Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Purpose: To generate as complete a list as possible of those who need to be called upon in the event of a disaster, either
man-made or natural, that will lead to better coordination and a more efficient, effective emergency response. This list
is designed to be useful for a Public Health Official who is new to the job, or who may be on his first PHO assignment in
a smaller locality. Some of the entries may seem elementary, but all are necessary and the time to open the line of
communications is before an incident occurs, not after it.
• Local police chief/sherif/state police
• Depending on the locality, these designations may difer, but open lines of communication with whoever is
present.
• Local ambulance services and EMS personnel
• Are these personnel in your area volunteers? If they are, they will be responding to an incident from many
different directions, and the PHO will not have a central place to call to reach all of them. Get necessary
mobile/text/Blackberry contact information as much as possible.
• All local and regional medical centers and emergency rooms
• While all incidents are local, the incident that happens in your jurisdiction may require resources from
outside your area. In addition, incidents that occur far from your area, that you may think won't affect you,
may require evacuation of the wounded to facilities in your area and you must be ready for this eventuality.
• Nonemergency health care personnel
• Any major incident is going to ind the Public Health Oicial in need of nurses and other care givers, as well
as doctors who may have specific areas of biological, chemical, physical or environmental health expertise.
Track down these contacts in your area and make sure they are aware that you will look to them as resources
in the incident response process. As a new PHO, you may question whether you would ever need the
assistance of the pandemic flu expert in your area. The answer to this question is yes, you do. The time to
find that out is not AFTER the discovery of multiple Avian Influenza cases in your jurisdiction, at which
point every action and minute spent will be critical.
• State and federal agencies that will be critical in an emergency response
• Examples include the Centers for Disease Control; oicials who coordinate distribution of materials from the
Strategic National Stockpile; the National Transportation Safety Board (major transportation incidents
including highway, rail, and aviation incidents); the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/FEMA
(local-regional and national contacts); the Department of Health and Human Services and their Emergency
Response Teams; specialized emergency response teams at both the state and federal level; the
Environmental Protection Agency, etc.
• Coroner's Oice or medical examiners in your jurisdiction or nearby
• Local and state transportation departments
• Consider the scenario if the PHO has to order an evacuation from an area after an incident occurs. his contact is
necessary in order to notify the public of safe escape routes and ones that should be absolutely avoided.
• Local and regional animal control and veterinarians
• he purpose of this is two-fold. he potential loss or displacement of pets is an issue in any incident. Post
Katrina, the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards act sets new requirements for Pets in disasters, and
will require integration of the PETS act into your planning process at ALL levels. The PHO can't be involved
with this directly, but must know who to call in when the situation arises. On the other hand, some incidents
will require the direct involvement of veterinarians, such as disease carried by birds or other animals that
could cause a local epidemic.
• Local and regional utilities
• he PHO will need to coordinate with these organizations to discuss possible power outages resulting from
an incident, or if there are special instructions the public must follow in terms of drinking water, bathing
water, etc., natural gas lines being turned off, etc.
• Volunteer organizations
• he PHO should establish strong lines of communication with local, state, and federal volunteer
organizations, such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army, as well as other community service
organizations such as blood banks and shelters. This is often the public face of a response, in that requests for
donated blood will be issued, and while the people affected by an incident will require assistance with supplies
that these organizations can supply as part of the coordinated effort, others not directly affected by the incident
will want to know where they can send donations and other assistance-or go and volunteer themselves. This
extra resource of human help in an emergency response can never be discounted and it is important to know
before an incident occurs how this is going to be coordinated from the Public Health perspective.
• Local, state, and federal government oicials
• Beyond dealing with any particular agency at these levels, the PHO must have emergency contacts that can
provide a direct link to those that will need to make key management decisions in an incident. Is the
incident significant enough that the federal government is going to officially designate your jurisdiction as a
Disaster Area? If so, what does this mean for you and the Public Health response to the incident? These are
issues that have to be discussed and coordinated during the preparedness stage.
Figure 6.4
Public Health response plan contacts.
