Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
SNS will leave your jurisdiction ready to handle such an increase in cases
in the coming hours and days should they occur.
• Another point to think about—although it may not necessarily be
the case with Avian Influenza—is how will you coordinate the mass
dispensing of vaccines if the SNS is able to deliver such an item that
will keep a large portion of the population in your jurisdiction from
being affected? This is where you need to continue to work with local
police, government officials, and volunteer organizations to make
sure such a large-scale effort to deliver a vaccine can be done in a
calm, orderly fashion. Again, the PIO will be called on in this situa-
tion, as well, because information will have to be given to the public
on where to go to receive such a treatment, as well as any special
precautions that they should take.
One thing you will see in the 3- to 6-hour range, depending on the incident,
is an increased federal presence of agencies and responders. But remember, the
incident is still a local one. Only you have the first-hand information on what is
happening, where it is happening, and who can potentially be affected. Any state or
federal officials who join the response during this period will need this communi-
cated to them before knowing what next steps they should take. Although you may
not be the lead in such a response, you will most certainly play an important role
and that role does not diminish, even when it appears that more of the response is
being handled by officials and authorities from outside your jurisdiction.
As you enter the range beyond six hours, looking toward the end of the day and
beyond, you now will need to consider future issues. You will need to advise local
government officials on whether there needs to be a quarantine or condemning of
the building where this case was first discovered. You may think that such an action
would only happen in extreme cases, but extreme cases are exactly what you have to
plan for in Emergency Management. All other facets of the response that have been
discussed in the first hours after you received word of this case are progressing. To
this point, you and your staff have followed their training very well.
It has been determined that area utilities, such as the water supply, are safe.
There has been no need to call for an evacuation, and no major issues on the roads
and with transit. SNS supplies and medicine reinforcements will arrive in the next
couple of hours, and the public has been made aware of the process for receiving the
attention they need, what time that will begin, where to go, and so on.
These times leading out to the 12-hour mark and beyond are also important for
another reason. There will be shift changes taking effect and new people will be
called into the response who perhaps are not up to speed on what has taken place
to this point. You, or someone you designate, will need to cover that with new
responders from a Public Health perspective. And at some point, you will also need
to designate someone to fill in for you who can handle all of these responsibilities
that you have carried out over the last day.
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