river. The city has a small regional airport located to the west. A freight railway runs on the edge of town that often carries hazardous waste containers from the chemical plant.
• The town has a city council, a mayor, one fire department, one police department, and a small hospital. The town's economy is modest and cannot afford large investments or expensive upgrades to its infrastructure or current emergency response system.
• The mayor asked you to develop a 15- to 20-page Emergency Preparedness Plan that meets the town's unique threats and demographic needs.
The Final Project Emergency Preparedness Plan must include the following elements:
Descriptive Narrative: (5-7 pages)
• Describe the leadership positions in emergency management you might need to manage an emergency response.
• Describe the community leaders whose involvement you need in your Emergency Preparedness Plan and explain why their involvement is critical to the success of the plan.
• Describe the risks and hazards to the community and why they are risks and hazards.
• Explain how your plan would address and/or utilize media (traditional and/or social media).
• Describe how you might eliminate or reduce the risks and hazards in the community. Include goals and priorities in emergency response.
• Explain methods to protect special populations in the community.
• Explain how you might alert the community to risks and hazards.
• Describe training methods you might employ to prepare community members and emergency response personnel.
• Include any preparations needed to respond to a rare or uncommon incident.
Special Populations Section: (3-4 pages)
• Submit from Week 3 two special populations you selected.
• Describe the two special populations you selected.
• Explain any potential challenges the special populations you selected might face during and after a disaster.
• Explain strategies you might use to address each of the challenges you identified.
• Explain how you might include special populations in your preparedness and response plans.
Mitigation Strategies Section: (5-7 pages)
• Submit from Week 5 emergency mitigation strategies that might be deployed in your community.
• Briefly describe the community in which you live.
• Explain what emergency mitigation strategies have been or might be deployed in your community.
• Describe two potential funding sources related to emergency mitigation strategies in your community.
• For each potential funding source you selected, describe the key participants and stakeholders, and the goals and objectives of the mitigation strategies as they relate to finance and budgeting.
• Explain why you think the funding sources you identified are the most appropriate for the mitigation efforts you identified.
• Explain at least two key challenges to accessing funding for emergency mitigation strategies in your community and explain at least one strategy to address each challenge.
Media Strategies Section: (2-3 pages)
• Submit from your media strategy for the fictitious community.
• Explain how your media strategy incorporates different audiences.
• Explain how your media strategy meets the mission and assumptions of effective disaster communications.
Although the Final Project is not to be submitted until the end of the semester you should become familiar with the project requirements and have them in mind as you proceed through the course. Many of the Discussions and Application Assignments relate to and can be of use to your Final Project.