Emergency Management

Emergency management is a means of responding to large scale emergencies or disasters that might impact University Park. The overall purpose of Emergency Management is to coordinate the activities of various city departments responsible for continued operations during disasters, coordinate inter-local agreements for resource utilization, communicate with state and federal agencies, and provide education and training. Ultimately, the purpose of emergency management is to increase the city's capabilities to respond to a hazard or incident and prevent or reduce the impact of the various hazards on the city.

Emergency management is based on an "all hazards" model that is broad in scope and applies to all city departments. The city's emergency management plan has four basic tenets:

Mitigation

Actions taken before an event occurs to prevent or lessen the impact the event has on life and property. Some examples of mitigation:

• Building Codes
• Grant Funding
• Training
• Zoning Ordinances

Preparedness

Activities, actions, procurements, planning, training and inter-jurisdictional cooperation designed to increase response readiness to identified hazards.

Response

Mobilization of resources to meet the needs of the city in response to the nature of the disaster. Mobilization includes local, county, state and federal resources as necessary. Response is usually associated with the period of time immediately after the event and necessary to ensure life safety.

Examples include Fire and Emergency Medical Services, search and rescue, debris removal, public works activities and law enforcement.

Recovery

Long term mobilization of support operations in returning the city to its pre-event condition. This period is usually when social services and volunteer organizations tasked with relief efforts ramp up their efforts with the following in mind: "the greater the magnitude of the disaster, the greater the recovery effort."