Emergency
Management
Plan
Town of Coeymans - Village of Ravena
County of Albany
State of New York
(Pages correspond to pages in the 'little yellow book')
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1 Purpose
1.1 The Town of Coeymans/Village of Ravena Emergency Management Plan is intended to serve as a guide for responding emergency personnel to assure that effective leadership, coordination and the unified command of emergency response forces, in the event of a major emergency or disaster, is provided using the UNIFIED INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM. This plan is not intended to limit or restrict initiative, judgment or independent action required to provide appropriate and effective services. At the same time, freedom of initiative cannot be used as an excuse for failure to take the necessary coordinated action to successfully accomplish objectives. This manual cannot prescribe for every conceivable required action. It will therefore be necessary to draw upon sound judgment based on prevailing circumstances.
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2 Definitions:
2.1 Disaster
2.1.1 A disaster is defined as an event or series of events which may result in severe or extensive damage, loss of property, casualties, death and/or disruption to the normal everyday routine. The following may constitute a disaster:
2.1.1.1 Transportation accidents;
2.1.1.2 Natural disasters(flood, earthquake, etc.);
2.1.1.3 Nuclear radiation accidents;
2.1.1.4 Hazardous Materials Incidents;
2.1.1.5 Structure fires, explosions or collapse;
2.1.1.6 Utility failure;
2.1.1.7 Hostage/sniper action
2.2 Disaster Area
2.2.1 The disaster area is defined as the geographic area surrounding the disaster site. The extent of this area will be determined be the Incident Commander in conjunction with the Command post personnel. Disaster procedures directed at occurrences involving major emergencies should utilize this plan in conjunction with the Albany County and New York State Emergency Management Offices.
2.3 EMERGENCY RESPONSE SIGNALS
2.3.1 Signal 40 -An incident requiring the implementation of the disaster plan without full staffing of the Emergency Operations Center
2.3.2 Signal 50 - An incident requiring the full implementation of the disaster plan including full staffing of the Emergency Operations Center.
3 INTRODUCTION
3.1 Effective disaster control operations are dependent upon the coordination and cooperation of Fire, Emergency Medical Services, Police and various other public and private agencies that may be called upon to perform their duties in conjunction with the occurrence. Each incident may differ by type, area, location, number of persons affected and extent of damage, but, the basic responsibilities remain the same and the following responsibilities are established applicable to a disaster:
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3.1.1 POLICE - Security, maintenance of public order, traffic control, care and identification of deceased
3.1.2 EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES(EMS) - Triage, emergency care and patient transport
3.1.3 FIRE - Firefighting, rescue and EMS assistance.
3.1.3 FIRE POLICE - Assist the police, EMS and fire personnel as directed.
3.1.5 - PRIVATE BUSINESS - Duties determined by the type of incident and needed resources.
3.1.6 - LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL OFFICIALS - To support operations and to request County, State, Federal or private assistance as needed.
4 DISASTER REPORTING
4.1 The initial report of a multi casualty incident or an extensively destructive incident requiring Fire, EMS and Police response in addition to other types of necessary assistance should be received through the Town of Coeymans Emergency Communications Center.
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4.2 When the report of a possible Signal 40 or Signal 50 is received, the following information will be ascertained:
4.2.1 Nature of the incident;
4.2.2 Verification of location;
4.2.3 Casualty and damage assessment(approximate number of casualties).
4.3 The initial report must be verified prior to the initiation of the Emergency Management Plan.
4.4 All Town fire departments and EMS units, not responding directly to the incident will be put on standby in quarters
5 INCIDENT COORDINATION
5.1 The Incident Coordinator(IC) shall have overall command of all activities and of all responding agencies(public and private). The person who assumes the role of Incident Commander is dependent upon the type of emergency or disaster. The highest ranking on-scene member (or his designee) of the appropriate emergency service(Fire, EMS or Police) shall be the
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Incident Commander. In most cases this will be the Fire Chief, however, certain specific types of incidents will dictate that the Chief of Police or EMS Captain be the IC.
5.1.1 The IC shall establish a Command Post(CP) and institute the Unified Incident Command System.
6 COMMAND POST
6.1 The Command Post(CP) shall be established by the IC at a location within a reasonable distance from but separate from, the incident and other staging areas. The CP should be within a reasonable distance of the EMS triage area and field hospital.
