# Presentation: 922233

##   US Department of AgricultureForest Service 

**Overview of the Incident Command System as Practiced in the United States****   **

**Notes:**
I am honored to be here and I appreciate the opportunity to address  you.
I will cover 3 general topics in this presentation 
 Provide an overview of Incident Command System 
 Describe the components of emergency management that provide a framework for the Incident Command System functions
3) Share my experience and expertise in Incident Command System

## Basic ICS Concepts

- The ICS is a disaster response management organization structure: specific technical competency skills are integrated in the ICS organization
- ICS used on day-to-day basis for routine incidents as well as for major emergencies; activated at first response

**Notes:**
We saw this slide in Ms. Shulman’s presentation
We have learned that if one used the system only in the event of a major disasters, people would not be accustomed to using the system and it would likely fail.  

## For Example:Day to Day Routine IncidentStructure Fire or Motor Vehicle Accident

## ICS Features

- Clear objectives and priorities
- Defined operational objectives and organization
- Incident Action Plan
- 	Objectives and Priorities	Organization Chart
- 	Tactical Assignments		Medical Plan
- 	Communication Plan		Air Operations Plan
- 	Weather			Safety
- 	Travel Routes/Maps
- Common terminology

**Notes:**
Features of ICS
Clearly established objectives and priorities communicated to all key people assigned to the incident
Operational periods – shift length of the emergency response workers -  may vary depending on the incident type
12 hours is a typical shift however in some cases 24 hours would be used if the disaster is in a remote location 

## ICS Features (cont)

- Common communications
- Uniform resource typing
- Written Position Descriptions
- Roles and responsibilities defined
- Clear lines of authority, chain of command and reporting requirements
- Standardized personnel qualifications and training – national coordinating group

**Notes:**
Common communications - frequencies and understandable language
Uniform resource typing – refers to capabilities of resources - Type 1/2/3 helicopter, mobile kitchen units - 1000 people, 300 people, Type 1/2 IMT  -  Using resource typing allows a resource request to be very precise in regards to the capabilities of the resource ordered.  Example of a Crane
Written Position Descriptions
Roles and responsibilities of each position within the organization are clearly defined
Clear lines of authority, chain of command and reporting requirements
Field Operations guides
Standardized personnel qualifications and training –  Bob 

## Five Major Management Activities

- Command
- Sets objectives
- Sets priorities
- Overall responsibility at the incident
- Planning
- Develops the action plan to accomplish the objectives
- Collects and evaluates information
- Maintains resource status
- Maintains incident documentation

**Notes:**
Command – Direct Management of the on-scene operation.

## Five Major Management Activities

- Logistics
- Provides support to meet incident needs
- Provides resources  and all other services needed to support the incident
- Finance/Administration
- Monitors costs related to incident
- Provides accounting, procurement, time recording, and cost analyses

## Five Major Management Activities

- Operations
- Conducts tactical operations to carry out the plan
- Develops the tactical objectives, organization, and directs all resources

## ICSMajor Organization Functions

**Notes:**
This slide was provided earlier today and I would like to briefly explain it.
Command – Overall incident responsibility, establishes objectives - consists of Info, Safety, and Liaison Officer
Information collects key information and assures that we speak with one voice about the incident.
Safety strives to minimize loss and assure Health and Safety practices are in place.
Liaison is key to working with and coordinating with the representatives from other agencies.  
Operations – Develops tactical objectives, directs resources to carry out Incident Action Plan 
Planning – Develops Incident Action Plan, collects and evaluates information, maintains documentation
Logistics – Provides resources and services needed to support organization
Finance/Admin – Monitors cost, provides procurement, timekeeping, on-going cost analysis

Command and general staff level of the ICS organization – management functions for process, planning.   They perform the management functions of planning, and oversight of the response effort.  

## Planning

**Notes:**
Situation Unit – collects and displays accurate information regarding the incident – produce maps - may use field observers and technical specialists (meteorologist or seismologist etc.)
Resource UL – tracks resources assigned to the incident, status’s the resources (Are they assigned? Resting? Is their equipment broken) and displays this information
Demobilization UL – develops a plan to demobilize resources when it is determined they are no longer needed on the incident – resources may come from anywhere in the US
Documentation UL – keeps files on all paperwork related to the incident

Primary task of the Plans Section as a whole is to  prepare the plan for each operational period– however they do not do so in isolation – they get inputs from all the other sections during the preparation process
Each unit has one unit leader and is staffed to meet the needs of the incident

## For Example:World Trade Center

**Notes:**
I have participated on Incident Management Teams for over 24 years.
I am currently on one of the National Teams
We were activated to go to New York and the World Trade Center Disaster.
Occupancy was 50,000
Estimated loss of life was 10,000
Impacted area was relatively small but very complicated.

