<Enter Jurisdiction> EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN
BASIC PLAN
TAB # 2 TERMS AND ACRONYMS
TERMS
A nnex: A functional specific portion in an EOP.
Command: The act of directing, ordering, or controlling by virtue of explicit statutory, regulatory, or delegated authority.
Common Operating Picture: A broad view of the overall situation as reflected by situation reports, aerial photography, and other information or intelligence.
Coordinate: To advance systematically an analysis and exchange of information among principals who have or may have a need to know certain information to carry out specific incident management responsibilities.
Damage Assessment: A process to determine the severity and magnitude of a disaster or other emergency on the public and private sectors.
Disaster : An event in which a community undergoes severe danger and incurs, or is threatened to incur, such losses to persons and/or property that the resources available within the community are exceeded. In disasters, resources from beyond the local jurisdiction, that is State or Federal level, are required to meet the disaster demands.
Emergency: An unexpected event which places life and/or property in danger and requires an immediate response through the use of routine community resources and procedures. Emergencies occur daily within Hamilton County and can usually be addressed by the resources of the local jurisdiction. Though the impact to individuals may be great, emergencies are not necessarily a disaster.
Emergency Alert System: The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers to provide the communications capability to the President to address the American public during a national emergency. The system also may be used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information, such as AMBER alerts and weather information targeted to specific areas.
Emergency Activation Level s (EALS): A graduated approach system used to respond to emergencies and disasters. The Hamilton County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency utilizes four activation levels to include: Level 1 – Steady State, Level 2 – Situational Awareness and Monitoring, Level 3 – Partial Activation, Level 4 – Full Activation. For more information on Hamilton County’s EALs please see the Hamilton County Emergency Operations Plan.
Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs): The physical location at which the coordination of information and resources to support incident management (on-scene operations) activities normally takes place. An EOC may be a temporary facility or may be located in a more central permanently established facility, perhaps at a higher level of organization within a jurisdiction. EOCs may be organized by major functional disciplines (e.g., fire, law enforcement, and medical services), by jurisdiction (e.g., Federal, State, regional, tribal, city, county), or some combination thereof.
Emergency Operations Plan: Emergency Operations Plans (EOP) describe who will do what, as well as when, with what resources, and by what authority--before, during, and immediately after a disaster.
Emergency Public Information: Information that is disseminated primarily in anticipation of an emergency or during an emergency. In addition to providing situational information to the public, it also frequently provides directive actions required to be taken by the general public.
Emergency Support Function: Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) is the grouping of governmental and certain private sector capabilities into an organizational structure to provide support, resources, program implementation, and services that are most likely needed to save lives, protect property and the environment, restore essential services and critical infrastructure, and help victims and communities return to normal following domestic incidents.
Event: A planned, non-emergency activity e.g., parades, concerts, or sporting events.
Function: In Hamilton County, function refers to the local jurisdiction’s capability of fulfilling the emergency support functions.
Hazard: A Hazard is a natural, technological or social phenomenon that poses a threat to people and their surroundings (in terms of both the natural and the built environment) that may cause the loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation.
Hazards Identification/Analysis: Hazard analysis is the process of recognizing hazards that may arise from a system or its environment, documenting their unwanted consequences and analyzing their potential causes.
Incident Action Plan: An oral or written plan containing general objectives reflecting the overall strategy for managing an incident. It may include the identification of operational resources and assignments. It may also include attachments that provide direction and important information for management of the incident during one or more operational periods.
Incident Command Post: The field location at which the primary tactical-level, on-scene incident command functions are performed.
Incident Command System: The Incident Command System (ICS) is a standardized approach to the command, control, and coordination of emergency response providing a common hierarchy within which responders from multiple agencies can be effective.
Incident Commander: The incident commander is the person responsible for all aspects of an emergency response; including quickly developing incident objectives, managing all incident operations, application of resources as well as responsibility for all persons involved.
Individual Assistance: Refers to certain State and Federal programs that may be available to provide assistance or funding to individuals, families and businesses in an area whose property has been damaged or destroyed and whose losses are not covered by insurance.
Joint Information Center: The Joint Information Center (JIC) is a central location that facilitates operation of the Joint Information System. A location where personnel with public information responsibilities perform critical emergency information functions, crisis communications, and public affairs functions.
Joint Information System: The Joint Information System (JIS) provides the mechanism to organize, integrate, and coordinate information to ensure timely, accurate, accessible, and consistent messaging across multiple jurisdictions and/or disciplines with nongovernmental organizations and the private sector.
Local Jurisdiction: In Hamilton County, local jurisdiction refers to cities, villages and townships that are a part of Hamilton County. Disasters begin and end at the local level. Local jurisdictions must plan and prepare for disasters in the same way Hamilton County, the State of Ohio, and the federal government do. While they may not have the resources that the county, state, or federal government have, local jurisdictions will still be the first provider of emergency services.
Mitigation: The capabilities necessary to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters.
