Summary

· Emergency planning should be based on an assessment of vulnerability.

· An emergency plan is an agreed set of arrangements for responding to and recovering from emergencies; it describes responsibilities, management structures, strategies, and resources.

· The emergency planning process can be applied to any community, organization, or activity.

· The process of planning is as important as a written emergency plan.

· Emergency planning should be performed by an appropriate planning group.

· Potential problem analysis can determine problems, causes, preventive strategies, response and recovery strategies, and trigger events.

· The resources required to support preparedness and response and recovery strategies should be analysed.

· The roles and responsibilities of people and organizations must be defined and described.

· A management structure for emergency response and recovery should be developed based on normal management structures.

· A series of strategies and systems must be developed for response and recovery, including:

- communications;
- search and rescue;
- health and medical;
- social welfare;
- transport and lifelines;
- police and security;
- alerting;
- command, control, and coordination;
- information management;
- resource management;
- evacuation;
- hazardous materials.