## The World Trade Center 11 September, 2001

- The planning section was asked to develop a comprehensive plan for the rescue and recovery of the World Trade Center Disaster
- The Incident Action Plan included a summary of the cooperating agencies (26+), objectives, daily assignments and accounted for resources.

## Logistics

**Notes:**
Explain the concept of Branch:  Service and Support
Communication UL – Responsible for all of the communication equipment, technology and processes used on the incident and assures appropriate compliance to rules and regulations. 
Medical UL – Responsible for all of the on-scene medical assistance to the incident personnel.  They also coordinate with the local medical resources and facilities.
Food UL – Responsible for the food and potable water provided to the incident personnel.
Supply UL – Responsible for assuring all the supplies needed for the incident are on site and available for the operations.  This includes protective equipment, hand tools, office supplies, fuel etc.
Facilities UL – Responsible for all of the infrastructure needed for the incident personnel to include sleeping area, office space, bathrooms, parking etc.
Ground Support UL – Responsible for all the ground transportation needs including vehicles, trucks, specialized equipment etc and also have travel and access responsibilities on roads and waterways.
Each unit has one leader and is staffed according to the needs of the incident

## For Example:Hurricane Rita

**Notes:**
In September of 2005 we were assigned to Hurricane Rita.

Our delegation of authority included the impacted are in Texas which was 1,200 square miles.

##  The challenge of bringing supplies while the evacuation is occurring...

**Notes:**
Evacuation of Houston, a city of 5,000,000 people
Reverse traffic flow was established locally with 16 lanes heading north.

## Hurricane Rita Texas

- An incident base was developed and managed to support in excess of 3,000 rescue personnel assigned to Eastern Texas.

**Notes:**
3,000 Rescue Personnel
Several non-governmental organizations and personnel were assigned.
Military assets exceeded 1,000 personnel which also brings its own leadership and than folds in the ICS system.
Search and Rescue Personnel
Disaster Medical Assistant Teams
Etc.

## Finance/Administration

**Notes:**
Time unit processes pay for emergency responders

Procurement does purchasing of things needed by the emergency responders

Compensation/Claims – compensation for injury – claims against the government

Cost unit monitors costs -  key with fiscal constraints

Each unit has one leader and is staffed as per the needs of the incident

## For Example:The Columbia Shuttle Recovery

**Notes:**
We were assigned to this incident.
We were tasked to perform a comprehensive search of nearly 1,000 square miles to locate and retrieve shuttle parts.
This was very important to the science community and especially NASA.
The recovery of shuttle parts exceeded $350,000,000.

## Operations

**Notes:**
The operations section is divided into two branches – ground resources and air operations. 
The air operations branch has a tactical group and an air support group
As you can see the ground resources are further divided into divisions or groups with technical specialists resources assigned to each.  Operational resources can be assigned using a geographic divisions or functional groupings. 

## Initial Response

**Notes:**
Remember we use local responders

## Span of Control

- Number of resources
- Complexity of the incident
- What is needed
- Safety
- Cost effectiveness
- Resource protection
- Effective leadership

**Notes:**
We have found Span of Control of 3-7 is ideal.

## Flooding

**Notes:**
So if we were assigned an incident that goes beyond the initial response as a major flood event would require we need a system to deal with long durations and complex issues.
We will need to assure that we have the appropriate span of control.

## Flood  Example Branches & Divisions 

**A**

**B**

**C**

**D**

**E**

**F**

**G**

**H**

**I**

**J**

**Branch I**

**Branch II**

**Notes:**
In this example of a flood, the incident is divided into geographic divisions.  They are physical places on the ground.  You see there are two branch delineations that are further divided into divisions.  Tactical resources assigned to one division may be tasked with preparing sandbags to strengthen a levee.  Another division’s tactical assignment may be to evacuate people in a village threatened by the floodwaters, and another division may need to focus on rescue of stranded villagers.  

## Earthquake Example – Using Roads as Divisions

**A**

**B**

**C**

**D**

**E**

**F**

**G**

**H**

**Notes:**
In this earthquake example – again the operation is divided geographically, in this case, into divisions that correspond with city blocks.  Notice that division C is rather large – perhaps there are only two collapsed buildings in that area.  Part of the decision making involved in creating division boundaries is the workload within the area.  

