Columbia County Emergency Management Agency

The purpose of this page is to provide Columbia County municipalities guidance on the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and their responsibiliities.

NIMS provides a consistent framework for incident management at all jurisdictional levels regardless of the cause, size or complexity of the incident. Building upon the Incident Command System (ICS), the NIMS provides the nation's first responders and authorities the same foundation for incident management for terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other emergencies.

Continuity Of Operations Plan (COOP)

COOP planning is simply a good business practice. It enables government and the private sector to continue their essential functions across a broad spectrum of emergencies. COOP's ascertain a succession of authority, address record retention and identifies an alternate site for agencies to operate in case access is denied to their principle place of business. All Columbia County municipalities should have an updated COOP plan.

NIMS Compliance

Municipal elected and appointed officials, public works, utilities and emergency service departments are required to comply with all NIMS standards. Non-compliance will jeopardize municipalities and their public safety departments from receiving any preparedness funding from the Department of Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, FEMA, Department of Justice, U.S. Fire Administration and the Department of Education.

All elected and appointed officials that play a direct role in emergency response and support operations should complete the following training: ICS-100 and IS-700. ICS-100 is a course on basic incident command and the IS-700 is an introduction to NIMS. Both courses are available on the Emergency Management Institute Web Site.

Elected Officials must also be involved in all aspects of NIMS implementation including: institutionalizing Incident Command and adopting NIMS as the standards to be used by all participants in a local emergency responses, the updating of municipal emergency operations plans and procedures, comprehensive public & private resource identification and management, as well as community disaster training and exercising.

All emergency responders regardless of their volunteer or career status, are required to complete all NIMS implementation and training requirements. At a minimum all personnel with a direct role in emergency preparedness, incident management and response must complete ICS-100 Basic Incident Command and IS-700 An Introduction to NIMS. Supervisory personnel are required to take IS-200, IS-300 & IS-400 which are more advanced incident command courses and IS-800 An introduction to the National Response Plan. Also emergency response organizations are required to make their plans, policies and procedures consistent with NIMS standards.

Following the links in the left hand margin will go a long way assisting municipalities in becoming NIMS compliant.

NIMS Compliant Municipal Emergency Operations Plan Template - By using this template municipal elected officials, public safety department heads, the municipal EMA coordinator and the road master can work together to produce a compliant product that benefits the municipality.

NIMS Compliant Municipal Functional Checklists - If adopted will provide assistance to municipalities during emergency activations.

NIMS Compliant Resource Manual - Municipal Official must identify all public, private and volunteer resources available in their jurisdiction along with daytime and 24 hour contact information.

NIMS Terms - To be incorporated in all municipal plans, procedures and policies.

NIMS Training - On-line training available from the Emergency Management Institute. Click the link in the red box near the top of the page named "NIMS Courses" , scroll down the page to see the complete list of courses available.

Columbia County Incident Command System - Is modeled after the national standard. Municipalities are encouraged to adopt it as their own however for it to be truly beneficial it must also be institutionalized in every municipal department and agency.

Columbia County Mutual Aid Agreement - Is currently under development, when it's completed it will be sent to municipal elected officials via their secretaries for consideration.

About NIMSCAST - Information about the self assessment tool used by the NIMS Implementation Center to evaluate the municipalities ability to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from domestic emergencies regardless of the cause, size, complexity of the incident.

NIMSCAST ASSESSMENT TOOL - This is a link to the self assessment tool homepage. The person assigned data entry responsibilities by each municipality can log into the system from here.

MUNICIPALITIES WHO PREPARE UPDATED, NIMS COMPLIANT PLANS AND RESOURCE MANUALS, SHOULD FILE A COPY WITH COLUMBIA COUNTY EMA ALONG WITH ANY NIMS RELATED RESOLUTIONS OR AGREEMENTS WHICH ARE ADOPTED.