[SOT]

If your town has an Emergency Management Agency, how is it set up? Is it attached to the police or fire department, is it a stand alone agency, or is it rolled into the duties of a police officer or fire fighter?

A town near me has an ongoing debate about how this group should be set up and not a month goes by that there isn't some change, one day reporting to the Police chief, another month and it's reporting to the Fire chief...interestingly a few months back they were locked out of their building entirely and all "fired"....any thoughts?

 

[stm4710]

I work for the city of Beverly Department of Emergency Management.
Our OEM is separete. We are not the fire or police department.
We have our Emergency operations center that is in a bunker as well as our trucks. We also share the same complex with FEMA's Mass task force 1 so we also have all there trucks at our disposal if needed.
Our trucks include
M1- our off road search
121 Our utility pickup
122 A fully certified class 1 ambulance (The ONLY FREE ambulance left on the northshore)
123 Our forest fire truck.
124 Our emergency support unit........this can be a rehab unit,lighting unit,command post and rescue.
125 A dedicated lighting unit and can supply power to buildings.
126 A yet to be converted heave rescue.
128 Our blazer that carrys some medical and genorator equipment.

You should vist our site at BEMA
Being separte works great for us. We dont have to answer to anyone but us. We retain our own state,local and federal funds ie: with out some chief going hmmm ill use the EMA funds for new light bars on the paddy wagon. Plus we have our own HQ and work with FEMA alot and use their SOA training facilies.

Im sure alot towns know this or maybe not but it is a federal requirment of the Civil Defense act that a town provide CD services, although today most towns have just given the PD and FD extra dutys.

 

[bstrawse]

I feel strongly that EMA should be a separate agency - on par with the police and fire agencies (and ems if that is handled separately) so that EMA can be the coordinating agency in an emergency response plan.

This was one of the key learnings out of the 9/11 Commission Report in regards to Emergency Management in New York City and the setup of the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management (OEM) on 9/11.

Thanks for the link to the Beverly EMA Page - nice pictures of your equipment.

Bryan