The world is becoming more hazardous as natural and social processes combine to create increased vulnerability and risk. The response is to develop emergency plans, but there is little advice available on how to do so. This book covers the structure, content and strategic direction of such emergency plans.

David Alexander provides a concise yet comprehensive and systematic primer on how to prepare for a disaster. The book introduces the methods, procedures, protocols and strategies of emergency planning.

Meant to aid State & local emergency managers in their efforts to develop & maintain a viable all-hazard emergency operations plan. This guide clarifies the preparedness, response, & short-term recovery planning elements that warrant inclusion in emergency operations plans. It offers the best judgment & recommendations on how to deal with the entire planning process -- from forming a planning team to writing the plan. Specific topics of discussion include: preliminary considerations, the planning process, emergency operations plan format, basic plan content, functional annex content, hazard-unique planning, & linking Federal & State operations.

Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101 provides guidelines on developing emergency operations plans (EOP). It promotes a common understanding of the fundamentals of risk-informed planning and decision making to help planners examine a hazard or threat and produce integrated, coordinated, and synchronized plans. The goal of CPG 101 is to make the planning process routine across all phases of emergency management and for all homeland security mission areas. This Guide helps planners at all levels of government in their efforts to develop and maintain viable all-hazards, all-threats EOPs. Accomplished properly, planning provides a methodical way to engage the whole community in thinking through the life cycle of a potential crisis, determining required capabilities, and establishing a framework for roles and responsibilities. It shapes how a community envisions and shares a desired outcome, selects effective ways to achieve it, and communicates expected results. Each jurisdiction's plans must reflect what that community will do to address its specific risks with the unique resources it has or can obtain.

In order for a community to be truly prepared to respond to any type of emergency, it must develop effective emergency planning. Emergency Planning guides readers through the steps of developing these plans, offering a number of strategies that will help ensure success. It delves into the patterns of human disaster behavior, social psychology, and communication as well as the basics of generic protective actions, planning concepts, implementation, and action.

Libraries are in a unique position to aid communities during times of adversity, and this comprehensive handbook’s practical tools and expert guidance will help ensure that your library is thoroughly prepared for emergency response and recovery. Your library is a vital information hub and resource provider every single day, and that’s doubly true when calamity strikes. In fact, your library’s role as an “essential community function” during disasters is now encoded in U.S. law. Engaging as a partner in planning and preparedness will build much-needed community support should disaster strike, and even a basic plan will also save you time and stress later on. No matter where your library is in the disaster planning cycle, this handbook will make the process clearer and less daunting. You’ll get tools, activities, easy-to-adapt templates, and hands-on guidance on such topics as the six phases of disaster response; 15 first-hand accounts of library disaster planning or responses, helping you identify the library services most needed during a disaster; three essential factors that will shape the form of your disaster plan; preparing for hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, floods, and earthquakes; ideas for connecting with your community’s emergency response teams; federal government planning resources; pointers on working with state and local governments; a sample Memorandum of Understanding to outline mutual support for a speedier recovery; recommended courses and training, many of which are free; targeted advice for archives and special collections; sample building inspection checklists; and recommended games to help children and families prepare.

Emergency managers and officials have seen a tremendous increase in the planning responsibilities placed on their shoulders over the last decade. Crisis Management and Emergency Planning: Preparing for Today's Challenges supplies time-tested insights to help communities and organizations become better prepared to cope with natural and manmade disasters and their impacts on the areas they serve. Author and editor Michael J. Fagel, PhD, CEM has more than three decades of experience in emergency management and emergency operations. He has been an on-site responder to such disaster events as the Oklahoma City Bombing and the site of the World Trade Center in the aftermath of 9/11. He is an experienced professor, trainer, professional, and consultant and has pretty much seen it all. The book delves into this experience to present advanced emergency management and response concepts to disasters not often covered in other publications. It includes coverage of planning and preparedness, public health considerations, vulnerability and impact assessments, hospital management and planning, sporting venue emergency planning, and community preparedness including volunteer management. Contributions from leading professionals in the field focus on broad responses across the spectrum of public health, emergency management, and mass casualty situations. The book provides detailed, must-read planning and response instruction on a variety of events, identifying long-term solutions for situations where a community or organization must operate outside its normal daily operational windows. This book has been selected as the 2014 ASIS Book of the Year.