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Official's Guide to Disasters <br /> Points to Remember: • <br /> 1. Promote Community Preparedness and Mitigation <br /> Your role in emergency management begins long before the county actually <br /> experiences a disaster. Encouraging citizen preparedness and implementing <br /> mitigation policy can significantly reduce costs associated with disaster response <br /> and recovery, as well as better protect citizens from the potentially devastating <br /> effects of disasters. <br /> 2. Work through the Incident Commander and NIMS <br /> On site of a large emergency, there will be an Incident Commander. They can <br /> usually be identified by an Incident Commander vest and will most likely be located <br /> at or near the command post. Access to the site, on scene information, safety <br /> concerns, and other important data can be obtained from the Incident Commander <br /> (IC). All personnel on an emergency scene must coordinate through the on-scene <br /> IC <br /> 3. Review Incident Action Plans <br /> In all significant emergency events, Orange County Emergency Services (OCES) • <br /> and municipalities will issue Incident Action Plans (IAPs). An IAP formally <br /> documents incident goals (known as control objectives in NIMS), operational period <br /> objectives, and the response strategy defined by incident command during response <br /> planning. The IAP acts as a road map for disaster response and recovery. <br /> 4. Attend briefings <br /> In a major emergency event, there will be periodic briefings of key county staff. <br /> Authority rests with the chief local agency official to decide when, where, and how <br /> these briefings take place. These meetings may be joint county meetings. Issues, <br /> facts, incident needs, strategies and planned approaches to resolving the disaster at <br /> hand will be discussed. Briefing information will be requested electronically upon <br /> request from the EOC. The briefings can be held in large county meeting rooms <br /> or in the form of conference calls—generally not inside the Emergency <br /> Operations Centers. <br /> 5. Ask questions <br /> As you have questions about what operations staff are doing or not doing, inquire <br /> through the County Manager's office. Staff welcomes the opportunity to share with <br /> Handling a Disaster Page 4.6 • <br /> Version Date-April 9, 2012 <br />