DHS releases new disaster response plan

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled a significantly streamlined disaster response plan that reinstates FEMA’s authority to coordinate federal disaster operations — a power it lost when the agency was folded into the newly created Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

The new 90-page plan — the National Response Framework — will replace a 427-page document released in 2004 that many state and local government officials found virtually impenetrable. It, like the new plan, was intended to guide the response of federal, state and local governments, as well as the private sector to disasters.

According to reports in The Washington Post, the new plan presents a simpler guide, geared especially toward government and private sector leaders. It was released Jan. 22.

Local emergency managers praised the new framework and characterized it as the result of extensive and intensive negotiations on behalf of state and local governments with DHS. 

Russ Decker, first vice president, International Association of Emergency Managers, said his organization, a NACo affiliate, was “extremely pleased with the final National Response Framework (NRF) product.

“It is apparent that our counterparts in Washington were listening and genuinely interested in addressing the issues raised by local emergency managers. As result of the improved process, we believe the NRF is a document that local emergency managers will find very useful.”

A draft plan, released in October of last year, was heavily criticized by local emergency managers. (See CountyNews, Oct. 1, 2007, “National Response Framework unveiled amid heavy criticism.”)

The National Response Framework takes effect March 22.