Fundamentals of Strategic Plan Development

Fayette County Central Strategic Plan

Fayette County is known to operate its emergency medical services from four stations located in La Grange, Schulenburg, Fayetteville, and Flatonia. They are assisted by ten volunteer First responder agencies. Every station is equipped with personnel made up of Paramedic emergency medical team every single second of the day. The county has a fleet of seven ambulances with 3 support vehicles that have mobile intensive care unit potential. The county emergency department has been found to get an estimate of three hundred emergency and non-emergency calls every month. To attain its objectives, the county’s department of emergency services operates as a clinically complex, customer service with an aim of offering the best community service.

The Fayette County Hazard Mitigation Plan

This is an update of the multi-hazard mitigation plan focused on helping the community. This covers the Fayette County, Peachtree City, and Fayetteville. Tyrone, Brooks, and Woolsey. The plan is made in the light of requirements of Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. The act is administered by Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The plan has been structured in a way that allows the involvement of community partners such as elected officials, fire and EMS, emergency management, law management, and the respective local authorities. The plan is structured to help identify the risk of human-triggered or natural disaster and come up with strategies that can reduce or elimination the hazards.

The Fayette County Hazard Mitigation Plan of 2015 is in compliance with the section 409 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act Title 44 CFR as required by the section 102 of the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. Through the act, the state and local governments are offered a framework to create mitigation hazards which is one of the major requirements of receiving the federal disaster funds. This mitigation plan is comprised of the information on the vision of mitigation, updated profile of the Fayette County in terms of geography, history, natural features and other community indicators, the planning process requiring the engagement of all stakeholders, updated documentation on the past and predicted exposure to natural hazards and potential risk, an overview of Fayette County’s capabilities, procedures for long range hazard mitigation plan, a review of the county’s current policies, goals, and regulation related to hazard mitigation.

Core stakeholders to Fayette County Strategic Plan

Core stakeholders refer the specific entities whose coordination is expected in times of emergency disasters.

Local government

In times of an emergency and disaster, whether natural or man-made, the most basic access point is at the local level. This puts the citizens, and public officials within the county at the top of all response required to respond to a disaster. The local government is charged with the responsibility of offering mass care and coordinating the different agencies and organizations. The local leaders in this case are required to manage the incidents locally.

The chief elected/ appointed Official

Within the county the mayor is charged with the responsibility of making sure that the public is safe and the welfare of all considered. The Mayor is required to provide strategic guidance and mobilization of resources during an emergency preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. The Mayor has the authority to declare a state of emergency and in so doing trigger the utilization of the County, State and Federal relief. The Mayor is also charged with the role of making a decision of whether to carry out an evacuation of the affected situation.

Emergency Manager

The County’s chief of staff takes up the role of the emergency manager during times of a disaster. The local emergency manager will have the duties of ensuring the smooth running of the emergency management and activities. This will requires the coordination of all the aspects related to mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery potential. It is important that the planning process be carried out in collaboration with all other stakeholders which makes the position of the emergency manager very vital.

Department and Agency Heads

The department and agency heads is vital stakeholder in the strategic plan as they provide key emergency management resources. The engagement in the planning process is essential to ensure that specific capabilities. The department heads and the staff working under them have been trained and developed with necessary skills and procedures on how to meet response and recovery needs.

Private sector business and NGOs

The private sector has important responsibilities in dealing with disasters facing the communities. In this light, they are urged to appoint an Emergency Management Liaison Officer. This officer is expected to coordinate the emergency response engagements with the City emergency teams.

Businesses

During times of disaster and tragedies, local businesses have an invaluable role in times of emergencies they are important in providing for and protecting their employees in the workplaces. The businesses are required to engage with the emergency manager to avail water, power, communication networks and transportation of the medical supplies. The importance of private sector during times of disaster cannot be undermined. They are responsible for maintaining in operational crucial portions of the country’s critical infrastructure.

Nongovernmental Organizations

The NGO are helpful in offering assistance in times of disaster. They facilitate the roles of offering mass sheltering, emergency food supplies, counseling services and support to the disaster victims. They are vital stakeholder who operates in independence and autonomy. They are committed to specific sets of interests and values. These intrinsic values and interests determine the manner in which they provide the resources. The NGOs and offer support to the government for response operations and planning. The groups collaborate with the first responders, governments at diversified levels and other agencies.

Volunteers and donors

In times of a disaster, the resources from the government organizations in most cases are not enough to deal with the consequences. Volunteers and donations of different kind offer support to incident response efforts. The strategic plan therefore needs to factor in the involvement of the volunteers and donated goods to support the response processes (City of Fayetteville, 2011).

Unique Stakeholders

These stakeholders are considered as organizations that the county would engage to ensure the coordination of emergency procedures.

The division of environmental and emergency and emergency department

This necessary body plays the role of notifying the state and federal agencies of the progress and nature of disaster. It also ensures the offering of technical and regulatory information. The division further sees the liaison between the state, federal and private resources associations to offer support during the disaster response.

The fire and emergency services

This group is part of the first responders in times of disaster and tragedy management. They play the role of the local on-scene coordinator, creates an exclusion zone entry team. The fire department has the role of carrying out fire suppression and availing emergency medical services for all victims and team members. This particular group is critical in carrying out the rescue operations.

Lexington-Fayette County Health Department

In times of disaster and tragedy, there health department is one of the over-stretched departments. They play a crucial role in helping out the identification of material and resources. They play the role of investigating and offering important information to the public on hazards.  They offer medical services to the victims.

The police department

The police are charged with the responsibility of first responders carrying out the function of evacuation, traffic control, and management of site and ensuring its security and conducting the criminal investigation. The police are important in the coordination of the disaster mitigation response. They set up a command post and activate the cable interrupt system, the EAS warning systems, and initiating outdoor siren warning system (Fayette LEPC, 2008).

References

City of Fayetteville. (2011). Emergency Operations Plan . Arkansas.

Fayette LEPC. (2008). Fayette Local Emergency Planning Commitee: Emergency Response Plan.