Memorandum of Agreement/ Understanding: A memorandum of agreement/understanding (MOA/MOU) is a written document describing a cooperative relationship between two parties wishing to work together on a project or to meet an agreed upon objective. An MOA serves as a legal document and describes the terms and details of the partnership agreement.
Mutual Aid: In emergency services, mutual aid is an agreement among emergency responders to lend assistance across jurisdictional boundaries. This may occur due to an emergency response that exceeds local resources, such as a disaster or a multiple-alarm fire. Mutual aid may be ad hoc, requested only when such an emergency occurs. It may also be a formal standing agreement for cooperative emergency management on a continuing basis, such as ensuring that resources are dispatched from the nearest fire station, regardless of which side of the jurisdictional boundary the incident is on.
National Disaster Medical System: The National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) is a federally coordinated healthcare system and partnership of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Defense, and Veterans Affairs. The purpose of the NDMS is to support State, local, Tribal and Territorial authorities following disasters and emergencies by supplementing health and medical systems and response capabilities.
National Incident Management System: The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is a systematic, proactive approach to guide departments and agencies at all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work together seamlessly and manage incidents involving all threats and hazards—regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity—in order to reduce loss of life, property and harm to the environment. The NIMS is the essential foundation to the National Preparedness System (NPS) and provides the template for the management of incidents and operations in support of all five National Planning Frameworks.
Private Sector: Organizations and entities that are not part of any governmental structure. It includes for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, formal and informal structures, commerce and industry, and private voluntary organizations (PVO).
Public Assistance: Refers to certain State and Federal programs that may be available to provide supplemental disaster grant assistance to local governments and certain types of private non-profit (PNP) for response and recovery activities.
Public Protective Actions: Those emergency measures taken to protect the population from the effects of a hazard. These may include shelter-in-place, evacuation and re-entry.
Strategic National Stockpile: The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is the nation’s largest supply of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out. The SNS is managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment: The Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) is a 4 step common risk assessment process that helps the whole community—including individuals, businesses, faith-based organizations, nonprofit groups, schools and academia and all levels of government—understand its risks and estimate capability requirements. The THIRA process helps communities map their risks to the core capabilities, enabling them to determine whole-community informed desired outcomes, capability targets, and resources required to achieve their Capability Targets. Hamilton County has conducted a THIRA and updates it annually.
Tri-State Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD): A nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership-based organization that serves as the forum where organizations from the Southeast Indiana-Northern Kentucky-Southwest Ohio Region share knowledge and resources throughout the disaster cycle—preparation, response and recovery —to help disaster survivors and their communities
Volunteer Reception Center: A volunteer reception center is the location where spontaneous volunteers can be registered and assigned to work with an established non-governmental organization to aid the disaster response effort.
WebEOC: Hamilton County utilizes WebEOC which is a web-based information management system that provides a single access point for the collection and dissemination of disaster or event-related information.
ACRONYMS
ARC - American Red Cross
CART – County Animal Response Team
COAD – Community Organizations Active in Disasters
DA - Damage Assessment
DAT - Disaster Assistance Team
EAL – Emergency Action Level
EAS - Emergency Alert System
EMHSA – Hamilton County Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency
EMS - Emergency Medical Services
EOC - Emergency Operations Center
EOP - Emergency Operations Plan
EPI - Emergency Public Information
EPA - Environmental Protection Agency
ERP – Emergency Response Plan
ERS – Emergency Response System
ESF - Emergency Support Function
FCC - Federal Communications Commission
FEMA - Federal Emergency Management Agency
FWI – Family Welfare Information
HCCC – Hamilton County Communications Center
HCPH – Hamilton County Public Health
IA – Individual Assistance
IAP – Incident Action Plan
IC - Incident Commander
ICP - Incident Command Post
ICS - Incident Command System
IPAWS – Integrated Public Alert and Warning System
JIC - Joint Information Center
JIS - Joint Information System
MOA - Memorandum of Agreement
MOU - Memorandum of Understanding
NAWAS - National Warning System
NDMS - National Disaster Medical System
NIMS – National Incident Management System
NWS - National Weather Service
OAC - Ohio Administrative Code
ODNR - Ohio Department of Natural Resources
OFCA – Ohio Fire Chief’s Association
OHIO EMA - Ohio Emergency Management Agency
OKI - Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Government
ONG - Ohio National Guard
ORC - Ohio Revised Code
OSP/OSHP – Ohio State Patrol/Ohio State Highway Patrol
PA - Public Assistance
PIO - Public Information Officer
PSAP – Public-safety Answering Point
ROC – Cincinnati-Hamilton County Regional Operations Center
SAR - Search and Rescue
SOG - Standard Operating Guidelines
SOP - Standard Operating Procedure
SOSINK – Southwestern Ohio, Southeastern Indiana, Northern Kentucky
WMD – Weapons of Mass Destruction
Tab #2 Terms & Acronyms to Tab #2 <Month Year>
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