6.1.1 The IC should consider the use of the Town of Coeymans Mobile Communications Center as the Command Post and Communications Center.
6.2 The CP should be identified in a distinctive manner.
6.3 The following personnel should be assigned to the CP:
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6.3.1 Incident Commander
6.3.2 Ranking Police Officer
6.3.3 Ranking Fire Officer
6.3.4 Ranking EMS Officer
6.3.5 Emergency management Committee Representative;
6.3.6 Public Information Officer(PIO);
6.3.7 Clerk(s) as needed.
6.3.7.1 The IC and all other CP officers must stay at the CP at all times. If it is necessary for an individual to leave, he must designate a ranking officer to represent him until he is able to return.
6.4 A Communications Center shall be established at the CP, with the following:
6.4.1 All Town fire radio frequencies
6.4.2 Town and Village police radio frequencies
6.4.3 EMS radio frequencies;
6.4.4 Fire police radio frequencies;
6.4.5 Emergency preparedness radio frequencies; and
6.4.6 Telephones.
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7 EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER(EOC)
7.1 The EOC should normally be established at a site remote from the scene of the incident. It's location will be dictated by the location of the incident(i.e. Town Hall, Village Hall, Rescue Squad Building, etc.)
7.2 The following personnel should be assigned to the EOC:
7.2.1 Town Supervisor, Village Mayor and/or their designee*;
7.2.2 Emergency Planning Committee member;
7.2.3 EOC Public Information Officer;
7.2.4 Ranking Police Administrative Officer*;
7.2.5 Fire Operations Officer(appointed by Ranking Fire Officer)*;
7.2.6 EMS Operations Officer(appointed by Ranking EMS Officer)*;
7.2.7 Town Civil Defense Director*;
7.2.8 Clerks as required
7.2.8.1 * - indicates for signal 50 only
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8 MUTUAL AID
8.1 Mutual Aid requests will be initiated only with the approval of the IC at the CP.
8.2 All personnel responding to mutual aid requests will report to the staging area, will work only in support of the CP and will not order any large scale activity to be performed until directed by the CP.
9 PUBLIC INFORMATON OFFICER(PIO)
9.1 The POO located at the EOC and/or CP will assist all command personnel by informing the media of all pertinent information. Only the PIO shall disseminate information to the media. Accurate information pertinent to the disaster operations and progress shall be relayed to the PIO in a timely manner.
9.2 All personnel at the scene of the incident shall direct all media inquiries to the PIO
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MISCELLANEOUS
10.1 FIRST AMBULANCE ON SCENE -
The crew chief of the first ambulance, in accordance with squad policy, shall activate the Regional Emergency Medical Organization Mass Casualty Incident(MCI) plan and assure that an EMS communications system is established.
10.2 WATER EMERGENCIES- In the event of an emergency on or in any body of water within the Town, the following agencies shall be called:
10.2.1 Town of Coeymans Police
10.2.2 Fire Department for that fire district;
10.2.3 Coeymans Dive Team;
10.2.4 Ravena Rescue Squad;
10.2.5 Albany County Sheriff's Department Marine Patrol(navigable waters only); and
10.2.8 US Coast Guard(Hudson River only).
10.3 SPILL EMERGENCIES- Any chemical or oil spill on the Hudson River, Alcove Reservoir, Ravena Reservoir or any drainage system or tributary emptying into a body of water, in addition to the above agencies, must b reported to the appropriate local water department, NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation and any appropriate Federal Agencies.
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10.4 RESOURCES - The Town of Coeymans Communications Center shall compile a listing, with telephone numbers, of all resources which may be needed in a disaster situation. This listing should be updated and confirmed on an annual basis
11 CONCLUSION
11.1 The success of an operation depends largely on the implementation of a UNIFIED INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM with the cooperation and coordination of all persons involved at the Command Post and Emergency Operations Center. If all decisions are collectively made at the Command Post and smoothly flow to the persons who must effectively perform the assigned tasks, then the incident should be successfully mitigated.
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Dedicated:
To the lives and property of our residents
Robert H. Fisk Town Supervisor
John Bruno Village Mayor