The National Disaster Management Plan Model 'Disasters' are part of our everyday life – a car accident, a household fire, or your Prozac prescription expires the day before your in-laws arrive. These are issues that can have dramatic impact on our daily lives at the individual level. There are larger disaster events, however, that affect whole communities and/or large portions of an entire country. These events go beyond the individual's capacity to handle and require a larger input of resources, skills, and support. For this reason, responsible nations try to develop National Disaster Management Plans. Developing such plans allows nations to assess the potential vulnerabilities and costs of disasters, better prioritize resources for disaster mitigation, preparedness and response, and develop communication networks throughout the nation and at every level of society.

The motives for developing National Disaster Management Plans are not always simply related to assisting the affected populations within the country. Developing countries that build solid plans, with all the related components, can increase their country's investment grade on foreign loans and thus lower interest rates paid to external lenders. Components such as reinsurance can spread the risk of the cost of a disaster between the country's currency and currencies that will not be affected by the disaster, while limiting the amount of reimbursement the country pays its hazard victims.

The basic disaster cycle has four components - mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery - each linked in a continuous process. External civilian and/or military assistance may be requested by the host nation at any time along the cycle. It is imperative that external responders understand how the host nation operates in a disaster so that the assistance they provide is efficient and effective, therefore, understanding the host nation's disaster philosophy and capacity goes far to prepare the external responder plan effectively.

Mitigation refers to those measures that 'eliminate or reduce the long-term risk to human life and property from natural and man-made hazards.' Actions in this phase include those that break the cycle of destruction, repair, destruction, repair, etc. The purpose of the mitigation phase is to: estimate the consequences of disasters by matching hazard information to vulnerability; target resources to be used in disaster response; identify and prioritize mitigation activities; develop strategic plans reflecting the priorities and referred measures.

Preparedness measures are those that enhance the state of being ready for use or action. In a sense, preparedness is a process that utilizes planning, facilities and equipment, training, and exercises. The main purpose of this phase of the plan is to build partnerships. Ideally, this ensures that all levels of society are included and that all resources for disaster response are identified with a process to access and utilize them during the disaster response phase.

Response refers to those measures of reaction to the disaster. The purpose of the response section is to warn the public of what is actually taking place, inform them of the immediate actions they should take to save lives, and mobilize the emergency resources. Controlling and/or eliminating the hazard, while keeping the public informed, is the main focus of the response phase. Afterwards, when the hazard is under control, an assessment of the damage can be taken.

Recovery is the return to an original state, a restoration. The pre-disaster situation is the first point of reference. By bringing the effected community back into the national development movement as soon as possible, normal lines of authority and control can be reinstated soonest. In an ideal world, the recovery can facilitate the advancement of the community further along the development continuum instead of simply taking it back to the pre-disaster state. The recovery phase also should provide vital feedback for mitigation activities, identify new training needs, and facilitate the re-evaluation of the response. Thus, the cycle of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery is complete.

When countries develop National Disaster Management Plans, they have a myriad of choices in how they can approach it; doing what is best under the country's own circumstances is what is right. The length of the plan can be a short brief of a couple of pages or a multi-volume document. For example, the Senegalese National disaster plan is only four pages long and is extremely informative. The Senegalese government feels the main focus should be on the authority structure and the lines of communication and control to the regional level only. The regions and then the local communities are responsible for developing their own specific disaster plans that start where the national plan leaves off. The Azores, on the other hand, have detailed through the Civil Defense Department a multi-volume set of documents that outline each response function and authority structure for each level of responder. The Azores, compromising nine islands off the European mainland, are an autonomous region of Portuguese Republic. This situation allows them to be more detailed and centralized in their disaster planning.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) model works well for the United States; however, in other countries, especially developing countries without vast resources this model doesn't work. Sharing experiences of disaster management plans and the lessons learned of various countries in the different phases of the disaster cycle allows a country to develop a unique and specific plan that addresses its problems utilizing its own infrastructure, resources, and political structures. As responders from the U.S. are deployed to other countries, they realize that the role of the military and humanitarian workers is much different than the role we maintain in the States. Understanding the differences in these roles greatly facilitates the responders' ability to adapt to the new environment.

Developing the National Disaster Management Plan can take many months. The incorporation of all levels of society into the plan ensures awareness and, hopefully, 'buy-in' throughout the country. Arguably, the more thorough the local plans are, the less detailed the regional and national plans need to be. Once all of the planning has been completed and a final plan is developed, each level of authority and each potential disaster resource should have a copy of the final draft for final comments and/or modifications. Then the final version should be distributed to all participants. An external responder can then have access to a copy of the National Plan at any level of society he/she enters.

The basic National Disaster Management Plan is best presented in a binder-type folder where sections are divided and can be modified or updated as required. The entire plan doesn't necessarily need frequent modifications. For example, the number of fire trucks and the ability to respond to fires in the city may increase each year as the fleet expands and training of firemen takes priority. On the other hand, the relationship and authority between the Ministry of Interior and the local government may not change except between changes of government. For the external responder, getting the up-to-date information that responds to their assistance ahead of time allows them to gather the most effective team, plan appropriately for the situation, and work well alongside host nations response teams.

The first section in a disaster management plan is in the Introduction where an overview of the plan is provided and objectives, purpose, and scope of the plan are defined. The national disaster management philosophy is described here. What follows is the section dealing with Situations and Assumptions that describe the most likely hazards to occur in the country and assumptions made by the country for each situation.

Next, a Concept of Operations provides overall disaster plan priorities, highlights the project planning process, the response approach the country is most likely to take, and emergency action levels. The external responder will need to study this thoroughly before arrival. The section detailing the Organization and Assignment of Responsibilities will follow and should also be included in the pre-deployment briefing package.

A section on General Policies will outline in varying detail the guidance for all emergency responders and coordinators as well as the emergency authority structure. The Administration and Logistics section highlights records and reports that will be generated, describe the reassigning of public employees and soliciting of volunteers procedures, indicate the agreements and understanding that have been developed, and review the expenditures and record-keeping responsibilities and authorities.

Following the Administration and Logistics section, is Plan Development and Maintenance where the emergency operations plan structure is graphically represented and the procedures for the development and maintenance of the plan is described. Following this section is the Authorities and References section that detail the references used, the authorities of the emergency management teams, and cite the legal basis for the plan to exist and operate.

Annexes for more specific direction and control items can be added as necessary. For example, critical phone numbers or emergency operations situation report forms are usually found here. The external responder should take particular note to the annexes because the specifics of their level and/or type of response are usually described in more detail than the other actions in the main body of the plan.

While the National Disaster Management Plan may not be thrilling reading, it is an important pre-deployment document that should be taken into account as the responder plans his/her team composition, gathers resources for the response, and begins the process of integrating into the local community to perform their assistance works. The plan itself is the foundation upon which all disaster assistance can be identified, prioritized, requested, and/or provided.

The next installment of this disaster management series will highlight mitigation activities in more detail and how they relate to COE's mission to education and train civil-military cooperation. Comments on any or all aspects of the discussions are welcome and can be forwarded to the editor of The Liaison at pr@coe-dmha.org.