Every state agency or government

Every state agency or government is obligated to respond quickly to situations that may occur under its jurisdiction.

They must be prepared and capable of determining whether their capabilities are adequate to respond effectively. The state of California’s emergency operation plan includes a strategy that explains how services are rendered in emergency operations, how the public is informed, and the process of assuring continuity of government services during an emergency or disaster. Aside from this, the plan has also detailed the strategy for mobilizing resources during emergency operations (Division, 2010). The program emphasizes on mitigation programs to reduce vulnerabilities to disaster and preparedness activities to ensure availability of resources and capability for an effective response.

Basic plan

The EOP focuses on primary aspects, these include; the basic plan, description of services, methods of carrying out emergencies and the system of providing public information. These elements culminate the concept or operation and the relationships and responsibilities of the state government and its political subdivisions. Typically California is one the most populous city in the state with an estimated population of 38 million. In addition to this permanent population, the state is also a destination for millions of travelers. (office, 2009) These statistics are very critical in design the emergency operations plan.

Vulnerability

The people of California are vulnerable to various hazards ranging from those that threaten communities, businesses, the environment, and the government. The vulnerabilities will indicate the level of exposure to human life and property damage from natural hazards to those that result from human activities. These risks include earthquakes, floods, fire, volcanic eruption, landslide, dam level failure, civil unrest, food and agricultural emergencies, theorists’ attacks among many others. All these have the potential to cause fatalities, injuries, property damage, or even loss of life. Apparently, earthquakes, floods, and wildlife hazards represent the pervasive and primary events that result in disaster losses. Substantially populated counties with the population that is vulnerable are found in southern California, central valley, and San Francisco. These regions are threatened by multiple hazards.

The EOP has taken into account all these events, and there are clear guidelines on mitigation procedures in case of an occurrence. The plan has made some assumptions which are considered to achieve effective disaster management. For instance, the method assumes that all the incidents are local. Besides these, the emergencies may occur at any time with little or no warning at all. There is also a possibility that when these disasters happen, they may exceed the capabilities of the local, state, and federal governments. For this reason, the political subdivision of the state should mobilize to deliver emergency and essential services under all emergencies. Other forms of assistance can be rendered when the affected jurisdictions exhaust or anticipate exhaustion of their resources (Altay, 2006).

Conclusion

The plan integrates a standardized emergency management system (SEM). This incorporates the fundamental structure for the response and manages the multiagency and multijurisdictional responses to emergencies in California. The primary functions of the SEM include command or management, operations, intelligence, logistics, finance, and administration. All these elements have different roles when it comes to the handling of emergencies in the California state. For instance, the operations are mandated with coordinating the tactical response of all field operations. On the other hand, the logistics and finance departments will provide facilities and materials in support of the incident and perform the cost analysis to support economic consideration surrounding the emergency plan.

References

Altay, N. &. (2006). /MS research in disaster operations management. European journal of operational research, , 475.

Division, E. m. (2010). Emergency plan operations . Retrieved May 14, 2017, from Energency plan divison: http://www.scemd.org/planandprepare/plans/emergency-operations-plan

office, E. O. (2009, june 23). ?State of California Emergency Plan. Retrieved 05 14, 2017, from Governors office of emergence opeartions: http://www.caloes.ca.gov/cal-oes-divisions/planning-preparedness/state-of-california