## Earthquake Example – Functional Groups

**Notes:**
In this earthquake example, functional groups are established in the operations section.  In this example, there are 4 groups – one for medical aid, one for site security, one for search and rescue, and one for food and commodity distribution and temporary shelter for victims.    The medical aid branch might be staffed primarily by health clinicians, site security by police or military, search and rescue by specially trained fire department personnel, and the groups for food and commodities distribution and temporary shelter would be staffed primarily by NGOs.  The branch directors provides information to the operations section chief regarding resources needs or excesses.  That information is then fed through the operations section chief to the planning meetings.  

##  Example: Small IncidentMt. Saint Helens – Volcano

- The responsible official requested an Incident Management Team comprised of the Command and General Staff to monitor and develop a public safety and education program while the volcano was active and presented a potential threat to local communities.

**Notes:**
I want to reinforce the concept that ICS works on small as well as complex incidents.
In this example unit leaders were not needed.

## Example: Small to Complex IncidentFire – Dynamic

**Notes:**
In the US, we have learned a lot over time with involvement on fire incidents.
Key is they are dynamic
At the Cedar Fire in the fall of 2003 in San Diego over 2,000 homes were lost in a fire that covered over 260,000 acres.
Over 5,400 incident personnel were assigned.

## Example of a Complex IncidentHurricane Ivan: Multi-Branch

**Notes:**
In September of 2004
Objectives:
Receiving and Distribution of Commodities
Dealt with 100,000 displaced community members
Dealt with millions of yards of debris
There were destroyed roads and buildings, water quality and fisheries issues, economic issues...
Locals were overwhelmed.
A multi-branch approach was needed. 

## Multi-Branch Organization

**Notes:**
Here is an example of a multi-branch organization.  We have a ICS structure for a fairly complex SAR response – there are many more tactical resources assigned to the operations section than shown in this chart – the lowest level shown here is the group and division.  In an organization like this there may have a thousand or more people assigned.  

## Responsible 

**Type 1 Incident Commander**

**Type 2 Incident **
**Commander**

**Local **
**Incident **
**Commander**

**Responsible **
**Official**

**Notes:**
This responsible official simply delegates authority to increasingly skilled and experienced disaster response professionals.  
As illustrated in this slide, at first there is a local incident commander followed by a transfer of command to a Type 2 Incident Commander, followed by a transfer of command to a Type 1 Incident Commander, the most highly skilled disaster response professionals.    

## Responsible 

**Incident**

**Local Coordination**
**Centers**

**State Coordination**
**Centers**

**National **
**Coordination Centers**

**International **
** ****Assistance **

**Response Agencies, **
**Equipment and **
**Supply Caches **
**Contracts**

**Resource**
**Requests**

**Responsible **
**Official**

**Notes:**
Let’s follow the path of a resource request - may be personnel or equipment.  The Incident Management Team has developed a plan and need additional resources to implement.  They make a list and send it to the local coordination center.  
If resources are not available from the local area of coordination , it goes up to the state level, if the state can not deliver, it goes up to Federal level.
At the Federal level, FEMA coordinates the 28 agencies with mandate for disaster response through the National Response Plan
International assistance is screened through the state department - over 50 offers from countries after Sept 11th.  Fire fighters from  - Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand  have assisted us during years of widespread wildland fire -    border agreements with our neighbors Mexico and Canada for resource sharing in case of disaster 

## Responsible 

**Coordination **
**Groups**

**Incident **
**Commander**
**Incident **

**         ****EOCs **
_**Response Agencies**_
** ****Police **
** ****Medical**
** ****Fire & Rescue**
** ****Public Works**
** ****etc.**

**Responsible **
**Official**

**Incident Status **
**Situation Summary**

**Resource **
**Availability**

**Notes:**
This slide illustrates the relationship of incidents, EOCs, MACs, the responsible official, and the response agencies.  

## Area Command

**Incident Commander**
**Incident B**

**Incident Commander**
**Incident A**

**Incident Commander**
**Incident C**

**Responsible Official**

**Notes:**
Here is the relationship of Area Command to separate Incident, each managed by an Incident Management Team using ICS - note it is a direct command authority - 

## Key Points of ICS

-  Delegation of Authority
-  Flexible and dynamic
-  Provides consistency
-  Relies on functionalism
- Works on all incidents no matter the scope or size

**Notes:**
Strength is subject matter experts trained and qualified.  It is a performance based system

## Summary Incident Command System

- Provides a Plan
- Organizes the resources
- Implements the actions
- Supports all personnel
- Effective Leadership Model

## Questions?